Morzine Snow Report: 11th February 2014

On Wednesday night I headed up to Les Menuires for the official Speed Events prize giving, Nations walk in and Giant Slalom Bib presentation. We made it up the very snowy road just in time to hold the GB sign and walk out in the main square. Over 20 different nations were competing so there was a really good atmosphere. I was presented my medals, silver in Downhill and gold in Super G on the stage in front of everybody. The best bit about the evening was the top 15 bib draw for the following day. As each of the top fifteen competitors were called out they went up on stage to claim their bibs, presented by a kid who acted as the mascot (like at a football match). It’s exactly how they do it in World Cup races!

In high spirits I was ready for the Giant Slalom on Thursday. I was so excited as I inspected the course as it was really fast and set very straight which suited me down to the ground. As I reached the finish area after my first run I thought I had had an ok run but had made a bit of a mistake with the line on the middle section of the course. To my surprise I was in first place with a 1.4 second lead! I watched nervously as the rest of the competitors finished their run expecting one of them to overtake me. I managed to keep my lead and knew I had to keep my cool as the race isn’t over until after the second run. I felt so relieved when I saw my time in the finish area after my second run. I was still in the lead and I had also won the second run giving me a 2.2 second lead over the rest of the competitors. I was CIT Giant Slalom World Champion! The day got even better when I found out I had scored my best ever result of 43 points.

Friday brought the slalom, not my favourite discipline. I knew I just had to focus on skiing my best and the a podium wasn’t all that likely. The weather really closed in and it started snowing like crazy. You only had to stand outside for 5 minute to get a good 3cm of snow on your helmet! I had a good first run and arrived in 6th place. I was a little over a second off the winner. I had nothing to lose in my second run and knew it was time to take off the hand brake and give it my all. I’m not really sure what I did in that run but it worked because I won the run by nearly a second and finished in second place overall! Rachelle Rogers was in first place but due to her Europa cup start she could not claim the Slalom title so I took home the gold in Slalom as well! The biggest shock was that I scored another personal best of 48 points! A great way to finish an even better week of races.

My week wasn’t over. I drove straight to Les Gets to do two Giant Slalom races. I was feeling really confident. I skied into the lead after my first run by 0.4 seconds. I was really nervous before second run; I let my nerves get the better of me and I made a big mistake at the end of the course. I remember thinking “there goes the win”…I came through the finish with the 9th run time and had dropped down into 3rd place overall. I was really disappointed that I hadn’t held onto the lead. I had missed the top spot by just 0.4 seconds so without my mistake I would have had a really good chance. That’s ski racing though and I had still made it onto the podium which this time last year I could never have imagined! On Sunday I was determined to go for the gold but due to extreme weather conditions the race was cancelled.

This past week has definitely been the highlight of my skiing career. I still have a long way to go though so I’m using my results to help fuel me to keep training harder and skiing faster!  I want to thank SeeMorzine.com, AMS, AMS Rentals and Thomas’s London Day School’s for helping to get me this far through season and on the top of the podium! 

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