The first training camp of the 2009/2010 for the Para-Alpine Ski Team has just finished. I arrived home in Nanaimo from Chile just a few days ago and have managed to adjust nicely back into summer weather. 

Chile was an excellent opportunity for my body to remember how to ski and a great camp to work on getting balanced on the ski again and starting to work on skill development. The team was very lucky; the weather was good enough for us to get a couple full days of Super-G training in. Super-G and Downhill are the hardest events to train for because they take up a lot of hill space (usually top to bottom runs that can span several chairlifts) and require that the snow is very firm so that the skis react the way that they are designed to.  I was very excited to get some quality Super-G training in so early in the season, the adrenaline rush from going that fast is always a great way to start a season!

In the next month the team is not traveling; so I will be staying home and doing dryland training to do my best to gain as much strength as possible before heading out to the next training camp in mid October. I have a specialized program designed by the team physical trainer that will provide me with some guidance over the next few weeks.

I will most likely be competing in Slalom and GS, I have not yet qualified for the Speed events (DH and SG). It would be amazing to see everyone that has been supporting and cheering me on over the years in the stands at the Games this March!!! Keep in touch!

Sincerely,

Andrea Dziewior

Once you have completed the race you can relax in the Finishline Plaza with a massage, BBQ, enjoy some of our vendor services including Whistler Water, Saltspring Coffee and Whistler Beer, listening to the beats of one of our resident DJs, and then watching the awards presentation. If you are not a racer then all are welcome to come out and cheer on the competitors!

Funds will be raised in three ways:

1. $10 from each event entry
2. Net proceeds of our Merrell technical event garment
3. Competitors are encouraged to raise additional funds through pledging
   (Adopt An Athlete pledge forms are available here)

Come on out to beat your best and support our local athletes!

 After arriving home with a fat tongue and a cut face I had not finished my season the way I had planned. I took the month of March to get some quality r and r and heal my body. It felt great, even a little weird I will admit, being “normal” for so long hanging out with my friends and family. Since when does a ski racer ever have 6 weeks off ?! But of course… sadly to say it is only unless you are injured. Mid April arrived, my concussion I received from my injury was all healed up, and I was invited to a short 6 day camp at Nakiska near Canmore Alberta with the National Team. I was stoked to say the least to get back on snow!

 The mountain had recently been closed for the season to the public, which meant we had the mountain to ourselves. Some of the service men were running skidoos around for us to make our turn arounds on our runs MUCH faster giving us way more mileage on our skis. Each skidoo had a water ski rope attached to the back with a couple of staggered handles so one skidoo could take 3 or 4 of us up the hill to the top of the course.

 The first day while the rest of the speed team was training downhill I took it easy and free skied GS getting back into it and feeling my skis out. The coaches were pleased with the way I was skiing so they let me get into some downhill training on day two and three.

 We did 8-10 runs in the morning on a glide track testing out different skis, and also practiced our aerodynamics in our tuck positions. This was a great opportunity for me as I rarely get the opportunity to test out my speed skis and work on my tuck. After ski testing we went in for a quick break and then started downhill training. The mountain had put together a sweet course for us with a ton of terrain including two huge jumps and a bunch of rollers. This gave us a great chance to work on our technique not only with our skiing in general but how we approach different situations in a course. And all of this in April!

 It was an awesome camp and I was super grateful to get the invite to get back on my skis before our main summer training begins in August.

 The team selections for this upcoming season are being announced soon! Hopefully, I will be get picked up by the World Cup Woman’s Speed Team bringing me another level higher entering our big Olympic year! I’m PUMPED!

And with that,

I’m out!

Georgia Simmerling

 After traveling from Vancouver, where the World Cup event at Cypress was cancelled due to poor snow conditions, I traveled to Sunday River Maine, USA.  It was  nice to be competing in North America for a change.  The Snow conditions were good.  Cold temps and clear sky’s at night allowed the surface to be both firm and consistent.  My first run was great, In the second round, i made a small mistake near the bottom which cost me enough to put me in 28th Spot. 

From Maine, I drove up to Mt. St Anne , near Quebec City.  We had a training camp there for a week.  Cold temperatures and early mornings were the theme of the week.  It was a good way to get some quality mileage at a time when we are usually going from race to race. 

La Molina Spain was the next stop for the World Cup tour.  Landing in Barcelona felt like hitting fast forward to July.  I Welcomed temps of 20 or more and the strong sun.  The team took a day in the city before traveling 3 hours into the Pyrenees Mtns.  A coach was able to organize a trip out on a 36 foot sail boat.  Going out on the boat was great. We all were involved piloting it.  The next morning we headed up to La Molina.  The race slope is extremely steep and usually has really rough snow on it. This makes for challenging conditions for everybody.  On the day of the race, the sun was very strong and was cooking the snow on the race slope. Surprisingly this actually seemed to bond the snow a little bit better and made for better conditions.  I rode well finishing 26th.  Nothing to write home about, but things are moving in the right direction.  The margin between 10th and 30th is very small.  The next morning we left the mountains and went back to Barcelona to catch our flight. Myself and 3 other team mates rented 125cc scooters for the afternoon before our flight left for Italy.  Scooting is really fun, and really funny.  We looked like dumb and dumber with 2 men on each scooter at times. 

I am currently in Valmelanco Italy.  Tomorrow is World Cup Finals.  Only the top 50 in the world can compete here.  The slope and the weather are both good. Today i am  just chilling out. Doing some agility drills and a light jog to be fresh and ready for tomorrow. 

I am looking to improve on my 23rd place finish at World Championships tomorrow.

From here  i will travel with a friend from the UK team to Isola France for a Europa Cup event. I will then go to Mt Tremblant for the North Amerian Finals.  I am looking to stand on the podium in these events.

Well I am back home now in Vancouver a little earlier than expected… My season has come to an end a few weeks earlier than it should due to a slight tumble I took in Garmish, Germany where the World Juniors were being held.

I had not skied to my potential in the GS and Super G races and was ready to go and pumped up to redeem myself for the final event, the Downhill. I was the 4th ranked skier entering the race so my hopes for a podium were within reach. I can’t tell you much about my crash because, luckily, I blacked out and don’t remember anything, but my coaches and teammates who saw it tried to fill me in. I got a little to much direction for one gate at the bottom of the first pitch and skied directly into the next gate. My coach asked the doctor to check my eye sight while he was visiting me in the hospital the next day. I almost bit my tongue right off and had to get heli’d to the hospital right away for a lengthly 2 hour surgery. I got 48 stitches in my tongue. Luckily I did not injure anything else besides looking like I got beat up. But with my sport a few road rashes to the face and purple bruises to the arms seem to be just part of the whole package.

I am almost back to 100% now enjoying a little rest and some quality home time.  Mostly all my stitches are out of my tongue and I am back to eating normal foods, with a partially numb tongue 24/7. I can say with full conviction I will not be eating apple sauce and ice cream as a dessert or any other meal for that, ever, again.

I will hopefully get invited to go up to Whistler with the World Cup speed team for a few days of training in the beginning of April. Other than that life is great!

Cheers!

Georgia Simmerling

     In the Slalom I placed 9th, GS: 10th, SG: 10th and in the Downhill I placed 9th.Overall it was an alright event for me and I am looking forward to improving my performances at the World Cup Finals in Whistler where I will be heading to on the 7th of September.  It will be amazing to have the chance to race at Whistler and be able to show the other countries our Canadian hospitality. I will let you guy’s know how things go at the Finals and our Canadian Championships (which are held in Sunpeaks after a week of training at Whistler following the Finals). Thanks again for your support

We’re confident that with your help, we can not only reach, but surpass this year’s fundraising goal and witness history as these inspiring athletes represent us next year. This is your chance to be a part of the Games on a very real level. Your support will make an incredible difference to these athletes.

This blog is a place for you to look into the lives of these three athletes and see the world of competitive sport from their perspectives.

It is now almost February and the last three months have gone by in a blur. The season is going by so fast!

I have just come home back to Vancouver for a short break before I hit the road again. I think my coaches like teasing us with home time by just giving us 48 hours off sometime. But nevertheless I am taking this time off with gratitude.

My last three weeks have been very positive. After yet another too short time off at home for Christmas my team flew out to Toronto where we drove up to Collingwood, Ontario for our first post Christmas races. We have NorAm tech races at Craigleith Mountain (can we even call those things mountains?) for the Slalom races and Georgian Peaks for the GS races. The SL races were, and my parents still crack jokes at me, strictly training for me, because I never train the discipline. They were… interesting.  The Gs races were the first gs races of the year for me and went surprisingly all right. I think I finished the week with two top results.

After the races we BOOKED it to the Toronto Airport to catch our flight to Munich, Germany. You know your coach was a little stressed in the morning about the time schedule when he A) shows up to the ski hill in the morning with his jeans under his ski pants and his collared shirt under his jacket (all conveniently ready to take off before entering the first class check in line at the airport at the end of the day, and B) still has his ski boots on at the Airport… We made the flight.

Exceeding the expectations of living the life of a ski racer my teammate Kelly McBroom from Canmore, Alberta (the only other speed skier on my team, who also took the SL races at Craigleith as “training”) and I immediately after arriving in Munich drove with our assistant/speed coach Walter to Spital, Austria for a Super G the following morning. And the answer is yes, ski races do get jet lag just like the rest of the world… We arrived at nighttime, unpacked all our skis and luggage and tried to get as much sleep as possible.

The Super G race was excruciatingly flat and those Euro girls took it to us. I skied well which was the only positive thing out of the day, but I definitely got my butt kicked on the flats of the course, which was unfortunately 3 quarters of the race.

From there we drove to Kirchburg, Austria. Kirchburg is now the “headquarters” shall I say for the entire Canadian Team while in Europe. We have a hotel to ourselves and an awesome and very challenging training run at the local hill 2 minutes from the hotel. We trained there for about 2 days, if I remember correctly, and then packed up the vans and hit the road for the land of amazingly delicious food and cappuccino’s. OF COURSE I’m talking about Italy! By the end of the long drive we finally made it to the town of Caspoggio, located from what I remember of the drive, in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at our adorable hotel all starving. After an extremely tasty salad buffet, homemade soup AND pasta, I was stuffed. I had definitely not arrived in Italy with the understanding that soup and pasta are the appetizers alone and soon realized this when not only a whole meat and potatoes course appeared on my plate, but a dessert. By the end of the week I had to say no either one of the four meals in order to leave the table at the end of dinner walking.

This was going to be our first ever Europa Cup Speed event. I was a little nervous… The first training run of downhill went, with a little surprise, fairly well! Being immersed and racing with the Europeans takes a little hit to my confidence the first 48 hours I have come to realize. So this time I mentally tried to stop that before happening at this race. I knew I was skiing well and that I could be up there in the top 5 by the end of the week. And my second training run I proved that to myself. I came down in 3rd.  I was very happy with that final training run and was ready to kick some euro butt the following day, the day that counted. It is always the challenge especially in downhill to treat the race the exact same as the training runs, but I focused on the exact same thing I had been the last two days and I crossed the finish line in 4th. I was happy. My teammate Kelly was only 4 tenths behind me but 8 spots back. Every split second counts.

That evening I got to experience my first bib draw! Bib draws are for the top 15 ranked skiers who get to pick their starting position for the following day’s race. We drove up to the bottom of the mountain where there was a crowd of locals and a bright stage full of little children wearing the bibs over their jackets. The announcer called up the top 15 ranked girls and one by one we got to come up on stage and pick the child wearing the bib you wanted for the following day. It was a very fun experience, a little more excitement and commotion compared to North America, that’s for sure. I picked position 12.

The following day was the last race day and our last day in Caspoggio. I skied fast, similar to the previous day, minus one small mistake close to the bottom of the course, which in the end, cost me. I still finished in a respectable 7th position. The week had been a successful one.

We were sad to leave, primarily because we now had such high expectations of the food at our next hotel, which couldn’t possible compare. But we were excited. Kelly and I had earned the chance to race in the following World Cup Downhill race, happening in the posh Cortina, Italy.

We drove back to Kirchburg, trained a couple days, and were off on the road again to our next destination to meet up with World Cup team.

The first two days of training were cancelled due to an ENORMOUS amount of snow, which had fallen. We spent our time recovering in the hotel from a steady go-go-go trip so far, walked in town for a bit one day, sipping cappuccinos, reading, and playing cards.

The next day the sun came out and it was beautiful. Cortina, Italy is by far the most gorgeous place I have ever skied at so far. The top of the downhill is a straight shoot imbedded in a bowl of sheer mountain faces. Here I had to remind myself over and over that it was just another ski race, and I was skiing well. Race day arrived and I was ready to go. I skied well that day and finished a respectable 49th. I was not thrilled in the least with my result, but it was a positive learning experience being around the best female racers in the world, and composing my nervousness and excitement into a decent run to end a great trip!