Alice Mckennis

This past weekend in Sochi I finally got the result I’ve been hoping for! My tenth place result in the Downhill race was really rewarding for me. After being in a bit of slump since Lake Louise in December it was awesome to get back in the top ten, especially on the 2014 Olympic course. My training runs in Sochi didn’t go great and were unpleasant to watch but I pulled it together on race day, I felt out of control most of my run but I was going for it and it worked out pretty well. I also came down leading which is very fun, pretty cool to stand in the leader’s box even for a few racers.

In the leader's box with Stacey Cook!

The Downhill course is very cool, some tricky steep sections combined with two decent sized jumps and a really fun flatter section with a ton of terrain. The course comes at you continually which is really fun, it’s great when you get a flatter section and you still have to be active and ski, often times the flatter sections in Downhill are a little too relaxed and give you too much time to think which is never good in Downhill.

Tricky steep section, the turns really crank here

I was ready to give the Super-Combined a go on Sunday’s race with bib 60 but after inspection I had some serious doubts as to how the snow was going to hold up….not great in my opinion. Luckily most of the racers held the same view as well as the race officials that the snow was sketchy. There was about an hour of uncertainly where it seemed like no one in Sochi had a clue what was going on, just weird decisions with re-setting the course to find “safer” snow conditions. It turned out the re-set of the bottom pitch wasn’t any better and the correct decision to cancel was made. Good thing, I think some of the gates would have had ruts the size of Texas in there. Not safe or enjoyable.

After re-inspecting the bottom of the Super-G...lots of talking...and maybe a little confusion?

The village at Sochi...its a work in progress

Ridgeline Gondola in Sochi...sick freesking there

Aside from racing in Sochi there is only one other thing going on there; construction. Masses of construction. People have been talking about how much building is going on and they are not kidding, it’s a lot and super impressive. Better them than me…yikes.

The mountain itself in Sochi is incredible. The free-skiing looks phenomenal, I dabbled in some freeskiing when our second training run was canceled, it was fun and I crashed. Twice. In the space of three runs, so I was pretty much killing it.

Fireworks during the Downhill bib draw

The security situation in Sochi was an experience, we had to go through metal detectors everyday to get on the gondola and there were quite a few men with machine guns around the top of gondola. Can’t be too careful these days…you just never know who or what is out there.

Anyway we are now in Bankso, Bulgaria for some of the last World Cup speed races of the season. I’m excited to get on another new track before heading home for the first time since Christmas. I’m really looking forward to getting back to the United States and spending some time in Colorado before finishing up the season with one more trip to Europe and then onto US Nationals.

More of the finished Sochi

Russian cuisine...

Somehow those words translate to Rosa Khutor

I will not be throwing myself a pity party but the season is halfway over and I feel like I am just barely finding my stride. At some point in the near or hopefully not too distant future I know I will find my stride again look back on this string of past few disappointing races as good “character building”.  I have had some ups and downs this season and as frustrating as ski racing can be I still find that before each training or race run I still have a sense of excitement and belief that this run will be the “one” to really turn things around. There have been glimpses and a run or two that have been really great; it is just getting the consistency back that has been the biggest challenge for me. I guess it turns out that getting in a lot of gate training in the prep period might actually help your skiing! I’ll have to remember that for next summer, hopefully this coming summer I will be healthy and can get in some serious gate bashing.

Start in Cortina

One of the bright spots in the past couple weeks is that I was third at a Europa Cup Downhill in St. Moritz. I even won a bit of prize money and was really looking forward to spending some of it shopping in St. Moritz. Just to give you an idea of the type of stores that are in St. Moritz; they all make the stores in Aspen all look like jazzed up K-Marts.  With my prize money I could maybe afford a key chain, or some socks. Unfortunately I did not find a key chain or any socks that suit my style. So disappointing. It also snowed a ton during the Europa Cups so the rest of the Europa Cup team and I were able to go shred some powder which was nearly as fun as getting on the podium again.

Im in the pink jacket...

We are now headed to Garmisch for more races this weekend. I have had some success there before so I am feeling good about the races ahead.  After Garmisch we are getting a short break before heading to Russia and Bulgaria. I am currently trying to find a place to escape to for a few days but have not nailed anything down yet. I enjoy public transportation over here because it is much less stressful than actually trying to compete with European drivers to see who can drive more sketchily, so I might just hop a train or bus and see where I end up. Hopefully after that adventure I will have a bit more to report.

Till then…

Finish in Cortina

Me, Abby and Brooke freeskiing in St. Moritz

Did some classic x-country skiing in St. Moritz

We just finished up racing in Bad Kleinkircheim, Austria. It wasn’t a great weekend for me and certainly nothing to write home about. I ended up 26^th in the Downhill and still earned a few World Cup points but I know I can ski a lot better.

The Downhill course was pretty challenging in sections; not sure I have ever had to step turn in Downhill but that was the best tactic on the first two gates.  They were set about as far across the hill as they could manage yet the distance between them was short as possible, it wasn’t pretty to watch anyone but I guess sometimes that’s the way it is. The middle section flowed pretty well and the bottom ended up being very challenging with the higher speeds and numerous bumps and ripples. I felt a little out of control and sketchy on that section, but somehow I hung on and made it down.

The course name in Bad Klein is the Franz Klammer abfarht (downhill), which I thought was pretty darn cool. Franz was actually at the race watching. I didn’t get to meet him but I felt a bit like him on the bottom of the course, a little out of control, but not necessarily in a good Franz Klammer way. More in a sketchy backseat kind of way… perhaps I can channel Franz’s out of control-ness in Cortina and do it in the good way – out of control but really fast.

Just for fun everyone should check out this video of Franz, you will get the idea of what I mean by being out of control but killing it.  Be aware, there are some really gnarly crashes in this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYj9kIxAL_o

Franz Klammer Downhill Course...what legend that man is, so cool!

On a more positive note it was great to see Julia Ford earn her first World Cup points after attacking the challenging bottom section, we were all really excited for her. Of course it was also really nice to have Laurenne back with the team, after only getting one training run in fully clothed and then having to race a pretty tough Downhill after such a gnarly crash in Lake Louise it was really impressive to see the way she skied and pulled things together mentally. Laurenne is one tough lady.

Yeh Julia!

Super-G wasn’t anything special for me, I over skied the course about as much as a person can. That wasn’t very cool, and especially slow. Eh. Oh well, on to the next one!

We are now off to Cortina for a few days of training and rest. Cortina is one of my favorite places and I am looking forward to some more racing on a course I am a bit more familiar with.

Inspecting the "Klammer DH"

Austrian Kaiserschmarrn...mmm yum. Best meal in Austria