Things Come in Threes...

We all know what they say, things come in threes. We'll, I hope my three crashes are put behind me for the year!

I arrived in Europe on the 4th of January with training right away in Burgeis/Mals, Italy. On the third day, after some great skiing in GS, I had the most spectacular crash I've had to date. Fortunately I didn't suffer any severe injuries although I strained my knee and hurt the Tib/Fib joint pretty badly with a bruised fibula. Lets just say it was pretty sore. I took that day, and the next two off as I had to prepare for a DH training run (and later race) in Altenmarkt, Austria. The first training run got canceled, which made me rather happy since I felt I needed at least another day to rest up. The next training run I skied the top pretty well, only to crash very early on in the course. This put me in the fencing with the wind knocked out of me for a few minutes until someone helped me out. I skied away from this crash with a slight black eye, a very bruised thigh, and no help in getting that knee feeling better.

Since I knew I'd lost my only shot at a training run I slowly side slipped the course so I could watch someone ski most sections. Hey, it's better than nothing! I finally got to the bottom of the course and exited where the side slippers do (just before the finish line). There was a lot of public around (yes, Austria pulls big crowds even for training runs!). Between the public and the rocks I decided to boot ski the last bit to the lodge. I picked up good speed on the hard snow from our track's preparation, however, I saw a wall of soft snow approaching me. I figured I'd make it. I didn't. I launched doing a face plant and loosing both my skis as they flew out of my hands. Now completely broken and extremely embarrassed, I collected my equipment and made my way (limping) to the cars.

So there you have it. A trifecta of falls within a few days, and I had to race a World Cup DH the next day with no training run. Luckily (or unlucky - you never know) the race was canceled after a day of trying to get it off. Saturday was supposed to be the Super Combined which I would not race, then a Super G on Sunday. At 6pm that night I found out they had decided to race Downhill the next day and move the Super Combined to Sunday and the Super G was canceled.

In the end, we raced DH today (Saturday, January 13), the start was lowered (taking out every bit of the course I had actually run), and I finished 14th. I was happy with this considering all of the above. Still, I know how much I left out there and I look forward to Cortina!

The picture above is from the right side of the starting gate in Altenmarkt.

Sometimes you just have to laugh! :)

Kelly