Bansko & Concussion

Well, that was a tough weekend of travel and racing. I never thought I’d hear everyone in the finish area saying they’d rather be on the track in Val D’Isere! Although, that is slightly unfair to Bansko since the hill was fun and offered amazing potential. However, our Downhill was set with the intent to keep our speeds as slow as possible. Our course, that started and finished in the same place as last year’s men’s Europe Cup, was a whopping 23seconds slower. The track was also reminiscent of Quebec/Ontario snow with a light sugar layer on top and sheer ice underneath. By day two it was a skating rink with bumps the whole way down.

Still, I had good splits and was simply struggling with this one section in particular. I was determined to figure it out and after a training run where I went too round, on race day I went too straight…I was definitely over thinking this section as I felt I needed to do something special when really you just had to suck it up and ride the bumps out. After being the only Canadian to finish on the first race with a disappointing 23rd position, I was getting set for the second DH. Doing what I could to let go of thought and just race hard, but also stay as relaxed as possible. I won the top split but was taken out by one of the wholes they had been working on earlier in inspection. I went down pretty hard bouncing back in the air after the first impact, then coming to a fast stop in the fence going from about 90km/h to stopped within 3 meters. I was amazingly fine after the crash, but I had hit my head hard. I cracked my helmet (something I’d never done before) and suffered some whiplash. Unfortunately, it was the pounding headache and mild disorientation that tipped the doctor off to the fact that I’d suffered a concussion. Although it was a fairly mild concussion, there was no way the doctor was going to let me ski the Super G on Sunday. I was pretty sad, although I understood the decision.

So, I watched the race from the sidelines.

After the race there was a lot of time before the police escorted convoy of busses was scheduled to leave. By 5pm we hit the road, however the American, Canadians, and Brit’s enjoyed a few rounds of bowling (in the hotel) first! That was good fun and brought out a lot of laughs. On the road, the laughs continued in the back of the bus with card games and silliness. After a bit my head was pounding too much and I had move to a quieter spot. Still, I enjoyed the drive. Once at the airport we (meaning the entire world cup) checked in together, and made our way to the flight (the only flight that appeared to be flying that night in Sofia). Once we reached Munich some mild fog prevented our plane (with substandard instruments) to land and we were rerouted to Stuttgart. Once there, we sat in the plane for 1hour before they decided what to do with us. Finally we got our bags and began waiting for busses to arrive to drive us back to Munich. By this point it was midnight, or 1am Bulgarian time. Everyone was tired. By 1:30 am (2:30am Bulgarian time) they said the buses couldn’t take us and we then made our way to the hotel where our big group slowly checked in to sleep.

The next morning, Monday morning, we boarded another set of tour busses and the convoy began its journey again, this time to Munich.

Ah, the joys of travel.

My headaches are almost gone now, and the whiplash is already lessening. My left shoulder took a nice hit and was put back about 2 weeks in its recovery, but I’m extremely happy it didn’t pop out! This week we’ll be training, looking for some GS races, and then off to Are, Sweden for the World Cup finals!

Till Next time,

Kelly