An Epic Crash and Race Results

Americas Cup Race 1 and 2
SALT LAKE CITY

The USA Americas cup team kicked off the season with 2 races in park city. This was my first race on a track other than Lake Placid and it was a pretty crazy experience.

Before I begin to talk about the races and the results, I should probably explain a little bit of what happened in training first. All went well for the first few days on the new ice. I had a lot of confidence going into our third day of training; the higher speeds and pressures didn’t seem like a serious obstacle. This is when the track decided to give me a wake up call. Curve six man handled me and gave me a big slap on the wrist for thinking I could own this track. Which turned out to be a giant smack to my head.

Curve six is the fastest curve on the track. Girls reach up to 78mph. This is where I decided to have my first ever crash. I went into curve 6 really late. It’s hard to explain to those who don’t know about curve six why this is bad. Long story short when you go into six as late as I did you’re supposed to emergency steer the crap out of it so you don’t take off an arm on the exit. I basically did the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to do and the result was that I hit the exit wall so hard that I flipped. I slid through 2 and a half curves on my back with a 75lb sled on top of me going probably about 60mph…and finally coming to a stop. The scariest part for me was being pinned underneath my sled, and going that fast with that much weight on top of me. Because I was flipped on my back, I was headed head first into curves with no idea where I was going. I had a very nice view of the ceiling however. After 2 curves I pushed my sled off of me and watched it continue the run without me. After I came to a sliding stop I was not upset. I was so angry. I was mad that I wasted one of my few training runs by crashing. I was mad because my sled would probably get damaged. And I was mad at myself for making a rookie mistake and messing up. Most of all I was embarrassed about crashing…I was the only one.

After a truck finally came and picked me up I sort of fell apart. The minuet the medics started asking me what happened I started crying. And as the adrenaline began to wear off EVERYTHING started to hurt. There literally was not an inch of my body that wasn’t screaming at me. My shoes were torn, my speed suit was torn, my mouth guard re-broke, and my helmet was no longer usable. The medics made me promise never to use it again or they would cut the straps.

I was put on oxygen as they asked me questions to see whether I was concussed. I also had some minor bleeding ice burn on my elbow. (The nerves in it still haven’t completely healed because my hand tingles whenever I lean on it.) The medics told me I was concussed and gave a teammate directions to the hospital if my symptoms got worse. I don’t remember telling the medics I felt dizzy or nauseous which is why they said I was concussed. But how am I supposed to feel right after I got my shit rocked? All in all I was JUST FINE. No more symptoms, and if it was a concussion I believe it was very minor. My helmet did its job. RIP.

I took 2 days off and got right back on the ice. There were only 2 days of training left (I think) before the race. Training was fine and there were no casualties. Except for a teammate who also got concussed. But he hit the ceiling not the wall ☺

My first run after the flip was kinda nerve wracking. But there was no way I wasn’t going to slide to get ready for the race. So I just tried to forget it ever happened. Which was really hard to do!!! But it all went well.

(Wed) Race one did not end with the results I was hoping for. I placed 10th over all and had a bit of a scare in 6 again. I hit the wall so hard that I came off my sled again but never touched the ice. I stayed on and just wanted the run to be over. My second run was a lot better! And pulled me into an overall better ranking.

(Thurs) Race 2 went really well but was really frustrating!! I had two beautiful runs that were a total of 4 seconds faster than my runs from the day before. (for skeleton that’s a big difference) My runs were absolutely amazing and I had the fastest push out of everyone! Overall I placed 8th in the second race. Which was frustrating since I did so bad the first day and got 10th, and did so much better the second day, yet I only improved by 2 places. Oh well….

On to the next one. After the races in Salt Lake City we departed for Calgary, Canada! With a whopping 17 hour drive. Lucky we spit it up into 2 days. Unfortunately one of my teammates got food poisoning so she had to endure 7 hours in a car while wanting to vomit. She started feeling better on the drive but 7 hour drives are torturous enough.

Our first race in Calgary is on the 18th!!

Team Selection Races and SALT LAKE CITY!

My First Team Trails

Our first face was scheduled after only 2 weeks of on ice training. As a new slider, I was a little concerned about this. Last year it took me months to slide well! To make things worse 3 days of sliding were cancelled due to unseasonably warm weather. So with around a week of training we had our first team selection race.
Day one went pretty well. I ended up 10th overall. It wasn’t what I was hoping for but it still gave me enough points to put me in a position to make Americas Cup. I was actually shocked at how well I did because my runs were messy and slow.
The next day I had a bit of a mental break down. I was so worried about placing that I didn’t focus on sliding enough and ended up 12th. At this point I started to care less about team trials, which probably sounds bad. I figured what ever was going to happen was going to happen and would be meant to be. I stopped trying to get pumped up for my races and just tried to relax and concentrate on sliding the best that I could.
I think relaxing worked pretty well because things really started to come together for me. I slid 8th in our next race and 5th in the final race. My total amount of points put me at 8th overall! Which secured me an Americas Cup spot!
To those who don’t understand the circuits of skeleton, there are 4 circuits. Americas cup, europa cup, intercontinental cup, and world cup. To make the team you must make one of the “cups”. World cup is top 3, intercontinental cup is for those who finish in 4th and 5th place. Europa cup is 6th and 7th, and finally Americas cup is for 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th. If you did not make any of those teams then athletes stay in LP and train, with out promise of races.
A lot of the races for the second half of the season are coaches’ discretion for AC and EC. I am hoping to do well enough in the AC races to go to Europe second half. We’ll see how I do on new tracks first.
My first races are in Salt Lake City, Utah, then 2 more races in Calgary Canada, and hopefully 2 more in Lake Placid, NY.
I am so thankful for my family and the support I received in Lake Placid that week. Although I wish I could have relaxed and focused sooner to place higher over all, the AC circuit will help me to develop as a slider. I know that next year’s team trials will be even better with everything that I am learning.
To my family and friends at home:
I’ll be home for thanksgiving and Christmas! However, its not looking like I will be home for more than a few weeks this summer. The weight lifting coach really wants me to stay in NY over the summer. I know that the Olympic gym will help me to make greater improvements than the make shift gym at home. I want anyone who wants to, to come visit me! I miss everyone and would love to see people and potentially send them down the bobsled track for a skeleton experience.
School is going really well so far. I have good grades and I’m managing to complete all of my work even while we travel. Penn State has been a blessing and I credit my ability to participate in this sport their online program!

First day on a new track

Going down a new track for the first time can be pretty nerve wracking. No matter how many times you watch video or walk the track you still don’t really know what to expect the track to feel like. The Salt Lake track is much faster than Lake Placid. There are lots of double pressure turns and double oscillations. Which will also be a new experience because the Lake Placid has only single pressure turns and no double oscillations.
When I slide Lake Placid I know when I am in trouble. I have a lot of “oh shit,” moments that require me to drive hard to fix mistakes so I don’t hit walls or lose time. I was worried about going down a new track because I would have no idea if I were headed for trouble in a curve. I have no experience on this new track to know that if I go into this curve late, I need to down steer really hard or I will flip. So basically, I could be heading for disaster and not even know it.
This is pretty much what I was thinking when I was on the starting block about to take my first run. Probably not the best thought process. Strangely enough I was not nervous at all to go down this new track. Up until about 2 minuets before I was about to go. I was nervous that I wasn’t nervous….if that makes sense? “I’m not ready for this, why didn’t I get nervous? I should be nervous!” Not being nervous made me feel unprepared. However, as I took my first run everything turned out fine. No injuries and I actually had fun.
My second run was a bit of a fiasco. I had decided to push faster now that I was a little more comfortable and I popped the grove. This was my first “oh shit” moment on the PC track. It got even worse as my sled managed to do a 180, and I started sliding backwards. I had a moment of panic and my “oh shit” moment turned into a OH F***!
On this track you reach speeds up to 80mph and all I could thing about was reaching those speeds backwards. (Apparently there was an Australian chick who went down half the track backwards) Fortunately, I managed to get turned back around before curve one. The rest of my run was obviously pretty slow due to my trick start. I still can’t believe I managed to go backwards on my second run. At least it wasn’t on my first!
All and all I really like the PC track., it’s fun and fast. I’ll be training on it for another week and a half before our first race here and it should be fun. A lot of other countries are here as well, Korea, Mexico, and the British bobsledders, (who painted their faces for sliding on Halloween).