Greetings from a very snowy afternoon in the Yanqing village. Our 2nd DH training run was cancelled this morning, so we have spent most of the day doing dryland, resting, reviewing DH video, eating, and watching our teammates race in the Men’s GS!
The first training run was yesterday and the hill and course are incredible. I had some pretty big mistakes during my run, but am excited for another training run tomorrow the 14th and one on the 16th as well to get more experience and improve before the Combined race on the 17th.
I’ve gotten a couple questions about the actual skiing and what I’ll be racing/training etc. I am racing the combined on the 17th China time (night of the 16th USA time) which is one run of downhill and one run of slalom. We get training runs beforehand because all DH races need training runs from a safety perspective. There are usually only 2 training runs in World Cup but because of weather and scheduling at the Olympics, there were four planned (although one got cancelled today). The Olympic DH event (the 15th) is separate from the combined, but we will be running the exact same course, so all the athletes doing the combined and/or the DH, do the training runs.
I was so happy to start competing (finally!!!) yesterday, and am excited for the next couple of days. It feels really good to get nervous and excited again.
Here are some more photos.
view from the bottom of the SG. It is really easy to get up to the hill, because the gondola is in our village. And there are a fair amount of Chinese spectators (100-300) at the Alpine Races.
photo with the team at the bottom of the super-g (pictured left to right: me, Mo Lebel, Keely Cashman, AJ Hurt, Jackie Wiles, Bella Wright, and Paula Moltzan in the front)
matching Skims Team USA outfits for Bella’s Birthday dinner
snow day! This is the most snow they have gotten here in 8 years! They normally just get a sprinkling so they started the morning sweeping the snow off, but by the afternoon there was close to 8 inches and the snow plows and shovels came out!
watching the men’s GS first run this morning in the Team USA room with other alpine girls and some bobsledders
there is a pretty cool Chinese culture area of the village that has different rooms highlighting different aspects of Chinese culture. This is the traditional Chinese medicine room where they tell you about acupuncture and meridian lines and Chinese kung fu. There’s also a history room!
My roommate Mo Lebel in ‘Zero G’ which is a setting you can move your bed to to supposedly release pressure from your spine. The beds are super. comfortable just as they are though which is great! I have been sleeping so well.
one of my dinners. The food has also been great and pretty much everyone I’ve talked to has been happy with the meals. We also have so many snacks in the Team USA room that you probably could eat all your meals there!