McKennis Blog: Back At It

Whew…that was a busy 10 days. The first chunk of races are finished! The first Downhill race in Lake Louise was quite the success for me. I had my best ever World Cup career result (8th place) and it was in my first race back from my injury. I can’t explain how happy I am with that result. It meant so much to me to get back in the races so soon let alone get a top ten. I was hoping that I would place top 20 but I had my doubts that would even happen. It is a huge weight off my shoulders to know that when I dial things in and execute I can still be fast, it’s hard to know if you can still do it when it’s been almost a year since your last race. After only getting 10 days in gates before the race I was feeling ready but not totally confident in my skiing, after Lake Louise I feel a lot better about my skiing but I know I still have a lot of things to work on.

The second Downhill race I was starting behind my teammate Laurenne Ross and unless you live under a rock we all know she crashed really hard, like REALLY hard. So it was kinda tough waiting in the start for awhile, seeing the helicopter pick her up and trying to not freak out at the same time. It is a challenge getting iced in the start but doubly tough when it is one of your best friends. I made it down the course but skied very conservative and I’m pretty sure I didn’t touch the front of my boot the whole way down so that was not fast. Luckily she managed to get away with some serious gashes to her face but nothing else was hurt. Thankful for that! Laurenne will be joining us after Christmas in Europe and I am sure she will be back to killing on the World Cup circuit soon enough.
Super-G inspection, Lake Louise

Super-G has been a bit of struggle for me so far, Lake Louise I skied well in sections but lost a ton of time in about 5 gates on the pitch. Coming into Beaver Creek was very exciting; racing in the US is something we all wish we could do more so as a team we were really pumped up for it. Unfortunately I skied to put it mildly…bad. I was really disappointed in my performance but I can learn from my mistakes and we are currently training on Birds of Prey so I am getting my redemption on that hill! I have to say though it was still pretty cool to race in Beaver Creek, having that many American fans was great. Everyone was so just so nice! Of course it was awesome Lindsey won; I was really hoping that one of us would win on that day to stake our claim on Birds of Prey and Lindsey did it. I guess you could say she is skiing alright… four in row isn’t half bad.

We are training in Vail and Beaver Creek for the next week and then we will be home for two weeks before heading to Europe after Christmas. I am happy to be training, it is something I definitely need right now to help me trust myself on the hill and just ski better.

Anyway I hope it snows a lot soon so everyone can ski lots, and lots of powder over Christmas!