Notice a pattern here? Well when we came to World Cup finals from Korea we were looking forward to 2 days of downhill training, which we had, a downhill race, which was canceled, a super G race, which was canceled, a GS race, which we were able to pull off and a slalom race, which was canceled not once but twice. It’s tough for the athletes to get up every day and get ready to go only to be told the race has been canceled. But since it is all because of mother nature there isn’t much that can be done about it. Today it was another blizzard. This time without wind though so we were able to get through roughly 40 races in the first run. Allison Jones was sitting in 4th 0.70 seconds behind second place, and Monte Meier was tied for 3rd, additionally Adam Hall was winning the first run despite breaking one of his outriggers and using a borrowed pair. Our athletes that ran were tough, they fought their way through heavy snow with variable conditions on the course. The flat part of the course had been injected with water. But, they didn’t use an injection bar, they drilled holes into the snow and poured water in to attempt to get the snow to become firm. It worked a little but but started to break down so the course became too dangerous to finish the race. Plus the snow was starting to accumulate so outside of the race course there was probably 6 inches of powder.

So now I am back at the hotel and getting ready to pack up everything. I will probably just do one treatment on our injured athlete to attempt to make him more comfortable for the bus ride and then the long flight home. Mom asked for an explanation what I mean when I said treatment. Well it varies, I travel with a portable electrical stimulation and ultrasound unit that I can use to help with swelling, aches and pain, and muscle spasms. Additionally I cart around a portable treatment/massage table that I set up so I can do massage and stretching. It depends on the day and the athlete in terms of what I do but I typically have at least 4 treatments a day and they are each half an hour. I usually have one athlete at a time for privacy but at times have to double up due to time constraints.

So for the rest of the afternoon (It’s only 1:00pm here) I am going to pack, organize my action photos so I can give them to the other teams, and then finish up some paperwork before trying to get a little homework done. For those that don’t know I am working on another degree, in Athletic Training at the University of Utah and I am taking 4 courses. One of them is Nutrition, which is an online course and I have mentioned it a lot lately and the other three are athletic training courses.

Hope all is well at home. The photos for today are of: my friend and Canadian coach Brianne Law and me waiting for the course inspection, Ian boot skiing in the powder before inspection, the slalom course (lots of snow coming down), Ali Jones and me in our last day outfits, me with 2 of the Australian races (Toby Kane on the left and Marty Mayberry) and finally a snow sculpture that the lift operators made.