USA 7

Yep, as of now I'm "USA #7" which means I'm ranked 7th in the US!

I'm pretty excited - and even more exciting is how that came to be. Remember how excited I was after the first Park City race, where I finished 6th? And pushed a 5.19? Well.....

Yesterday, in the second Park City race (race 4 of Team Trials), I came out 4th! And pushed a 5.17!!! I sent Tim (our strength coach) a text message telling him I needed to kiss him, grin. And did a lot more screaming and jumping around...

Now, keep in mind that my 4th and 6th and 8th place finishes (which were my best 3 of 4 races) don't include Katie U, aka USA #1....She foreran for all our races but didn't race since she is automatically on the World Cup team due to her great 2007-2008 season. So, in reality, if she were included my finishes would really have been 5th, 7th, and 9th. When all the math was done, and everyone dropped their worst finishes, I ended up in 7th overall, including Katie U.! So exciting!

Now the fun stuff, the pictures!

Prepping for my first run (notice my lovely Velo Bella jacket, PERFECT for wearing to the start line which is one of the reasons I got it):


Here's what a 5.17 push looks like, or at least, what mine looks like:


I see lots to improve there too - my foot is too far forward and my knee isn't at the right angle, but I'll take it for sure! Here's my second push, a hair slower (5.23) since I was tired, oops, but my leg is at the right angle:


Refocusing between runs, and digesting that I was 5th after run one, crazy...


How it all shakes out:

• The top 3 women from Trials are the World Cup team.
• The next 3 women are the Intercontinental Cup (aka World Cup B) team.
• The next 4 women are the National Development Team.

So, I'm on the ND team, and only one spot out of the ICC. I couldn't have asked for more this season.

RACES

When it came down to selecting races, I wasn't very prepared since I hadn't expected to do so well, and had just been hoping that two specific Europa Cup (EC) races would be available as scraps for me to take...instead I actually had to turn down a handful of races, ouch. The Calgary and Lake Placid America's Cup (AC) races are in the next 3 weeks, and I've already missed so much school that I couldn't take them, and the Winterberg and Altenberg EC races are the last 2 weeks of school and finals, so I had to opt out of them too.

BUT - I am going to Igls, Austria for the EC there, which is during Christmas break and thus perfect. The Konigsee, Germany EC was taken by some ICC girls for extra points, which is sad since that race is also during Christmas break, but it worked out ok since, instead, I'm doing the St. Moritz, Switzerland EC, which is everyone's FAVORITE track!

Hopefully I'll also be in the Cesana, Italy EC. YAY! I'm on the list of potentials for the second Lake Placid AC in April next year too, which they are keeping open for now in case some of the top women need more points to help the USA's international standing.

POINTS

Really, the US is playing a points game, which they have to do under the current international / olympic system. Basically, each athlete received a world ranking from the points earned at each race. Each series had different point values, with World Cup having the highest per-race-per-rank points, and the EC and AC having the least. The number of sliders that a nation gets to enter into World Championships every year, and the number of sliders that a nation gets to enter into the Olympics, is determined by the number of sliders in the top world ranks. So, that's why ICC sliders get to take some EC races (like Konigsee) and why the World Cup and some ICC women are filling up the Park City AC (which is next week), Calgary AC, and Lake Placid AC, which all occur before the World Cup season starts.

Sorry, long and boring but pretty crucial for understanding how the races are shaking out like they are.

FUTURE

From here on out, it will be really difficult for me to move up, since the top 6 women have been sliding for years and are all so close to each other that no one was sure how the World Cup would shake out this year! Granted, I beat several of them to take my 4th yesterday, but I'll need to be consistent and have consistent improvement! Am I up for the challenge? You bet!