January 29, 2006 – At the beginning of the training year our ski team is reminded that with every opportunity there comes a challenge. Being on the national team is a huge opportunity, but with it comes the challenge to improve and become one of the best skiers in the world. Every year there are numerous opportunities and so there are many challenges. One of this year’s opportunities was to take advantage of the World Cups that would take place on home turf. No jet lag, no weird food, language issues, crazy snow conditions….. The ball was in our court. The challenge was taking full advantage of home course and I think the team, overall, did incredibly well. Almost all of the members of the team set personal bests, which is all you can really ask for. To me, it’s a sign that for the most part our preparation worked well. I know there are things I need to improve on and keep working at, but there were a lot of positives to be taken away from the races. In sport, as in life, there are always lessons to be learned, and after some personal down time I have looked at what went well during the World Cups. Thus what needed to be improved and worked these things into my day-to-day routine. I’m working on the areas that need improving so that I can be better prepared for the rest of the racing season and the challenges that will exist along the road to the top. One challenge is complete for the year and another has presented itself; training and racing in Europe and soon the Olympics. With some work, the lessons learned from past challenges will be applied to future ones, in the hope of improved results.

Our team just had a meeting with psychologist David Cox and he made a point that has stuck with me, “If your not improving your getting worse”. At first I was confused; what happens when you’re the best? Obviously I’m not there, but the dominant sporting “Heroes” must be perfect. So how can they keep improving? It was explained that “they” don’t do everything perfectly. Although close to perfection, if you asked anyone who is one of the best in their sport, they could probably come up with several things that they would like to improve on. Finding ways to get better even when you’re the best is something that blows my mind. Here you have this amazing opportunity, you’re the best at what you do and all the highlights that come with it. However, the challenge is it to continually get better, stay ahead of your competition and improve on your personal bests. I think many of the greatest Athletes in the world dream of improving on what they’ve already done. They take pride in what they’ve accomplished but dream of something bigger…..


When dealing with the challenge of an opportunity, all you can do is focus on the task at hand. I know for myself and I think for most athletes, when I feel like I have put in a solid days work, doing everything I need to do in order to feel ready on race day, I can totally relax and let what ever is going to happen on the trails. Life is a series of opportunities and challenges. The bigger the opportunity the bigger the challenge and finding ways to deal with each one, is never ending.