Back in St. Moritz

After a much needed break in Innsbruck, we are now back in St. Moritz. Training was at 9am this morning and Lou had two good smooth runs. I'm thinking of taking Lou's Lubas sled for a strop tomorrow, as I'm still loaning mine to a Polish slider. It will be fun to get some recreational sliding in for a change. The weather is absolutely beautiful here, not a cloud in the sky. I hope it stays that way all week :)

Lou has a coach :)

We found out tonight that I have been allowed a credential to coach Lou during her training days and race from the 13th to the 17th which is fantastic. This means that I will be staying with Lou in the village during those dates. This is fantastic news and now Lou can focus on her game plan for winning a medal at the Winter Olympics as now she doesn’t have to worry about who, if anyone, was going to be there to support her. A huge thanks from Lou and I to John Corcoran, John Guthrie, Mark Elliott and Barry Maister for their help.

Lou sliding well, must be due to her coach :)

After the first day of training here in St. Moritz for the Europe Cup, Lou has had another PB downtime and is sliding very well, placing 2nd in each training run today. She is flying.

I'm enjoying my role as coach although standing on the side of the track for hours, watching and videoing the athletes lines is quite possibly the coldest job in the world! It is regularly -20C here, if not colder, brrrr! Can't wait to be back home in NZ in March to thaw out!

I am also helping the Canadian and American sliders with video and driving advice. I'm actually learning a whole heap more about my sport by watching and talking about it from another perspective.

Lou finishes 17th in World Cup

Lou had a great race today in the St. Moritz World Cup. She finished 17th overall with personal best times in both the push and downtime. A great way to start her build up to the Olympics.

The men's race is tomorrow so good luck Ben and Iain!

I've found a gorgeous young man!

This is Marc, isn't he gorgeous. He is the son of Markus and Diana Tempel who are both sliders and who are borrowing my sled for the week.

The beautiful (and EXPENSIVE!) St. Moritz

I am now in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where you dare not walk down the main street unless you are wearing a fur coat worth thousands of dollars and a hat to match. The town's shopping centre consists of just about every designer label imaginable and the feeling that you can't walk into them without a platinum credit card! It is a gorgeous place though, and I can see why it is the exclusive ski destination of europe of the more wealthy.

The World Cup race's here are on Thursday for the men and Friday for the women. I have withdrawn from this race as Lou has asked me to coach her in her lead up to the Olympics which I have agreed to seeing as there is only one spot for a kiwi woman and Lou is it.

Lou and Ben have met their qualification standards for the Olympics!

My team mate's Louise Corcoran and Ben Sandford have met their qualification standards for both the national and international federations which means they will hopefully be nominated for the Olympics any time now! This also means that I will not be going to the games :( I have put in 100% this season and all through the off season but in the end it wasn't good enough. I am sad that I'm not going to get the chance to compete for New Zealand at the Winter Olympics but I am also happy that Lou and Ben will get to do it. Well done guys!

It's my birthday!

Yes, it's my birthday today. 25 years young and boy do I feel every one of those years at the moment! Thanks Mum for sending me over those awesome presents that I managed to save, unopened until this morning. It has been so frustrating seeing them in my luggage for the last couple of months, all wrapped up nicely, when all I wanted to do was tear them open.
We have the day off training today which is nice and then race tomorrow. The 3 days of official training for the race here in Konigssee have not gone that well for me so I'm hoping that my two good runs are going to come tomorrow.
I can't even have a wine with dinner tonight for the race tomorrow! I'll have to celebrate some other time.

Bye bye Lake Placid

I'm busy packing my bags ready to leave Lake Placid at 11am tomorrow. I fly out of Montreal then to Toronto, Frankfurt & finally Munich. Lou is meeting me in Munich and we drive down to Konigssee, Germany.

It's been snowing here today and is absolutely beautiful. I'm going to miss this place, it's such a quaint, lovely little town.


Yesterday at the track here in Lake Placid. Check out my new Ugg boots! They were from Santa :)