Super G.

As most of you heard from this morning, I had a very leisurely start to my day. When we finally went up to the mountain, I was pretty psyched on the day and expected absolutely nothing since my Super G has been pretty awful in the 3 starts I’ve had this year. But it was nationals and that’s always exciting.

I was starting 11th, which certainly wasn’t ideal. The track was really turny in one section at the top, the snow was painful soft, and somewhat bottomless in a few sections. The organizers did a good job getting the event off, but the snow was not good. When I put on my skis as the start, they were definitely running. I pushed out of the gate as hard as I could, pinned off two gates, and then came onto the first pitch with way too much direction. It was probably good because the second turn on the pitch was really across the hill. Either way, I kept it together while doing some serious knuckle dragging because the snow was painfully soft. Then came through a left footed undergate (a big turn) and got back online. I hit the flats with a ton of speed and could really feel my skis accelerate. Then on the final pitch I was a little round over the final roll and then went as straight as I could. My skis were holding really well on the soft snow down there and I tucked thru the line into 3rd place.

Travis Ganong, who started 1st, killed it and won by nearly a second. Will Brandenburg, who started 4th, was second and I was third two-hundredths ahead of Tim Jitloff. Any day on the podium is a good day and today was certainly a good one. After the race I spent the next 2 and a half hours cruising around with a US Anti Doping Agency liaison before I could finally pack up and leave the mountain. Luckily, Dane was willing to grab my skis halfway up the mountain.

Tomorrow is slalom and I have absolutely no expectations for that either.

Off to tune some skis, then a parade and awards to follow. Hope all is well, w