Lenzerheide and Olympics!

Last week was an exciting week of racing during the Tour de Ski. Andy, Simi, Holly, and I dropped out of the tour before the end, but Liz, Jessie, and Noah finished 7th, 13th, and 25th respectively. They did 7 races in about 9 days, finishing with a hill climb at 28% grade. That's crazy. During the sprint at Lenzerheide, we had all 4 SMS T2 skiers qualify for the rounds. Jessie skied a strong heat, but was knocked out in the quarters and Andy was knocked out in the semis, but got his 2nd top ten in a row. Simi and I each skied our first ever A final and even though I was last in the final and 6th for the day, I was pretty excited to be there in the first place and to have my best result ever. To make it even better, Simi ended up winning it all - not a bad way to ski your first ever final! Here are some photos from the week in Switzerland. The good ones were taken by my brother, Austin.

Warming up in Lenzerheide

Sertig

Sertig

Sver hard at work with some spare poles

Jessie in the prelim

Start of the 10k classic

Liz in her prelim

Andy 

Simi leading his heat

Izzle!

Skiing in one of my heats

Winner winner!

Jessie, Simi, and me

It was Kik's bday, so Jessie and I wrote this on our arms and hoped the camera would zoom in on it

My cat, Dudley Rose, watching the race from home in VT!

Some friends that Liz met in Davos who came to watch us  race

A lovely ski up sunny valley with Patrick Moore

Skiing in Klosters this morning

Two days of perfect skiing in a row!

I caught a pretty bad cold and was laying low for a few days in Davos, but the sun came out right when I started to feel a little better, so I've enjoyed two days of beautiful easy skiing. Tomorrow we are packing up and making the 9 hour trek to the Czech Republic for a weekend of sprinting. Saturday is a skate sprint and Sunday is a classic team sprint.

Don't forget to vote for your favorite poster at USSA Nordic Facebook

In other news, I just found out that I have met the objective criteria to make the Olympic team! Top level objective criteria for nomination is a top 50 ranking in World Cup distance (final event Jan. 5) or World Cup sprint (final event Jan. 12) standings up to maximum limits of permitted FIS nominations. I scored some distance points when I got 9th in the prologue in Oberhof and it was enough to put me in the top 50 for distance rankings. The official Olympic team will not be named until January 22nd and more people will have met the objective criteria after the sprints this weekend. I'm so excited and thankful for all the support and nice notes I've received. Going to the olympics has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember and I keep needing to pinch myself when I realize that it's actually coming true. I'm very aware of the fact that I could not be where I am today without so many of the wonderful people in my life that I have, so I love you and thank you for everything. 

ALSO...huge congrats to all my SMS teammates skiing at Senior Nationals in Utah this week. Special shout out to Ben Saxton for getting his first Nationals podium, placing 2nd in the skate sprint, and Erika Flowers for not only getting her first top 30 in a Nationals sprint, but also her first top 10! I'm so proud of you guys and wish I could be there screaming my head off for you.

Benny Boy on his way to 2nd!