Thanks Emma, for this excellent report!
Left – Emma King, Right – Charley Field
Charley Field and I, Emma King, have had one of the best experiences of our lives going to Europe. We have both wanted to ski and race in Europe for a long time, and our wish was granted thanks to Alpine Canada organizing a trip with the amazing Don Lyon as coach.
We started off landing in the beautiful city of Geneva, Switzerland, to find out that our clothing bags were lost. With help from our other adopted teammates; Adrienne Poitras, Kelly Moore, Caroline Bartlett, and Julia Roth, we were outfitted to ski the next day. We traveled the short distance of 3 hours, we are used to minimum 6 hours, and we were in Tinges, France.
Amazed by the resort, food, and culture we took advantage of the opportunities that came our way. Croissants, Crepes, and amazing sandwiches were an everyday occurrence.
We learned quite quickly that racing "across the pond" was more competitive than back home. Charley racked up 16th and 8th in the downhill races, and 31st and 22nd in the Super-G's. In Charley’s words, "These races being our first in Europe, I wanted to make sure I started out strong. With amazing weather everyday while we were there, the races went off with a bang and I was able to gain some confidence for the rest of the trip."
Personally, I had a few difficulties with two less than stellar downhill and super-G races with 25th and 32nd in DH and 16th and 32nd in SG. A couple of mistakes, and not my best skiing, made for not the most reflecting placements, but I know I can achieve better. Despite my skiing, I enjoyed Tignes very much and the weather was outstanding for all of the downhill days. Also, congratulations to Julia Roth for having a great race series with a 1st and 2nd in the downhill!
From Tignes we made the 12 hour trek to Innerkrems, Austria. Though a smaller hill than Tinges, it did not disappoint. These were Europa Cup races, which added a little more competition, so you had to really go for it, especially since there was hard snow and it was a simple enough track. Unfortunately, I did not get to race the Super-G because there were more Canadians there than spots in the race allowed. Charley ended up 88th out of 130 racers – a respectful result. "I took the mentality into my first Europa cup as a first year again,” said Charley. “I wanted to charge down that hill and show these Europeans what I was made of. I soon discovered that for me to get the result I wanted I needed to have my best run, which didn't happen. With it being such an easy hill, the biggest mistake can put you back quite a bit."
With a weather system coming in, we only got to do 1 full downhill race run, while the other race was a 2-run combined time. I ended up 65th and 72nd in the two races. I had some good skiing in both of the DH races, I just didn't push my comfort zone enough. Charley ended up 53rd and 56th and said "I learned a lot about myself in the week of the downhills. I skied pretty well but not enough to accomplish what I wanted. The difference between me and the winner is that extra edge of being cleaner in each turn and always looking for speed."
With a couple of easier days, we were able to recover before our next super-G race in Spital am Phyrn. Unfortunately Charley and I were not able to start that race because of fog that rolled in before we got to run, forcing the race to end early.
Thank you to Don Lyon, Alpine Canada, BC alpine, and of course our parents.
~ Charley Field, BC Ski Team/Whistler Mountain Ski Club
