I have been in Spain for the last 5 days for a World Cup and 1 FIS ski cross event and I have some stories to tell! The course for the world cup on training day had some large features where it was almost impossible to clear the flat and make the landings. I hurt my shins quite badly, as did most of the field, including the men. The course claimed a number of competitors and some of the features were changed slightly so it was possible to actually land on the landings. The course was extremely fast at the bottom with a number of rollers which you hit at a speed that was almost uncontrollable, I held on for dear life! In my qualification I over-jumped one of the features with the wrong direction and had to make a big direction change into the upwards corner jump losing some vital speed. I qualified 18th unfortunately not going through to the final 16 which was disappointing, however I am confident that I could have had I have had a clean run. It was good fun none the less. The event was won by World number 1, Ophelie David from France which was no surprise.
The following day the jumps were cut down substantially and a few rollers were removed which slowed the course right down. I qualified 7th which was quite slow and I wasn’t that pleased with it. It was alright as I know once you get into the finals anything can happen. In my first heat I came down in second behind Dagmara from Poland. I had comfortably made it into the final 8. The organisers were using snow mobiles to get the athletes back to the top of the course to cut time between heats. It was cloudy and the light was flat and at full speed my driver did not see the compression ahead and we flew up in the air…I subsequently somersaulted off the back of the snowmobile with all my equipment and my skis hit me in the ribs along the way and I landed on my head! The Canadian coach came running calling a medical sled along the way and the driver apologised profusely, meanwhile I was just trying to breath. I said to them “Can you please ask them to hold the start” while trying to get some air! The ribs were a bit sore but with all the adrenalin from the race I said lets keep going, got back on the snowmobile and was dropped at the top. When I arrived back in the start my final was in the gates ready to go. I literally did my boots up and they said “attention GO” and down the starting board went. Towards the bottom of the course I started to get dizzy, and got black patches over the last jump, I stood up crossed the line and sat on the snow trying to clear my head. It was quite frightening. Being up at 3000m altitude probably didn’t help! After a drink of powerade and 5 minutes rest it was back on the snow mobile back to the top for the small final.
I felt alright so I decided to start. I didn’t have a great start and over the first double, the two competitors on either side closed in on me slightly, I landed on the back side of the double roller right between them we all bumped skis and I think the Canadian girl caught her edge and skied straight into me. We had a big tumble and somewhere along the way her ski flew off and her binding hit me in the neck. It hurt quite a lot, I undid my helmet buckle and when I stood up and the medical people came over carrying some of my belongings, they cringed when they looked at my neck, I then heard the Canadian girl ask “can I keep going?” My reaction to this was… “Bugger that I don’t want to come 8th!” so I grabbed my poles, did my helmet back up and tried to continue…I realised after attempting the next jump that something was seriously wrong, I was in a lot of pain there was blood and I thought I may have broken my jaw!!! I pulled out and stopped at the next medical assistant whom rushed me down to the hospital. After seeing the nasty open gash on my neck in a photograph, I realised how crazy I was for attempting to continue the course. The Canadian girl had my flesh in her binding!!! Quite revolting, I have seen the photos of it bein removed! A huge thank you goes to my team mate Emily, Chris and the best dam team manager going round, Janet Sarsfield for running around after me, getting all my equipment, looking after me and transporting me to and from Granada hospital. I was stitched back up, a few layers as it was quite an open wound and the xray machine for the mandible was not working so we were unsure of the result. I still can’t close my jaw but it is already feeling much better so we are pretty sure there are no cracks! All in all…a bit of an average day! I feel run down and my whole body hurts (in particular the jaw, shins, fibula, head) but I have a week to recover and hope that I will be able to return for some events next weekend in Switzerland and get my stitches out before the next World Cup in Grindelwald, Switzerland on the 6th March. Stay Tuned!
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