Ski racing 

 

Equipment: pole guards, shin guards, chin guard and Racing helmet.

 

Order of ski racing: U10-U12-U14-U16-U18-fist-world cup

 

Ski racing is really fun there’s three types of ski racing alpine, super G and slalom.

Alpine is usually a normal race on stubbies, super G is when you go so fast around double gates and slalom could be on stubbies or full gates. Full gates are where the pole guards come in. You have to hit the full gates with the arm farthest from the gate.

 

First the girls race then the boys. But before the race your group does a test run to not make it so powdery. Well you do your test run the coaches give you advise on each turn. Now the race,when you get to the bottom of the hill you quickly look at your time and then you go in for lunch. After lunch the run is totally different, the gates are changed, the side of the hill is changed, everything is changed. You do a test run then the girls race then the boys race. After the race you give your pinny back in. Then you take a break to relax in the lodge. After that you go to see who wins 5th place gets a badge 4th place also gets a badge 3rd gets a bronze medal 2nd gets a silver medal and 1rst gets a gold medal.

 

Ways you could get eliminated: falling, missing a gate, straddling a gate and hitting the gate with the wrong hand. If you fall and miss a gate, you could still get up and hike to the gate and re-do it. But that will take away a lot of time. Missing a gate could be going around the wrong side or falling and not getting back up. Straddling a gate is going through a gate, and hitting the gate with the wrong hand is hitting the gate with the hand closest to the gate.                                                                                        

If you were in ski racing you would call it a dnf, it stands for did not finish. Dsq stands for disqualified. 

Not every day is a race or a practice course. Usually it’s just a normal day and we do some training activities. Sometimes we practice the kick start. The kick start is how we push out of the starting box.

 Before it’s time to race we play in the ring. When it’s close to our turn the coaches call us to get in line, then we go to the starting box and start our race.

Usually around each turn there is blue spray paint so you could see which way to go around the gate. If it is a cold and foggy day the blue spray paint will help a lot. Also at the end there is a laser to see what time you get. Most people put their fist down right on the laser for good luck.

At the start of the race you’re going to feel worried. If you fall, if you miss a gate or if you straddle a gate. If you get eliminated it’s very embarrassing. Every year there’s about 4 races and most a lot of people get eliminated. I was lucky that I didn’t get eliminated, only one other of my friends didn’t get eliminated. When i asked my friends that did get eliminated how did they feel they said it’s very embarrassing. So every single race I would feel scared. The second race after i would feel so good because i would know that i won’t fall. After each race when you finish you could look at a list of what time each person got. There are about 60 boys and 60 girls. If you’re from the same ski place as another person you’re on the same team as them but at the same time you’re not. To get a medal you still have to beat your teammates. But if your teammates win a medal you would go and congratulate them. Your time in both races are combined to see who wins

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  1. @Benjamin
    I loved the way to shared your expertise about skiiing. I used to ski when I was a kid and lived in Germany. We used to go skiing in Austria and in Switzerland. Now I live in Florida/USA and there is no snow anywhere close. I miss skiing. Thank you for bringing back memories for me.

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