World Cup 2012 Ski-O

The 2012 Ski-O World Cup season started this year with one week of events near Lake Tahoe- California. It was the first time this even has been held in North America. I decided that I wanted to go as it gave me the chance to expand my ski-o experience and compete against the best in the world. A very small field of athletes made the trip, but they were truly the best in the world. 16 of the top 20 ranked ski-o athletes were present in the men’s class. Many arrived five or six days before to adjust to the altitude and brought five or six pairs of skis pairs with them. I arrived only two days before, and had two ski pairs with me which is double the norm for me.

I competed in 3 events while in Lake Tahoe: two World Cup races and one North American Championship. My first race was the World Cup 1 – Long Distance mass start. I completed the 27km course in over two hours to get my first ever World Cup points. I was not happy with my performance for that day as I made too many small mistakes. The main reason was a lack of specific ski and ski-o training this season.

I was more satisfied with my performance the next day during the Middle Distance North American Championship. Since most of the Europeans had a rest day, I was able to win a Bronze medal, behind Nikolay Nachev of the USA and Canadian teammate Mike Smith in his first ever ski-o event. I was happy, but tired after that event.

On the third day I had my best ever performance at a Ski-O. I made less than 15 seconds in mistakes and I was six minutes behind the winner Andrey Grigoriev of Russia. I was the fourth North American to finish and earned two more World Cup points. I also received some good pointers on how to improve my performance. Besides more ski and ski-o training, better equipment would help. Feeling good about my performance, I went to a “pro” ski shop and upgraded my poles, boots and a brand new pair of Atomic World Cup skis. I look forward to using them next time at a future ski-o event hopefully in Canada!