Season 2006/2007                                 

I started training in July 206 with the full-time Home Nation Development Team only two days after my last exam, so no there was no time for a holiday. However as I was looking forward to this program, that was no problem.

The first camp was between Lofer and Kaunertal which concentrated on fitness and skiing. Already it felt so nice just to focus on my sport. August was a fitness camp: cycling, hiking, climbing, running … just fun.

Unfortunately during the  last week of this month, the hardest physically, I had a bad accident.  I was following Sophie Readman on road bikes when she crashed into a metal bar.  The next thing I remember is hitting the tarmac head first. The result of this crash was a broken ankle for Sophie and four days in hospital for me. I had a very bad concussion and it took me over three weeks to recover my balance and to stop sleeping for abnormally long periods every day.

No worries though! I was back on my skis by September and I skied in Saas Fee for two weeks where I could carry on with several drills, stubbies and starting gates. 

During October and November we skied between Hintertux and Kaunertal building up the technical and the physical side where I could feel good improvement and the coaches were happy with my progress.

In December, the first races were already  starting. My first Grand Slalom scored 48 points - not bad for a start! We had a few more races and already Christmas was coming. I got a big shock the day before going home for the holidays when I learned that the coach, Alex Hosp, had been fired. At first I thought it was a joke but then I realized it was far from it. Alex had been the one who had made me improve technically a few steps further and at this moment I was lost and really started  to think about my progress. If I stayed in this team, it would mean I would have to get used to a new coach. It takes some time to develop a good relationship with a new coach as every one works differently.  I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t afford to risk ruining the excellent progress I was currently making.  There were two options for the rest of my season: either ski with one of the coaches who had trained me when I was younger, or ask Alex Hosp if it was possible to train with him for the rest of the season..  I was very relieved when the second option worked out!

I started skiing in Villars, the ski resort nearest to my home, before going away in January to Norway with Alex Hosp and a few other racers.

I made a 50 in the GS and kept scoring around 55 points in slalom. I always seemed to be having both a bad run and a good run -  which is all in the head, the mental side is the most important in a sport.

At the end of February, I went back to my home where I trained and raced for a month around Villars in Switzerland. I had a crash while training in slalom it ended in a second head concussion and bad shoulder pain. I had my shoulder checked and was told that I had dislocated it and ripped a muscle. The scary thing about it was that my fingers turned white and that I would loose the feeling in them from time to time. After an MRI I was told that the nerve was damaged and that it would need time to heal fully but fortunately nothing too bad was found.

At the end of March I left for Norway for six weeks but my skiing was less than impressive!  I have already put the end of this season firmly behind me and I am fully concentrated on the up-and-coming one.

I finished the 2006-7 season with 48 giant slalom points and 52 slalom points.

Last updated on 8th October  2007

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