season 2016/2017

All of a sudden the season comes to a very abrupt end. It gets me every year, I think I’ve still got months to go but then I’m suddenly packing up and heading back home. I think this year surprised more because my season only really going in January; rather than having 6 months in summer and autumn to prepare for it, I only had December.
It’s hard to come out the end of the season and to not focus on results. I find myself browsing through Fisski.com trying to work out where I’ll be sat in next year’s world rankings and I have to admit, I’m always disappointed. If skiing results were plotted on a graph and the winner was decided based on improvement then I would have done pretty well. In my first races this year I scored 54 points. That’s worse than what I was scoring 3 years ago. I finished off with scoring a 27 and 28, it’s not 18 points, on paper it’s nothing to be proud of and it feels like a very small consolation for all the work I put into my rehab last year. Yet everyone tells me to look at my improvement and that I should be proud of what I’ve accomplished.
There were definitely a few moments that I was proud of this season. After my knee last year I was determined that I could come back and win my British title for the fourth year in a row and I managed that. I also had some wins in Super G and standing on top of the podium always feels good. Even though I couldn’t string two fast runs together in Giant Slalom I more than once won a run and it showed me that with more time on skis and confidence I would be back winning both runs again!
I think the main accomplishment this season was that it really showed me the motivation and perseverance I have for this sport. 27 points isn’t enough, 18 points isn’t enough, I don’t think it will every feel like enough until I’m stood on the top of the World Cup podium. When I look back at this season I realise it really never was about results, it was always about finding myself and finding my reasons to keep skiing and in that case: mission accomplished.