WHISTLER CUP 

It was an extremely cold day at whistler mountain and very busy too, crowds were everywhere around the mountain making it difficult to go anywhere. There were racers everywhere from every country in the world with a ski team competing to have their racer win. The race was a huge event hosted at Whistler for ski racing and it was the hardest event to qualify for and the hardest to do well in because of the sheer number of how many participate in it. About 150. It was a strenuous long trip of constant racing or constantly doing everything possible to prepare you for racing. It is no easy thing to do ski racing, it requires extreme physical dexterity and the ability to maintain your confidence and form at speeds of over one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. There were many types of races our team had there including slalom, giant slalom, super G and a duel race. In order to succeed at this race, you would need a perfect run and not a single error in any way. When in was in the start gate, I was overcome with many emotions, firstly of how big of an accomplishment it was to have made it to an international event and to be racing the best from all around the world. The amount of nerves one tends to get before their start is so much and it can even make the racer back out of and not start their race. Luckily enough for me I didn’t have those that day, I was just purely focused on doing my best and trying to lay down a perfect run. I left the start gate with a huge push and had my coached screaming encouragement at me from behind as I ran the course. The surface was perfect as I went down, just right between pure ice and the hardest packed snow you can possibly have. Each turn I made going down the course sent up an icy spray behind me with a satisfying scraping noise as my razor-sharp edges dug into the ice. I could feel the wind whistling by and around me and getting into my helmet with the vents open, cooing me down from the stress I was carrying. There was a loud thunk from each turn as I bashed through the gates building speed constantly, pushing myself to go the fastest I could. There were hundreds of people on each side of the course cheering as I went down but barely heard because of the concentration you had and the noise of the wind. I was coming over the roll when I heard a loud snap. One of the straps on my boot had broken because of a gate hitting it and loosening my boot. This was a major fault and could cost me the race if I was not balanced. I managed to get my footing again and keep steady making turn after turn trying to get the fastest time possible and win. I was nearing the finish of the run exhausted; I could barely keep on my feet it was a long course and so challenging. I cranked turns as hard as I could smashing through the gates on my way to the finish and crossing the line reaching as far foreword as I could as to stop the clock as fast as possible. As I slowed myself down to stop, I could see all the people cheering on their feet hundreds of them watching me. It was one of the best feeling I had ever had. My coaches came down behind bringing my coat, so I did not freeze as I was racing in a thin spandex aerodynamic speed suit. As they reached me, they complemented me on my run and result and then said, “now we train again so you can win again”.