Jon Olsson has been continuing his alpine season in the European Cup giant slalom in Lenzerheide and Zell am See. Catch up with Jon's latest blog here...
January 19 – Lenzerheide: Long term vs short term
Last year I did pretty well in the first ECs all though I skied terrible. That gave me a pretty good start position for the whole year and I sailed by smoothly through out the winter and I was pretty happy with my results.
-This year I have been falling in the first few races so I am starting way back which is making life waaaay tougher! For some reason I am not stressed by this at all.
I think that last year I skied around pretty happy about my mediocre finishes and did not push my self enough to get better. Now I start way back and its a completely different ball game. Its super tough every day and my technique gets challenged way more as the ruts bring out the weak parts in my skiing, I have to fight super hard to score a singe point and it really makes me realize how much more I have to learn.
=By starting way back I am not getting any results but I think that as long as I can keep my head high I am going to get much better in the long run with my current start numbers. I am not here to get 10th and be happy, I am here to figure out how to win in the future.
Today I got 30th with a bad first run and second run where I for some reason decided that it was smart to slide on my hip twize. Not good but I did learn from the day which is the most important thing!
Not to forget is that me and Jeff Frish had a bet. 200€ if I lost, 8 pair of skis to wax for him if he lost. Lets just say I will not have to wax my skis for a while! ;-)
Two days off and the two days of training before the next EC in Zell am See!
© Jon Olsson
January 20 – Lenzerheide: RIP Sarah Burke
Sarah was a fantastic girl and will be truly missed by everyone! I have known Sarah since I was 17 and I she has always been a fantastic person who pretty much single handedly pushed womens freestyle sport to where it is today! Sarah will be missed but never forgotten!
© Jon Olsson
January 22 – Lenzerheide: Deep!
Today was what you can call a very deep day! ;-) Skied all day in Lenzerheide and then we jumped in the car and drove over to Zell an See. As we just got here and Oskar took about 550 pics today it will take a while to go through all of them and get the best online, but here is a hint of what the day looked like! ;-) More of this tomorrow, now its time to get some serious sleep!
© Jon Olsson
January 22 – Zell am See: Schedule
Even though I have not had a zip of alcohol in the last two weeks I woke up feeling hungover this morning! Thanks to all the snow that came in the alps yesterday the Arlberg tunnel was only open for traffic in one direction at the time which created a HUGE traffic jam in the arena. We were dead stuck for 3h so our already long drive ended up taking close to 8h. Skiing all day and the driving 8h is not a great thing to do if you want to wake up rested! Luckily we have the day off today so I get to rest up. So while Oskar finishes up our powder post I thought I would post a rough schedule for the next few weeks.
* 23rd EC GS race in Zell am See
* 24th-28th Monaco
* 29th-30th ISPO Munich
* 31st- 1st ???
* 2-nd-3rd EC GS race Monte Pora
* 4th-14th Verbier (If I can find good training, anyone with connections???)
* 15-16 EC GS Race Oberjoch
BRB with some pretty nice pow pics!
January 24 – Zell am See: I love snow!
I am just going to let the pictures speak on this one! Best "in bounce" day I have ever had! 100% Epicness!
Thanks to Gilles who met up with us and showed us the super secret mega spots! So stoked to finally get a real powder day!!!
© Jon Olsson
© Jon Olsson
For more images from this blog entry, check out this page from Jon's official site
January 24 – Zell am See: Skiing is like surfing
So when you are trying to get out to the line up of a surf break and you keep getting crushed by waves you wonder what it is that you like about it. Then you get out there, you are stoked and think that you are going to crush it! That is until you miss the drop in, get sucked over the falls and end up getting washed all the way back to the shore. You go for it again and again and you get more and more frustrated as you are getting nothing but a proper beating.
Then finally it happens and you catch a wave! You ride it for at least 10 meters and you think you are in heaven. Once you are off your short little 4 seconds ride you forget about all the 45 mins of pain and suffering you had go go through to get those seconds and you are ready to do it all over again.
Skiing as a lot like that. I have been sucking for the past few weeks, wondering how in the world I am going to make it to the top in a sport where I feel that i am getting more beat up by the day and I start to question if I will ever get my "seconds" . Same thing yesterday, I started way back in a course that had the worst snow I had ever raced on. Finished 39th in the first run as it was so bad that a lot of guys beat me from number 65-95 as the snow was getting smother at that point.
Then in the second run I saw a great set of waves coming and I went for it. As I was approaching the beach my legs where dead and I would hardly make a bottom turn, but when I crossed the finish and saw then time I totally forgot about all the bad takeoffs and beatings I took to get that one wave. I had caught a wave that I was really happy about and in my head I could just see the wave and not all the wait and failure to get it. I finally got the 4 secs that I needed to stay 100% faithful and keep paddling out to get more, no matter how many waves I have to take on my head.
I finished 32nd but thats not important. In the second run I saw that I could ski decent and that despite a lot of mistakes I was not far off the top guys in a 1 minute 23 sec long rutted out course. No EC points but great inspiration for the future!
© Jon Olsson
All the best!
JON
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