NSWIS induction

Winter sports athletes Brit Cox, myself and Hannah Campbell Pegg striking a pose for the NSWIS athletes shoot...

Sydney Life

So I have officially moved to Sydney! Only kidding.... I've temporarily moved up here for a 6 week training block in preparation for the southern winter season. I have been up here now for 3 weeks, and have another 3 to go. Contrary to the slight hesitation I had a few weeks ago about making the move, I am loving being in Sydney (despite missing friends and family back at home...). It is an incredible training environment, with Sport and Rec in Narrabeen, as well as NSWIS at Sydney Olympic Park as my predominant training venues. Not to mention the beach and the road for surfing and cycling.

I am on a heavy strength building program, training 2-3 times per day, 6 days a week. After 16 sessions this week, I'm pretty excited for a day off tomorrow! It is great to be able to train in such a positive environment, alongside many of Australia's elite winter sports athletes.

(Warriewood, Northern Beaches, Sydney)

(My new local (very important!)... The Sugarmill, Narrabeen)

(Collaroy beach with 6-8ft waves)

(Green tea soba noodles and chicken salad at Banana Blossom, Mona Vale)

(Hard at work designing the new 2012 ski cross race uniforms)

(A stroll along the clifftops in Bondi / Tama)

Ski Cross tragedy

The past two days here in Switzerland have been an absolute emotional rollercoaster. On Saturday 10th March, the skiing community lost an amazing athlete and friend. Nik Zoricic of Canada passed away after a fatal crash in the ski cross World Cup in Grindelwald. He was 29 years old. In what was shaping up to be a beautiful sunny day in the Swiss Alps, ended tragically when Nik crashed into the finish area safety nets off the last jump in finals. In a statement from the International Ski Federation, Nik died of “severe neurotrauma” soon after he was flown by helicopter to Interlaken hospital. 


Unsurprisingly, the final two World Cups of the season were cancelled.


Nik was an incredibly talented athlete, achieving two World Cup podiums in his career, one being less than two months ago in Les Contamines, France.


Yesterday the entire ski cross community, including over 200 athletes, coaches and officials, came together at the top of the race course to remember Nik Zoricic. We all wore blue jeans in memory of Nik’s first ever ski cross World Cup in Cyprus Mountain, Canada, where he sported blue jeans in the race. It was an extremely emotional day as we all skied down the course together one final time as a group. We then placed roses at the accident site in the finish area, beside a burning fire and a photo of Nik. In the afternoon we all got together for a curling match. In was nice to have a few laughs together, and to remember Nik for all the good times we had with him.


My heart goes out to Nik’s family and friends back home, as well as the Canadian Ski Cross Team and the entire skiing community. It is a devastating loss and one that I will never forget.


The World Cup season is now officially over and I am on my way home via America. I am spending one week in Aspen, Colorado where I am planning on taking it easy and enjoying the mountains. I am looking forward to freeskiing without a schedule to attend to. After such an upsetting experience like this, I think it’s important to remind myself how much I love skiing, and not to take any second of it for granted.

(Nik Zoricic of the Canadian Ski Cross Team) 

(Grindelwald)

(The Australian Ski Cross Team wearing our blue jeans in memory of Nik)

(Chris Del Bosco and Davey Barr of the Canadian Ski Cross Team)

(The Memorial)

  

(The afternoon curling match)

  

(Grindelwald World Cup)

A sad day for ski cross. RIP Nik.

Today the entire skiing community lost an incredible athlete and friend. Nik Zoricic from Canada passed away after a crash in the Ski Cross World Cup in Grindelwald, Switzerland. He was an amazing athlete who died doing what he loved, and my heart goes out to his friends and family.

Rest in piece Nick.

You will be missed.

Short-lived finals in Branäs

My result here in Branäs, Sweden, wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.

I posted the 10th fastest time in qualifications, which was a solid result; my third top-10 World Cup qualification for the season. Finals today were very shortly lived unfortunately. It felt like it was over before it had even begun. I pulled out of the start gate aggressively, wanting more than anything to progress through to the semi finals. Then before I knew it, I hit the ground and was on my side sliding down the hill right after the first turn. I got caught up with the Swiss girl, our skis tangled and my skis unfortunately slipped out from underneath me. One of those things in this sport that is just a bit of bad luck, and something you can’t always control. I hammered into the first turn, and I guess this is Ski Cross and this stuff happens. Extremely frustrating though!

I got up and finished the course well behind the other three racers, just in case I might be lucky enough to do a Bradbury and come from behind… Never happens to me, but I thought it was worth a shot! I finished my heat in fourth place, and was therefore pushed all the way back to 15th place overall. A bit of a disappointing result given that I qualified in 10th. On the bright side, I have now jumped up two spots into 16th place in the overall World Cup rankings, my best ever world ranking.

I am now on my way to Zurich, where we will spend the next couple of days resting, re-fuelling and preparing for the next World Cup in Grindelwald, Switzerland.

(Anton and I soaking up the Swedish skyline)

(Discussing tactics with the coach on finals day)

 (Qualifications) 

Second top 10 result for the season

The 7th and 8th ski cross World Cups of the season were held this weekend in Goetschen, Germany.

I was feeling less than ideal for Friday’s qualification race. A few days earlier I came down with a bad head cold; something I couldn’t seem to shake off. I finished a disappointing 18th, just 0.1 of a second from qualifying in the top 16 for finals. The only positive I could take from this was having one extra day to rest and recover, and get healthy for the second World Cup held on Sunday.

Yesterday I had my best ever qualifying result on World Cup. I qualified in fifth place, just 0.63 of a second behind the leader (a massive improvement from over two seconds behind in the qualification race on Friday!) I was extremely happy with how I skied and where I was placed, and finally a boost of confidence and adrenaline reminded me why I love competing, and why I love this sport.

(The Aussies: Scott Kneller, Brooke Dunleavy, Sami Kennedy Sim and myself) 

(Qualifications, Sunday) 

 (Excited after qualifyng in 5th)

For finals, my first quarter final heat included Marielle Thompson of Canada, Hedda Berntsen of Norway and Andrea Limbacher of Austria. All three have won World Cups, with Limbacher still overjoyed from her first World Cup victory yesterday. I had an average start, but made a good come back over the first roller section and jumped into third place. I fought the entire way down, trying to make a pass into second, and got very close a few times. The conditions were tough; soft and extremely bumpy. I just couldn’t manage to quite pull off the pass. I was happy with how I skied, and although I couldn’t match my 5th place in qualifications, I finished up in 10th overall. This is my second best result ever on World Cup, and my second top 10 World Cup result of the season. I am now placed 17th place in the overall World Cup rankings, currently one spot better than I finished last year. There are still three World Cups to go until the end of the season, so hopefully a few good results can push me up in the rankings. 

 (Talk about a splash of colour! Noriko Fukushima and I)

I am now on my way up to Sweden where I will race in the next World Cup event in Branäs. Hopefully this momentum from Germany will continue up in Sweden, and I can produce another personal best result.

(Cows up on the training hill in Austria) 

(Antonio in fine form)

The video blogs are back!

After an 8-day mid-season break in Melbourne, I have finally had time to put together another one of my famous video blogs. This time, I have Winter X-Games footage to add to the video, which definitely makes this exciting!

The break at home was great. Just enough time to soak up some sun, see family and friends, hit the gym and even get a surf in!

I am now back in Europe, getting ready for the next World Cup Ski Cross which is in Goetschen, Germany. I am feeling well resting, and looking forward to getting back into racing!

Enjoy the video.