So World Juniors is finally done and over with.  My first and last World Junior championships… weird.

We finished out the week with a nice little relay.  After borrowing a youth (since there are only two junior women) we were on the start list.  Its the first junior womens relay for the US in three years!

Grace led us off to a great start.  She shot well and fast, only using one spare round and tagged off to Kelly in 5th.  Kelly was a young one to race up and did a good job.  She skied one penalty loop and tagged off to me in the teens somewhere.  I took off about 20seconds down from sweden.  We had awesome skis and I was FINALLY feeling good on my skis even in the slow conditions.  I was making up ground and passing teams.  It was awesome.  Unfortunately as good as my skiing was my shooting was equally terrible.  I ended up skiing 5 penalty loops, which in a relay is really bad….

on the other hand I had the 4th best time on skis and the 3rd best closing lap.

 

So these championships have been amazing.  I mean there were moments of joy and moments of great disappointment but its been an incredible learning experience that I am very grateful for.  Here are my thoughts.

– My shooting is inconsistent but I do have the ability to shoot well.  and displayed that.  However with work I can gain the skills and confidence to take my performance to the next level.

– My skiing isn’t bad.  I can hold my own with my age group internationally and that is exciting and motivating and really really just really cool!

– I am so ready get better.

We are now in Rupholding, hunkered down with Kelly, Grace, Ethan, Casey, Raleigh, and Ben in germany to get some more races under our belt this upcoming weekend.  We will be racing in a german cup and no one really knows what to expect.  We will have a sprint and a mass start which is really exciting.  I’ve only done one other mass start, but its fun to duke it out on the trail head to head!

From what I glimpsed this afternoon I think I am going to like it here very much.  With an easy classic ski planned for the morning and sun in the forecast life is looking pretty good!

Corrine