The hype up to Beijing 

Hello friends,

Today I was thinking about the training & racing that happened in Big White, Canada, prior to flying to Beijing for the Paralympics; then thought I would tell the story…

My coach Mancha flew in from Portugal and we met in Canada. First days were laser focused for the races at hand (2), which in themselves were incredible. 1st race I got an unexpected 2nd place (!) —anything can happen on Snowboard Cross. That gave me so much confidence for the next day’s race, it was noticeable! I then got a 3rd place… Overconfidence maybe, I did a mistake when landing a jump (and fell) that I’ll likely not do again. Racing – training – learning. 

After the race, we had the mountain almost to ourselves at times, and some great training went down. Refining technique, preparing for race, doing drills, it was epic!

And at nite we would watch the Olympics, live or recorded on tv, and rewatch again all the snowboard events. And study their techniques, and think what would I do in that situation. And every so often we would scream just thinking that in a few days we would be exactly there! I’ll never forget that. 

Then getting there and seeing the courses we just saw on tv, seeing how big the Superpipe is in person (mind boggling!) and then to see our courses (which were modified for the Paralympics), it was just nirvana.

That whole experience was one of the highest highs of my life. Thank you to those reading for allowing me to share!