The 2.5m of snow we encountered in Italy and subsequent World Cup cancellation back in December necessitated a make-up race at some other point in the season. Park City was chosen as the make-up race site. So, we trained Sunday to Tuesday and raced Thursday and Friday. I was really looking forward to this opportunity as Park City is one of my favourite and best tracks. Training went really well and I found a good feeling for the drive line so I was excited about my possibilities for the race.
The Park City push ramp is one that is very similar to Whistler except the ‘crest’ (where the track goes from almost flat to a steeper downhill gradient) is a bit more abrupt. I find it difficult to accelerate to the crest and then have my sled ‘fall off the edge of the table’ without losing my balance and momentum. The first race day was no exception – I did not push well and thought it was because of this scenario. Added to my poor push was a day of average driving performance for me. I made a couple of key errors on my first run and found myself in 9th position. Never one to throw in the towel, I knew I needed to slide better to get at least into the top 6. I did that, but just barely. I ended in a 3 way tie for 6th! This was only the 2nd time in my sliding career I have ever seen a 3 way tie and it was the second time of this season! Truly a testament as to how competitive Skeleton has become. I was disappointed by the end result because I had high hopes for myself coming in to Park City. I have won here before and thought I had a good chance to do that again.
Race day #2 arrived after a quick evening of sled preparation and recovery work. I knew I had to push better and drive better to have the chance of winning. One out of two ain’t bad…..? I drove very well and laid down two of my best runs of the year, unfortunately my push was not there. Physically I felt as flat as a pancake. I could not figure out what had happened – I had done all the right things to prepare for the push and just came out flat. The answer came to me a day later when I came down with a very bad cold. Evidently my body had been fighting the virus for a few days and it was weakening me without me really being aware of it. I was pleased with my performance on my sled and this gave me some good confidence looking forward to the World Championships in Lake Placid coming up in 10 days.