St. Moritz, Switzerland…..
I used to love it here….. I still do as it is an amazing place and it is the birthplace of Skeleton. I have claimed my place in history by winning here before, but definitely not this year. The week was a very frustrating one as I could just not find the right set-up for my equipment and my drive line was just that tiny little bit off. At a lot of tracks I can get away with small drive line mistakes, but here in St. Morritz those mistakes equal small skids and with this type of natural ice that destroys my time.
The race was interesting from the stand point of a lot of controversy. I was 3rd off and was the first of 3 people in a row to come out of the groove on the push. So, 3 out of 5 sliders came out and then the jury re-cut the drive line. Mistake number one. By doing that they had in effect caused themselves a huge problem. Either they now had to give the first 5 guys an option to re-run or they had to cancel the first heat. They should have rushed us back to the top and made us go down as fast as possible (because in St. Moritz the warmer it gets the faster the track gets so the 20th starter has an advantage over the 1st starter. This advantage is not as big in the first run as the second run, but it is there none the less.), but instead they decided to cancel the first run. A decision that had a huge effect on a few sliders, not the least of which was Kristan Bromley who had had a very good first run even though he started first and he sat in first place after the now to be cancelled first run. So, they decided on a one run race and we were to start in the original order from the draw. Now that is was approaching 10:30am the ‘St. Moritz effect’ (where the ice gets faster and faster as the sun gets to the track) was in full effect and the early start numbers had a much larger disadvantage. Normally after the first run the best sliders go last in reverse order by time, but now the game was changed. Kristan again had a good run, but with each slider taking 2 minutes when Eric Bernotis came down he had probably a .2-.3s advantage due to his draw of 10 and the 20 minutes of the St. Moritz effect. Eric won by .07s. Certainly Eric had to race well to put himself at the top of the leader board, but I do feel badly for Kristan as by rights the race should have been his. I have been on the other side of bad jury mistakes before as well and it is bitte sweet for him to be second I am sure. This St. Moritz effect had a huge effect on my ranking as well. I had by admission an average run and found myself in 9th after 10 sliders. Then as the track got faster and faster I watched myself slide into 18th by the end of the day as athletes coming out of 15th or later start order went past me. Normally those sliders 15th or lower on the start order are not going to slip into the top 10. But this is St. Moritz and the situation is different here.
Next race in Igles, Austria where I hope I can get my equipment and my driving back in line.
Ciao!
Jeff

Konigssee, Germany
What a day! I tied my personal best push at 4.90s twice in a row and set 2 new personal best times at 48.18s and 48.11s, but the best part of the day…….. I never ever ever ever have to take another run down this track! I really don’t like it. Way too short with way too few corners and a Kreissel I really never did get the hang of (ironically until the last 2 runs I took in which I think I finally figured it out, alas!). It was supposed to snow 40cm yesterday so luckily that did not materialize and we had a fair good race. I have been fighting through a cold for the past 9 days and it took until race day for my legs to not feel like they were filled with concrete. Finally today, the day after the race, I think I have drained most of the goo out of my sinuses. Yes, it was so lovely all those tissues. They have put pseudo-ephedrine back on the ‘in competition’ banned list so there was no chemical relief allowed for me this time. There are some things we can take while not competing, but we cannot while competing and I guess once pseudo-ephedrine was taken off the list last year people must have started to abuse its stimulant properties so now it is back on the list. Too bad.
Aly and I had our first joint interview today regarding our upcoming book ‘The Business of Marriage and Medals’ and it was very exciting. The reality that we have gotten to this point with the book is starting to hit home. It is almost done and people actually have an interest in it! It will be ready for sale in March or early April so check the website www.marriageandmedals.com for up to date information.
Today was a thrilling day off filled with e-mail catch up, laundry, a phone call with Aly and the kids, and this blog post. Tomorrow we fight through the snow covering most of the roads Germany and Switzerland and will hopefully end up in St. Moritz. Now that’s a track to my liking – almost 70 seconds long and with 19 corners!