What a month !
The weekend got off to a great start on Friday in Hamar, Norway where Christine Nesbitt skated to a bronze medal in the 1500m.
On Saturday in St-Moritz, where the only natural bobsleigh track on the circuit is built with gigantic blocks of ice cut from the lake, Helen Upperton and Heather Moyse took the bronze medal establishing a track record on their second run!
At the third stop on the mogul skiing world cup in Mont Gabriel, Quebec, Alexandre Bilodeau skied out in the final however vowed to be right back next weekend on the most technical mogul course in the World in Deer Valley, Utah.
Sunday was a big day with 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal for Canada. Steve Omischl delivered his first aerial World Cup win in Eastern Canada. He showed how he controls the pressure to win in front of two Belarusians as the home country crowd went wild! Back in Norway, Christine skated to Silver in the 1000m while Denny Morrison closed the weekend with a tremendous performance to take Gold in the 1000m.
2008 STARTS ON A GOOD NOTE
Last week the B2ten Bobsleigh invitee’s were second in Cortina. Using the motivation from that great performance, they went to Torino this past weekend and kicked some German butt to grab their second gold medal. This was very satisfying as it was on the 2006 Olympic course where they ended up fourth to the Germans who smoked the field. St. Moritz is next up.
GOOD JOB GIRLS !!
Here in Lake Placid it was a rough week with Stephanie St. Pierre having a knee injury during training for the world cup. She will be out for the rest of the season but I know she will come back even stronger next year….on est avec toi Steph !!
Friday was the first race of two in Lake Placid for the Mogul skiers and Alexandre Bilodeau stormed out winning the first run. Unfortunately for Alex a mistake in the final caused him to ski out on a course that does not forgive mistakes.
After the Moguls on Friday, Aerials ran Saturday with Steve Omischl on deck.
Steve was solid like a rock and very focused in his bubble as he was the last competitor of the evening since he had won the first jump. 50 feet in the air, triple flip, triple twist….and grabbed his second gold after three World Cups!!
The Next day “Big Al” wanted to rebound from his deception on Friday. I am sure the 48 hours separating both races seemed like a week for him. He stayed focused on skills and what he had to do technically to capture Silver on a course not suited to his skills. Alex had to do some simple jumps because the moguls were so icy and tight making it too risky to throw his big tricks. Next week the world cup circuit moves to Alex’s home territory at Mont Gabriel.
Denny Morrison was at the sprint World Championships in the Netherlands and was not very happy with his 7th place overall.
And finally Joannie proved once again her leadership in Canadian figure skating being the only 2007 Canadian champion to defend their title. World Championships will be held in Sweden at the end of March.
