AST Athlete Journal: Keira Mclaughlin

 Hey everyone! It’s Keira here again with my second athlete journal. I thought I would do a recap of the past month or so as we have been very busy training and racing. We ended the month of January at Lake Louise and Norquay with some Nor-Am races which proved to be pretty challenging. At Norquay, they had injected the surface with water, creating some of the iciest conditions I have ever skied. I struggled to find grip on the surface; however, I did manage to finish all of my runs which I was happy about. On the other hand, Lake Louise had awesome conditions. It had been around two years since I had last skied there and it did not disappoint. The views were incredible and the track was super fun with all the rolls and breakovers. After we wrapped up that series, we had a couple days off before continuing our training at both venues in preparation for the Norquay series while also battling the cold weather. 

Looking back to just last week, we raced our four day series at Norquay (two GS, two SL) and continued our fight out on the ice. This series was less successful for me, having not been able to finish two runs on the same day. While the surface was grippier than the Nor-Ams, I found it more difficult to ski on as it was hard to anticipate which turns were grippy or slick. Regardless of my results, I felt that I laid down some good turns and learned some valuable lessons. 

This upcoming week, we will be racing out East in Quebec at Bromont and Owl’s Head. Originally we were supposed to have a couple days before to train, but our flight had gotten canceled and rescheduled to the day before our race. In the meantime, I will take advantage of a couple more days off to regain some strength in the gym and do some race prep on my skis. 

All of this would not be possible without the help from our team sponsors so thanks for your support: GMC Dealers of Alberta, Karbon Sports, Genstar Canada, Gear Up Mountain Sports and Mountain Fire Foods!