First off, what a few days it has been.  Just am having such a good time out here in Spain.  From the venue, food, scenery, hanging with team USA, good results, and much more.  It has just been an awesome trip thus far.

Seemed like a week ago that I qualified 6th for the parallel…just quite overwhelming to be in the finals here at the World Championships.  Then for the race organizers to postpone the race due to weather….nerves.  The day was here.  I felt good today and was ready.  On my morning run I just had a peace about the day ahead of me.  I held onto that feeling for the remainder of the day and really did not struggle with nerves or anxiety.   Rather, I was just plain excited.   Just to clarify..the parallel is a race head to head against another competitor.   Ski the course, then go into the wrap, then go into a skate section.  I was racing a Swede who is one of the top guys in the World.  I remember the build up before the race, the only word that describes it . INTENSE   Long story short I skied really fast today but one mistake cost me the race.  I beat my competitor down the course but when we got into the wrap/360 I fell due to the G-forces.  I just couldn’t hold on.  My fault.  I should of checked my speed a touch while I was in the wrap to maintain my balance.   Rookie mistake.

2nd run….We go back the top and switch courses.  I had a big gap to make up if I wanted to advance to the next round.  Well although I beat my competitor in the 2nd run it was not enough to overtake the advantage he had on me from the first run.  Ahhh that rookie mistake cost me today.   But, I hung my head high today.  I was happy to be racing in finals and maintained a positive attitude.  And….I felt like I skied right with my competitor.

Tomorrow is the Team Parallel.  Each team/country has 3 athletes that they submit into the event then they go head to head.  Team USA will face off against Switzerland in the first round.  The Swiss are fast!  They are ranked 3 in the World.

I just posted a pic of me falling in the wrap in the gallery section of my site.

Let’s go USA