In the alpine ski racing world March is a busy month, thus the term:
march madness. Racers at all levels are off to zone finals, provincial championships, national championships, continental cup finals, world cup finals, with everyone generally racing around with the goal of ending another season with results that will secure team positions for the coming season.
Although not fully recovered from injuries sustained January 15 in Italy, Toria went off to Nakiska for Canadian National Championships and earned top spot among Juniors at the DH race. But within the next day or two it was determined she really was
not fully recovered, and
not ready to race without pain, so she was sent home. Race season is over and her off-season training period has begun.
(For Toria's news (and photos) click on her link in the side bar.)
Through March Irene was involved in the Paralympics here in Whistler, in her favourite role as Start Referee. The role involves arriving at the Start before anyone else, making sure the area is secure and the atmosphere allows each racer to focus.
Here is the start area for our DH races. The corral is closed to all but athletes, coaches, trainers and team physios. Note how each team hangs up their country flag where their teams gather to prepare. While racers inspect the race course their ski techs prepare their race skis.
Here is the US team prep area.
Thanks, guys, for tuning my skis too!
Once each race begins the Start Ref role is similar to being an air traffic controller, releasing racers when the course is safe and stopping the start if there are any incidents on course.
Here are two racers ready to start racing, one a visually impaired athlete and the other his guide. They are waiting for the countdown
10 seconds.....5, 4, 3, 2.......
The guide skis ahead and communicates through headphones to his athlete, generally saying
right, right, straight, straight, left, left, left.....
There are three categories in the VI group: B1, B2 and B3.
B1 VIs are considered to be totally blind while the B2 and B3 VIs have different degrees of visual impairment. One morning before course inspection I asked Bart from Australia if I could take his photo. You will notice in this photo that he has a wonderful sense of humour....
The sit-skiers also have three categories, depending on the degree of their spinal paralysis. In this photo you will see sit-skiers during inspection of the Slalom course. Their coaches are skiing with them, discussing tactics.
The standing skiers have 7 categories, all determined by professionals trained specifically to certify racers in their categories. Raw times are then adjusted so the final result is based on a calculation that reflects physical limitations.
Our Start
facade and banners...
And a photo the two members of the Swiss Timing Team working in the Start. Andre (on the left) is the Starter, the only other person (along with the Start Ref) allowed near the athletes on the Start Ramp. The other Swiss timer is Andre's assistant. He hovers near-by, ready to make repairs if any connections are lost.
Here is a photo of Irene, still smiling after many 12-hour days at the races! Note the radio head-set which provides privacy for the Jury. This way athletes never hear any distracting news of what is happening on the course.
Charlotte joined the Para team too, as a course slipper. Some mornings mother and daughter left the house together in the dark, and got to see each other when Charlotte passed through the Start on her way down the race track.
At the Olympic Games level the Start Ref is also a voting member of the race Jury as well as managing the Start area and crew. Each race day ended with a Jury meeting in the Finish area, then a Team Captain's meeting at the base.
Another March highlight was the annual Peak to Valley race, which Charlotte has won the past two years. This year her friend Tove (on the left), who raced earlier (she is older) beat Charlotte by just 1 second. This is quite insignificant in a race that takes well over 5 minutes for the fastest few and over 8 minutes for the rest of us. They had fun, although both noted the race course was very rough this year.
Al continued through February and March to be involved with timing, although he developed a cough during his long days at the Olympics and was less involved during the Paralympics.
In case you think two months of races might be more than enough....within days of completing the Paras we were both fully engaged in preparing for and running the 18th annual Whistler Cup race series! For this event Al was once again Chief of Timing while Irene was Chief of Race. Team Canada won overall, the 3rd time in the past 4 years. Two of our top Canadians train with our local club, which is very exciting!
Next week our ski club year-end awards celebrations will complete our 2009/10 race season.
