January

“In sport, the bad news for the present champion is that tomorrow is a new day, when the competition starts again from scratch. But that’s the good news for everyone else.” – Bob Rotella

Today we travelled through the mountains from Bavaria to the SudTirol. This week we are racing in Antholz, Italy. Last week we left our homes in Canmore for World Cup action in Ruhpolding, Germany. Despite feeling jetlagged, the week was fairly successful. Megan came very close to making the pursuit, only 5 seconds out. I missed 2 in standing but ended up 35th in the sprint. And then moved up to 24th in the pursuit. JP, Robin and Scott all hit 18/20 in the pursuit and moved up to 23rd, 29th and 44th respectively.

We started the tour by staying in apartments (switch it up from hotel/full pension living). Us girls found it a treat to be able to cook for ourselves and eat exactly what we feel like. And the guys…. Well.. 1) they were hoping that we would cook 2) consequently found the frozen food section of the supermarket and ate pizza and beer all week. (Ok maybe I am exaggerating…)
Now off to Italy… and the food will be awesome.

We had a good time watching Eurosport every evening (and morning replays) this weekend to watch the Cross Country Skiing and Nordic Combined World Cup in Whistler. Yesterday was especially exciting as Alex Harvey had an awesome sprint to the finish for a third place for the skate team sprint with teammate George Grey. The pair had a great day but it was definitely a fight to that last centimeter.

I was asked by a young biathlete recently to answer a few sport psychology questions for his assignment. Sport psychology has definitely become more prominent and important over the years. The combination of physical exertion and mental focus and clarity for shooting makes biathlon a sport where mental strength is crucial to being successful. Having a goal, being positive, determination… are all important aspects in the road to success. But what does it take in a mass start world cup competition to clean your last standing shooting when you are in lane 2 and the leader beside you just finished shooting with 1 miss? If you shoot clean, you are in first position. To listen to that voice would probably cause you to miss at least 1. Focusing on the now, the present, and your process, is key in such a situation. Like many other sports, quality practice is vital to making your movements automatic in competition. Great preparation is critical to gain confidence and having inner faith that you will shoot clean is crucial to a successful performance.

On that note, I am off to go train and aim for perfection to gain that confidence…..