MY 2011-2012 Sliding Season

MY 2011-2012 Season

By Aidan Kelly

Flashbacks of iced walls, hospital beds and bloody helmets ran through my head. The season was starting and I questioned my readiness. We had three weeks in Lake Placid and then it was time to race. Not just any race, but a Junior World Cup; My FIRST Junior world cup race.

Last season was rattled with crashes broken bones and scars, but this season felt different. I was a different person from those experiences and I was more ready than ever to show my coaches (and the world) that I was not going down that easy. Park City, Utah was the setting. Technically my home track, though I had only been there once. Being one of the fastest tracks in the world it scared me. Not a bad scared, but a conscious scared. I knew what I had to do and how to do it. It was just a matter of timing. When race day #1 came I had never felt more nervousness and confidence at one time, I was 23^rd off the handles that day. I took my first run feeling prepared and it wasn’t perfect. That was alright though, I didn’t want or need perfect I just needed to race. My second run was better. I was happy with it and I finished 17^th. Obviously not a medal contender but just outside the top 15 was alright with me. Race day #2 came around and again I was ready. 17^th off the handles this day I was happy with my draw. Again my run wasn’t perfect but I was happy with it. I made it to the bottom and got to take another run. My second run was the best I’d ever had I was ecstatic, crossed the finish line in 13^th place and packed my stuff with a smile on my face.

Heading to Calgary the following day I hopped on a plane and was happy to see park city in the back window. 17^th and 13^th were better than I had ever expected and It was only going to get better, I could see. Training in Calgary was amazing and to this day it  remains my favorite track. High winds shook our race but accelerated me to the finish line in 8^th place. After this race several sliders headed to Igls Austria for more world cups but I jumped a plane back to Lake Placid for a few days at school and relaxed runs down the Lake Placid track.

After spending Christmas at home I was ready for more sliding. I left for Winterberg, Germany in late January with high hopes of more top ten finishes. The German sliders showed that home track advantage means more that we think as I finished 21^st. Discouraged I went to Oberhof, Germany. The next stop on our Junior World Cup Tour where, I again wanted that top ten spot but fell short. I finished 19^th despite my nest efforts and started mentally preparing myself for Junior Worlds.

With two weeks of training ahead of me I got my act together and cleaned up my mindset. I felt decently ready for this race, about as much as I was ready for the Park City race. But despite my consistently clean runs I fell short in the race finishing 16^th. Many would say that 16^th in the world is something to be proud of but I hadn’t reached my goal and I was not content with my finish. And so we headed back to Park City for Junior Nationals. Racing against just USA is much less stressful than the whole world.

Day 1 ended with Ty Andersen in first Tucker West in second and Myself taking third. Day 2 however, took a bit of a different turn with Tucker west in First, myself in second and Ty Andersen in third. Being my best results of the year I was stoked. Getting 3^rd overall along with my two other medals from the weekend was amazing, but I was just happy to almost be done racing.

Back in Placid again Senior Nationals was coming up, with fast training times on my home track I raced my way to 5^th place against the seniors. Just a thousandth ahead of 6^th and about a hundredth behind 4^th I was hoping to improve on that for day 2. I finished 4^th on day 2 and 4^th overall, just missing a podium spot my race season had ended. And it was about time!

Overall I was very happy with my season as it was tons better than my last season, having avoided broken bones and extreme crashes at all costs I had made It through with enough hardware to keep a smile on my face and new friendships to last a life time I wouldn’t change my season for anything.