Where to start I guess? The last two stops of this years world cup circuit and also the last two Olympic Qualifying events have come to an end. Individually, I got to skate some races and was able to contribute to us qualifying some spots at the games. As a relay, we are coming back with a gold, a bronze, and a world record.
It feels great to string together some solid results as our last international competitions before the Games. There’s still a lot of work to do and even mistakes to fix, but there is no doubt we are on the right path.
For me, one of the biggest changes is just a mentality I chose to accept halfway through our Europe trip. I’ve always believed what you say or tell yourself has as much or more effect on performance as the physical training you do. Part of it for me is as simple as focusing on a few things I have to do in our relay to be successful.. not everything but just a few simple things. The next part is to stop caring about what the other teams might or could do. And lastly, just follow rule #1: believe in myself, and believe in my teammates.
The path doesn’t get any easier here. We head back to SLC tomorrow where I’ll jump right back to work (as in my job) on Tuesday. While I try and balance a busy time there with probably the most important stretch of training of my career. In less than four weeks we will be competing in Olympic Trials and even with two medals and a world record it doesn’t guarantee myself or any of my teammates that we will be going to PyeongChang in February as our team for the Games is solely decided between three days of competition next month.
“Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
