Alltracks Sponsored Athlete – Max Hardy’s report from Chamonix
January 17th, 2010 by Paul - ALLTRACKS
What an exciting year 2010 is going to be for ski cross. Next month, leading athletes from around the world will descend upon the Canadian city of Vancouver with one thing on their minds – gold. And for many of the hardened veterans taking part in the first-ever Olympic ski cross event, like the USA’s Daron Rahlves and the Czech Republic’s Tomas Kraus, aching limbs and creaking knees will be brushed aside for one last shot at sporting immortality. But not if Switzerland’s Michael Schmidt has anything to say about it – the 24-year-old has exploded from relative anonymity in the races leading up to the Games, and now sits atop the leaderboard in the FIS World Cup standings going into next month’s race. It’s going to be an exciting one for sure, and I’m sure you’ll all be glued to your TV screens (as I will!).
GBR’s Ed Cozzi battles it out in qualification at the FIS Ski
Cross World Cup at Sankt Johann in Tirol, Austria Meanwhile, slightly further down the world ranking ladder, things have
been hectic. Off-season training went very well, and I’m hugely indebted to the University of York Annual Fund and York Sport for their support for this season – between them they’ve provided gym facilities whilst I was in Yorkshire from October to December, and some much-needed financial assistance to help fund my racing. I’ve also taken on a role within Snowsport GB (the national governing body of British skiing and snowboarding) as the Media and Public Relations Officer for British Ski Cross (www.gbskicross.co.uk), and it’s been great to get stuck in at the administrative level of the sport to try and develop the support our athletes receive. We held a hugely successful fundraiser evening at London Oxford Airport in October in partnership with tour operator Erna Low (www.ernalow.co.uk), raising some £500 for the team on the night, which has been a great help in eating into the accommodation costs of the British World Cup Team.
Max and British Ski Cross Commercial Officer Ben Corbey at the London Oxford Airport fundraiser evening.
In mid-December, after tying degree matters up in York, I headed out to Val D’Isere to spend a week with my family and to adjust to my setup for the season. I’m running the same Rossignol skis as last year, but I’ve made some changes to my boots with the help of James Choularton at Outdoor Traders in Abbingdon (www.outdoortradersuk.com) and it needed some getting used to! The skiing was great in Val and I got a chance to play around on my new freeride skis – Rossignol S5’s – which are a great ride, even on the groomers, which is an uncommon characteristic for a wider ski built with powder in mind.
With some of the cobwebs blown away, Boxing Day meant it was then time to head to Les Houches, a small (but perfectly formed) ski hill near Chamonix to report for duty at the British Ski Academy (www.britskiacad.org.uk) where I’m now based for most of the season. The logic behind working at the Academy this year is to improve the technical elements of my skiing, namely through training endless Giant Slalom gates, in the hope that I can transfer these skills back into ski cross at the end of the season and beyond. It’s going well so far, and now that January is in full flow we’re settling into the hard work which is great. From here on out, it’s all elbow grease and hard graft – I’ve got a lot to learn! I’ll check back in soon and let you all know how it goes, Max.
p.s. Awesome powder day on 31st December to see out 2009. Check out this shot of coach Luke Hadley dropping a nice little cliff. There were some great pillow lines that day, too…
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