Year 1, Chapter11- What in the Worlds
"Greenland is Ice, but Iceland is Nice"
-D2: The Mighty Ducks
There was a knock on my office door.
"Come in!" I replied cheerfully. I had reason to be. Katja had brought coffee! (And pastries)
It was a Tuesday morning, and it was my first day back in the office after a long month (mostly) spent on the road.
"Jeff, it feels like forever since we have both been in the office." Katja exclaimed.
"Because it has been!" I replied. "I was at the Nordic World Championships for quite a while."
"And then I was at the Snowboarding and Freestyle Skiing World Championships" Katja responded.
"And right about the time you got back from that, I was on my way to the Alpine Skiing World Championships" I bantered back.
"So how about we touch base and go through these reports?" She was cheerful
"Sure. I'll go first" I was cheerful, too.
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"So, the Nordic World Championships were interesting. We had competitors in Cross Country Skiing and Ski Jumping, but not Nordic Combined. We really did not have a lot of success with cross country, which was expected, but not good. I think maybe 38th place was the best I saw, and that was Sigurdur Olvirsson in the sprint event. I really suspect that we are going to need to invest in some youth cross country skiing resources, because we really should not be finishing quite this low in events like this. I would characterize ski jumping as a bit more positive, though. Rakel Hilmarsdottir did not make it into the final 30, but she looked like she belonged. I am really hoping that we can push her along over the next several years....it might lead to some good things.
At any rate, the weather was great, and it was a fantastic trip! Your turn, Katja!"
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"So, this was my first time watching snowboarding and freeski competitions, and I have to say that I am really impressed with all of the athletes that do this. It really is quite fascinating.
Now, as for the results. Well, you could certainly tell that our athletes were young. I think we were very near the bottom in almost every event we entered on the snowboarding side, and I saw a lot of falls and misses and nervousness. Not that we should be surprised by that, of course, but it is something we will need to get better at.
Freestyle skiing was pretty much the same, with one exception. Mikael Robertsson was 24th in the slopestyle. He has not been on our radar, and I do not know if he can repeat this kind of performance....his coach said he put down the run of his life, so we will have to see what that means long term. Still, we might want to consider keeping an eye out for him.
I cannot say it was a fantastic trip, but it was still interesting. Finish us off, Jeff."
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"So, Alpine World Championships. First off, a blast. So much fun to be there. But the results....honestly not great. We had a few top 45 finishes, but nothing much closer than 33rd. That was Julia Leifsdottir...was glad to see it, since she has had such a rough season. Viktor Armannson did not do all that well in the downhill or Super G, and Karen Viljalmsdottir had a couple of pretty tough slaloms.
We can definitely do better than this."
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"But we cannot do better than these pastries, no?" Katja smiled
She was right there, and I flashed a smile back. More work to do as always, but we could eat, drink, and be merry for a bit first.
[END Year 1, Chapter 11]
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