Hi All,
What a weekend! This weekend, the Adaptive Sports Foundation hosted a Level 1 Race through Disabled Sports USA inspired by Diana Golden (the three time Olympic Gold Medalist who only had one leg). It was an amazing event as skiers and snowboarders with both, physical and cognitive, disabilities came together to race. Part of an entire race circuit, the Adaptive Sports Foundation hosts this race each year.
Every year, they bring in a guest clinician who gives a clinic on the Saturday preceding Sunday's race. The past two years Mau Thompson of Adaptive Adventures has given the clinic. While we did not have a race course to work with for the clinic, Mau made the best of it by having us perform different drills as we skied down beginner terrain with the hope of bettering our skiing.
I was able to work on my outrigger usage on Saturday, primarily keeping my elbow "fused" to the side of my body and extending the outrigger with the sole use of my forearm. This enabled me to become a more efficient skier by using better outrigger placement and allowing me to edge more effectively. I see improvement in my skiing already!
On Sunday, we raced on a course that NASTAR set up on skier's right of Wonderama. It was a very well designed course for the adaptive category as it was a giant slalom course that started out with wide gates that gradually got narrower towards the end of the course. This allowed the skier to keep their momentum and have a fast finish!
I had the best two runs in a true racing scenario that I have ever had, but I still have a lot of room for improvement. I need to start turning earlier so I can carry more momentum down the race course. Nevertheless, both of my factored times were just over 40 seconds.
I won the silver medal, something I am very proud of because this was my third Diana Golden race. The first time I raced I won the bronze and the second time I did not medal. In winning the silver medal, I am able to pat myself on the back because I realize that I am always improving!
Everybody did a great job this weekend and I cannot wait for next year's race!
On another note, Penn State's basketball team knocked off #9 Michigan State which significantly beefed up our resume for March Madness and the NCAA tournament! I hope/ cannot wait to see how crazy Happy Valley becomes!
- Tracker
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"Faster and faster until your love of speed overcomes your fear of death". - Anonymous
Showing posts with label golden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label golden. Show all posts
Monday, February 2, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Congratulations
Hi All,
First and foremost, I would like to congratulate all of the ASF racers and sliders that competed in the Special Olympics race this past weekend. All together, ASF collected 22 medals at West Mountain! Good job to all who participated!
I had a busy week this past week. I played in my second Wheelchair Basketball Halftime Show where our team played the "Celebrity Coaches" of Penn State Athletics. We beat them handily and I had two steals. I think everyone had fun!
We also played our first Wheelchair Basketball game this weekend against a real Wheelchair Basketball team. We lost both games in the double header, but learned a lot in the process. The team we played was called the "Pittsburgh Steel Wheelers" gave us a lot of pointers at the end of the game, so we have a lot of practice to do. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the game immensely!
I am coming home this weekend to race in the Diana Golden Level 1 Race at Windham Mountain on February 1st. I am looking forward to this a great deal and cannot wait to hit the snow again!
Talking about snow, it is supposed to snow a lot here in Happy Valley over the course of the next day or two! They are talking about over 6" of snow! I hope that it is snow and not ice because I have a lot of trouble walking in the ice, so LET IT SNOW!
Finally, Christine Southard was generous enough to e-mail me a copy of a speech that I gave to the volunteers at the Adaptive Sports Foundation at their annual organizational meeting this season. You can listen to it below:
Have a great week and LET IT SNOW!
- Tracker
-----------------------------------------
"Never, never, never, never give up" - Winston Churchill
First and foremost, I would like to congratulate all of the ASF racers and sliders that competed in the Special Olympics race this past weekend. All together, ASF collected 22 medals at West Mountain! Good job to all who participated!
I had a busy week this past week. I played in my second Wheelchair Basketball Halftime Show where our team played the "Celebrity Coaches" of Penn State Athletics. We beat them handily and I had two steals. I think everyone had fun!
We also played our first Wheelchair Basketball game this weekend against a real Wheelchair Basketball team. We lost both games in the double header, but learned a lot in the process. The team we played was called the "Pittsburgh Steel Wheelers" gave us a lot of pointers at the end of the game, so we have a lot of practice to do. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the game immensely!
I am coming home this weekend to race in the Diana Golden Level 1 Race at Windham Mountain on February 1st. I am looking forward to this a great deal and cannot wait to hit the snow again!
Talking about snow, it is supposed to snow a lot here in Happy Valley over the course of the next day or two! They are talking about over 6" of snow! I hope that it is snow and not ice because I have a lot of trouble walking in the ice, so LET IT SNOW!
Finally, Christine Southard was generous enough to e-mail me a copy of a speech that I gave to the volunteers at the Adaptive Sports Foundation at their annual organizational meeting this season. You can listen to it below:
Have a great week and LET IT SNOW!
- Tracker
-----------------------------------------
"Never, never, never, never give up" - Winston Churchill
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