Making it unforgettable

Experiences are great, but it’s the people you share them with that make them unforgettable. This is true for my Europeans experience as well. Of course skiing there is incredible, but it wouldn’t have been the same without my team, supporters and the other skiers. There was a great atmosphere amongst #teamNL both on and off the ski site. We were all in this together and that was clear throughout our week in Rome. In order to accurately describe the atmosphere amongst the Dutch and Belgian team, I have to introduce a Dutch word: gezellig. It does not fully translate into English, but it is some sort of combination of a sympathetic, joyous, warm and cheerful atmosphere. This word comes to mind whenever I think about the atmosphere around the lake and also in any activity away from the lake. The first one being the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony took place Wednesday night, which means after one competition day. Since I skied on the first day, I’d actually done all my skiing before the opening ceremony. The ceremony itself took place in the stadium of marbles, a great sport complex in Rome. It is surrounded by 59 statues of athletes, which gave the stadium a slight Olympic air. We had to drive for a bit to get there, but even this was organized in such a way that we all felt pretty special. The skiers and coaches were driven in busses from the military, pretty amazing that the organization was able to use those! When we got to the stadium, there was a couple taking wedding pictures, which of course we had to photobomb (they loved it). Eventually everybody was ready for the parade and we walked around the stadium, whilst there were still some other athletes training there. At the end we got to listen to the speeches of various authorities who made the whole experience possible. Since it was such a great evening and the atmosphere was really enjoyable, we decided to go out to dinner with #teamNL to continue our gezellig evening J.

Another off-lake team bonding experience was when we went to waterpark Hydromania. This was an amazing day on which we were completely away from the stress of the competition. Also we could cool down a little in the water, because the outside and lake temperature was a lot more than we are used to in the Netherlands! This park had many fantastic slides and pools on which we spent our day till closing time!

Lastly, when you think Europeans, you think final night. Throughout the night, there were initiations for any skiers who entered their first Europeans. Multiple times, this consisted of being taped down or to another skier and getting covered in eggs, Nutella, jelly or flour. However some unlucky skiers got a nice haircut…

After living in uncertainty for the entire week and being slightly frightened by the initiations that had come before me, I knew it was also my turn. Lucky for me, I had already accidentally done my initiation voluntarily, as our new skiers were going to be pushed into the water. But I had already decided to go swimming with some skiers, so I got lucky this time. My other team mates did not plan this and they went in a little less voluntarily. We even got our coach into the water, so there was #teamNL, soaking wet at the final night.

Besides the intiations, there was plenty of time to enjoy the music and create amazing memories on and off the dancefloor. I was able to talk to a lot more skiers here, because the stress of the competition was officially gone and everyone could open up a bit more, including myself. The final night was much more fun than I am able to put into words,  mainly because I can’t find the words to describe the atmosphere and the bonds that were formed.

This was my last blog about the E&A championship of 2015; next week I will tell the story about how I got hooked on water-skiing in the first place.

Skiing at the E&A championships

After the ups and downs regarding my journey towards the Europeans, it is of course time to tell you about my time actually being there. This experience means a lot to me since it was my first international competition. The Europeans were held at the waterski club Parco del Tevere EXTREME, who did a great job at organizing it! The lake was a little North of Rome’s city centre. Officially the competition started August 5^th, but we went a little earlier to be able to practise and familiarize with the lake.

Everything was planned to the minute, so there was no time to waste. I hadn’t done a lot of competitions before, let alone one that followed such a strict schedule, so it was quite overwhelming. Even for training they had a plan so that skiers from all countries get the same amount of training time. For this training time you pay by the minute, so every second counts. The time in between skiers had to be minimum so that all of our skiers could get used to the lake. My turn was over before I knew it, even though waiting for my turn seemed to last forever because of the nerves. Everything was shooting through my head, what if I fall really soon, my time would be up, what if the time would be up before my turn… It was also my first time skiing without the stitches in my leg, so what if something happened and I wouldn’t be able to ski. So much stress and in the end I only went up and down the slalom course once, but it was enough to set the tone. I skied well and I was satisfied with my results. The stress that there wouldn’t be enough time for me to train also turned out to be unnecessary, because we got extra time to train from the Swedish team. This shows the sportsmanship, even though it is an important competition. For me it was especially great, because it was exactly the training I needed to put my mind at ease. This was the time to leave everything that happened before behind and focus on setting a PB in the competition.

After all the training it was competition time and to open the competition was my teammate Hugo Julsing. At 8:00 in the morning our team gathered to cheer him on. The first skier of the E&A championship of 2015… and he skied a PB! Soon after was his sister Klaske Julsing, who was first to ski for the under 14 girls. The boat had some technical issues during her set, so she didn’t manage to set a PB, but she skied very well! After this I was the first to ski for the under 17 girls. I had seen two teammates do very well, so the atmosphere amongst the team was amazing and very encouraging. I was so nervous I think I was ready to ski for an hour. I wanted to go to the starting dock really early, but luckily the coach told me to wait a while, because they still needed to fuel the boat. After some last encouraging words from the team and supporters it was time to go to the starting dock. It felt like I was there forever and the fact that it was really hot and there was barely any shade didn’t help. I needed to focus but there was so much to think about. Luckily as soon as I got on the water the distractions disappeared. Time to get in the zone. I told myself, if I run my first course, I’ll be happy. It was a great relieve to drop into the water at the far end of the lake, a moment for myself, after running my very first course at my very first Europeans. Anything after this is bonus. I ran one more course, which meant I had already passed my previous competition PB. The excitement and adrenalin came back, I started thinking too much and didn’t get far into my last course. This didn’t matter much though, because I knew I had my PB.

On this link at 2:21:48 you can watch my runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1YNmyJBkx8

I thought the stress for me was over, but when my teammate Tycho Hoff was really close to a slalom final, the excitement and nerves came back. The whole team sitting around a phone, refreshing live results. Sadly he was 13^th, even though 12 go through to the final. Pemm Huisman also caused the necessary excitement by getting into the jump final! In the final she almost broke the national record, so enough reasons to celebrate. So even though I personally didn’t ski after the first day, my team was cause for a lot of excitement. Besides the Dutch team, I could also see other really talented skiers. Even when we went back to our cabin, we followed the live stream so I could get inspired by all the great athletes that were there. One of them being Léa Miermont, who I had met a few weeks before at Vinneys ski school. She had a shot at winning gold, so this was extremely impressive. She ended up winning silver just behind Maryia Leshchanka. This is a great achievement and I am very happy for her as well as inspired by her achievements. It is clear I have a lot more to learn, but now I know some very nice people who can help me.

Besides the achievements in the competition, it was also a really fun holiday with great people, so I will tell you more about that next week.

The journey to Europeans

With this blog I would like to start telling you about my journey to the Youth European & African championships, which were in August 2015. During the season of 2014, Europeans didn’t even cross my mind yet, I didn’t think it was possible. However at Nationals in September 2014 I skied a PB that met the qualifying criteria for slalom for Europeans. This was very unexpected and everything that happened after this, was uncharted territory. Honestly I was quite out of my depth and if I look back on it now, I would have definitely done some things differently, but you win some, you learn some.

In training I was a bit of a mess. I wanted to slalom a lot, because this was what I would be doing at Europeans and I wanted to set a good score. On the other hand I wanted to train a great deal for tricks and jump because I wanted to meet the qualifying criteria. So in the end I was a bit all over the place. On top of this everything had to be fast, because September was the end of the season, so I would have to qualify in the start of the 2015 season. This left little room for training and even less for entering competitions, because I had to qualify at least 3 weeks before the start of the European championships. Because of the time stress, I just started entering competitions. My PBs in training were barely good enough to qualify, so to ski it in competition was nearly impossible. At each competition that I didn’t qualify the stress increased, there was less time and I had less confidence.

There are not many competitions in the Netherlands and there were none in time to qualify. This added some stress, because every competition was at an unfamiliar lake. Looking back at it that is good to gain experience, but in the moment it was mostly frustrating. I skied one competition at a lake in Germany. Hugo, another Dutch team skier who had qualified to slalom at Europeans, but not for tricks, was there with the same goal. We both didn’t get the scores we want, so this was quite disappointing.

The lake in Toulouse at Vinneys ski school

At this time the Dutch coach recommended that I go to a professional trainer to get my scores up. Otherwise there was no way I could improve my scores enough within the time frame given. She had good experiences with Vincent Soubiron, so whilst still in Germany, we asked Vinney if he still had space for me. He did, which meant the start of a rollercoaster ride for me. I would go home to the Netherlands, pack my bags and the same day drive to Schiphol and fly to Toulouse. This was my first time flying alone and I didn’t have much time to mentally prepare. Luckily, it was easy to settle in in Toulouse due to the great people there. I trained 4 times a day and learned so many new things. At the end of my two weeks there, I entered a competition in Muret, which was the last competition in time to qualify. This was also my first competition without my parents, so the stress levels rose quite high… I had three trick rounds, so three chances to qualify. I knew that for jump I was definitely still too far behind and I had almost given up hope to meet the criteria for this. This meant all the focus was on tricks, no pressure… The first round I was 400 points short of qualifying. The second round I added 100 points to my score, but I still needed 300 points! The last round was insanely stressful, it was the last round of the last competition where I had a chance at skiing the scores. Everything I did was a PB, but that wasn’t really satisfying, I wanted those 300 points. In the end I skied very well, but I was still 80 points short of qualifying. Despite the result, I had an amazing time skiing with Vinney and with the people I met there, so much so that after Europeans, I went back to train some more!

On the bright side, back home I knew what to train. 2 more weeks to work on my slalom techniques and get ready to ski a PB at the Europeans. I pushed to the limits, and over. I crashed and found myself at the first aid at night. My ski had cut into my leg just below my knee and I got 4 stitches. The thing that stressed me out was, how long would this take… I couldn’t let anything get in the way of Europeans! I needed the stitches in my leg for 10-14 days. Seeing how I had 10 days before leaving for Europeans, we made it 10. The day before we stepped on the plane to Rome, my dad took out my stitches. I had never felt less prepared, but Europeans were around the corner and I just had to focus. In my next blog I will tell you how the Europeans went after this hectic start.

Welcome to my blog!

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Let me introduce myself.

I'm Lieke Rolvers, a Dutch waterskier with big dreams! I'm 17 years old and ski for the Dutch team. Coming season I will compete in the under 21 category. I practice all three events of waterskiing: slalom, trick and jump.I currently live in Groningen, the Netherlands, where I ski on a lake where I can cycle to in 2 minutes. I have also lived in Aberdeen, Scotland, and The Hague, the Netherlands.

I started waterskiing when I was 12, since many skiers start at a very young age, I have a gap to close. This only gives me more motivation though! I've already experienced quite some things that I am proud of, and I'm not stopping here! My journey started feeling real on October 10 2014. It was the day that I was invited to be part of the Dutch waterskiing team. Not only did it sound cool, this also meant that I gained more connections to people that can teach me the ropes. After this, it went fast! Which is actually the reason I want to blog. I want to keep track of my experiences before they get lost in the blur. My next amazing experience in waterskiing was my first European and African Championship, the start of something big! This was in 2015, I had been skiing for 4 years and it felt amazing to see top notch skiers all around me. Then to end this great year, in which I learned so much from so many people, I was able to ski in Florida in the winter. Normally I would not be able to ski much in the winter, but in Florida it was 30°C! I trained with Vincent Soubiron 4 times each day. I learned a lot and I hope it all comes together to rock in 2016.

For 2016, my short term goal is to qualify for under 21 Europeans in every event. For slalom I am sure of a spot, but for tricks and jump I need just a little more training to reach the criteria set by the IWWF (International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation). After that I of course want to do the best I can at the Europeans. More in the long term, I want to train enough to get into a university waterskiing team. I have my highschool exams in May 2016 and after I want to take a gap year in order to improve my waterskiing and academic abilities. After this I hope to secure a place in an American university.

With my blog I would like to take you on my journey towards achieving these goals. I want to post an update every Sunday to tell you something about my waterskiing ups and downs and what it has taught me so far. Coming up will be a story about my first Europeans, how I started waterskiing, stories about my training camps etc. I hope you're just as excited as I am and that you look forward to my next post.

All the best in 2016!