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.