The Southern Hemisphere season was the longest I’ve ever experienced. My first day of snowboarding was May 27th and my last was October 6th!
It wasn’t the most abundant snow season, but precipitation and temperatures were such that it started early and ended late!
Great for our training, as we made the most of the conditions. Our partnership with Valle Nevado allowed us to build specific training modules, which was exactly how we wanted. We sketched the design in advance, so when it came time to build, we already had all the dimensions specified and shaped the types of obstacles we needed.
Eva Samkova, the gold medalist from the last Games in Sochi, trained on our track for a few days, which was a great experience.
I few days later I got a call and was invited to participate in a tv commercial from Toyota. Myself, Eva Samkova, Lindsey Jacobellis, Belle Brocockhoff, Carle Brenneman and Chloe Trespeuch. Six snowboardcross top athletes from different countries and continents. We were filming for 3 days in Valle Nevado and El Colorado, a very creative commercial directed my Michel Gondry. Watch the commercial video at the link below in my Instagram!
After that, I came out swinging in the South American Cup stages, taking a second and a first place, with plenty of action and competition on the track!
To close out the Southern Hemisphere competitive season, the first stage of the SBX World Cup circuit took place in Bariloche, Argentina. There, I met up again with all the world’s best athletes competing on the circuit. The track was well-designed, with a super technical start session, well-crafted turns and obstacles, and a big jump to finish. It lasted just over a minute. Since there were two World Cups, in the first, I finished 19th in qualifying and finished 15th after the finals. And in the second stage, I qualified 12th and finished 13th. I wished I had done better in the finals, but the results were good, and I moved up one position in the qualifying ranking for PyeongChang 2018.
After an intense competitive period, we rested for a few days and back to technical training in Valle Nevado. We built a similar track to the one in Bariloche World Cup, flat and trained for three micro cycles to finish the Southern Hemisphere season.
That’s it! I’m very satisfied with the season and now I’m giving my fitness a final workout here in Brazil before heading back to the Northern Hemisphere for the long-awaited Olympic season! A visit to the NAR (High Performance Center) in São Paulo to run some tests and maintain my physical strength. Recharge my batteries, catch up on family, friends, and food!
Thanks for joining me!
see the tv commercial:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4mzsUrJWEo/?igsh=M2pmMTVzMWk5ZGJu
