Great News is that since the end of last winter I have moved from 108th in the world to 68th overall and from 10th to 7th for my age in the world. In January I competed in my first World Cup competition (same level as Olympics, except more difficult as more athletes are allowed to attend). It prepared me well for when I move full time on the World Cup tour with the Canadian Team as now I know better what to expect. A lot of this accomplishment is because of my support team without whom I wouldn’t have gotten off the ground.
Good News is that I have landed on the podium again at Sugar Bowl, my first North American Cup medal ever, as you can see in the picture. It was a tough race and involved me taking out two racers in the semi-finals and in the Final’s I had the worst lane choice in the start but moved in to 3rd position quickly. I maintained that position blocking Ontario’s David Holmes until the 3rd last jump. I decided to try and make an pass on Stan Rey in 2nd (not so smart now, but seemed like a worthwhile plan at the time), ending up flying 40 feet off of a 10 foot ‘hip jump’. When I landed on the flats well beyond the landing, I lost all feeling in my feet and legs from the shock and was hit in the face by my knee, I knew that I still had to try to cross the finish line. I immediately started skating to get my speed up when I was passed by Holmes and moved safely to the finish line to claim 4th place.
To be improved upon: Having trained on snow in November and December on a race course would have helped get me closer to achieving my goal of qualifying for and winning the Olympics this year (slight financial limitations). We all know that what I achieved these past two years since changing to this skiing discipline and aiming for 2010 far exceeded what would have been possible without dreaming big and going for it. The way I look at it now is this way: The Canadian 2010 Olympic Skicross team has an average age of 30 and I am still 21. With those who choose to support me, I will embark on a four year journey to continue with my work ethic and dedication to when I realistically take home the gold for us in 2014 in Sochi Russia and moving forward to the 2018 Olympics. I’m more excited that ever before because now I actually know it’s possible.
This winter I’m still planning on finishing the North American Cup tour with the BC Skicross Team to do my best in winning the Overall title as well as improving my result at Canadian Nationals from last year. I will not go back to Europe for more European Cup races as it’s not financially feasible this time around.
I’m honoured to have been chose to ‘forerun’ (opening the track on race day) for Skicross at the Olympics later this month, get glued to your TV because this will be the best Olympic’s Canadian history!
Big thank you to Virtually Canadian, Bell Alliance and Vancity without whom I would not have made it through this past month of racing.
Sven
Tags: Journal · Press Releases · Races · Training · Want to help SEND SVEN 2010?
Giving back to my community… by giving away all my secrets in this blog! “Gearing up for 2010″ on ‘The Real Athlete Blog’ http://www.accessathletes.com/blog/blogdisplay.cfm?blogid=463
Tags: Journal · Press Releases · Training
I hope you had a great summer. Just checking in to say that I’m a couple spots closer to GOLD!
From my racing in Australia and New Zealand in August I moved from 14th in the world for my age to 10th! TOP 10 BABY!!!!
This excites me for the next qualification race in December where I will be even stronger and faster because of my intense training with Revamped Fitness at Versus 21… I need to move up another 8 spots on that list and I know that I can do it.
Tags: Journal · Press Releases · Races · Training
September 27th, 2009 · No Comments
Hey!
I was invited to join the national team for a training camp on Whistler which was held in April. I won the only time trials we did which was a start-time trial (start gate, first feature, and finish at 4seconds). I came 0.11s ahead of National team athlete Davey Barr who is currently ranked 4th on the World Ranking List. As the start is 90 percent of the race I’m looking forward to competing in bigger races next year.
Like I promised in my last post, I’m officially ranked 14th in the World for my age.
I was also awarded Athlete of the Year by BC Skicross for my results this season. You can see the pictures in my photo gallery.
Stay tuned as I am announcing new SendSven2010 Sponsors shortly.
Take it easy and enjoy the sun,
Sven Winter
www.SendSven2010.com
inquiry@SendSven2010.com
Tags: Journal · Press Releases · Training
Hola Amigos!
The racing season is finally over. My final week of racing was the most exciting part of the season by far. I peaked for my most important races of the winter. My new national ranking is 10th from Canadian Nationals at Calgary AB and I came 2nd and 6th respectively at American ‘Spring Series’ at Sugar Bowl CA. At Canadian Nationals I scored a 86.40 and from my second place in California I scored a 72.00. If these numbers mean nothing to you, sufficed to say, combined they will earn me a rank inside the top 10 or top 15 in the World for my age (official world rankings list to be published mid April).
From my debut in this sport March 2008 (when I switched from Alpine Ski Racing to Skicross), I have improved my result at Canadian Nationals from top 15 to top 10. Next year my goal is to earn myself a full time spot on the World Cup tour. Yes it’s true that my goal for a long time has been to win the 2010 Olympics in my hometown, I have not given up on that goal. I have established for myself that because I am the youngest guy in the top 10 in Canada by a decent margin I have two to three Olympics ahead of me to achieve my Olympic Gold and will not rest until I achieve it.
This summer I will be living in Vancouver and doing ski training at Whistler, Austrialia and New Zealand. I will also be stepping up my fitness training program to 2-5 hours a day 6 days a week as appropriate. I look forward to training with the National Team in Whistler later this month and competing in Continental cups and a pro-series in the southern hemisphere in August.
Thank you for your support over the Winter! I look forward to sharing another successful year with you.
Look forward to some exciting announcements in a couple weeks for the SEND SVEN 2010.COM campaign!
Cheers
Tags: Journal · Press Releases · Races · Training
Update:
I have just finished my final training block at Whistler coming in to the opening qualification races of the season which will be held at Copper Mountain, CO. It’s there that I will qualify to race the World Cup at Cypress (Vancouver) which will be held on February 5th and 6th.
Having done several weeks of intensive ski cross training, which includes training jumps, starts, ski technique, racing tactics etc, I feel very well prepared to jump in to the North America Cup races down in Colorado next week. I admit that I still have much to learn… but I’m going for it!! Check back for race results
Tags: Journal · Training
January 6th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Happy New Year!
I have been training for the past few weeks straight with only a few days off for the holidays. I did a lot of jump and start training as well as some some technical ski training with a healthy addition of fitness training every day. All in all I’m sore, but that good soar that tells me I’m building muscles!
The low snow pack at Whistler has been very damaging to my skis, I have delaminated one pair and brutally destroyed two others. The good news is that today we had another dump of snow (41cm) and the fresh tracks were unbelievable all day!!
I seem to have Tuesday’s off this month, that’s it. It gives me one day a week to work on finding new sponsors and writing here in my blog!
My next competition will be at Copper Mountain, Colorado at the end of the month. There will be one North America Cup race and two open races. After that race I will be qualified to race my first World Cup at Cypress (Vancouver) which is from February 3rd to 6th!!
Exciting news: 1) TV interview on Wednesday with Shaw Cable for their new nationwide program ‘Powered to Win’ (I’ll post when you can watch it here as well as the clip once it’s aired)
2) Anime video created by 2Q Creations shortly to be released! Check back soon for details!
Tags: Journal · Training
This week I have been training in the terrain park on Blackcomb. What we have been doing is picking a jump, going off it and then hiking back up to do it again (all day). As you can imagine it is very tiring! I am now full time with the BC Skier Cross team and we are working on our jump and start technique this week. It’s tough training but these are two of the major components in a Skier Cross competition and I am having a lot of fun.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! For those like me, no rest for the wicked, train on!
Tags: Journal · Training
