{"id":1105,"date":"2021-02-26T21:12:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T21:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oliviagiaccio.com\/blog\/?p=1105"},"modified":"2021-02-27T02:23:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T02:23:49","slug":"january-february-competitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oliviagiaccio.com\/blog\/competitions\/january-february-competitions\/","title":{"rendered":"January\/February Competitions :)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome back!!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These past two months of training and competition have been quite the whirlwind and I\u2019ve been loving every second!! Above all, though, I\u2019m very thankful that I\u2019m having the opportunity to compete, train, and travel despite the global pandemic going on\u2026 Over the course of each competition (and training day!) over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve stood at the bottom of the course, completely in awe of the fact that international competitions are even occurring. With quite a bit of restrictions barring us from \u201cnormal\u201d life, words can\u2019t express how thankful I am for the normalcy that competition has provided for me. I am also incredibly thankful for the fact that I’m feeling so healthy: my knee feels great!! Despite this, though, I know that there’s still a little bit of healing left to do before I’m truly back at 100%, given the standard ACL recovery timeline. As such, managing my mental state balanced with that recovery perspective in mind has been a bit of a challenge (I just want to go, go, go!!!). Overall, I’m stoked that I’m improving day after day, all while being aware (and taking care of!) of my physical, mental, and emotional states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2021 Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International FIS Ski World Cup at Deer Valley Resort
Photo: Steven Earl U.S. Ski Team @usskiteam @steveearl<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/center><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For most of January, I had the opportunity to train with my home club, Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, primarily with coaching from Bobby Aldighieri, a mentor of mine who always does a phenomenal job of supporting me and helping me to achieve my potential!! Since the Steamboat High Performance Team is quite small, I was also lucky enough to have incredible training buddies for the month \u2014 one of whom is Maggie Ryan, one of my best friends and most motivated, hardworking people I know \ud83d\ude42 As a result, January ended up being a super productive month, where I kept my COVID bubble pretty small and really put my head down, focusing intently on my training and the start of my second full-time semester at Columbia University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The course I had the pleasure of skiing each day (in Steamboat Springs, CO) for a month!!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/center><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Steamboat, too, always feels like home for me! Every time I go there, I\u2019m welcomed into the community with open arms\u2026I feel like I\u2019ve always belonged, even though I\u2019ve had the pleasure of living there for smaller stints of time here and there. This time was no exception!! One reason as to why this was the case is because I was fortunate enough to coach the U15 mogul group for a few days of skiing and help build their Junior course!! It was incredible (and inspiring, really!) to see how awesome the next generation of mogul skiers are! They loved<\/em> every training session and were clearly hungry not only to compete, but also to simply improve each day. That was pretty neat. (Not gonna lie, I was pretty impressed \u2014 some of those girls had much<\/em> better turns technique than I did when I was 12!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2021 FIS FREESTYLE World Cup Deer Valley Resort on 4, Feb, 2021
Photo: Steven Earl Potography<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/center><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In terms of competing over the course of the past month, I absolutely loved being back in the gate and putting on a performance! I\u2019m proud of my skiing at US Selections in Winter Park, the Deer Valley World Cup in Park City, and the FIS Open, which also took place in Deer Valley. Because of my process, I won 3 events over the course of the month (two days at US Selections and a day at the FIS Open!). At the World Cup, a mistake on my bottom air unfortunately cost me a spot in finals on Singles Day, and on Duals Day, I met Kai Owens, one of my teammates – in the Round of 32 – and unfortunately lost the dual by a mere point. Overall, I learned quite a bit about what I need to do to compete at my best and am quite excited to strategically apply those insights to my next competitions\u2026 Below are some of my favorite runs from competition!<\/p>\n\n\n