{"id":335,"date":"2018-02-20T06:04:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T06:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ogmogulskier.com\/blog\/?p=335"},"modified":"2018-05-10T14:48:51","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T14:48:51","slug":"teamlivy-update-7-the-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oliviagiaccio.com\/blog\/competitions\/teamlivy-update-7-the-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi All!<\/h1>\n

The past two months have been pretty crazy, so it\u2019s taken me some time to figure out how to get all my thoughts down on paper\u2026 So, finally, here we go! I hope you all have been enjoying watching the Olympics unfold this February. There are some truly remarkable stories that have bubbled to the surface thus far and surely many more to come in future events. I\u2019ve particularly enjoyed watching Chloe Kim and Red Gerard\u2014 kids my age from Team USA \u2014 thrive at their first Games and win Gold!!<\/p>\n

As many of you are aware, I didn\u2019t make the Olympic Games. I was the first alternate for Team USA in women’s moguls \u2014 the first athlete to miss out on qualifying. I never thought I\u2019d have to say that I missed out on the Olympics, but it is now a part of my career, my story, and my character. I have already begun and will continue to learn from this experience and use it to both fuel my fire and determine my future moving forwards!! I\u2019ve learned an incredibly large amount from this experience already, and I know that new lessons will continue to appear in the future. However, the pain I\u2019ve felt with missing out on one of my biggest career and 2017-18 season goals is simply unbearable. This has definitely been the toughest emotional challenge I\u2019ve been tasked with surpassing, and I have no doubt in my mind that this hardship will enable me to accomplish what I desire moving forward. In the future, I am promising myself that I will accept\u00a0nothing<\/em>\u00a0less than my best\u00a0every<\/em>\u00a0time I compete. I now have steadfast sights set on Gold at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games; this goal is transfigured from \u201cwant\u201d to a \u201cmust\u201d in my mind, and will do whatever it takes to achieve it!!<\/p>\n

After I officially received the news I hadn\u2019t qualified for the Games, it was a tough blow to muster. Writing this update while sitting at home, during the Olympics, was something I had never imagined. My plan was to qualify for the Games and to compete my best at that event. I was absolutely devastated upon failing to make the Olympics; I knew immediately after my final qualification run in Mont Tremblant that this dream of going to the 2018 Olympic Games wouldn\u2019t come to fruition. Then to sit in a meeting where my coaches broke the official news to the new Olympians on the team \u2014 this was utterly awful, to say the least.<\/p>\n

The next morning, upon realizing the situation I had put myself in, it felt as though my life exploded. It\u2019s an understatement to say that the magnitude of this opportunity I missed was gigantic. I was headed home to a month of torture, where I had to sit through a seemingly endless buildup to the Games, then the event itself, without being able to do anything about it. I additionally want to acknowledge that I have no hard feelings about the team selection. It was absolutely selected correctly and accurately \u2014 the best depiction of the athletes who had achieved the best results thus far this season. The reason as to why I\u2019m disappointed is because of\u00a0my<\/em>\u00a0personal performance. In many of the events, I didn\u2019t compete the way I wished to, made several mistakes, and only reached the level I feel I am entirely capable of once (6th place) \u2014 yet, I\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0I have the potential to achieve so much more. Despite my best result, though, I still felt as though I had more to give, and that was the toughest thing to walk away from the Olympic Qualification process and the Olympic Games (truly<\/em>\u00a0a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity) knowing deep down.<\/p>\n

Final 4 Olympic Qualifier World Cups<\/h1>\n

Calgary (January 5-6) was a super fun event on a tricky course that proved an exciting challenge. On the first day of competition (ladies qualifications and finals were on different days), I squeaked into finals by only 0.01 of a point with a lackluster run. Upset with my performance in qualifications, the next day in finals, I skied one of my very best competition runs this season and finished 11th.<\/p>\n

Deer Valley (January 10 – 11), my favorite event of the year and my family turned out to watch me ski, but I unfortunately didn\u2019t ski my best either day and failed to make finals.<\/p>\n

Mont Tremblant (January 20), the last qualifying event left before the Olympics, I felt confident and trusted in my run and myself to compete at my best regardless of my previous results. However, I fell on my backflip on bottom air, my favorite part and specialty in my run, to finish in last place. This event was the most devastating of all, as I was skiing my best during the beginning of that run and on that day of competition; it was my last opportunity to accomplish my childhood dream; and the fall itself was undeniably aggravating. As I stood up and brushed off the snow from my jacket, I felt like I was looking at the event from above \u2014 I was astonished at what I had just done. Disbelief and anger immediately began coursing through my body, tearing apart a hole in my stomach. The previous words (and paragraphs), though, don\u2019t entirely do my feelings justice \u2014 this entire experience has been more intense than anything else I\u2019ve gone through.<\/p>\n

Lessons Learned<\/h1>\n

Through this all, though, I have to trust in the fact that everything happens for a reason, and that this will only help me to acknowledge how much I enjoy my sport, make me stronger, and provide me with fresh motivation in order to navigate these next 4 years with calculated grace.<\/p>\n

Below are the biggest things I\u2019ve learned from this entire Olympic Qualification Process:<\/p>\n