Winning the Golden Cowbell
By Bella Gluchowski
I see the bright red gate right in front of my face; I try to turn, but it’s too late! I see the red-dyed snow fall in my face from the markers. I close my eyes as I feel a sharp pain in my thigh.
The last couple of years of ski racing has had their ups and downs. In 2019-2020 I had a big crash, and it scared me a lot because I did not want to get hurt; it stopped me from pushing to go faster, and my mind for racing was just completely off. I started hating going to the mountain to train and ski, and I hated going to the races. Racing put me in a completely different mindset that was not good for me personally, and it made me feel horrible. Even today, I still get nervous from my bad racing year and all of the crashes and failures I have had, but my friends help me get through that.
I remember waking up on that race day when I crashed and being at the top of the mountain at Bear Valley. The weather was perfect, I was super excited and enthusiastic about that race. When I got into the start gate, my heart started pounding, and I got a lot of anxiety, but the second I felt myself pushing out of the start gate and getting on the hill, all my nerves softened. I had an excellent and fast race, and just as I had four gates left to complete, I crashed. I am going to be honest; it hurt—a lot. My ski ended up cutting my leg slightly, and I had the wind knocked out of me; I do not remember the rest since it was a year ago, but it scared me.
A couple of weeks after my crash, I found out I had another race coming up, and I started panicking that I was going to crash, and I was not going to be able to make it. Fast forward to that race day, I was super nervous, and I ended up clipping my ski on one of the gates and getting disqualified because I had missed a gate. That ended up being my last race from that season. I felt completely disappointed in myself and I was also very nervous for my next season.
When I came back the following year, I was ready to train hard and try again. I talked with one of my parent’s friends in sports psychology, and he suggested that I write down all of the things I’m scared of and rule them out one by one. I also talked with my coaches, and I started training harder, sometimes even coming on Fridays to train all day to be ready for the upcoming races of the season.
I started talking more with my teammates about our problems, how we could fix them, and become a better team.
One of my closest friends, Kaya says, “Bella, try to visualize yourself at the top of the course and going through a “perfect run” before you start racing. It helps me when I’m nervous.”
“Just like Mikaela Shifrinn,” Ben says. We all know how much Ben idolises Mikaela Shiffrin, an Olympic Gold Medalist for downhill racing.
“ One time I was racing for a Slalom race and I ended up straddling a gate and I crashed super hard, and that scared me a lot too so I can kind of relate to that Bella,” Grant exclaims.
“Well, how did you get over it,” I say curiously.
“It was quite hard but I just had to persevere through my fear until i wasn’t scared anymore,” He responds.
Realizing I was not the only person who had gone through this before made me feel like I was not alone and that I could talk to my friends or ask them for advice in the future more often.
The last weekend before our big race at my home mountain, I tried to squeeze in all the training possible so I'd be ready for the race, but looking back at that now, I realize I was already ready. I just wanted to make sure I would not make any mistakes.
Now it’s race weekend. I wake up around 5:30 a.m. to get ready and drive to the mountain to warm up and stretch and study the course so I can see and adjust how my run will turn out.
I was slightly nervous at the top of the course, but Kaya helped, and we talk about the course until I am up. I get to the start gate, my heart stops for a second, I swear, because I’m so nervous.
"Ten seconds!!!" yells the start timer.
"Five, four, three, racer ready? GO," he screams as I push out of the start gate.
All my nerves go away at this second, and I start focusing on the course and nothing else. I mainly keep my mind focused on the royal flush and the hairpins. (Those are tight combinations, so it is harder to ski but easier to lose control.) I make it to the finish with speed, I look up at the clock with the time, and I got a super good and fast time, but I do not know what place I am because they have not updated the timing website. When I checked it around fifteen minutes after the race, I realized that I beat my opponents by 5-8 seconds each! This meant I got the first place that day!
The next day of the race, I was super enthusiastic, ready to race, and barely had any nerves. This event was giant slalom which is not my favorite event, but it is still quite fun because you get to accelerate into you turn. I ended up placing first that day too, but beating the fastest boy by 11.2 seconds!!! That means that I won the Rasmussen Classic because I had the fastest time out of both days' events.
I ended up winning the golden cowbell, which represents the fastest boy and girl of the weekend in the division of U14. I was so happy to make a comeback from my last season, but overall, I think this taught me to stay strong even when I doubt myself, know that things will get better, and the harder I work, the more I will start seeing a result.
