So I am back in Vancouver and have had two days training on the course at Cypress. For a mountain with no snow…they have done a great job! The ski cross course at Cypress is… in a word… big!

Out of the start you have sharp steps cut into the snow followed by two large wu-tangs, when I say large, they are 15 feet! They also have steps cut out of them, making it even more difficult to clear, making the start super important. After these, the course really starts to get busy and fast!

You take a big jump into the first banked turn, and then you follow a long track of big jumps, double rollers, banked corners, step ups, step downs, a triple, a corner jump and finishing with the second last jump that kicks you high into the air, with a long flat section coming into the last jump built from scaffolding and wood, which is 4.5m high, throwing you half way down the landing ramp and into the finishing area. It is a long busy course; some describe it “like doing 60 squats with a heavy weight”.

The men’s event was spectacular today. Michael Schmid from Switzerland being unbeatable, clearing out on the competition, with Andreas Matt of Austria in second and Audun Grønvold of Norway snapping up the bronze after Chris Del Bosco, the Canadian favourite, was thrown high into the air on the second last jump and crashing down on his side. The whole event was just spectacular and truly intense to watch.

We have another day of training tomorrow before the ladies Ski Cross kicks off on the 23rd with qualification 10.30am Vancouver time and the finals starting 1pm. Training has been going really well for me so I hope it all comes together on the 23rd. I am super excited!

Wow, I have just returned to Calgary after the Olympic Opening Ceremony…and it was brilliant. Team GB were the best dressed, or at least up there, and the red beret went down really well and it grew on me!

I must say walking through the underground with the performers and volunteers cheering and giving high fives made the hairs on my back stand up. That’s when it started to hit home I am at the Olympics!

Walking into the stadium was overwhelming, it’s just surreal. Very special. I thought KD Lang was one of the highlights of the ceremony, and I thought the minute silence for the Georgian Luge athlete who so tragically died in training earlier that day, was also done very well. The feeling of being in their amongst all the athletes from all nations was really quite special.

I slept in the Olympic village but didn’t have a lot of time to find my way around or make myself at home. I did like that we got a little token which hangs on our accreditation and you can walk up to any Coke vending machine, swipe it and get what you want, for free.

I then flew back to Calgary for more training. I think I will be heading back to Vancouver on the 16th Feb.

We have had a couple of great days training. Remy, Adrian, Derrek and I went up to Nakiska to get some mileage in, as the run here at COP is pretty short and flat. We had perfect conditions, it was nice to get on some steep terrain again.

There was no-one around, other than one snowboarder who ended up nearly being taken out by yours truly, but there were no lift queues and we skied for hours. As I mentioned previously, the recovery facilities here are excellent so after a contrast bath and a spin and stretch, I woke up feeling remarkably good!

We trained on the course at COP this morning, working on a couple of things and had a gym session this afternoon. I feel like a totally different person to when I arrived here in Calgary, so fresh and strong again. Next stop…the Olympic Village for one night for the opening ceremony – I think everything is going to become a bit more real tomorrow!

Tonight we had a Team GB function which was held at the top of the Calgary 1988 Olympic Ski Jump. Unfortunately it was a bit foggy which is apparently rare in Calgary, but looking down over the 90m ski jump was awesome! It was a great event, there was particularly good platters of mixed sushi which I must say went down very very well!

Not only was it was a great chance to meet the other members of Team GB across all sports and many members of staff from the BOA who had come across for the occasion but also a chance to bring out our formal wear, and sport a suit that didn’t really fit me, but looked snazzy none the less.

I am writing from the British Pre-Olympic Games camp in Calgary. I arrived here absolutely exhausted and completely run down. After a few days of rehydrating, eating, resting and doing physical maintenance I am feeling human again!! These past six weeks have been the hardest of my life. The facilities here are excellent!
It has been a great opportunity to meet so many of the other British Olympic athletes. It is so nice to have access to a Physio, Maggie has been amazing, working on me everyday, fixing up season long problems. We also have a fantastic performance centre with hydration testing daily, spin bikes, power plates, rollers, balls, BOSE sound system, everything you could need for a good recovery as well as daily hot/cold contrast baths which work a treat.

We have access to a starting gate and about six features up at Calgary Olympic Park where we are training most days. We also have access to the Calgary University Gym which has fantastic facilities and everything I could need and more, to maintain my strength and power.

Remy has arrived from France and it is all starting to become a bit more real. In just a few days I will be an Olympian! I feel so proud to have earned the only ski cross quota spot for Great Britain at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I will be, and will always be, the first ever Ski Cross Olympian from Great Britain. I was told something pretty cool tonight, there are over 7 billion people in the world, there are 35 Ladies who are going to be Ski Cross Olympians, which makes me 1 in 200 million! What a brilliant statistic!

My schedule from here on is as follows:

12th Feb: Depart Calgary camp for Vancouver Opening ceremony
13th Feb: Depart Vancouver and return back to Calgary camp for more training
17th Feb: Officially depart Calgary camp for Vancouver Olympic Village
18th Feb: Ski Cross Inspection Cypress Mountain
19th Feb: Ski Cross Official training Cypress Mountain
20th Feb: Ski Cross Official training Cypress Mountain
21st Feb: Men’s Ski Cross competition
22nd Feb: Ski Cross Official training Cypress Mountain
23rd Feb: Ski Cross Qualification and Finals Cypress Mountain

I also added a new video from Alpe D’Huez, it was good skiing! Bed time here now and then I’m off to COP in the morning for more training up on the course.

I am writing from Brooklyn, New York where we have spent the last few days at a hostel, running around seeing the city! I woke this morning to an official letter confirming that I have been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Ski Cross! Wow!

After this long journey and the chaos that has unfolded along the way, I am so stoked that the perseverance has paid off!

I now fly to Calgary on the 29th January to the British Olympic Holding camp for all sports. The opening ceremony is on February 12th and Ladies Ski Cross is on the 23rd February! I will be in touch soon.

The course in Blue Mountain was quite flat, and open, it was a gliding sort of course up the top. It ran quite well on the training day however, once qualification came along, of course we got a massive snow storm mid race.

The first girls had a pretty slick icy course. After the snow storm set in, and started absolutely pelting down large flakes, we had a course hold at bib 23, Noriko got flagged and came around for another re-run, she slotted in just before us. They had a course hold after bib 29 by which time 2 inches of fresh snow had come down. The race was basically over, we had no chance, we had powder on the track and bad visibility and no one managed to be competitive after that. It was a bit disappointing but managed to qualify in 30th place at least for the finals.

We went out the next day to improved weather and the course was in nice condition. I had a very tough heat, Ophelie David (FRA), Marte Gjefson (NOR), the eventual winner, and Aleisha Cline (CAN). I had a decent start but from the outside it was difficult to get across, then we stood on each other’s skis around the first corner, by the time I moved myself off Aleisha’s skis, I felt like everyone took off, so I did my best to follow and catch up, but it wasn’t a terribly exciting heat. It was great experience and awesome to get some more training in heats. Off to Lake Placid now for the final World Cup prior to the Olympics. I’ll be in touch from Placid. Adios!

We have just finished up the final Olympic qualification event in Alpe D’Huez, France. Fortunately I skied well. It was a great course, with quite a lot of features. I skied well in training and then managed to take a great line in my qualification run finally qualifying for the finals in 27th position.

The good news was that we were presented with our bibs at a big presentation in town and I managed to squeeze in a lunge whilst collecting mine!

Unfortunately, due to a huge snowfall, the course was deemed too dangerous the following day for finals and they cancelled them and fell back on the qualification result.

I was so excited to finally make the finals and have a chance to better my result, but 27th is still a top result.

Stoked! This moved my position on the World Ranking List upward, making my chances of Olympic qualification more promising.

We were travelling from Alpe D’Huez back to Peissey for the night, before driving the 12 hours back to the UK, when driving along the highway the back suspension fell off the Vectra and Gus thought the back wheel had fallen off. Fortunately everyone was fine, but the stress levels were elevated that’s for sure!

Insurance managed to fly me to the UK so I could connect to my flight to Toronto for the next World Cup in Blue Mountain, Canada. Only problem was that they have valued my car at too little to tow it back to the UK and said the repair was worth more than the car, so my car is still in France, with the back of the car lying on the tyres!! Just another thing to deal with at a later stage. My focus right now is the next races and ensuring my selection for the Olympics.

We have just finished the first two World Cups for the season. The races were held in San Candido/Innichen in Italy, Sud Tirol, just near the Austrian border. We travelled across from Lienz Austria after a few good days of training up at Molltall Glacier. Many thanks to Jonathan and Fletcher for sponsoring me and making me a personalised race suit for the season Much appreciated!

We arrived to freezing temperatures between -18 and -23 Celsius. The training went quite well and it just felt good to be back in a course and on the circuit again!! I was pretty nervous! Natalie came as a representative from TASS to support me, which was very much appreciated.

The first race I took a very round line, probably covering the most distance of any athlete: not fast! I qualified 41st and missed out on the finals by about 0.8. The 1st event was won by Anna Holmlund from Sweden.

After watching the girls and then all the men in the freezing temperatures (-23) I came inside to find that my big toes had turned black and I had frostbite. The beauty of it was that I could not feel it! I had always thought frost bite was somewhat fictional…hmm. Apparently it is pretty dangerous though, so I went to the doctor as advised as it swelled up and was kind of a dark grey colour. They said I couldn’t race the following day in the 2nd World Cup and that they needed to put a hole in my toe, I wasn’t having a bar of that, so I told them I would come back after my competition was finished. So I left the hospital and planned on returning the following day.

So I was determined to take a straighter line in the 2nd World Cup. I skied better but missed qualification by 0.37 finishing in 39th. The strength of the field has really increased, everyone has been working hard and although I didn’t qualify, which I was disappointed about, the result was not bad, however, I know I can do better!

Anna Holmlund went on to win this event as well. So I returned to the hospital after the event, as promised. The doctor had told me she needed to put a hole in the end of my toe, so a different doctor came in and had a look, said lie back and I just assumed he was going to put the hole in it… I looked down and he had removed the end of my toe with a pair of scissors!!!!!!!

Not an exaggeration! It was now red, flat, raw and it hurt! Great! The good thing about the frost bite was it was frozen, dead and I couldn’t feel it, now it was really painful, red and open! So I have at least 5 days off snow, but potentially more as the end of my toe is soft and hurting, I don’t think it is ready to be pushed into a ski boot!

I’m off to Munich for the night before flying to Granada for 10 days in Spain, spending Christmas with Chio and her family and ideally doing some training up at Sierra Nevada, I will see how I go with the toe!! Merry Xmas!