2.6.18 The Olympics are coming...
Hey MYSL Families! It’s almost time for the most exciting event of the year…the Olympics! I’m so excited to say that I’ll be going for the second time and representing Team USA, Minnesota…and you, my MYSL skiers!
Me at the Sochi Olympics
I got my start in skiing when I was pretty little, and my family joined MYSL. I loved getting to play games on my skis, make friends and learn how to ski so I could go down every trail in the park! I hope that you’re loving the chance to go ski with your friends and families, too, and if you have dreams of going to the Olympics someday…you’re already on the right path, by having fun and enjoying skiing!
Me skiing when I was very young!
Last week I was in Seefeld, Austria. We had one more World Cup race weekend and then a week of training before we fly to Pyeongchang, South Korea! We got a huge snowstorm the day we arrived, and the snowbanks are taller than I am! It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been able to ski in snow like this so it’s been such a treat getting to cruise all around the woods in fresh powdery snow.
One of the other things I love about Seefeld is the big ski school here! Every day in the stadium area, there are at least 3 different aged groups of people learning to ski, which is so fun to see! There’s kids like you who are the same ages as MYSL skiers, and there’s adults on vacation learning to ski for the first time, too. There are fun downhills to practice on and some big uphills, too, but also a big open area to play games on skis in. I think it’s so cool knowing that all around the world, there’s people just like you who also love getting out in the sunshine with their friends.
There are hundreds of kilometers of trails here, and they connect the small towns together. I love that! You can go ski to the town next door, get a hot chocolate out on a sunny deck of a coffee shop, then ski back home. You can also ski from hotel to hotel! It’s an amazing way to spend a vacation (or a very long ski if you’re in training like me)!
Beautiful Seefeld.
This weekend, I’ll be sitting out the skate sprint and resting, which is really hard for me. Usually, I race every single race! But since I’m planning to be doing so much racing at the Olympics, I need to make sure my body is super rested before traveling to South Korea. So this weekend I’ll only race the 10km mass start skate, then continue my training plan.
(editor: This post was written the day before Jessie won the 10km Skate event in Seefeld!)
Tour de Ski Finish!
At the moment, I’m planning to race as many races as I have energy for at the Olympics! For me, success will be having fun throughout the games and crossing the finish line knowing that I gave it everything that I had. Here is our race schedule, for you to follow along with:
Feb 9: Opening Ceremonies!
Feb 10: 15km skiathlon
Feb 13: Classic sprint
Feb 15: 10km individual skate
Feb 17: 4x5km team relay
Feb 21: Skate team sprint
Feb 25: 30km classic mass start
My family at the last Olympics. They will be in South Korea too!
You can follow me through the games on my website, jessiediggins.com where I’ll try to blog as much as possible but I’ll definitely be updating every day on my instagram account (@jessiediggins) to show you as much of what goes on inside the Games as I can!
Thanks for your cheering, and go enjoy a ski with friends back home for me!
***Jessie***