A recent photo

Here I am exiting a corner in Lake Placid earlier this year.

I am told that there has been some very old photos of me sliding in the press lately, so here is a newer one.

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On my way to the Nederlands

I had a great christmas in Coventry, ate loads of delicious food with wonderful company, and got some training in. I am now in Liverpool at my Grandmothers and tomorrow I fly to Amsterdam where Kelly and Peter will meet me. For new years we will be attending the dutch bobsled formal dinner, unfortunately I dont have a little black dress in my back pack...must find one.

Not sure where we will be sliding in the first week of January, but we will be in Torino Italy around the 7th. It was good having a break from the skeleton world, but I cant wait to get back on my sled and fly.

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email update

I am now in Liverpool for a few days, and tomorrow i go to coventry for christmas....

This is my latest update email i sent out, with all my times in it..... if you want regular email updates like this one email me.



Hi Every one,

Well I have exciting news for Christmas. Two days ago on the 18th of
December in Sigulda Latvia the 4th World Cup of the season was held.
Sigulda is a demanding high G track with reputation for being dangerous,
but the ice was beautifully cut for a smooth safe ride. There were 26
women and 34 men racing, with 2 kiwis Kelly Moffat and my self. The day
was snowy, which always makes for a challenging and varied race. In the
first heat I drove my way to 11th equal, this was my best ever placing in
a world cup run, I had a fantastic second run finishing in 10th spot with
the combined time placing me 11th over all. My training this week was
good, but I think taking the last day of training off to allow myself
some recovery time, let me enter the race with a relaxed body and mind,
and I leave for a christmas break injury free. I expierienced a new
sensation during this race, I felt the sled accellerate out of bend 14, it
was an amazing feeling. This gave me the highest clocked speed out of
all the women in the final heat (103.88km/hr), my speed was also faster
than most of the mens, I have been told that I need to remember what it
felt like to boost out of the corner and try to replicate it in every
corner, then I will really fly. The winner of the womens event was Noell
Pikus-Pace with 5.55 push, 56.32 down in heat one and 5.44 push and 57.16
down for an overall time of 1:53.48.

My times in run one where 5.80 push, with a down time of 57.14, and in run
two 5.75 push with a down time of 57.74, giving me a combined time of
1:54.88.

Kelly finished 26th with a push of 6.07 and a down time of 59.52.

Full results can be found on www.fibt.com, if you go and calculate my
splits you'll be impressed!

I am now in Neston England, and will be spending Christmas in Coventry
with family.

Thanks for all your support, and thanks for believing in me, have a
wonderful Christmas and New Years, and enjoy the summer back home.

Louise Corcoran

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I came 11th !!!!!!!

Wow, what a race, I am so stoked.

I decided to take the 4th day of training off, it was a last minute decision, that I was a bit unsure of, but I didnt want to wake up on race morning feeling worn out and tired. But I guess it was a good move.

I got a good draw, 12th, which is lucky because it was lightly snowing through out the whole race, so a lower draw might have meant a snowy track to deal with.

I woke up so nervous and excited, which is unusual for me, I am usually very calm and chilled on race morning, but not yesterday, I was buzzing, I couldnt sit still and there was no way any food was going to stay in my stomach! So I spent the morning pacing around trying to avoid waves of crazy excitement.

I mentioned the other day that I had been watching video of myself pushing and had been given a few tips on how to improve, well I decided not to change anything about my push for this race, I had very slow push's (25th)in the race as I as thinking too much about how my technique was wrong, but it could have been worse, at least I didnt stand on the sled, or pop out of the groove.

My runs were fantastic, I didn't hit any thing and I clocked up the fastest speed (not down time) out of all the women, and my speed was better than most the men!! My secret??? I was totally relaxed, it was just awesome.

In the first run I drove from a 25th place start to an 11th equal finish, and my split for the last few corners was amazing. I experienced a new sensation while coming out of corner 14, I actually felt the sled accelerate, it was like I boosted out of the corner. So cool. I finished 10th in the second run which put me 11th over all and now my world ranking in 16th.

I am in Riga airport heading to Manchester where I will spend Christmas with family.
I will add my splits once I am in the UK.

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training day 3

Training yesterday was productive, I really relaxed on my sled and I feel like I have bonded with this track, it isnt freaking me out any more, and i can watch corner 15 coming at me down the 105m straight at 102km/hr with out flinching and sending the sled into a skid, and calmly place my head on the ice just as I enter. I have walked all the way to the internet cafe and just realised that I do not have the correct time sheet with me so I cant tell you my splits, but they were good, the ice was slow so I did 58's but in the first run I was 17th out of all the women and in the second I was 14th. In my first run I pushed hard, and as I loaded onto my sled I popped out of the groove, at the top of the track the mens luge start feeds onto the same track so right where I popped out the track went from 2m wide to 5m wide and I cut wide across the track straight at the men luge start wall, with out thinking I threw the sled into a skid and avoided the right wall, but then I was heading directly at the left wall, so I put her into a skid the other way and headed straight into corner one with out hitting a wall!! Amazingly, that was a 5.74 push, only 3/100s slower than my pb push here!!!!

The coaching help we have been getting from Tim and Greg (US coach's) has been excellent, last night, Greg put video of my push up with video from the fastest Russian, I learnt alot about the mechanics of a good push, I just have to do it now, I havent been using the block to push off (I thought I was, but video does not lie), and I have been lifting my hips up too soon, and running too far away from the sled.

Kelly has got it together she has stopped skidding, and is starting to understand the sled, her one hand push looks good, and is faster than the two hand. We are both loving this track, and everything about Sigulda, our accomadation, food, the town, it is a good set up for us, and everything is so cheap. Our accomadation here is only $NZ18 per night! A full meal at the local Bistro is only $NZ4. A little different to St Moritz where a beer costs $NZ30.

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day 2 of official training

Well, training yesterday was pretty good, my first run wasn't too sketchy, I took safe exits, but my time was slow, I was well behind other women who I have had simalar times to on other tracks. So I cranked up my rock a couple of mm, and had a pb by 4/10th! and hit 103km/hr, which is good. Most of the time I picked up was in the bottom of the track.

My times:

run 1 5.9 19.77 23.97 34.40 41.91 58.23
run 2 5.97 19.89 24.05 34.40 41.84 57.36

Training in a couple of hours time, it will be a long day as they we are doing all women run one, then all men, then all women run 2 then all men, alot of waiting around for 2 minutes of fun.

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Happy Birthday Jolene

first day of official training

Man I tell you there is nothing like scaring your self silly to make you feel alive. I was so nervous before training this morning, I had to pee like 4 or 5 times. Last night we watched the video footage we took here last year, there was this one crash we got on film where an italian man took about 20m of clean air off the exit 15, it probably wasnt the best training prep.

My runs were good and safe, my new sled is longer than my old one and my helmet is caught on the front of the sled in high G corners which means I wont be smaking my forehead on the ice in 15. Yay. The track is cut much nicer and more forgiving than it was during the race here last January.

We have been eating very well here in Latvia (every thing is so cheap). Surprisingly the supermarket has all the same brands as in kiwi supermarkets, and the meat looks edible (unlike Germany). Oh and the cake shops, amazing, luckily I have been loosing a little weight so I have can begin a weight maintanance plan...

Here are my splits for my personal best run here during the last world Cup...
5.71 19.52 23.62 33.89 41.60 57.74

and my runs today

6.08 20.11 24.31 34.81 42.43 58.54
5.94 19.91 24.12 34.66 42.29 58.62

And kellys runs today

6.54 21.13 25.45 36.03 43.69 1:00.61
6.57 21.23 25.60 36.38 44.23 1:01.25

Tomorrow I put on my big wheels.

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You can call or text me on my mobile, just make sure it is not in the middle of the night here! +49 (0)15202307440.
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sigulda

It is our 3rd day here in Sigulda and we still havent been able to slide, you would think we are all here for a holiday. We start training tomorrow, i am a little nervous, this is another track that deserves a bit of respect, it can kick hard if you get it wrong. Tim the US coach has done 2 track walks with us "small nation" athletes, there aren't many of us here since most atheltes who are likely to be competeing in the Challenge cup (a race for lower ranked nations to qualify for the world Champs) have gone to Konigssee to race in the Europa Cup there and get some ice time on the track. The Kiwi team has shrunk to just Kelly and I, Peter from Nederlands and Helge from Norway are also here. I came 17th here last year, but my times were still 3 seconds behind the leader.

Yesterday Kelly, Peter and I went into Riga, the capital of Latvia. Every thing is sooooo cheap here, it is wonderful, it is even cheaper than New Zealand. They speak Russian and Latvian, some young people speak english, but most dont, the key boards and computers have russian text on them. While in Riga we were sitting in an Itallian restarant in the center of Riga watching Eurosport, the mens bobsledding was on, and a tv advert for Hyundi cars came on, the mountains on the advert looked a little familiar, and then the road did too, and then I realised it was the filmed on the snow farm, www.snowfarmnz.com (my sponsors and where I work)!!!! Kelly and I jumped up and down a little, and got all excited, it made us miss home.

Well I will let you all know how sliding goes here tomorrow.

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Igls World Cup

Hi Every one

I am now in Sigulda, Latvia, but 2 days ago on the 9th of December I
competed in the 3rd World Cup of the season, held in Igls Austria. It was
successful race for me, I finished 15th over all, first run push of 5.73
and down time of 55.95 (both personal bests), leaving me in 14th place
after heat one, and a second run push of 5.76 with a down time of 56.96,
leaving me in 15th place over all with a combined time of 1:52.91. First
Place went to Noell Pikus Pace from USA, with 5.58, 55.13, and 5.49, 55.85
giving her an over all time of 1:50.98. Kelly finished 28th with a
push of 6.10 and a down time of 58.77. Gregor Staehli of Switzerland won
the mens event, with a combined time of 1:48.24,
Ben came 14th, (5.30, 54.59 and 5.26, 54.68) with a
combined time of 1:49.27, Iain came 41st (5.48, 55.90) with
a half second personal best. Full results can be found at www.fibt.com.

I am really impressed with my push, I keep surprising my self by getting faster and faster.
My first run was fantastic untill the exit of corner 12 where I dropped
onto my bumbers, but recovered with out flipping, my second run was again
very good untill corner 10 when I entered a little late and hit the roof, this lost me alot of time and left some good
bruises. It was was an excellent result for me, my second best World Cup
result, and has placed me back in the top 20, which moves me back into the
the second grouping for the race next week here in Latvia.

Tickets for the 2006 Olympic skeleton event are now on sale at
www.torino2006.org

Thanks for all your support.

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In Austria, Igls World Cup

We are now in Austria, training has been very good, figured out something and seem to be going faster, about time. We race tomorrow, and i have a good feeling about it, Kelly has done major surgery on her sled and is much happier with it, Ben has had fantastic training results. If your in Europe watch us live on Eurosport.

think fast thoughts for us

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altenberg race

Hi Everyone

Sorry this one is a few days late, have been busy travelling and> recovering from the last race.>> The 2nd World Cup of the season was held on the 2nd of December in> Altenberg Germany, Altenberg is a very challenging track, where I have had> my two best World cup finishs, 16th last season and 14th the season> before. I crashed in training on the second day, flipping onto my back in> the second run while exiting corner 4, it turns out subtlty is not the> answer for corner 4, steering as hard as you can is a much safer plan. On> race day I drew 18th off. My first run was fantastic, a personal best> push by over 15/100s, and a personal best down time, push: 6.15 down> time:62.75, my best time in training had been a 64 and a 6.39, so i> surprised myself. On race day I finished the first run in 16th place with> 15th place not far away. For the first time ever I was distracted by the> eurosport camera at the start line, they get the camera right in your> face, my light went green and the buzzer went for me to start, but I wasnt> focused, I took a few second to try and clear my mind, but I had to go as> the time was running out. Apparently I stepped on my sled at the back> right bumper, I don't remeber what happened, as it was all so fast but I> spun around and my sled popped out of the groove, I crashed down on top of> my sled and slid down the ice on my back while holding onto my sled (which> was ahead of me) with one finger. I then crawled back on to the sled and> slid away at a snails pace. My push time for that run was 11,17 and a> down time of 72,86. I dropped to 20th place. My new world ranking is 21st> which has dropped me down a group for the race draw, meaning that there is> potential for me to draw last place at the next race. However it is not> all bad, I have had more tv coverage than any one else, and I am likely to> make the highlights every race for years to come, apparently it was> spectacular. Watch out for it, you can't miss the big silver fern on my> helmet.>> Kerstin Jurgens of Germany won the womens race and Chris Soul of USA won> the mens, Kelly Moffat came 27th and Iain Roberts came 38th.>> We are now in Innsbruck Austria and we race in the 3rd World Cup of the> season on the 9th of December, Ben Sandford will be competing here making> the 4th member of the kiwi team.

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Training runs 1 and 2

Holy shit, what a wake up call, this track scared me today, the G forces in corner 3 seemed higher than any I have had all season, I nearly flipped out of 4, had my head plastered to the ice in 9, and the straight going into crysle (10) is long enough for you to spook yourself out, the 2nd oscillation in 10 felt different this year and I nearly roofed it, I got my steer on the exit of 10 perfect and came out clean, thank god, poor iain, was nearly dumped on his back, and I nearly roofed it in 16 as well. Welcome back to Altenberg. I was was messing with my own mind on the start of the second run telling my self 10 seconds before the start that I could still scratch the run, that I didn't have to do this, I was seriously worried about hurting myself. Crazy stuff. I did the run, and my times were very good considering. My neck is not so good, I slept funny (German pillows suck), and had a sore neck, and then the pressures of sliding made the muscles seize up, by 8pm last night I couldn't move left or right, so we went and found Rudy the German Physio, he has helped release it a bit, but it is still sore and stiff, I thought I wouldn't be able to slide, but I have enough movement now. We are sliding this afternoon, then one more session tomorrow.

BEN WON THE 2nd CALGARY AMERICAS CUP!!!

find the results on www.skeletonsport.com

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Altenberg

I like the track in Altenberg, it is one of my favorite tracks, it has a reputation for being a hard and dangerous track, which I guess in some ways it deserves, since I have never raced here with out an athlete ending up in hospital! A very fast push doesn't necessarily mean a good finish here as there are a couple of tricky corners, if you can drive well these corners give those of us with the slower pushes a better chance. In Jan 2002, just before the Olympics, I had a pretty bad crash here, and I fractured (just a little one) a vertebrae in my neck. I thought I had just strained it, and continued sliding. Thankfully I didn't find out till over a year later that it was a bit more serious than a sprained neck, and by then I was fully healed and had already returned to Altenberg and done well(my best W'S placing:14th), it was good because I never had to experience the whole drama or knowing I had a broken neck and the psychological issues of sliding here again afterwards.

I like the healthy dose of fear I feel when sliding here, it makes me more centered and focused on the task, unlike sliding in I gls where the lack of dangerous corners can easily let my mind wonder while sliding, it is not good to be planning what to cook for dinner while entering corner ten, but in igls that can happen, not a good tactic for a fast time.

Here in Oldenburg you can experience such a huge range of emotions and sensations in 70 seconds, from serious loose bowel fear to pure screaming excitement at the finish. It is wild, I love it.... and we must all be crazy.

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Road trip east to altenberg

A tribute to Helga

Helga, our 790 euro ford escort, has been lov riding to whole trip , not to sure if she would pass the legal clearance height, we've bottomed her out on a few man hole covers.

Long live Helga, may she get us to every race on time.

It is funny how it doesn't matter which country your in or even which continent, the graffiti on walls along side the motorway/auto bahn all look the same.

Iain drove from 10am till 5.30pm, we arrived and went straight to the team captains meeting. We stopped twice for gas, and managed to find the dodgiest little gas stations, locally named 'SEX FILM CENTER TRUCK STOP', we didnt stop for long.

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You can call or text me on my mobile, just make sure it is not in the middle of the night here! +49 (0)15202307440.
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World cup Winterberg

From my email update:Yesterday at 3.30pm here in Winterberg Germany the 2004/2005 SkeletonWorld Tour began with World Cup number 1. There were 26 nations present,with 43 men and 28 women. The training week had variable weather fromheavy rain, snow to sunshine, this made training conditions verydifficult. I entered the race not knowing where I was likely to place inthe field. Race day was cold and clear, I was 15th off. I placed 20th inthe first heat and 18th in the second heat, which placed me 20th overall. Kelly Moffat placed 26th, and Iain Roberts placed 41st, only top 20 get a second heat. First place in the womens event went to Noelle Pikus-Pace ofUSA and first place in the mens event went to Jeff Pain of Canada. Full results can be found at www.fibt.com. My one hand push (a new technique) has proved to be a very good move for me, I have taken off around 15/100's of a second off my push with it! We are now off to Altenberg for the 2nd World Cup of the season, official training begins tomorrow and we race next Thursday.

I had huge butterflies before the race, waves of uncontrolable excitement and anxiety at the same time, it was great. We had a day and a half off to contemplate the race, which didnt help the nerves. My first run was very good, but since i finished in 20th, i knew i had nothing to loose going into the second head, and I thought that the next athlete was too far ahead to catch (30/100's of a second) so I concentrated on pushing faster, and I sure did, my pushin the second heat was the best I have ever done, and it turns out that I also picked up 2 spots on my overall time as well. I am happy with the way the race went.

Off to Altenberg now.

Major Sponsor: Snow Farm NZ www.snowfarmnz.com visit them.Supported by NZAS, Base, Uvex, Icebreaker, Mainland Outdoors,Nevada-sport, Brooker Travel Group, Dirty Dog and the Guthries.Check out my race diary www.nzskeletonracer.com

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You can call or text me on my mobile, just make sure it is not in the middle of the night here! +49 (0)15202307440.
It is a local number so it doesn't cost me to answer it while in Germany.

Official Training Winterberg

So, official training has started, this morning we were in the 8am session, which meant leaving the house at 6.40am. It was raining harder than it has all week and I was convinced that the track must have melted totally away. The ice around the expansion joints in the track was gone and a snowy slush had been put in place, but it didn't do a very good job and my runners are all scratched up. The first run was very slow, and then the second one was 2 seconds slower and the 3rd was 2 seconds slower than that, and all of this was done in driving rain, and strong winds, horrid conditions to train in. As soon as we were finished, the sun came out, the rain stopped, and the wind died down and the temperature dropped, so the slush we were riding froze into nice ice, then the second training group got the good ice, and they didn't get the pleasure of looking like drowned frozen rats. Not fair. We have had such variable training conditions since I arrived that it is very hard to judge how I am doing. Tonight is the opening event, not sure what will happen, free food no doubt, so the kiwis will be there. Tomorrow after training we have our Eurosport photo shoots, wonderful, we get to look like goof balls in our speed suits smiling and walking towards the cameras, saying 'Louise Corcoran Wanaka, New Zealand', a few years ago they had us spining around on a chair and flicking our hair for the camera, it was terrible. They use the clip when introducing us before our run in the race at each World Cup.

Kel is having trouble getting legal runners for the Lubas sled, the ones we ordered were not made, and we still haven't been able to source them, it is turning out to be a mini kiwi crisis, Kel is the only athlete here with out the new steel, a stress that is not needed, but we find out tonight if a local slider is able to help us out and get some made...

BEN WON THE ASA RACE IN CALGARY!!!

Go Kiwi Go

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Training cancelled again

That endless rain turned to snow last night, and we woke to a white Winterberg, training was cancelled due to an extra 10cm of un-shaped ice in the track, and training has been cancelled tomorrow too, while they try to get the track ready for the World Cup. Helga wasn't too happy this morning, the rain and snow had frozen the doors and the locks, it took us 40 minutes to break in and get her going...

I have got a German vodafone number, it doesn't cost me to answer it so if any one wants to call or text me or Kelly you can, the number is at the bottom. I am feeling heaps better, my head cold is nearly gone. Town is filling up with bob and skelly athletes, the Dutch bobsled team are coming around to our place to cook dinner tonight, it'll be a Kiwi, Dutch, Burmudian, Danish, English and Canadian dinner party! And Stuart Hayden from Scotland will be staying with us from tomorrow night. Well I hope to have some good training news soon.

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contact me

You can call or text me on my mobile, just make sure it is not in the middle of the night here! +49 (0)1520 2307440.
It is a local number so it doesn't cost me to answer it while in Germany.

You can fax us while here at the track in winterberg on +492987924020, address it to New Zealand Skeleton Team.

Rain in Winterberg

Well, Winterberg is one miserable wet place, it has rained and rained and rained. Heavy consistent west coast type rain. Sliding in the rain is not fun, the track becomes a hydro slide, with puddles in the flat sections, if you don't aqua-plane across it and skid, your face gets drowned in it, my chin is only a couple of millimeters off the ice and the puddles can be a couple of cm deep. Once you get the water in side your helmet, you can't exactly put the breaks on to get your hand in there to clear it. We are totally wet before we get to the start line as there is 80m uncovered walk to the start and when I pick up my sled all the water on the pan soaks into my speed suit. Then in the out run after the finish line, the water slide is coming towards us so any part that was dry is soaked. Loads of fun.

Despite this wonderful sliding environment, my runs have been very good. in fact yesterday my splits through the bottom of the track were the fastest of all the women in our session (NZL, CAN, DEN, JPN). But I have come down with a head cold, not surprising, and so this morning I made the very hard and frustrating decision to not slide, and give myself a chance to get better before the world cup. I was relieved to hear that training was cancelled so I haven't actually missed out. But the bad news is that training was cancelled because the rain is killing the ice. It is going to snow tomorrow which isn't good either but at least the ice wont melt any more.

I should have packed an umbrella.

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Winterberg

Well just a quick note to say that we eventually arrived in Witnerberg after about a 10 hour journey, our appartment is fantastic, better and cheaper than any hotell or pension, no smokers in the dining room, our own lounge and kitchen, it is great, the only down side is that we have to carry our sleds up 3 flights of stairs. The car, we have named her Helga, is a bit moody in the morning, and needs to be push started, a good work out for us. When Dirk, our german speaking car purchaser arrives we'll get a mechanic to look at it, all part of the fun.

Michella (Denmark) arrived last night and Pat (Burmuda) arrives today and that is our house full.

Sliding starts tomorrow.

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Headed for Winterberg

Well Helga is on the road, she is fully loaded with 3 sleds, in large padded sled bags, 3 day bags, 2 helmet bags, 7 sets of runners (blades), 5 large bags and suitcases, 3 jackets, 3 cd cases 10kg of protien bars, and 3 squashed kiwis. Every nook and cranny in the car is full. We considered checking the tyre pressure, but we're already on the autobahn, so that wil have to wait. We're rolling down the valley along the river away from Innsbuck. I'll try to describe the valley... The snowy craggy Austrian alps are on either side and there is a lingering mist in the gullies. There are impressive Repunzle like castles perched high on the hills. Beautiful old 3 story farm houses with barns on top and cow sheds underneath, are surrounded by green fields with ornate wood work on the balconies, shutters on on the windows and traditional artwork around the doors and walls. The fire wood is stacked high on one side of the house. There are many church steeples with in sight. Our favourite race music is playing (the chilli peppers), and we're heading north to Winterberg for the first WC of the season.

Let the racing begin.

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Day off

Today was our first day off, we were on a mission to find new speed suits and try to get them screen printed, but we had no luck. I did try on the most amazing suit, a Speedo fast skin, it felt great and looked great, but cost a crazy €390! Too much, not sure what I am going to do, we are going to stop off at the Adidas factory shop in Nurnburg tomorrow on our way north, hopefully I can find a more affordable suit there.

I think I broke my little finger yesterday during the race, I wish I could say it happened coming out of a corner, or while on my sled at least, but knocked it against a wall while warming up. Another bone to add to the list of broken bones, it is always the most random little ones I injure (Scaifoid x 2, both little toes, 1 big toe, c5 and my little finger...)

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Igls Europa Cup

The Igls Europa cup was held today. The first heats for both men and women were effected by snow, and all 3 kiwi women were started at the back of the pack since NZ did not have a European ranking from last season. I finished9th over all in field of 30, with a great first run finishing in 6th place(59,49) and a not so good second run in 12th place (57,86), first run was great, I hit no walls, but in the second one I hit out of 4, into 5, out of 7 out of 9 and out of 10, oh well, at least I did it in this race and not the World Cup. Kelly Moffat placed 20th over all (1:00.93, 59.12) Tionette Stoddard finished 22nd over all (1:01.57). Only top 20 get to take a second run. Iain Roberts finished 42nd over all (58.14) in a field of 59. First place in the women's race went to Shelly Rudman of Great Britain (58.62, 56.94) and first place in the men's event went to Robert Murray of USA (55.62, 55.42). Official results can be found on www.fibt.com. On Friday Kelly, Iain and I will be traveling to Winterberg Germany for the first World Cup of the season. But tomorrow is a day off sliding, we'll take in the sights of Innsbruck and let our tired bodies have a rest. Stodds is off to Calgary tomorrow for a few weeks sliding with the two other kiwi team members, Ben and Russ, before they all compete in the Calgary Americas Cup at the end of the month.

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We're in Austria

Well, after a late Friday night of padding and packing our sleds, we were up and out to the airport early on Saturday morning. Christofer and Turc, local athletes have been a huge help to us this stay in Calgary, with there help we managed to survive with out a rental car. Thanks Guys, your wonderful. We could have got our sleds on for free with out too much of a sob story being told, except that mine was over weight as I was transporting a sled pod for Dirk Matchenz, Dutch athlete. Rather than being charged for the whole 3 flights at international rates we just checked to Vancouver and decided to try our luck with another check in agent. It worked and no charges were paid. YAY.

The flights were packed, long, uncomfortable. But we were met by the 3rd man on the Kiwi skelly team, Iain, thank god he was there to drive us, because we were both shattered. Our new car is great, all our gear fits in it nicely, and starts with out too much hassle, lets just hope it starts nicely when it is -20 degrees and race morning. There has been a FIBT school on here this last week, for new athletes from countries with out tracks, there are a few new nations starting up this season with their eyes on the Olympics no doubt. Tai Pei, Korea, Romania, Armenia, Greece...

Official training starts today for the Igls Europa Cup, I am told that there is 75 athletes here! Crazy, I am used to smaller world cup fields where there is only about 50 athletes and that can take hours to get through.

We are staying at the Sports Center in Innsbuck about a 10 minute drive from the track, I think it was the athlete village for the Olympics when they were here last, our room looks out over the old outdoor speed skating rink. It is snowing right now, so it should be snowing quite heavy up in Igls, that will make training interesting.

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Calgary adventures and flying sleds.

Well, yesterday training went well, Kelly took 2 ok runs from the top (but in comparison to today's runs they were fantastic...). My runs were good, but nothing special, a 61 and a 62. Our day started yesterday morning when we caught a bus down town, Kelly was sitting in the disabled/elderly seat on the bus and narrowly avoided an old mans huge butt landing on her lap, as he carefully maneuvered into sit next to her. Hilarious, you should have seen the look of horror and panic on her face. Once in town we found Kim Hardy (aussie skeleton). Christopher, a local/Columbian athlete lent us his car for the day, trusting fellow, he didn't realize that we had NEVER driven in Calgary before or that we drive on the left in NZ. We had a huge list of shops and places to visit, picking up padding, ice walkers, shoe goop, tools and packaging. Impressively we navigated our way across the city, and back in rush hour traffic with out getting lost once.

Training today was amazing for me, with out a full warm up or even trying, and with a slow groove, I knocked 9/100's of a second off my personal best (PB) push! Unreal, considering that yesterday I warmed up a bit and tried to push fast and was 2/10's slower than my PB... The one hand push is working for me. My down times were great 60.39, 60.76, only 36/100's away from my PB I did here last year. I fixed my exit of 12, and got out of 8 and down the straight away to 9 clean for the first time this week. Great.

Kel got her first overdose of adrenaline for the year. She was skiddy in her first run and finished with a time of 63.05, she decided to experiment a bit with the rock her runners were set at (the bow), she "had a fairly hefty crash", but she is just a bit bumped and bruised. She lost control in 4, and had a crazy 6 and entered 7 very late (we saw in on the video-we had Ben filming), she nearly hit the roof in 7, hit the right wall before 8 and went into 8 as late as she could have by the sound of it, looped it, she cant remember if she hit the roof or not, and flew out of the corner upside down, landing on her back with her sled on top, lost her sled in the straight and was clocked going down the track on her belly (rolling around and around to prevent ice burns) with out a sled at 89.48km/hour, the legend. I was waiting in the truck at the end of the track with Kim (aussie) and the Japanese world cup team, when an empty sled came right the way up the out run then back down the track, it eventually stopped in corner 14. I found kelly climbing into the ambulance in corner 9, laughing, buzzing, and injury free. Whew. We saw the concern on everyone's faces as the ambulance pulled up to the truck so Kelly decided to act half dead slumped in the seat, you should have seen their reaction, I thought Kim was going to cry. But then leapt out of the ambulance, laughing her head off. Crashing is a HUGE adrenalin rush.

Ben is training in the Alberta Skeleton Association club training sessions from 9-10 every night, he is figuring out how to drive his new sled, and had a couple of good runs last night.

Russ is waiting on his new sled, but will hopefully be training soon.

Kiwis, Iain(who slid last year) and Tionette who is totally new to skeleton (also known as Stodds) are at the FIBT skeleton school in Igls Austria, Stodds said that they are sending every one off the top totally green, without coaching, but it sounds like they are having a good time, and a steep learning curve.

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our number here in Calgary is +1 403 249 1313

2nd track of the season

Well my journey to Calgary was uneventful. I was met at the airport by an exhausted Kelly who had just flown in from NZ, after 38 hours of packing, crying and flying. Both of us arrived with all our luggage and sleds unharmed. Peter Simpson, Kiwi expat who sponsors us with great food and accommodation while we are here in Calgary took us home, where we caught up. Waiting for us at Peters house were our new Uvex helmets, matching even, we haven't a uniform but we'll both have black silver fern-fast helmets this year.

Training today went well, Kel couldn't slide as she didn't have a chin guard to put on her new helmet ("bugger", Kelly.) but we will hopefully have that sorted for tomorrow. My first run was so exciting, again like any time you come to a new track you get so nervous, but I have been sliding here for 5 years now and I had no trouble at all, corner 8, which used to make me nauseous with fear, was a breeze. We are training with Kim Hardy from Australia, the Japanese national team and a few of the top Canadians. Kel will take her first run on a modern sled tomorrow (i.e. one which is actually younger than her!), she is feeling "excited and a little apprehensive as it is the first run of the season on a new sled, I will miss my trusty Hurst sled of the last two seasons, but it is time to hand it onto new rookie athlete, Tionette. I think it will be sweeeet man". Kelly.

Ben is in town but we have no idea where he is staying and he didn't show for training...

Kelly has bought a car in Europe! (with the help of Lovely Dirk - Dutch athlete) We will be traveling in style in a classic ford station wagon, equipped with winter tyres and roof racks and a heater that works, a bargain at 790 euro!!! God I hope it gets us to our world cup races on time, with out breaking down. Our mission for the end of the season is to sell it at a profit, autographed by world champion skeleton racers! All offers considered.

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Our number here at Peters is 001 403 249 1313, we are here till the 6th (7th in NZ)