до свидания, Сочи

(goodbye, Sochi)

I'm sitting in the airport in Sochi, waiting to depart. The last few days have been pretty nuts--a crazy super-g race (women's AND men's!), a USA Olympic hockey game, exploring the Olympic park, packing, and soaking in the last little bit of all the  possible.

The super-g race two days ago was so tough. It was a challenging set on a difficult hill...and when starting early is often an advantage, it was definitely not the case on that day. Leanne started 2nd, and she was the first girl to make it to the bottom. When I, bib 7, came through the finish (after skiing out on the bottom section), Leanne was still the only racer on the board. That was a bit of a surprise... but neat that Leanne was winning the Olympics for a while!!! My family, being my wonderful family, thought Leanne would win the race, and also suggested that I ask for a 'redo.' Spectacular.

Unfortunately, I just didn't have enough direction coming off the bottom jump, and, as it turns out, flew a lot further than I did in the downhill. I landed nearly at the next gate, and couldn't pull the late line off on the steep bottom pitch. Once I knew I was going to miss a gate, I decided to ski switch for style points...
Hah. If only.