Beaver Creek 2005 is in the books now, and it was an historic performance by the US team. With Bode and Daron trading 1st and 2nd places in the DH and GS, and then Ted having a breakthrough 3rd-place result in today's slalom, there was plenty for the home crowd to cheer about.

All of that was in spite of an epic week-long snowstorm which dumped multiple feet of snow on the Vail Valley. At times it was unbelievable that the races were able to be held at all. Needless to say, the race crew did an outstanding job.

I raced in both the GS and the SL, although the GS was a performance I wouldn't mind forgetting! The conditions were challenging with flat light, some ruts and snow which varied from ball bearings to ice, and the combination was too much for me to overcome. I skied poorly the whole way and was a good second off of qualifying for the second run.

There was more for me to be positive about in today's slalom, however, when I skied some sections the way I envisioned and ended up 25th after the first run. Unfortunately, that initial momentum was squashed very quickly, in the 5th gate of the 2nd run to be exact, when I hooked my tip on the outside gate of a hairpin in the steep pitch right out of the start!

That was an infuriating way to end the day, and I was really steaming for a while. After an hour or so passed though, I realized that there were positive aspects of the day - my skiing in general and the fact that I was charging out of the gate in the 2nd run - and I also remembered that slalom ends up like that all too frequently. So I'll just have to keep working in training this week, and look forward to next Monday night's race in Madonna.