So, concluding this project my sport offers a few connections to information systems. The results of most of our races gets posted on the international ski federation website: http://www.fis-ski.com, since all our races, except NCAA’s and regionals are international races the results go in to a data base where the points you scored (world rankings) and the times are listed. The database contains every single ski racer in the world that has qualified to race in international races and who has a valid licence. Anyone can go in and check other people’s world ranking, results and what races they have been to as well as they can see their own ranking. The ranking is calculated based on who has been in the race, with what points and how far ahead or behind they were. It is a really complicated calculation but it ends up being fair to everyone.

The second connection ski racing has to information systems, as I mentioned before, is the video program we use to analyze our runs and compare to others to see where we lose and gain time, Dartfish. Very useful at times when it is not obvious where you fall behind or catch up.

Also, live-timing has provided a really cool service where, as long as the race has the right software, anyone in the world can go in and check times live when the race is happening.
Also I guess any website that writes about our progress or results will count as technology that is involved in our sport. One example is golobos.com where our media relations person, Judy Willson, always writes updates about what we are doing.

Lastly, as an update on what the team is up to, we are now all done with our season. Some of us look forward to the next one, others return their uniforms to go on to new adventures. We still work out together, with dryland training, but mostly we have fun and enjoy the last couple of weeks together with the team before we all head off in different directions for the summer. This was the most successful season we have had since I came four years ago, I think we won 19 individual races which is a new record for the ski team and we had, I think, 6 or 7 different winners throughout the season. We were also very strong in the north-american cup, where we were second after the canadian national team in number of podiums, we beat the US national team and thereby put Lobos on a bigger map than just the college tour. Even though we didn’t end up winning nationals, we are all pretty excited about our other victories and how we worked together as a team. I will finish by quoting our head coach Fredrik Landstedt concerning the third place finish at NCAA’s: “We did really really good at nationals, the only problem was that two teams did better than us”. In the end, we all did our best.

Another thing we do a lot in skiing is to analyze our runs. This is my first run at NCAA’s. There is a really cool software called Dartfish where we can watch all our runs, play slowmotion, compare to our team mates and see where we lose or win time. In order to find out what you need to improve, video runs are crutial. They give you a visual of your technique and gives you a hint of what you need to work on.

The lives of the UNM ski team athletes have been pretty intense lately. We came home from NCAA’s with a trophy, even though it was not the golden kind of trophy we were hoping for. We all did our best though and even though I will not be around next year I’m hoping that the Lobos will bring it home then instead. We finished third as a team. I got my third NCAA slalom title and ended my college career in the best possible way. I can now title myself a “retired lobo skier” and I will always do it with pride and I’ll look back on my four years with lots of sunshine and fun.

Some of us spent our spring break skiing, I went to US nationals where I finished 5th in the slalom and 3rd in the GS, we have also represented the Lobo ski team at canadian nationals and Nor-Am finals. AC took home the Nor-Am GS title and Petter got third in the overall slalom cup. This weekend we are headed up to Colorado for the last international races of the season. After that the team will have a couple of weeks to rest. Except for me, I will go to sweden and do swedish nationals. A last effort to be able to keep skiing next year.

So, now we have finally arrived in Steamboat and NCAA’s to start the battle for the big trophy! Regionals was not as good as it could have been, but I think all of us wanted to be prepared for this race instead and did not quite go all out. The 2010 NCAA championship races start tomorrow with women’s and men’s GS. Start-time for women is at 9.30, first run, and second run at 10.30. Guys go at 1.30 and 2.25. We are all as well prepared as we possibly could be by now and we come in to this week with high hopes and a lot of will. For me as a senior it is the last shot I have at winning the team trophy, and I really hope the margins are on our side this year. I am sure that if we all just do our best the results will come too. We are ready to rock the hill tomorrow, with a few supporters on the side-lines waving the flags and cheering for us. This is going to be fun!

If you want to watch live coverage of the race, hopefully they will put it up there by tomorrow, but click this link , click “races” and then find Steamboat Springs, CO.

If you want to follow live coverage of our races you can click here, click “races” and look for Northstar or Sugar Bowl..

We will do our best to keep our no 1 ranking and come back with some more victories in our baggage!

http://www.skiracing.com/?q=node/935

This coming weekend we are headed up to Red River again for some training. We are traveling a lot right now, but except for the living-in-my-really-heavy-bag-part, or carry-4-pairs-of-skis-everywhere-part it is amazing. And sunny!

Tomorrow the UNM skiteam is headed up to go another round in the qualification fight for NCAA’s. I have personally been looking forward to this for a long time, both because there is something about racing at home that makes me a little extra charged, and because it will be my last home meet.. ever! I think the whole team is excited about it, since we have heard all fall more than ever that friends from Albuquerque will come watch and cheer us on this year. I think for any athlete, having people watching makes it a little more special and a lot more fun. Especially down here where no one knows the difference between slalom and giant slalom, finally they can go watch us and see what we do so we don’t have to draw a picture every time we explain the sport..;)

Another devastating injury has punched the team pretty hard in the solar plexus (right where it hurts the most, below the ribs where you lose your breath and almost die). Stefanie fell in practice last weekend, and despite her unbeatable humor or smily face on the way back, her knee proved to be broken. Her ACL is torn and she will probably have lots of movie nights with Estelle this semester. Devastating. The rest of us will have to step it up a little focuswise to make sure we make it to the finish.

Anyway, the last time I checked the weather I saw sunshine predicted for friday and saturday. We will, for the first time this season, be a complete team with Stefanie and Estelle taking turns writing the times on the board in the finish and the rest of us cramming down our feet into those plastic shoes again for another set of runs on the hill. We will do our best, kick ass many butts as we possibly can and make sure that whoever comes out gets to see some good action!

The nordics chased each other in the woods over the weekend. I have yet to recruit one of them to tell their stories. I have no clue how they liked it but we had dinner with them yesterday and they looked like they had been working hard. I mean in a good way. Red cheeks and eyes on fire. Good sign.

http://www.skiracing.com/?q=node/877

On another note, the alpiners are basically ready to leave Albuquerque and head off to train in Taos over the weekend. The only thing standing between that is a couple of hours of sleep. At 05.30 Marty and Marty are picking us up and we get to go on another one of those lovely morning vanrides again watching the sunrise and the roadkills and experiencing vehicle treatment austrian style. I’m excited! Four days of training are scheduled before another school week starts.
The nordics, as far as the rumors go about our horizontal counterpart, will be training in Red River over the weekend. Even if we (alpiners) are winning races too, it is really exciting to watch Martin and see how hard he works. How hard they all work. We were all really happy when he won. And won again. And again…..