Trials and Tribulations

What goes on in an elite athlete’s head in the midst of a failure? A lot. And on the World Cup circuit, failure comes around much more often than success so it is important to know how to deal with it and move on to the next stage.

So far this season, I have been struggling to get to the finish line consistently in races. Three out of my first eleven races have had a positive outcome as opposed to last year where I had of 30 out of 41 quality results. Obviously the season is far from over, and many things can happen, but it’s the contrast between my training and my racing that is frustrating, along with the fact that I am making mistakes in competition that I don’t in training. Sometimes for an athlete, thinking can be your worst enemy. Someone who thinks too much--a real head case--will usually just get in the way of himself. I, for one, try to rise above this category. Doubting your abilities is the first step to relapsing in any facet of life, and sport is no different. When I am faced with defeat, I tend to get mad but only for a few minutes. The difficult part is sitting alone at the end of the day, imagining what could have been and hoping for what will be. Luckily for me, my roommate recently scored a career-best result and is in high spirits. By virtue of caring about others, I experience joy from the successes of my teammates especially when they are driven guys who have been working hard for a long time. We are all fighting against each other and this is an individual sport, but if you always take that approach, the sport will get pretty depressing and lonely. The key is to find little victories every day. Earlier today, I won four games of solitaire in a row on my phone… Win!

Life goes on and so do my travels. Tomorrow is a new day and the season is about to step it up into high gear. I have another World Cup race this weekend in Switzerland, which leaves me no time to dwell on the past but to charge into the future. This is an amazing “job” and the things I do and the places I travel will be with me forever, no matter what I end up doing after this.

For now I’ll just say, “Zbogom Hrvatska, Hallo Schweiz”

More more insight of Nolan Kasper's life as a World Cup ski racer, visit http://nolankasper.blogspot.com.

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