As any ski racing parent knows, it’s often a challenge to get your kids to the hill every morning on time and ready to go. I admit that I can be a bit of a taskmaster with my own kids on those morning when they’re dragging their feet. I will also admit that this ‘forced’ [...]
Thankfully, not me and not that bad! What you are about to read is based on a true story. And apologies in advance for its length. I had a feeling that the other weekend wasn’t going to go as planned. My wife, Sarah, had just left for ten days in Cambodia, so I was [...]
Just read a wonderful commentary about having ski racing children by former Burkie, Jesse James. If you have kids in ski racing, you'll nod knowingly and perhaps even shed a tear (as I did). If you're not a ski racing parent, but rather a parent of an athlete in another sport, you'll still relate to [...]
Mitchell Gunn, with permission One of the most frequent comments I hear from the racers I work with is: “I had a lousy day of training.” This statement was almost always accompanied by a variety of emotions that are neither pleasant nor helpful including frustration, anger, worry, doubt, and disappointment, and, occasionally, despair. [...]
I've been in the ski racing world since I was six years old. The first 20 years, I was a racer learning the ups and downs of ski racing the hard way, mostly through trial and error, and sometimes painful failure. That, I can say with 20/20 hindsight and absolute certainty, is no way to [...]
Mitchell Gunn by permission In the last article in my series on the gifts that Mikaela Shiffrin gave to ski racers for the holidays, I described how I have seen her evolve from consistent and rock-solid racer (and, of course, incredibly fast) into a risk taker on skis (who is now freakishly fast) [...]
SEMMERING, AUSTRIA - DECEMBER 28: Mikaela Shiffrin of the USA reacts in the finish area after competing in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom Race in Semmering, Austria, on 28 December 2012 (Photo by Mitchell Gunn/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Mikaela Shiffrin My first two articles in this three-part [...]
Mitchell Gunn with permission The U.S. ski racing community was saddened to hear that Mikaela Shiffrin had injured her knee while free skiing before the World Cup in Are, Sweden and that the injury, a torn MCL of her right knee, might keep her out for the entire season. With this injury, and [...]
Mitchell Gunn with permission In my last article, I explored the first of three holiday gifts that Mikaela Shiffrin gave to young ski racers for the holidays, namely, the power of disappointment to fuel your ski racing efforts. This article will introduce you to holiday gift #2 from Mikaela, the importance in a [...]
Mitchell Gunn with permission Mikaela Shiffrin is truly a gift that keeps on giving. And during this holiday season, Mikaela (without realizing it) gave ski racers the world over three gifts from her World Cup races in Aspen. Today, I’ll talk about Gift #1: Disappointment. As most of you know, Mikaela was three [...]