April, 2014

In January at Squaw after one of Annika’s ski races, she was upset and confided in me that she had made goals for herself with respect to ski racing and she didn’t appear to be making progress on them. Two things struck me at the time:

1. Her goals were fair, and for a 10 year old to even think about goals seemed surprisingly mature to me.

2. Until then I thought my goals were the only game in town. They were not that Annika do poorly, but that I not emphasize (or even encourage) the idea of results mattering. I would encourage Annika verbally, emphasize that she simply do her best and have fun, and show up race day ready to take pictures. But I had not yet done anything with respect to hardware (ski) support.

Annika mentioned how many of the girls carry (versus ski with) their race skis to the start, how their Dad’s are at the race start doing last minute waxing, etc. Thus far I had intentionally not done this, as I felt like it was prioritizing results over everything else. It was only now that I realized I needed to take Annika’s intentions and goals into consideration.

Fast forward to this past weekend, the final end of year Far West ski races at Sugar Bowl. Annika is on skis that have been tuned, she is carrying her race skis to the start, she is determined. The last race on the last day of the season, and Annika gets 14th place – achieving one of her goals of getting within the top 15.

I could not be more proud of Annika – for establishing fair goals, and persistently keeping after them. Go Annika!