March, 2017

What to do…

Last weekend were the end of season U10 ski championships at Squaw for the twins.

Thursday was Big G; Britta ended in 27th place, Niki was .4 seconds behind in 33rd. Apparently since Britta didn’t get a medal, Niki was OK that Britta had beater her.

Friday was Giant Slalom; Britta medaled with 6th place, while Niki was 9.71 seconds behind in 30th place.

Saturday was slalom with stubbies; Britta medaled with 9th place, while Niki was 2.06 seconds behind in 17th place.

Sunday was PSL PDS; Britta medaled with 12th place, while Niki was 2.45 seconds behind in 31st place.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Heartbreaking. Not only had Niki lost to Britta every race; not only had Britta medaled 3 times; but Niki didn’t even medal once, as a sort of consolation. After her first stubby run on Saturday Niki was in 8th place, well ahead of Britta. But her second run was too slow, bumping her out of medal contention.

Heartbreaking.

Niki really took it tough. When she was with other friends (all of which had done worse than Niki) she was in a great mood. It was only when she was with Britta that her disappointment prevented her from being happy for Britta.

Niki pleaded through tears that she had trained hard, was taking it seriously, wanted so badly to do well and really tried her best…it was a delicate time for us, since we needed to compliment and congratulate Britta (who kept saying “I’m so proud of myself”, but always in a soft tone so Niki wouldn’t hear) while at the same time acknowledging Niki’s disappointment.

Niki insisted all weekend long that Britta was better than her at everything, and nothing we said would contradict her conclusions.

What a bummer. You want so much for your children, to be successul at everything they set their mind to, but in the end it’s up to them. And at 9 years old, they are starting to figure that out. No room for bullshit.

http://lifeofannika.com/Niki/year/9/images/U10Championships/

http://lifeofannika.com/Britta/year/9/images/U10Championships/