Golden Again

It's been a very busy and cold week here in Lake Placid.

The weather changed just enough throughout the week to cause the athletes to have to adjust what they were doing. when it was a little warmer (and when I say warmer, I mean in the 20s) the ice was perfect. Cold enough to be hard and fast, but soft enough to allow the sled to grip the ice. So her times were really good, even tied her personal best at :46.5. 

But, on race day the weather was around 0 degrees, making the ice very fast with no grip for the sled. It made for some slightly slower times because many of the sliders skidded across some ice, or bumped walls, which is what Ellie did on both her runs.

She was in 2nd place behind Maggie after the first run. On the second run, when they go from slowest to fastest times, Ellie again had a good, not great run. Bumped a couple walls at the beginning, but moved into first place.

Maggie went last and was having a great run, until the very end. She crashed in the last turn and wasn't able to stay on her sled, so she didn't finish her run. That allowed Ellie to hang on and win the gold medal. She has now won back-to-back gold medals at the Empire State Winter Games, and probably the last time she'll compete in them since there is a chance she'll move up to the older team team next year.

So it was an emotional week of ups and down, but it ended with some excitement and a place on the podium.

She's here for another week, getting some work in with the C team in preparation for US Nationals in about 3 weeks. There was a chance, and still might be, that she'll try doubles, but that's up in the air. She was hoping she'd get the chance, but her coach is giving two other girls the first shot at it. So she was disappointed, but hopefully she takes full advantage of the time this week to fine tune her singles times.