Kazui Bounces Back from Injuries

This season has gone a little crazy. First off I was in Colorado training and I broke my arm. I didn’t have enough pressure on my outside ski and my ski popped off I went down hard. I was back on snow in a couple days but I could not ski gates for about another month. Then on new years I had another crash. I went over a whale and landed sideways. I was knocked out for a while and I was rushed to the Albany Hospital immediately. It turned out I broke my arm again, broke my ribs, bruised my lungs, and punctured my liver. When I woke up in the hospital I knew that my season was in jeopardy.

I couldn’t walk for a couple days and couldn’t even get up to go to the bathroom! I was released 4 days later and rested at my house for about a week. From the doctors at Albany, to my local pediatrician at home, they all said my ski season was over. They said a normal person would take 3 months to 6 months to fully recover and progressively start gaining their normal strength back. I will be honest I was sobbing under my bed sheets crying that I couldn’t ski again. But, when I checked my email or looked at my mailbox people were there for me cheering me on.

I wondered why I thought of giving up when the people around me weren’t. I cut the crap and I gave it all I got. My first race back was a nice and flat GS at West Mountain. I came in 3rd behind Colin and Peter Martens (my nemesis for this season). The next day I had a steep and icy SL at Windham Mountain. I came in 2nd in the first run but the course just wouldn’t hold for the 2nd run. I DNF’d and went home without a medal around my neck. I wasn’t really pleased with a 3rd and a 2nd but this secured me A seed at states this year. I had Super G the following week. This is when fitness came into place for missing a month of skiing. I couldn’t hold my tuck all the way down, caught massive air off the final pitch and ended up in 8th place. I wasn’t to pleased with that either but I guess it’s alright for the first real Super G I ever raced.

I hope that I will have a successful season and not get destroyed by mother nature again.

.)) Kazui Kusumi