"Crash" Kusumi

Hey everyone,

Seasons been great so far and back east we have gotten a lot of snow the last couple of days. The only bad thing is I broke my ankle around 5 weeks ago which really sucks. It was the first day back from Colorado. I came around a GS gate, hip checked, and broke my tibia. I'm going to get a doc appointment in Wednesday to see if I can at least start walking on it or not.

I'm planning on coming back around the end of January so i'm pretty pumped for that. I have about four council races to get myself into States and ERS Super-G. I feel like I haven't had any luck with injuries so far this past two years at all. But all of my teammates managed to sweep the podium the first two races boys and girls which i'm pretty pumped about. Since their going to ERS (kind of like a pre- JO's fun race) I'd like to personally wish all of them good luck and I hope I can get back skiing as fast as I can.

Photo above with Ted Ligety

.)) Kazui Kusumi

Latest from Lena

Sorry I have not blogged in a while. I have been racing a ton and have not had a chance to catch up.

Well where to start? The season started off great and I was able to get a couple of good SL results. I was stoked and feeling confident. Right before Christmas I got sick (bummer) and was off my game for few races. Went home to Tahoe for few days over Christmas to regroup and recoup and got back out east for the Sunday River NorAms.

NorAms are so fun. The venues are always good and the competition is awesome. I had a great experience race at Sunday River. The surface was WC injected, hard and slick. After 4 days of racing on it you could not see a track. Although I did not find the finish I had some great splits and was stoked at the opportunity.

We left Sunday River and headed for Okemo for two GS and two SG races. The track was awesome. Grippy and hard!!! The first day of GS I was really skiing well. Pushing hard. I was testing that fine line between success and going in the fence. I found the fence. I knew I was skiing really well and was looking forward to the next day and it got cancelled!!!!! I was really disappointed. I knew what I could do on this hill and wanted another crack at it in GS. The weather gods did not cooperate. The morning of the SG the wind had died down and it was game on.

I knew what I could do on this hill and was stoked to get in the gate. In the first race I skied really well and executed my race plan but gave the hill a little too much respect. I had a decent result but I knew I could make the adjustments needed to win. In the second race I executed my race plan, brought the warrior into it and ended up second. It was a special day because my team mate Delainey got the win!!!! (only got me by 16/100ths D!!!! Look out next time!!!) It's awesome when you can share the podium with the team. It means everything worked. We both executed, Sav had the line and our serviceman had our skis running fast. It was a true team effort and was great to be a part of.

We are on our way up to Bromont Ontario for a couple of SL races then to Sugarloaf for the Colby Carnival. Hope you all are slaying.

Until next time,

.)) Lena Andrews