Blog (2008 - 2009)

Finals (21 March 09)

The season has finally come to an end after World Cup finals in La Plagne, France yesterday.

We competed last week in Grindelwald and to Meiringen, Switzerland. It dumped snow in Grindelwald and we were only able to get qualifying off where I finished 9th. Then over to Meiringen where we had great weather but was illegally kicked by an Austrian which put me off balance on the first turn, as I tried to over before a jump, the back of my skis got trodden on by one of the Swiss girls and we both went down in the first heat ending up 17th...

The finals also didn't go so as planed in La Plagne, but I did come away in once piece... There were a lot of accidents yesterday which included a broken leg, ACL (knee injury), concussion, broken ribs, 3 face injuries, and a back injury. There also was a lot of crashes which made me a little worried going into my first heat, I really wanted to finish the season uninjured which was the main goal! Unfortunately because I wasn't concentrating 100% on what I was doing and was a little to focused on what was going on around me, I also fell of some rollers so ended up 4th in my heat which left me 14th overall.

This season hasn't been great for me. I should have done a lot better but unfortunately with a few equipment problems and a concussion, it left me out of a few comps which means my overall world cup ranking is now down in 12th. My goal was to be ranked top 5 which should have been achieved. I definitely didn't set my goals to high and know that this is definitely where I should have been. I hope that we have everything now figured out for next season so this problems don't happen again and we can focus on the job!

I was happy with the beginning of my season with a 4th and 2nd at some world cups so lets hope that we have more of those next season!!

I had some company this year too with 2 other athletes travelling with us, Katya Crema and Scott Kneller. THey were both great team mates and so much fun to have around. I'm looking forward to summer training (our winter) this year, it will be great to have other people around to push me further.

I fly home to Sydney tomorrow, arriving back on Tuesday (23/3/09). I'll have a few weeks off to enjoy some sun (hopefully), then back to work in the gym.

Thanks again to everyone that has supported me, It's always very much appreciated. It's also been great having OWIA (Olympic Winter Institute of Australia) supporting me this season. It has defantley made things a lot less stressful!

I hope to see you all soon, hope everything is well

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If anyone is interested in watching the Freestyle World Champs, it can be viewed at http://freestyle.infrontams.tv/popup/ (go to 'watch on demand' if the event has already been on).

I hope everyons is doing well where ever they maybe

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Vancouver - Canada/Voss - Norway (20 Feb 2009)

Sorry for the late update again. I know it's been a while but things have been pretty busy.

I'll start with Cypress World Cup (Olympic test event) which was on the 6th of Feb. The course was a lot different to what we're used to. Lots of jumps and rollers so your constantly doing something the whole time. The course was about 1 minute 20 which is also pretty long for a Ski Cross event. Anyway, qualifying went ok, I didn't expect much as it took me a while to get comfortable on the course. By race day thought, I knew what I had to do but unfortunately in the 1/4 finals, I got pushed down and for some strange reason, wasn't allowed to protest so I was pretty upset and frustrated as you could imagine. Overall I ended up 11th.

We had a week off skiing in Vancouver to kill some time leading into the next world cup in Norway. John Marsden (fitness trainer from NSWIS) was to test us and make sure we were sore by the time we were getting back on a flight to Norway!

Norway has been ok too. They had a lot of snow the night before training so unfortunately training was cancelled because there was to much snow on the course. We had training right before qualifying yesterday which was ok but again, unfortunately I had a fall in qualifying and knocked myself out for a few minutes. I don't really remember what happened but when I started to come too, I wasn't feeling so healthy! I was taken to the hospital and observed over night, had scans and x-rays done on my neck which is pretty sore but am in the clear from any fractures or ligament tears. I have a sprained neck so should be back up and ready for world champs. I will miss the next comp so will just take it easy and get lots of physio so i'm ready to go in a few weeks.

Besides all the drama, all is well and i'll be back in touch once i'm in Japan for worlds

Hope everyone is doing well

Winter X Games 13 (26 January 2009)

This year wasn't the best of conditions for X Games. Except for the first day, we had a bit of rain and a lot of very wet sticky snow fall which made the course very slow and not run so well.

One good thing this year was that there were a lot less injuries, a few little injuries that will have people back in a few weeks.

I qualified in 6th which I wasn't very happy with but at the same time, my skis were very sticky, casing every jump (landing on the upside of other jumps) on the way down hurting my shins once again!

The race wasn't so great either, the conditions were terrible. After hurting my shins so bad in training and qualifying, I didn't have much left in them because of the bone brusing I've given them. I was up with the top girls for half of the way until I cased another jump (so did everyone else too) and basically giving up. I came through in 4th in my heat, not sure where that leaves me overall, I think about 9th. Even if I made it through to the finals, I'm not sure I could have started as I was having trouble standing in the finish. I didn't go back up for the small finals either, didn't think it was worth it!

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Finally made the podium! (20 January 2009)

I was feeling a bit of colour today so was a little worried about how i'd go. They took 32 girls from qualifying this time instead of the usual 16 so it made things a little more interesting which was good.

I qualified through in 7th with an ok run. My first heat I think was my toughest as I had Hedda from Norway and Kelsey from Canada, all good starters and good skiers! I came in behind Hedda in my first heat but was fighting for first and trying to keep Kelsey behind me as much as I could. I had good starts in teh rest of my heats. I came in 2nd also in the quater finals but one the semi's which put me though to the finals.

I had a good start in the finals and slipped in behind Ophelie David. I was on her heals the hole way down trying to find a place to take her but it just wasn't happening! I came in just behind her in 2nd in a very exciting final heat.

It turned out to be a good day after all, all smiles and ready for Winter X Games in Aspen! Training starts on Wednesday and we compete on Sunday. I'll keep you all up to date on the action there

Scott Kneller unfortunately didn't qualify through but he did a great job on my skis in the start!

Thanks to everyone once again for the support.

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4th in France (11 January 2009)

Hello from France

So France was a little more successful then St Johann!

I had a great qualifying run which left me with the 2nd fastest time. I was very happy with that after my disappointing qualifying run in St Johann.

I skied well in both my 1/4 finals and semis but unfortunately didn't have a great start in the finals which left me lagging in the first couple of turns. I got a little stuck and twisted through a turn coming into a double jump and ended up casing it and losing any chance of breaking into the top 3.

I'm a little disappointed but am also happy at the same time! It's defiantly better then 16th!!

It's great to have a good result under my belt leading into Flaine where I was 2nd last year. Lets hope I can get it all together by then.

Jenny

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First comp of the season... (5 January 2009)

The first comp got under way tonight here in St Johann, Austria.

My qualifying run wasn't the best, making a big mistake coming onto the flat and losing time. I just scraped into qualify for the finals, 16th (16 qualify through to the finals).

The organisers had a tough time with the snow here. They had a lot of rain last week so they had to bring in snow. They injected the snow with water, twice, which made the snow turn into ice! Everyone had trouble on a few turns with it being so slick which also made the landing off jumps pretty hard on the body!

With the slowest land of my heat, I wasn't able to do much out of the start, I was up with the girls but lost out in the first turn so was at the back most of the way, tried to make some passes but just wasn't able to so ended up 16th.

Not a great result but not to disappointed. It's the first comp of the season. Fist comp nerves are now gone and am ready for the next one.

We head off to our next comp tomorrow in France. Training starts on the 8th, qualifying on the 9th and race 10th.

Hope you all had a great holiday over the Christmas break.

Jenny

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (21 December 2008)

It's been 5 weeks now that I've been over in Nth America training. The first 4 weeks were very tough, both Scott Kneller and I were very tired and were in need of an easy week which we've both just had.

We fly over to Europe on the Christmas Eve, arriving Christmas day. We'll be training in Grasgehren, Germany for a week leading into our first World Cup of the season. I think we're very well prepared for the coming season and am looking forward to it all again.

Since November 1st, the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia(OWIA) and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) have picked my program up which covers nearly all my expenses plus my coach, Matt Lyons and his expenses. You can't imagine how much pressure this takes off me financially plus I have other people like Matt and the team in the office organising all travel, accommodation etc which is great. I don't have to stress any more about having to perform to afford to get to the next comp, I can just concentrate on my job, which is to perform!!

As you all ready know from my previous emails since last year, NSWIS also look after my fitness program which John Marsden put a lot of time and effort into. We have a close relationship and we work very well together. I'm at my fittest and strongest I've ever been and know this will help me do a lot better this season.

Matt Lyons has been a great coach for me too. We did a lot of work over the summer (our winter) and also have accomplished a lot over the past 5 weeks.

Along with all that help and my continued support from my sponsors, there is no reason why I shouldn't be on the podium more consistently this season and be able to make greater results.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and wish you all the very best in the New Year.

I will be in contact again once we're at our first comp in St Johann, Austria.

Don't forget to check out my website from time to time, I am trying to keep it as up to date as I can. I'm also trying to re-vamp it a little too!

I also have a new sponsor with SkiSpace.com. This is a newish site which was developed my Bode Miller (best all round alpine skier). It's basically like a MySpace or a FaceBook page but for skiers so please check it out and if you can, please join and show your support for Australian skiing or www.skispace.com/jennyowens or www.skispace.com

Jenny

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Northern winter begins again (24 November 2008)

Hi all

Sorry that my updates have been very spread apart over the past 8 months. We had a good southern winter, training at Perisher and a few camps in Hotham at the new Ski Cross track which was great. I’ve also had a pretty intense fitness program this year too so am hoping this season will be a good one!

I’m back overseas now in Colorado, training at Copper Mtn. We arrived last week, not too much snow but enough to train on.

The Jeep King of the Mountain series have been cancelled this season which is a shame. Money is a bit tight in the auto industry over here so fingers crossed things get better before next year and the tour starts up again.

With the Jeeps cancelled, out first comp will be the World Cup in St Johann, Austria on January 5th so we have a good block till then.

I’ve also been a bit slack with updating my website. I’m in the middle of re designing it but it’s also not the easiest thing to do! If you could check it out and let me know what you would like on their re logos etc and also make any comments to how things could be better, that would be really appreciated. I’m also in the middle of putting together an Australian Ski Cross team website (Uni project) so I will let you know when I’ve got that up and running too.

I probably wont have much exciting news for you until January when things start to get going so my updates will be pretty short and sweat until then.

Hope you all are well

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Training - Southern Winter (8 Aug 08)

Now that the southern winter is well under way, I thought it was about time I sent round an update to let you all know how it's going.

For those that don't know, I've been down in Hotham for the past 10 days on a Ski Cross/Boarder Cross camp. The Boarder Cross team were there a week before us and put in a huge effort to build the course along with the Hotham groomers and Events Team here (big thanks to Scott Sanderson).

Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side as we only had one clear day but we were able to get a lot done nonetheless...

Scott Kneller, who is changing over to Ski Cross from Alpine was also there for the first week so it was great to have someone else to train with and race against!

I'll am back up in Thredbo for the National Alpine Giant Slaloms which I'm looking forward too, should be fun!

All past injuries are holding up so everything is going well.

Hope everyone is well and getting lots of skiing done!

(Click on images to enlarge)