Part 2 of Eliza Graham's recent blog as Working as a Physio with a sporting team. Eliza will be back working in our Cooma and Jindabyne clinics in less than 2 weeks!!
"January also saw us say farewell to the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) Mogul team as they headed off to compete at World Cups in Canada and America. We were lucky enough to travel from Colorado to Utah to watch the Aussies compete at the Deer Valley Freestyle World Cup in early February. This is the biggest and most impressive event on the circuit with thousands of people watching the night finals under lights on the course ‘Champion’, infamous for claiming ACLs. ‘Champion’ is 248 metres of moguls, two jumps and has an average pitch of 28 degrees which the men complete in about 25 seconds. It’s a particularly fantastic event to watch due to the number of Australian athletes competing. In addition to the OWIA’s four athletes, another six Australians were due to compete after gaining World Cup starts from competition results they achieved earlier in the season. Unfortunately two Aussie women sustained injuries during training and were unable to compete.
I went to Deer Valley expecting a little break from my team physio duties as the OWIA team had another physio on hand for this event, however with so many athletes due to compete, it was all hands on deck and I ended up helping out our mogul skiers as well as the Australian Snowboard Halfpipe team who were competing nearby at Park City Ski Resort.
Our very own Matt Graham (who Sapphire Coast and Snowy Mountains Physiotherapy proudly sponsor) finished on top of the podium in the singles event, beating Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury (Olympic Silver medallist, 2x World Champion and 4x World Cup Champion) and breaking his very long winning streak! It was awesome to have so many Australians there to cheer Matt on as he took out the win. It still feels surreal!
Our team has since halved with most of the athletes returning to Australia for the beginning of the school year. The remaining five AUSMSA athletes will travel between the United States and Canada alongside the NSWIS Development Team for the next month whilst competing in the North American Cup Tour (NorAm’s). NorAm’s is an incredibly high level of competition with many of the competitors having competed at a World Cup level. This level of competition serves to feed the American and Canadian National Teams.
Hopefully I can continue to help everyone perform during competition, even if it requires a lot of strapping tape. Stay tuned.
Eliza "
