It’s great to see Japan back on the map as a W.C. stop this coming season. Moguls skiing is huge over there with spectators turning up in their thousands at each comp. Despite all the problems after the Tsunami, the Japanese are stronger than ever, pulling corked 1080s and skiing kamikaze !. The team were looking good when I was out training in Australia over the summer, but it was really obvious that with two seasons before the Olympic qualification opens, the Russians are going for gold.  They had a team of over 30 athletes all trying to impress their Olympic team coaches, that they should be the ones to wear their country’s vest in the Sochi Games in 2014.  The Canadians   learned a lot from the 2010 Vancouver Games and with their track record of 2 Olympic gold medals in the past 2 Games, are aiming for a third.  The French, spurred on by their 2011 World Championship success, are investing heavily in their team as are the USA and Australians who have dominated the sport for the past decade. Everything hangs in the balance to develop the best programme over the Olympic cycle and bring about medal prospects.

Back in the UK, before I head out to Colorado in a few weeks, it’s time for a harsh reality check. Although I have world class Olympic coaches and a ‘supreme-team’ behind me , the recession has hit hard and I found out last week that my main sponsor  who  has been in place for  three previous seasons, has just gone bust.  The news hit me hard on several levels. It’s so sad as they have all become such close friends and I wouldn’t have got to the Vancouver Olympics without their amazing support. But then on a personal level, my journey to Sochi has to go on. It seems to be a similar story for so many of us wintersports athletes that we rely on getting the backing and support of private investors to deliver our programmes. So, in between training sessions, I have been out there meeting new people and trying to making it happen – that seems to be as important for the coming season as staying fit right now!

I was asked by a reporter last week whether it felt a bit like David taking on Goliath?  ‘ It does’, I replied, ‘but you have to remember how that particular story ended!’

Being a full-time athlete may sound like the ideal lifestyle, jet setting around the world, but it’s nothing like a ski holiday – which is what most people relate to when I tell them what I do! Every year the technical standards of World Cup moguls skiing gets taken to a new level, the game moves on and I have  to arrive at the beginning of the winter competition season in peak condition, injury free, and skiing  at a new ‘personal best’ level. It takes a lot of planning, coordination and hard, hard work!

My coaches and I have been based in the USA since May working on taking a couple of seconds off my run. Attacking the rut lines at high altitude on the Mount Hood Glacier (Oregon) – means you’ve got to be fit before you arrive. We commute back and forth to Steamboat to train on water ramps to work on airs.  Landing into the ice cold melt-water lake at Steamboat takes your breath away at first but you soon get warm climbing back up to the top of the ramp with skis on your shoulder, boots sloshing full with water and wearing a dry suit! My ‘Backflip-X’ is higher, meaner and floating nicely. With trampoline sessions to build ‘aerial’ skills and working out in the gym, weightlifting, aerobic exercises and lots of cross training, the hard work is really paying off.

Australia throughout August was the perfect training venue as we ski shoulder to shoulder with other National teams on a full moguls course in winter snow conditions. It’s a great chance to put together the technical skiing element with two airs and get a glimpse of coming seasons competition package.

I head out again to the USA in October as soon as the snow starts to fall in Colorado  but in the meantime, with everything done that we needed to get done, it is perfect timing to head back to the UK for a well-earned break.!

I have been out in the USA training since May first skiing at Arapahoe Basin in Colorado and water ramp training and trampolining  at Steamboat. For July, I am back skiing at  Mount Hood. We have a fantastic jump site and its great to ski the bumps and sharpen my airs in the Oregon sunshine with my two coaches tweaking and adjusting the smallest of moves. Training way above the clouds on the Mt Hood glacier is just stunning at times and you can even see the curvature of the planet most days.

After all the strength and conditioning work  earlier in the year working with Dave Hembrough and the team at Sheffield Hallam Uni Sports Science Department, its really paying off now – feeling strong and fit!  Excellent preparation for Australia where I head down for the next part of my training for some winter snow for the whole of August – a great chance to take stock of the work achieved to date, apply what has been learnt on the grainy summer glacier snow at Hood and adapt it to the much faster winter snow!

Pretty much everyone on the FIS Moguls World Cup circuit has  a series of  summer  jump camps training  on a gymnastics spec trampoline and  then taking their  ’airs’ to a water ramp. For me I have been based in Steamboat, Colorado with my aerials coach Chris,  jumping on the fantastic tramp and ramp facility here . The ramp  has  a laser beam  device that detects when you are in the air and causes bubbles to rise in the water breaking the surface tension just before you land !    Stops you from slapping down on the water from a great height !

You have be pretty resilient to ramp in  May and June  as these are months where you can still get a snow storm  skiing high up in the mountains but its also  just warm enough on the valley floor to hit the water ramp and not suffer from hypothermia  in the  freezing cold meltwater lake  ( the lake is  where all the  winter snow ends up from the mountains ! )

The water  temperature is  the kind of cold that when you first jump in, your  body’s instant reaction is to jump straight out again!. But with a dry suit, neoprene gloves and a helmet  you soon  get used to things. It actually doesn’t take long to get warm  and enjoy the refreshing  cool of the water as we are constantly moving and physically working very hard.  Its a short slide down, but a long way back up !  You have to arm paddle  to the jetty with skis tucked up out of the water, haul yourself onto dry land   and then make the ascent again, –  jump after jump. After a few descents , it can be pretty tough walking up those steps to the top of the ramp  , ski boots full of water and the skis on your shoulder not getting  any lighter - but its great fitness training   in itself  which compliments all the work we do in the gym! Its well worth the effort  and the real benefits show themselves months later  in competition !

More info on ramps   http://wiki.fisski.com/index.php/Examples_of_Water_Ramps !  

Photos from May and June 2011

Her top 8 travel essentials are:

1 Ski boots- my Dalbello ski boots are like a priceless vase or other precious object. No boots = no sking! I religously take my boots ‘carried on’ as hand luggage as these are my most important pieces of ski equipment, moulded specifically to my feet and allowing me to stand in the optimum position whilst on skis. It can take up to 8hours to get my ski boots fitting perfectly from brand new. So no matter what, my boots would always be my number one item in my hand luggage along with a pair of ‘smart wool’ ski socks enabling me to still be able to ski . If my bags arrive a day or two late it doesnt matter – clothes and toiletries are easy to borrow and replace!.

2. Snokart bags- sometimes I have to travel for up to fours months at a time which really does mean packing everything but the kitchen sink! I am really fortunate to be supported by SnoKart who have an incredible luggage system called ‘the kart’ which allows your main luggage and ski bag to all connect together which makes transporting them so much easier! The range has been so well worked out speicifically for skiers – and I sure can give them the thumbs after after all the battering and abuse of baggage handlers. Good bags are worth their weight in gold ! Check out their range at www.SnoKart.com

3. Healthy snacks- when traveling it’s really easy to just want to snack on easy but unhealthy snack foods such as a packet of crisps or a chocolate bar. I always make sure to bring myself something healthier such as a ‘Herbalife’ protein bar or a piece of fruit such as an apple (you have to be careful with fruit and airline regulations though! so I normally buy it at the airport)

4. iPad 2- provides great entertainment on long flights and allows me to do my distance learning with open university on the go in the airport or whilst on the plane!

5. Sweaty Betty warrior roll downs- the most comfortable pair of sweatpants you will ever wear!!

6. Skins- recovery/travel compression tights that help my legs to still feel fresh after a long day of travel.

7. Water bottle- flying makes you dehydrate really quickly so I always drink lots to stay as hydrated as possible and reduce the effects of jet lag.

8. Phone- its always important to have a phone on you in a foreign country, I always keep my family members and coaches updated with my travel progress incase of an emergency or flight cancellation.

Some what a mixture of items- some great tips and ideas there though – Thanks Ellie!

If you want to follow Ellie’s journey around the world to the 2014 Winter Olympics check out her twitter page www.twitter.com/elliekoyander or her Facebook fan page www.facebook.com/elliekoyander

Spring skiing is like no other time of year . Being up in the mountains  is just beautiful!

The weather is warm,  wild animals start to come out , and the views are just spectacular. It’s the perfect ‘feel good’ training environment to be in.  I have been skiing up at A – Basin Colorado and it looks like the 2010  / 2011 season is going to go on right up till 4^th July ! Its been a fantastic season for the snow !

Security is tight; you cannot get into the Village or go anywhere ‘official’ without Olympic Accreditation documents, there are frequent checks so we wear these at all times. The mountain is completely shut off to anyone without their Olympic credentials and these are restricted to all but a handful of select coaches and people from the media who are busy building platforms, running wires, doing last minute testing of systems. For the moment Cypress Mountain is a completely desolate private training hill.

The public area is like a seaside town in the winter… the only thing missing are the 12,000 people who have bought tickets and are due to fill up this official Olympic sites food areas, form lines outside the porta-loos, the souvenir tents, and fill the vast empty seating on the grandstand.  We are told that the Olympics moguls event was the first event to have completely sold out and you cannot get spare tickets for love nor money. I will be the first Team GB athlete to perform the very next day after the Opening Ceremony, in the meantime it’s just great to get onto the Olympic course and get skiing again.

There is an arrangement during the training schedule for ‘friends and family’ to watch. Because official accreditation documents are so hard to come by, nearly all athletes have private coaches who are relying on getting onto the hill to support their athletes on these days. My second coach Timmy Meagher (who took Travis Meyer to Silver Medal in the 2002 Games) is one of the many coaches eagerly waiting in the sidelines.

We are ferried on a motorcade of coaches between the Village and the Freestyle Olympic venue at Cypress Mountain. There are no stops and the only time the doors open again is when we arrive at our final destination having gone through a screening security tent and a series of checkpoints.

On the first day of training there is a huge security alert. A man wanting to watch the women’s moguls action has somehow managed to bypass all the security checks, walk through the woods and is spotted by an armed policeman. Rumours have it that he was in the sights of a sniper and was lucky not to have been shot. The consequence of this is that there is a complete shutdown of all friends and family passes for all events at Cypress Mountain. This is pretty devastating for all athletes and their entourage who have travelled so far, but we have little choice other than to accept this and stay positive.

The first couple of days of training are excellent and the widely reported warm temperatures and lack of snow prove to not even be an issue thanks to the incredible work of the organisers. The course is running well on hard packed firm snow enabling me to really attack the hill and cut with my edges. I am skiing at my absolute best.

At the Opening Ceremony, Team GB is assembled and we all walk out into a stadium filled to the brim with over 60,000 spectators. The roar of the crowd is like no other noise I have ever heard and I feel so proud and privileged to be British and representing my country at the Olympics with over 3 billion worldwide viewers tuned in to their TV sets at this very moment in time.

Leaving the Ceremony all I can think about is that it is now raining hard, really hard. My thoughts instantly turn to what is likely to be happening to the course. Cypress Mountain is low and the rain cannot possibly be falling as snow on the hill. This means that if the temperature stays as warm as it is now, the course will be slushy and heavy, if the temperature drops then the bumps will be hard and icy. One thing that is certain is that the course will be totally different to the way it has been over the previous days of training. I think of the adjustments that I will make to my skiing. Although the Opening Ceremony was spectacular I completely drift off into visualisations of the training run and thinking about how strong my skiing has been and the fact that it’s the first day of the Olympics and my competition day tomorrow.

It is still raining heavily the next day and as we arrive at the mountain there are chilling high winds and dense Pacific fog blowing across the course. The previous day there was the tragic news of Nodar Kumaritashvili who died in training on the luge course. Today the Men’s downhill training has been cancelled due to the rain and on the bus all the moguls competitors are talking about is whether the moguls competition will run and whether it’s safe. When we decamp from the bus we can see the spectators starting to arrive with a sea of umbrellas and glistening rain drenched transparent ponchos. This is not nice skiing or spectating weather but it looks like the show is going to go ahead.

We have just three top to bottom runs to get used to the most hostile conditions ever experienced, before training is closed. Things are completely different to the previous days, there is nothing familiar about this course, the firm snow of the past couple of days has transformed into heavy granular grippy slush, and the bumps are getting rutted and steep sided. The landings are steaming away where they have added liquid nitrogen to try to solidify the mush and it makes for an ‘interesting’ ingredient to adjust the balance to then ski into the soft course. On the first training run I went ‘big’ on my bottom air back flip and landed completely outside  the  treated dry iced area. There is no room for errors in the unforgiving slush and I am grateful that I landed squarely and solidly centred on my feet.

Goggles just don’t deal with rain droplets forming on the lenses and the rain was the biggest issue. Skiing on the course was like driving as fast as you can down a motorway in a storm but without windshield wipers. The strong gusts of wind on the top section kept blowing in patches of fog or suddenly blasting from nowhere and making a smooth flight in the air unpredictable.

Training runs are done… it’s now time! Before I know it the race has started and I am counting down until it’s my turn. I am composed and relaxed. I never knew how I would deal with the spectacle of being in the Olympics and skiing in front a huge thronging crowd, but in the start gate I am just incredibly calm and focussed, there is nothing but me and this wild hill that needs taming.

Coming into the first air I catch a ‘crab’ in the slush which just pulls my entry into the 360 off centre, I manage to land the trick but I know that the judges will have deducted points on the landing. I flow on dancing through the bumps and have the most incredible run through the technical section then into my backflip at the bottom. It is only at the end of my run that I hear the loud music, the announcer and the crowd cheering! For me, my run up until that point has been muted in the complete focus of my performance.

My result is up and I am in with a shot to be one of the 20 skiers who progress to the Olympic Final, but by the time the last of the remaining competitors have come down, I finish in 24^th place. There have been so many positives that I have taken away and I know that looking at my scores afterwards, the ‘bobble’ at the top air was the only thing that cost me a place in the final. I can’t be unhappy though, Vancouver was all about dealing with really hostile weather conditions on an unpredictable ever-changing course in front of the world’s audience, and I skied really well given the experience of the field of competitors.

After a run lasting just 31.90 seconds, I have emerged from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics a different person and a different skier. I am so privileged to have been a part of Team GB; their support was just incredible! Pat, Timmy and I have already mapped out the programme for Sochi 2014 with the firm goal of being on the Olympic podium in 4 years time. Staying in the Village as an Olympic Tourist now, I am taking in all the other incredible competitions on offer but from the perspective and understanding of a fellow Olympic competitor rather than just a spectator!

Vancouver, February 14th 2010 – for immediate info:

The women’s Olympic moguls event at Cypress Mountain ran despite fears of cancellation due to extraordinarily poor weather conditions. Competitors and spectators were besieged by strong winds and relentless rain that ran from start to finish.
For the Olympic athletes, this made for very slushy ‘grippy’ conditions, with mist and poor visibility. In front of a 12,000 capacity crowd in the floodlit moguls arena, Great Britain’s eighteen year old Ellie Koyander, got Team GB’s Olympic participation off to an exciting start, finishing in 24th place and narrowly missing out on a place in the moguls final.

Commenting on the event, Ellie said: “I was so pleased with my performance tonight – there was a tricky moment coming into the first jump where the slush grabbed at one of my skis – this pulled me slightly off balance into my 360, the slush then grabbed me again on the landing. I managed to recover control and hit the technical middle section with all the speed that I have been working so hard on; That was the only thing that cost me a place in the final.”
Ellie continued, “Most of all, I was really pleased with my time – it was right up there with the field and I went huge with my backflip off the kicker. Today was really slushy and with droplets of water forming on my goggles it was like skiing blindfolded – but I laid down a great run! I’m just feeling absolutely incredible right now, it’s an amazing experience out there! To ski in the Olympics and to now call myself an Olympian is just amazing. I’ve just learnt so much coming here, it’s the biggest crowd i’ve ever skied in front of and to really stay focused in the Games has been a great experience.”

Coach Pat Deneen commented, “Ellie was right there in the game tonight, this has been such an important building block for the Sochi Winter Olympics, in 2014, and I have no doubt whatsoever that knowing what we have achieved in the past 3 years, Ellie will be a podium contender in 4 years time – she has done Team GB proud .’