it's been a while I know, but once again I've had a crazy month, going from one injury right into the next one...!
The back injury I suffered in December turned out to be worse than expected: a stress fracture in my spine, a broken disk and a sprained SI-joint kept me off snow for four weeks straight, meaning that the first day of practice at X-Games was my first day back on snow since Dew Tour in December.
I got cortisone shots in my back on the 18th of January, but unfortunately they didn't help me right away so I skied X-Games in pain, but was happy about my performance and happy my back hold up after all that trouble.
Getting my injections at Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail....
Next up was the FIS World Championships in Park City... I already felt less pain in my back, but the pipe was real sketchy and I didn't pull all my tricks out cause the last thing I wanted to do is fall and hurt my back again...I ended up in 7th place. Not too happy, but not too sad about this result neither regarding all my back problems and my lack of training.
After three days off my skis, practice for the last Dew Tour stop in Snowbasin started. I absolutely loved that pipe, it was just amazing and with my back getting better I had big goals for this competition. Once again though the luck was not with me....I crashed really really hard in prelims on a right 540, catching my left ski on the copping and falling straight down to the flat bottom of the pipe, chest first. The pipe was 22 feet high so you can imagine how much that hurt.
I got helicoptered down to the hospital in Ogden and after several X-rays and a CAT scan they only found some fractures in my rips. I guess I was really really lucky and I take it for what it is. Lying in that pipe waiting for medical I seriously thought I was gonna die....couldn't breathe anymore, thought my lungs were punctured...it was just horrible and I was even asking myself why I ski. Women's Freestyle skiing doesn't get the attention we deserve, we are all spending tons of cash to compete and travel all year around and not much comes back.
In the hospital again but this time in Ogden, UT....totally druged up...
I was really scared that I got hurt badly, fortunately the "luck" was on my side and I didn't, but it definitely made me think why I'm skiing and why I'm putting myself in this daily risk.
Thinking about it now, 48 hours after that hard crash I know why I ski: I love it, but there are limits and with the pipes always getting bigger and more icy, the risks are getting bigger.
I'm gonna recover and learn those tricks I wanted to learn for so long now, but in a soft pipe, somewhere where the risks of getting hurt are less high.
Also I did ask myself why it's always me that gets hurt? Every season there is something and I end up in hospitals. Some skiers get hurt more, some less and I'm trying to figure out the reason it's always me. I like to think it's meant to be....but why? I can't figure it out.....
I think I've been hurt more days this season that I've actually been skiing....once again.
I've been working with my new agent and coach. On the few days I've trained with him, my Halfpipe skiing got way better but now I got stopped again with a new injury. I really hope to be back on skis in like two weeks and hopefully be able to have some fun again and conquer my fear that has built up in the last couple of years due to repeating injuries.
I'm determined to come back stronger, like always, but I'm definitely thinking whether it's worth putting myself into this daily risk of getting hurt.
Maybe it is, maybe it is not, but I do know that skiing isn't everything in life, even if I love and would not wanna live without it.
xoxo,
Mirjam
For those who want to see my crash....here it is:
