Skiing Season: From European International Schools to FIS Races

It has been quite the two weeks for skiing in Aiglon!

We have had a team of 9 at the European International Schools event in Wengen, a team of 4 in the British Schoolgirls in Flaine, hosting the SGIS Cat A & B Championships with 22 Aiglonians racing, Long Ex Racers over the weekend, including evening activities and FIS in Villars; there has barely been time for the wax to dry before heading off to the next event.

European International Schools - Wengen

Our first big international race took place in Wengen for the EISSR. Racers were chosen from the Performance Squad (who have extra obligations to fulfil) for this, though not all were chosen on this occasion. The team really started to gel together, and the support and atmosphere were brilliant.

The race was on the Lauberhorn, an incredible venue for our young ones. A lot of praise goes to one of our new coaches Leo, who, at 23yrs old, is developing into an excellent coach and patient leader with our students. Zac also joined us fresh off the train from the MUN conference at 6 am and managed to arrive in time for the first race having not inspected it, which he then won!

Team: Zac, Tyler, Douglas, Manu, Alicia, Sophia, Ava, Matilde, Lise
Coach: Leo
Staff: Caroline G, James D
Results:

GS:

• 1st - Lise (Cat C)
• 3rd - Tyler (Cat C)
• 2nd - Alicia (Cat B)
• 3rd - Matilde (Cat B)
• 1st - Zac (Cat A)
• 4th - Douglas (Cat A)

SL:

• 1st - Lise (Cat C)
• 2nd - Tyler (Cat C)
• 1st - Alicia (Cat B)
• 3rd - Matilde (Cat B)
• 1st - Zac (Cat A)
• 4th - Douglas (Cat A)

Super G:

• 1st - Zac (Cat A)
• 1st - Tyler (Cat C)

Parallel Slalom:

• 1st - Aiglon College

British Schoolgirls - Flaine

After being delivered back to school at 10pm on Saturday night, Sunday afternoon meant back in the van to travel over to Flaine for the British Schoolgirls race, a race in which Aiglon has a 30-year history! For this race, the girls have to be current British passport holders. We met the mum of another racer who is an alumna and had the best memories of Aiglon - including our orange expedition tents! Her girls were fascinated by ours and said her mum described school like something from Enid Blyton's St. Clare's books.

Some really incredible results came from Alicia and Matilde (who sat in amongst current GB athletes). Ava travelled as the reserve for the team and competed as a reserve but was swapped in for the team parallel slalom, and we were very pleased with her maturity and support of the others. The girls bonded as a strong foursome that will be going back next year, hoping for even better results.

Team: Alicia, Sophia, Ava, Matilde
Coach: Annick
Staff: Caroline G

Results: click here
Under 16 GS: 3rd - Mati, 4th - Alicia, 9th - Sophia
Under 16 SL: 2nd - Alicia, 4th - Mati
Combined: 2nd - Alicia, 4th - Mati
Best School: 2nd - Aiglon College

SGIS Championships - Cat A & B

Just after arriving back from Flaine, we went straight into hosting the SGIS Championships for Cat A and B with eight other schools attending. A massive thanks to the PE staff for coming up to help with the race being marshals and starters and keeping the racers organised and safely off the course. Our events have a reputation of running very smoothly and professionally amongst other schools, and we are keeping up that reputation!

Team: Lana, Maria, Romy, Anna, Cami, Alicia, Sophia, Ava, Matilde, Chloe, Jimena, Zac, Douglas, Alex, Richard, Manu, Shoki, Santi,Theo, Casper, Arthi
Coach: Leo / David
Staff: Caroline G, James D, Simon H, Chris C, Nick R

Cat A Boys:
1st - Zac, 2nd - Alex, 5th - Manu
Team - 1st

Cat A Girls:
4th - Lana
Team - 2nd

Cat B Boys:
2nd - Theo, 3rd - Shoki
Team - 2nd

Cat B Girls:
1st - Matilde, 2nd - Sophia, 4th - Ava
Team - 1st

FIS

As internationals and SGIS weren't enough for the FIS boys, it was their first proper FIS slalom race of the season, which was here in Villars. This is a significant step up in terms of standard, and this was an entry-level FIS competition for young athletes. Zac showed strong form as the forerunner and was able to give advice, and was a great teammate to the others. The students also enjoyed their coach Leo fore-running, and we have persuaded him to reactivate his FIS license.

Manu finished Saturday with a very strong two runs and his first FIS points of around 161 - such a good start. The others had a few blips and DNFs however our work on mindset seems to be paying off, and the boys were not afraid to fail - they took the experience and learnt from it. We aren't yet expecting results from this group, competing, finishing and taking away things to work on in training are what we want.

Team: Douglas, Manu, Kamran, Alex O, Zac (forerunning)
Coach: Leo / David
Staff: Caroline

Weekenders

Sienna, Ilaria and Tyler continue to do superbly at Swiss club races, and we look forward to sharing their successes with the school community.