PA Sport is following Great Britain downhill skier Roger Cruickshank
throughout his build-up to next February's Winter Olympics in Turin.
In his own weekly column, RAF flying officer Cruickshank will reveal the highs
and lows of life on the World Cup circuit as he seeks to fulfil one of his
lifetime ambitions.
The Turin Olympics are most definitely within sight now as things have taken a
distinct turn for the better this week.
For the first time in over nine months I have been able to get back to race
action and the results are promising.
On Tuesday I finished 16th out of a field of 145 in an FIS super-giant slalom,
which is effectively the third level behind World Cup, in Saalbach, Austria.
Given that some people had told me I would never be able to ski again, I could
not really have asked for anything better.
My racing was not fantastic and it is funny that I felt dissatisfied with my
run when I got to the bottom - I'm a perfectionist and I always want to do my
best whatever I have been through.
But the main thing is my knee brace, which has really made a huge difference,
and without which there is no chance I would have been racing this week.
For that I have got to send out another special thanks to Technology in
Motion, who supplied me with the brace recently.
The pain seems a lot less in super-g and it was quite a challenging course, so
I am pleased and my next step is to overcome the confidence thing.
I didn't feel scared going down the course but I felt something was still
blocking me, a bit of apprehension after what I have been through, but when I
have got over that I will be flying for sure.
I have got another race on Wednesday over the same course, then I head back to
downhill with the Europa Cup over the weekend. That will be a proper test for my
knee.
I am playing catch-up with my form but I really haven't lost too much time.
And coming back with the extra weight I have put on also seems to have helped.
Hopefully I will quickly jump up to that next level where I get my confidence
back and can really begin to ski aggressively again. For now, to come back in
that sort of form really proves to me that I have not lost much of my mojo.
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