Happy New Year to you as well!
So, we got back from Oberwiesenthal Sunday night, after an adventurous drive in the snow and a long road back home. It went well there: the classic sprint on Saturday resulted in 314 points, which improved her own position towards the team sprint in the world championships (being in the team sprint is potentially very important towards the Olympics). She beat her main rival by a whopping 11 seconds, so that was awesome.
20k mass start classic on Sunday wasn't that good: in the first of six laps, some athletes around her fell, one of them hit her left foot (the one that got injured in the accident 3 years ago) and that resulted in quite some pain. I was waiting with my drinks in the coaching area, but after the field passed there in lap two, she didn't appear, so I knew something was up. Walked back and saw her walking towards me, then she explained what had happened. The pain after being hit in the foot was too much to keep going for 16km, especially in a race that wouldn't count for the Olympic ranking anyway and was only meant for 'racing rhythm', continueing could do more damage than good.
That's a shame, but no problem, the sprint went well and that was WAY more important. Also: the day before the race we went to the Polish wax cabin to ask for help, because she does always need someone to wax her skis and 'Team' Brazil isn't really an option. The Polish very gladly helped (and were paid with a nice 12-pack of beer we brought for that occassion) and the skis were really good, so that was fantastic. Even better: after the mass start, and explaining why being hit in the foot was such a problem and so on, the wax guy - without us even asking - offered to also help at the world championships, and invited her for a training camp with the team in the summer
December had gone very well as well, right now (with still this entire season and half of next season to go) she is leading the Brazilian Olympic ranking by a nice margin. Of course many races to come for everyone, but so far, so good!
Next option is 17-19 January, FESA Cup in Falcade. Financially it's a bit tough, since that is yet another 2300km with the rental car (with which we already did 1600 now, and we only have 2000 on the contract, so every km outside of it costs 20 cents), plus another accomodation needed. We're looking into the options, because Falcade has a classic sprint AND a 10k freestyle, which is the absolute perfect combination considering those are the things that count for the Olympic ranking. We're trying to scrape enough together, so...we'll keep you updated