At long last I am back in Anchorage, Alaska! It feels so nice to be home, back in the mountains after an amazing, long, mountain-less season. Now that I’m home, I figured I would write up a short little season reflection of what went well this season, and some lessons learned. I may be a bit behind the curve on this one seeing as it is now mid-April, but better late than never!
As a whole, this was without a doubt my best season thus far. Like any season it had its shares of ups and downs, but it was a season of firsts and personal bests. I competed at my first ever World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway, scored my first ever World Cup points in Otepaa, Estonia, raced to my first ever top 20 finish on the Continental Cup finishing 16th in Lahti, Finland which helped secure my first top 30 overall finish on the Continental Cup, and, of course, represented the U.S at the 2025 World Ski Championships! Oodles of experience gained this season.
Above all else though, it was a season of consistency following a pre-season of consistency. Consistency in training, consistency in health, consistency in racing, and consistency in results (sorry Ski Jumping, you didn’t make this list…maybe next year). That is despite a quick bout of bronchitis over Christmas break which was accompanied by the classic sick-athlete “my season is over, the world is ending” feeling, just to have my fastest races later in the season (sometimes a little break is good!).
I have learned that when you have a great result, it feels great pretty much regardless of the circumstances. If you have a bad result, it sucks either because you know you didn’t do everything you could to prepare yourself for that competition, or it sucks because you worked your butt off and still came up short/underperformed. The second option feels way better and is vital to not getting dragged down and bumming on yourself. This season I felt great on my good days, but still stayed positive on the bad ones because I knew I had worked hard and had faith in the preparation and training I had done before the season began. Not every day can be your best, and every season has its rollercoasters, but staying consistent in the belief in yourself that you have what it takes to compete at the highest level is imperative to making it through the 5-month competition season. This year I had more trust in my fitness thanks to consistency in the off and preseasons, and because of that, it was a season of personal bests, and one where I genuinely just enjoyed ski racing more. I also had some great teammates keeping it fun. Shout out Erik and Henry for rooming with me for the majority of this season!
That being said, there are definitely some things that didn’t work this season, and changes that need to be made going into next year (*cough* Jumping *cough*), but that’s all a part of the process! Like one of my coaches this year loved saying: “It’s not a weakness, it’s an area of improvement.”
With that I’ll end this little season reflection. I’ll be back in AK recharging the batteries, hanging out with my family, friends and pets, enjoying spring training, and chugging away at online classes until I head back to Norway in early May. Thank you to everyone who supported me this 2024/25 season! What an epic season! Can’t wait to see what next year holds.
- Carter