Jess Yeaton shares lessons learned this season

Australian XC Team skier Jessica Yeaton finished up her best international racing experience this year achieving her first top 30 World Cup result and Australia’s best team result at the XC World Championships in Lahti, Finland. She’s had an amazing time but learned a lot along the way. Each race “served as an opportunity for improvement” she said, as she attempted to build on her strengths and not make the same mistake twice. She shared some important lessons from her season including a new found talent for bowling!

• Team sprints are really hard. 

In a stark reminder that competitive XC skiing is more than just fun and games, Jess’ teammate Katerina Paul enthusiastically launched into her first ever team sprint and found herself in a world of hurt after her first lap, of which the team were needed to complete three sprint laps each to finish.   “Kat suffered a pretty brutal blow up but I was so incredibly proud of her and the effort she put forth” said Jess empathising with her first ever team sprint and how she too was unprepared for the pain! 

• It doesn’t matter what everybody else thinks. 

In an amazing feat, the Australian women’s XC relay team were the first Australian team to finish the four by 5km relay course in 25 years at the 2017 World Championships. Each person in a four person team does two 2.5km laps and “it’s relatively easy to get lapped out if you aren’t superhero status or on your A game”.  Jess and the team had been lapped out of the same event in 2015 and like De Ja Vu, she thought she had blown her leg of the race and let the team down.  But after pulling it together Jess re-joined her teammates to find them “skiing like a total boss.”   Watching on for their final teammate to reach the finish zone they were absolutely ecstatic and rushed out to her with the Aussie flag to celebrate finishing the relay, “too pumped to worry about what everyone else thought.” Jess said.  “It was one of the proudest moments of my athletic career. Usually only the winning team has a flag at the finish, so to everyone else it probably looked a little strange, screaming our lungs out and celebrating for last place, Everyone one of us put forth an awesome effort in a situation where literally every second counted, and I am so proud of what we were able to accomplish because of it.” 

• Cheese loading is just as effective as carb loading. 

With an endless supply of gourmet cheese at dinner time, Jess ate numerous brie wheels during her stay in Lahti and raced faster at the end of the 10 days than at the beginning.  Don’t underestimate the cheese!

• Sometimes you perform best when you least expect it. 

Heading into the World Championships, Jess’ highest expectations were in the first skate sprint. “Although I did well and was reasonably satisfied with my performance, I was definitely left wanting more. But that’s how it goes; things don’t always go as anticipated, and the stars definitely don’t always align when you want them to.” Putting the least pressure on her last race of the Championships, the 30k skate, it turned out to be Jess’ best performance. “I started out pretty chill but soon started to have those once in a blue moon feelings where you just feel freaking AWESOME and nobody can stop you.” She kept passing people throughout the race “which pretty much never happens to me” and found herself in 33rd place, a result she definitely didn’t think was obtainable in that event, “no matter how much brie cheese I ate the night before.” She said. Adding to that learning curve, Jess’ Alaska Pacific University teammate Chelsea Holmes skied an incredible race coming 13th overall, just a few seconds from the top ten!

• There’s nothing better than fast food after a competition. 

“I actually hate fast food (special thanks to the book Fast Food Nation), until after I race, and then all of a sudden nothing sounds better than coke, fries, and a McFlurry!” Jess and teammate Kat indulged at Finland’s finest fast food venue Hesburger after the 30k race “and it was truly glorious” she said. “The only bummer was the exceptionally small portions. As hungry ladies fresh from the US of A, we were surprised to find that you can’t supersize globally. So I stole the rest of Kat’s fries.”

• Bowling is not a good pre-comp activity. 

“It can make you really sore, and you feel like your arm is going to fall off in the morning.”

• “Kat Paul is the world’s best roommate and I will miss her terribly!”

• There really is no place like home. 

While she was born in Perth, Jess calls Anchorage, Alaska home and after a big season travelling and seeing lots of new places she definitely appreciated a quick one-week stop at home before heading to World Cup finals in Quebec.  “I love traveling and seeing new places, but I also appreciate being able to hermit it up at home with loud music, endless episodes of Friends, scented candles, walking around naked- the works. Anchorage has also been experiencing an incredible winter and it’s hit me just how lucky I am to call this place home.”

 
Follow Jess’s skiing adventures on her blog https://jessicayeaton.wordpress.com/ 
 
Alexandra Rouse | Jessica Yeaton
Ski & Snowboard Australia