Mogul skier, Britt Cox – when injury makes you a better team player

By Britt Cox via www.snowbest.com

“I just wanted to win,” I cried to my coach as I was lifted into the sled by six ski patrol. I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear them asking me what was hurting and all I could feel was a sharp pain under my right scapula.

Ending up in a Chinese hospital with 6 broken ribs, a concussion, and a fractured collarbone was certainly not where I pictured myself after a strong start to the World Cup season. But, I suppose we’re not playing billiards out there.

For anyone who has ever tried, or even watched, mogul skiing, I’m sure you can appreciate that it’s not friendly on the body even at the best of times. So when you don’t get it right, knock yourself out then slide head first for seventy meters, hitting every mogul with your head on the way down, there’s bound to be consequences.

Competing is my favourite thing to do, so naturally I was frustrated and disheartened.

My “athlete mind” was asking “why did this happen?”. I wanted to be fixed and skiing again in an instant. Instead I was stuck in a Chinese hospital, where I didn’t speak their language, with no idea how or when I was going to get home. Thankfully, I had my coach, Katie with me, whom without I would have been completely lost.

After watching my crash, I feel relatively lucky with the extent of my injuries. My head is okay, my spine is fine, and I made it home in in time to spend the holidays with my family. The OWI medical team took great care of me and I started the recovery process as soon as I was back in Australia.

Almost all athletes will face some kind of injury in their career, and many recreational skiers will experience time off the mountain due to a skiing injury. I was disappointed to be off snow, especially when the next event on the World Cup of the tour came around, but I understand that I have the power to choose how I think about my current situation, and how I choose to spend my time.

So rather than focusing on what I was missing out on, I decided to focus on what I could do and the opportunities that I now had in front of me. This was the first time in over a decade that I would be in Australia at this time of year so I decided to maximise that time in whatever way I could.

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