Sharing the Highs and Lows of a Niche Sport

I'm sure you were glued to the internet during the past couple of days, keeping up with the results from UAA's first set of RMISA races in Utah.  And I'm sure you saw the name Casey Wright in the results - UAA's second-fastest woman both days.  And I'm sure you wondered to yourself, "Who is this Casey Wright?" And I'm sure you worked your back through all the UAA Ski Team blog posts over the past several months, searching for a reference to a "Casey Wright".

But you won't find any prior references to Casey in the blog.  That's because she blew into town recently from Australia, where she just finished the racing season Down Under. Casey told me the other day that between the Aussie winter racing season and the Euro winter racing season, she is now commencing her eighth consecutive winter racing season (two per annum). Or maybe it was her sixth - I don't quite remember - but it was a lot!  We're glad to have Casey here in Alaska with us now.

As always, the UAA Ski Team Blog interns have been working overtime trying to get up to speed regarding our new skier. I was getting a little annoyed with the intern expense reports that were being submitted (Quantas plane tickets, rental cars, wallaby-burger receipts, etc) until the following report was filed here at HQ, making it all worthwhile.

You'll notice that Casey's brother Abe has to skip this year's World Junior Champs due to two broken arms and two broken collarbones when he got tossed by his bicycle recently. If I'd known about this, I never would have suggested that Casey join me for a bike ride at the Kincaid Park glacier last week. She casually mentioned it to me mid-ride as we were skittering across a glass-smooth sheet of ice: "...Oh, by the way, my little bro fell off his bike last month and broke half the bones in his body..."