How would you be feeling if your older sister was about to compete in her first Olympic Games? Nat Segal reports from Sochi before Anna Segal’s Olympic debut.
We’re all in Sochi, gearing up for the Women’s Ski Slopestyle tomorrow but not in the way you would initially imagine.
My brother Matt is currently taking part in a strange shoulder work out that combines elastic bands and a physio ball; our parents have somehow been persuaded into breakfast Jaiger shots with a Norweigian Viking who lives downstairs and I’m still tucked up in bed trying to sleep off my horrific red-eye flight from Geneva to Adler. So you wouldn’t exactly call us nervous.
However, we are far from indifferent to the whole proceedings. Over the last eight years our family have bared witness to the roller coaster ride that is being a professional slope style skier; we’ve celebrated every success and felt every heart-break. Between injuries, World Championship titles and X- Games medals we’ve seen every side to her sport.
I remember being holed up in a cheap hostel in Chamonix streaming X Games live as Anna won her gold medal in 2009. My mum could recount countless phone calls, listening to the highs and lows of the week and I will never forget my Dad’s reaction to the 2011 X-Games slope style course- where the option of Valium was discussed to help calm his nerves.
Having a family member who is constantly fighting for success is both inspirational and exhausting but I believe it has also brought our family together in more ways than one. Nonetheless, how we feel about tomorrow (today Sydney time) will have no impact on how she will perform.
Anna has worked so hard, for so many years to make it where she is now, in our family’s eyes she is already a success. The fact that tomorrow, she’ll be standing on top of an Olympic Slopestyle course doesn’t make us feel nervous; it makes us proud, stoked and ready to scream our lungs out as she drops in.
Anna Segal is a gold, silver and bronze X Games medalist and one time FIS Ski slopestyle World Champion. She is competing for Australia in Slopestyle Ski at 5.00pm Sydney time for qualifiers and all things being equal, finals at 8.00pm. She is the first Australian to compete in slopestyle ski at an Olympics as the event debuts at Sochi. Read more on Anna and Nat at Freeskier.com.
UPDATE FEB 11
Anna Segal competed in front of a global audience and her proud friends and family at Sochi. She competed with a head cold and only 5% of her ACL and she qualified for finals and then was sitting on third place for most of the final before dropping down to fourth.
When a journo and Anna Segal collide
Talking nonsense with Anna Segal
Who is that behind Anna Segal?
I am loving this “6 degrees of separation” you create with your writing! Knowing someone who knows someone who is competing is the next best thing to being there. Yes, I’m all about #TeamUSA, but more than that I am cheering for all the athletes who are family (those about whom I know their story). I love hearing how the families have been through hell and back to make dreams come true- and that transcends borders and politics, and speaks to what these Games are really about.
Thanks for adding us to the Segal family cheering section!