My 2024/25 season was nothing short of a whirlwind. After a summer of training hard and feeling strong, things took a turn almost immediately. A grueling travel day to Chile left me tweaking my back on the second day back on snow. I pushed through camp, but once I got home, my pain flared up worse than ever. The only option? Delay my next training camp in Europe, dive into physio, and hope my body would cooperate.
Two weeks of rehab and some medical intervention later, I decided to go all in and head to Levi for the season opener. I’d had just four days of cautious skiing, so when I landed 13th after the first run, I was over the moon. Sure, I straddled in the second run—but given the circumstances, I was proud just to be out there.
Unfortunately, my back didn’t cooperate for long. Through the next few races, it only got worse. Some days I could barely ski two runs. I even stood in start gates with numbness in my leg. After Killington, I hit a breaking point. A training incident left me unable to walk normally for nearly ten days. That’s when I knew: it was time to step back, rehab properly, and hit reset—no matter how many races I missed.
The next six weeks were all about patience. Progress came painfully slow. Push too hard? Setback. Ease off? Frustration. But after three weeks, I finally saw some light at the end of the tunnel. We rebuilt strength in the gym, and eventually I felt ready to test snow again after another three weeks (six weeks in total). I spent five days returning to snow at Sugarbush Mountain with Green Mountain Valley School before flying back to Europe. I was horribly nervous to see how my back would manage in a race setting and upping the intensity. But in France, I finished 13th on my return—and I couldn’t have been happier.
From there, the season was a rollercoaster. My back never let me forget it was there. To make things worse, I caught the stomach flu and food poisoning right before World Champs. Less training, more pain, and a disappointing performance followed. Still, I kept grinding. Some days I could push. Others, I was hanging on. But in the end, I fought my way into World Cup Finals—and finished my season with the second-fastest run of the day and my first top-10 finish of the year. That moment meant the world to me.
This summer has been its own challenge, rehabbing a complicated back injury. But step by step, I’ve made progress. I’m focused on smart choices, steady progress, and getting back to skiing the way I know I can.