Race day
advice for parents

Food

Make sure your kids gets a decent balanced breakfast with the emphasis on a complex carbohydrate-rich breakfast. During a day out in the snow and cold it’s not uncommon for a ski racer to burn through 3000-4000 calories. You probably burn about 2000 in a typical day at the office.

They need a proper dinner the day before and a breakfast meal that will provide their muscles with fuel, not just for the ski race, but for everything else they are doing that day. A breakfast meal heavy on protein and fat requires the stomach to use a lot of oxygen, oxygen that their muscles need. Ideal breakfasts are pancakes, waffles, cereal, bagel, apples, etc. If you’re in a rush, Fuel/CLiff bars, bagels, bananas, apples, oranges, peanut butter & jam sandwiches can help. These are good to have in a pocket anyway for snacking during the day. Ski resort food is rarely healthy. If you can, try to steer your child to a healthy lunch as well. As to food, athletes need complex carbs. Protein and fat replacement is not sufficient for fuelling muscles for endurance athletes. Ski racing is an endurance sport, not because the combined race runs are 1.5 minutes but rather because the athletes are out all day working and skiing, and they have to have enough energy to do that AND put two solid runs together without being tired or fatigued.

Check out ATC sponsor Fuel 10k for some great products to stock up on.

Rest

Your daughter or son really needs to get two quality nights of sleep for the nights preceeding the race. Less than eight to 10 hours of sleep on those nights will very likely lead to a loss of performance.

Arrival & registration

Before you get in the car, check for the following critical items (as almost anything else can be improvised): helmet, skis, boots, poles, lift pass. These are the bare essentials. Plan to arrive at the hill at least two hours before the scheduled start. If it’s not dark when you get in the car or when you get there you’re probably late. Ski racing involves a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’, then wait some more, but unfortunately if you’re late there are no second chances.

Lifts typically open at least an hour before the start. One hour is needed for course inspection and athlete warm up. One hour is needed for breakfast (if it didn’t happen at home) and getting into race gear. If you have a son in a mixed-sex race, he will have more time (typically 45 mins) before he races as the women race first. If you have a daughter, she needs to be especially cognisant of how she uses her time. Every ski racer should have a simple inexpensive watch that can stay in the pocket of a ski jacket. They shouldn’t wear it as it can really hurt if a gate whacks it.

Race day schedule

The following schedule is obviously just a sample. There are too many factors that affect schedules to list but the following timings should give you a rough idea of what to expect. Some factors that will affect the schedule are: number of racers, course conditions, weather conditions, equipment or timing problems, difficulty and type of course. Plan ahead, be prepared and, of course, be flexible.

7:00 arrival
7:30 registration
8:45 course open for inspection
9:25 forerunners (<5)
9:30 women’s first run, 5 mins for course maintenance
10:15 men's first run
11:45 first run completed, lunch & course reset
12:30 course open for inspection
13:15 women’s 2nd run, 5 mins for course maintenance
14:00 men’s second run
16:00 second run completed
16:45 results & awards
17:30 departure

Interaction

When your kid is at the top of the course a little encouragement is great but generally, as you’ll see, most of the athletes thrive when they are with their peers and coaches. Our experience has shown that skiing by occasionally when your son or daughter is at the top of the hill and offering a word of encouragement is a good thing, but hanging around the top of the course can be a source of pressure for them.

Offering advice

Please leave any and all race and course advice to the coaches. Read through the coach bios. You’d be hard pressed to find this level of expertise at a lot of places and programmes in the UK. There are years of teaching, coaching and racing experience at very high levels. We want to see your kids succeed, learn and grow as people, athletes and ski racers and, of course, have fun.