Europa Cup Medal

I was thrilled to come home with the top result for GB in women’s sitting: a bronze medal and 4th in Giant Slalom!

Kelly Gallagher got a bronze and two silvers in the Visually Impaired class and Talan Skeels-Piggins won gold in the Pitztal Super G! A great start to the season for Team GB!

Unfortunately the races in Pitztal and La Molina were cancelled due to bad weather, scuppering our chances of qualifying for speed in the World Championships, I shall be focusing on the technical events; slalom and GS.



Thank you very much to the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme, Get Kids Going, Salomon, Two Seasons and Oakley for their support! Training recommences early January for the World Championships.

Meeting the Austrian Devil!

Team GB arrived in Pitztal, Austria for the first Europa Cup. As we unloaded the van we heard shrill screams and jangling cowbells... and discovered the delights of Krampus festival. Out of the darkness, horned figures appeared making a lot of noise - and a herd of locals dressed in ancient costumes were busy chasing away bad winter spirits. Perhaps it'll bring us some luck in the races!





























We loaded all monoskis up the mountain and have enjoyed morning training sessions in the sun but winter has returned with a vengeance just in time for the races at the weekend, it's going to be a cold one!

Sports Features!

Just before I left to train in Austria, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio invited me onto Laura Bailey's show, and I was interviewed by Vic Minnett who was filling in. Thanks to the BBC team.

Click on the title for a great article on Sports Features

Early Christmas from Two Seasons!

Returned home to find a package from Two Seasons...

Super Icebreaker merino wool thermals and warm bodyfit top (georgeous, soft, comfy, cosy thermal wear that smells fresh regardless of how many exhausting slalom turns or moguls I fight my way though!), socks, mitts, Little Hotties hand and food warmers, tee shirts, a hoodie and thermal top to keep me toastie and a new tuning iron to make my skis fast!



Thanks so much to Two Seasons who have stuck by me for the last 3 years! You are wonderful!

GB Pre-Season Austria Training

Snow, snow, wind, snow, and very poor visibility… where’s the sun?!

GB camp started well despite the weather. I’ve been working hard on technique and slipped smoothly back into skiing. I’m feeling balanced and loving the buzz of training in the mountains with the team.

Our support team has been a huge help. We have been working closely with Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) head of strength and conditioning, Nick Ward, and head physiotherapist Gordon Turner, in order to be in peak fitness to deliver the ultimate performance in alpine skiing. Without TASS (SportAid) support I would not have been able to train and compete in the Paralympics last year or continue with skiing this season.

Sports Psychologist, Deirdre Angella from EIS South West also worked closely with the team, enabling athletes and coaches develop mental skills and a goal-centred focus on performance. Psychology certainly helps me rationalise racing down icy slopes at 60mph!

I’m now back in the UK for a short break before Europa Cup races in December and qualification for the World Champs in January. A positive start to the season and I am confident of a successful season to come!

First Week on Snow

The ski season is officially upon us! I just got home from a Gravity Snowsports week in Hintertux, Austria with Ski MK Racers. It feels great to be back on snow!

We had 80cm of fresh snow the first day, the perfect way to ease into the season. Day two: bump skiing, great reflex training! Followed by a few days in Giant Slalom gates.

Gravity coaches, Glen and Matt gave some excellent advice as always: Video to follow!

Thank you Tony from Edge2Win for your expert tuning support with getting kit prep'd for this World Championship season.

I've a few aches, after the odd crash but very much looking forward to going back to Austria on Sunday for team GB pre-season training camp. Europa Cup races start in December followed by Worlds in Jan in Sestriere, Italy.

YLP Milestone Event:: Volunteering in London 2012!

Applications for volunteering in London 2012 are now open!

100 Young Leaders, chosen for the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, Young Leaders Programme and are guaranteed an interview for a volunteering role in London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. The opportunity to play a role is at these young people’s fingertips, provided they organise 5 voluntary community projects each.

The Young Leaders have begun developing their projects, sponsored by BP and evaluated by Skyblue. They now need to apply for the scheme’s ultimate goal: Volunteering in London 2012!

The first YLP Milestone Events last week maximised the experience of V, Edcoms and the Athlete Supporters: Adam Whitehead (Olympic Swimmer); Tom Davis (Olympic Judo); Jenna Downing (World Champion Inline Skater) and Anna Turney (Paralympic Alpine Skier) to help the Young Leaders with their applications.

Most 16 year olds have filled in few application forms, let alone applied for a potentially life changing job. Thinking about personal strengths is central to any job application but it isn’t easy, especially the first time! EdComs and the Athlete Supporters motivated and assisted the Young Leaders and excitement filled the room as the possibilities for 2012 arose; individual strengths, interests and goals were uncovered and forms began to look interesting.

The chance to be part of the UK’s greatest sporting event is the opportunity of a lifetime. There are countless ways of being part of London 2012 and having experienced the atmosphere in Vancouver 2010, I would encourage anyone interested to jump at the chance! Quite a story to tell the Grandchildren!

Potential 2012 Volunteers: E LDN

Two Years To Go!

I've just got back from the biggest and best Paralympics GB camp yet! 14 summer sports, Alpine Skiing and the Talent Transition Programme attended a 5 day camp (like a mini, pre-games holding camp) over the bank holiday.

Whilst most other Brits enjoyed some much needed sunshine, budding and experienced Paralympians alike demonstrated commitment, working with professionals on improving our game. Physiological testing, one to one sport specific training, as well as therapy, sports psychology, media training and inter-sport discussions in a Games environment meant a busy and exhausting few days for all.

Ken Hames, the military man who questioned preconceptions of disability through the Beyond Boundaries documentary, gave an inspiring talk highlighting parallels with the dedication, focus and skill needed for peak performance at the Paralympics. Two years to go and we are on track!

Thanks Paralympics GB on behalf of the alpine skiers, we appreciate your support!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/inside-incredible-athletes

Record Recruitment for Starting Off

Northamptonshire's biggest office recruitment company, Starting Off, invited me to speak and present qualification certificates to trainees at both Kettering and Northampton Awards Ceremonies.

Starting Off provides qualification, apprentice and work opportunities for young people. It is a pleasure to be involved with a company dedicated to developing young people's skills and prospects and providing them with qualifications, apprentice and work opportunities.

Well done to everyone who achieved their awards and completed their apprenticeships with local companies. Good luck for the future!

How does a paraplegic do triathlon?

In my experience, triathletes are a pretty crazy lot and paratriathletes are apparently no different. Putting yourself through a gruelling trio of lake swimming, cycling and running takes a pretty special sort of character! Paratriathletes have missing limbs, paraplegia, visual impairments (the VI competitors have to run with blacked out goggles) and other physical disabilities. The distances raced equal regular triathlons and a fascinating variety of prostheses, handcycles, racing wheelchairs and other equipment are used.





I took part in my first International Paratriathlon in Hyde Park last weekend in a GB trisuit! The super sprint (the shortest discipline: 400m swim in the Serpentine, 10km bike, 3.5km run) took me over 48 minutes to complete although I was pleased to get bronze behind European Champion, Jane Egan and to finish only 3:47 off gold. A little frustrated however that it took over 3 minutes to get out of my wetsuit and on the bike! The fastest elite man, Hiffler finished in 32:16 for France and team GB won 3 Gold 5 Silver 1 Bronze medals!

The paratriatletes are an inspirational, welcoming and encouraging lot, if a little insane! Paratriathlon aims to become a Paralympic Event in Rio in 2016 and if anyone deserves it they do!

Click on the title for more info and paratri video.

Deloitte Ride Accross Britain raises £350,000 for Athletes!

600 dedicated Deloitte riders cycled the 1,000 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End earlier this year and are well on the way to reaching the target of £1m for ParalympicsGB by 2013! The Ride Across Britain is an annual fundraiser and the support makes a huge difference to athletes like me.

Deloitte is the official Disability Sport Partner for SportsAid’s Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) programme. I came home from the season with top GB results for sitting women and couldn't have done that without TASS.

This summer I gave a talk at Deloitte CEO Dinner and hopefully encouraged some of the riders. Thank you so much Deloitte for your support which is central to bringing home medals for GB!

Young Leaders meet BP coaches!

In bidding for the 2012 Games, London 2012 pledged to support 100 young leaders on an intensive personal development programme and the Young Leaders Programme was created through the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust.

The chosen East London Young Leaders were full of enthusiasm for the Young Leaders Programme after meeting the BP Coaches for the first time on Monday. The Young Leaders will set up and run voluntary community projects which will recruit and engage other young people from their local area. Selected BP employees will give mentoring support and guidance to help these young people develop projects.

Both Young Leaders and BP employees seemed a little nervous about meeting their partner at first but a lively and interactive atmosphere soon developed thanks to team games run by Vinspired. Tom Davis (GB Judo) and I enjoyed supporting and motivating both parties and generally taking part.

It was lovely to see the Young Leaders again after the residential weekend in April and the video (see link) brought back fond memories. This feels like the start of a forward-thinking project in which I am delighted to be involved.

Click on the title to find out more about the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, Young Leaders Programme.

Glowing Testimonial for Special Sports Day!

One of the Young Leaders, Tanya, who I met through work on the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, mentioned that her school was doing a Special Sports Day to allow access to a number of disabled schools in the area, and introduce disabled children to sports in a Secondary School environment.

Sunbury Manor School in Sunbury-on-Thames put on an amazing day, allowing many children access to sports that they may never have tried. I spoke during the initial assembly and joined in with the activities afterwards (including boccia, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball). Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take part and well done to the Young Ambassadors who played influential roles coaching, encouraging and working with these young people, you showed some real skills, excellent work! I am sure the day has had a really positive impact on many and it was a pleasure to be involved.


Kate Vaughan, Director of Specialism did a great job organising the day and wrote me the loveliest email which I hope she won't mind me sharing:

Dear Anna

I'd just really like to let you know what impact you had on our day. It was so inspiring to hear you address the students at the start of the day - we had a large age range (Yr3 to Yr11) and a diverse mix of physical and learning difficulties, and your talk was targeted perfectly. They, as were the staff, were enthralled to hear your story, which was superbly illustrated with photos and video clips. Students and staff were happy to ask you questions, and you were equally happy to take time to answer them all personally. Thank you also for spending time afterwards getting involved in the Paralympic sport taster sessions with the students, I know it made their day. It really was wonderful to meet such an inspirational Paralympian who was friendly, approachable and down to earth. We only hope that you come and visit us again as we now consider you a good friend of the school! Thanks again Anna!!

Best wishes,

Kate.

Sports Personality Awards

Last November, cousin Debi and Richard who run a lovely old pub restaurant, the Malt Shovel in Gaydon, Warwickshire, hosted a magnificent 3 course dinner and fundraising event, raising £700 towards my training costs. Thank you so much, Malt Shovel team!

A few months ago, cousin Debi phoned to say that her daughter Laura’s school, Stratford-upon-Avon Grammar, had expressed an interest in me speaking at their Sports Awards.

Visiting a girls’ school for the first time since playing hockey matches aged 17 was an interesting experience. Having felt a little dubious about girls’ school, talking at Stratford-upon-Avon Grammar School for Girls was a very pleasant surprise. The pupils have the opportunities to play a huge range of sports and a number of the girls are talented and play for both county and national teams. I therefore themed my talk around working hard to develop talent and achieve YOUR potential. As I have discovered, hard work is central to success.




The girls were confident and fun and a great audience. After presenting sports personality prizes, I was invited to the BBQ and watched as many children sat in (and fell out of) my monoski. No damage was done and much fun was had by all!

Paralympics GB Talent Transition Programme

This weekend I attended a Talent Transfer Camp, along with most of the ski team, GB shooters, sitting volleyball team and fencers.

The weekend involved physical testing (VO2 max testing, measuring blood lactate, heart rate, and oxygen uptake during increasingly strenuous exercise), physio assessments, review of Strength and Conditioning programmes, meetings with sports psychologists.

The ongoing Programme enables athletes to work with top sports science professionals and I plan to learn all I can from it and develop my performance.


Modern Pentathlon Olympic medallist, Kate Allenby gave a really interesting talk. It is so inspiring to hear athlete's stories and how they've focused, overcome worries of the world watching and other challenges they've faced and achieved results. It is both motivating and reassuring to chat with people who have single-mindedly dedicated their lives to being the best and achieved it!

Team Super Schools Talks

I am having so much fun doing talks in schools! Today I worked in Bristol with Team Super Schools in a couple of primary schools, which is a great initiative set up by Darren Campbell, to encourage children into exercise by making it fun and to be fit and healthy, whilst raising money for schools and athletes. Click on the title to find out more about TSS.

The children have so much energy and enthusiasm for life, and I was really pleased with their almost undivided attention during my talks in the assemblies. They come out with some great questions (Would you snowboard again if you could? Do you wish you hadn't broken your back? What other equipment is available to enable you to do other sports? How fast can you go?) But as yet, no children have questioned the fact that I went back up the mountain after doing myself so much damage in a very similar sport. Perhaps children understand my pure passion for snow sports or simply haven't really learned much about fear yet. Either way, the energy and inquisitive minds are most refreshing.

Skiing in Holland with Gravity Snowsports!

You might think of Holland as an unlikely place to go for ski training, but with two 500m long slopes, Europe's biggest indoor slope, Snowworld in Landgraaf proved excellent for some spring Giant Slalom training.


Photos:
Tips from Coach Glen at top of 500m indoor slope
Ski MK Racers, Chinese Downhill training, Landgraaf
Discussing technique with racer, Daniel Barton


I drove my week old car with new, light and easy to use handcontrols, courtesy of DS&P Mobility Electronics. Brilliant! 380 miles later, I jointed the Gravity Snowsports team in Holland on the snow!

It feels so good to be picking up speed again, back on snow! I tested out skis for next season. Thanks for inviting me along and for great coaching, Gravity Snowsports!



Video to follow shortly. Click on the title to find out more about Gravity Snowsports, to improve your skiing.

See http://www.dsp-mobilityelectronics.com/ for driving controls

Misticon ladies discount!

Misticon has loads of gorgeous stuff including accessories, Monkee Genes and sexy Love Burlesque Shoes. Here are some of my favourites.

Click on the title above to go to www.misticon.com and type 'anna' in the discount box to claim your 10% discount!

Happy shopping!

Cobblers Study Centre Interview

Students at the Cobblers Study Centre, Northampton are making a film about me! The Gateway Supporter 2 Reporters were shown my monoski and video footage and we spoke about my journey to the Paralympics and beyond. This was followed by an extremely professional, filmed interview with reporter, camera crew and producer (aged 14 to 16). I was impressed, good work lads!

Documentary to follow...!

DSUK Skiathon: £14,000 raised so far!

Last week,over 150 participants spent 6 gruelling hours on the slopes in indoor snowdomes across the UK to raise money for Disability Snowsport UK. Everyone made an outstanding effort - skiing indoors on the same run for so long is a real feat! Thank you to everyone who took part and sponsored teams.

The local Navigation Inn Team (above left) won the challenge at Milton Keynes Sno!Zone with an incredible 666 runs!

I enjoyed meeting Olympic medalist Leon Taylor, I don't know how he managed to be so enthusiastic and full of energy after hours of snowboarding indoors! Eddie the Eagle and Heather Mills also took part.

Check out the video from Hemel Hempstead by clicking on the title.

Disability Snowsport enables those with disabilities to access snowsports as a means of therapy, social inclusion and life-enhancing activity. People taking part often tell us that snowsports have changed their lives, it has certainly changed mine!

Oundle School Support

I've just got back from Oundle School, where I was interviewed by student journalists from The Oundelian, who plan to write a piece about me in this student run magazine. These pupils have far to go, good luck to them! I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to say!

It was lovely to see my tutor, Mrs Smedley and meet the Headmaster, Charles Bush. The school ethos of personality development and hard work doesn't seem to have changed. Oundle School certainly set me in good stead for life's challenges. It doesn't feel that long ago that I was there, running around with a hockey stick, or dressed in army uniform as a member of the Combined Cadet Force, building camps and polishing boots, trying to avoid getting caught breaking the rules (only the small and seemingly insignificant ones of course!).

The support I've received from the vast Oundle 'family' since becoming paralysed never ceases to surprise me. Sponsorship from both Mills and Reeve Law Firm and De Soutter Medical originated from Oundle roots. My old housemaster Mr Brittain and many fellow students have offered all sorts of support from friendly emails and donations to accommodation whilst I trained in the mountains. Lizzie Gent, Helen Barr, Caroline Bielby, Thorny and a great many others have been wonderfully supportive, thank you!