The AIS skeleton team has begun training in Lake Placid under coach Terry Holland, preparing for two days of America’s Cup racing at the end of January.

For the first couple of days, Holland focused on sled preparation and teaching the Aussie girls as much as he could about the Lake Placid Track.

After the first two days of sliding the general feeling was that the Australian women were more than capable of producing both fast start and finish times on this ‘fast’, ‘fun’ track. Now that they are seasoned veterans of the sport (five weeks of sliding under their belt), adaptation to the new environment seems to be proceeding quickly. Most are also very excited to be learning to drive their new sleds which have replaced the steel rental sleds they had to use on their first trip to North America.

Unfortunately, freaky warm weather has resulted in three days of track closure which gave the team members extra time for visualisation sessions and time in the gym. On the third day of sliding in Lake Placid, Holland encouraged the team to participate in a local sliding competition called the Randy Price Memorial Race, with four of the fastest start times going to the Australian contingent.

The weather has finally cooled off so hopefully good track conditions will allow the team to accomplish some good training.