Published: Feb. 12, 2014
Kewaskum’s Bausch eager for 2018
Watching Opening Ceremony was bittersweet
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Lauri Bausch is already looking toward 2018.
The Kewaskum native came up short in her bid to make the
U.S. Olympic Skeleton team for this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.
However, with how her season ended, she can’t wait to get
started on the preparation for another four years of training in hopes of
qualifying for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. “I definitely think
each year was a progression,” Bausch said. Bausch returned home Friday after
five months of training and traveling overseas in hopes of getting onto this
year’s Olympic squad.
The two spots for this year’s team went to Noelle Pikus-Pace
of Orem, Utah, and Katie Uhlaender of McDonald, Kan.
“Obviously I prefer to be at the games, but the top two are
our most veteran girls,” Bausch said. “It was pretty likely they’d be in (the
Olympics).”
Bausch had mixed feelings as she watched Friday’s opening
ceremonies.
She watched with excitement as she looked for sliders she
knew from the United States and other countries. However, she was still
disappointed she wasn’t the one holding up a camera and basking in the glory of
being an Olympian.
On Monday, she returned to work for Pro Enterprises in
Germantown. She admitted she was still trying to get over the jet lag. It’s
been a challenge to get caught up with more than five months of unfinished
work. Things were a bit more disorganized than when she when left.
She’s also spent time catching up with family and friends.
She’s also gotten a massage to help relieve the stress she’s been under the
last six months or so.
Her season ended last month with a strong showing in the
European Cup circuit. She finished third in her final race of the season in
Switzerland and finished the season ranked sixth. She was the only American in
the top eight, sandwiched between some of Germany’s and Russia’s top upand-
coming sliders.
“That made me realize I was able to compete (with the
best),” Bausch said. “For an American to do well on the circuit, it felt pretty
good being ranked that high.”
Watching the opening ceremonies of this year’s Olympics
coupled with a strong showing in the Europa Cup has made Bausch eager to get
started on her Olympic dream, saying she’s “re-motivated.”
“I definitely plan on getting back into it, sliding for the
next four years,” Bausch said. “Try to make a few changes in my approach in
training and fundraising to make it work.”
“It’s given me time to analyze things and get whatever I can
out of my training,” she added.
Unlike some of the more well-known sports, skeleton is
self-funded. So during the offseason, Bausch spends her time working as much as
she can to save money for training trips.
This time around, she admitted she’ll likely take a
different approach. Last year, she believed she worked too much, which may have
cost her some energy in training.
She also noticed while working alongside sliders from around
the world, some of whom made this year’s Olympics, was each slider often had a
large support group.
While she said she’s been grateful for all of her support,
she believes she needs to utilize her support better, saying she tries to take
too much on for herself.
She said she saw those who utilized their support groups to
their advantage had more motivation. She also hopes to be able to collect
corporate sponsorship as a way to lighten her workload and concentrate more on
her training.
“Every track is different,” Bausch said. “I really like
getting on a lot of tracks. It keeps me on my toes.”
A lot of sliders will focus on one or two types of tracks
during their training. That’s not her, she said.
“You have so few runs on these tracks so every time you can
get on one it helps you,” Bausch said, adding going into next season, she’ll be
one of the more experienced sliders in the U.S. program.
“I went into this year I felt like I was more confident in
my sliding,” Bausch said. “I think it helps set me up for the next couple of
years.”
No comments:
Post a Comment