Hard boot GS snowboarding is beautiful, one of those things I wished I learned to do young but it hadn't been invented yet. It seems alien to snowboard culture, something "other".
Guess it's a bit off topic, but I agree 100%. Our local ski academy produced some of the world's best when hard boot snowboard racing was more of "a thing", and wow was it fun to watch those guys. I was also fortunate to spend many days free "skiing" with a couple of really exceptional hard boot riders. When I first met one, he was riding in Lange plug boots, with the longest board I had ever seen. He would just rip, digging incredibly beautiful big trenches. Love to watch it. And, yeah, he has always pretty much dressed like a skier. Haha,
Mitch is out with a torn ACL and banged up shoulder. So no Olympics for her. She says she'll be back for world cup.
Lindsay skied away from her crash, but I didn't hear anything further about her. She's OK?
Mitch Gagnon is going to have her shoulder "rebuilt" as well. I guess that she's had a lot of separations, dislocations, and other issues with that shoulder over the years, but nothing bad enough to necessitate surgery. Sort of "playing through pain", etc. So now is an opportunity to get that right. I'm guessing both labrums, cleaning up some cartilage, etc. A lot of racers ski with shoulders that are worse than they realize, and when they do finally have the surgery they realize how much better they feel, and what they were putting up with. Also sounds like her ACL surgery should be "easy and clean". As in no other significant damage. We tend to toss out "ACL" or "Blown out knee" and it covers a lot of ground. This sounds like a good one, as odd as that may sound. For example, contrasted with Anna Veith's. Anna will likely never be fully back.
What I think will be more interesting is to see what Mitch's program will look like after she is fully rehabbed, and back ready to go. She's a very strong athlete, and if I had to bet, all will go well. I'm very curious as to whether we see a fairly drastic change to what she skis. It would not surprise me to see her transition to DH, SG, and GS. Essentially only skiing SL in the combined. It's a hunch, no more. The guess is that she might be even better, in terms of results, in speed. She is a great all-round skier.
Has to be frustrating, but she's a class act.
