Local ski cross racer India Sherret has wrapped up another racing season as she begins the transition to dryland training for a stab at the World Cup stage next year.
Despite a successful season on the NorAm circuit—Sherret finished second overall over the course of roughly 13 events—she nearly missed the beginning of the season due to injury.
However, she overcame the adversity of a broken foot before the season began and competed in races all across North America and into Europe.
"They (races) went a lot better than I expected," said Sherret. "I wasn't actually expecting to ski at the very beginning of the season, because I broke my foot.
"...All I wanted this year was one NorAm win and it turned out much better than that, so I'm really happy with the way things went."
She broke her foot in a gymnastics incident in September, and was told she'd be out for at least three months after she got her cast off, while her physiotherapist said six weeks. However, within three weeks, she was back on her skis.
Even though Sherret hadn't had much time to do preseason training because of her recovery, she said her first race at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado was one of the best all year.
She also hit other NorAm events in Vermont, Ontario, Utah and Oregon, while competing a little closer to home at Fernie and Panorama.
"It was really nice to see some family and friends and stuff like that, when people like that show up to watch us and support us race," said Sherret.
One of the crowning events of the season was a trip to Italy where she competed in the World Junior Championships at Valmalenco, finishing in eighth place.
"Our race didn't turn out well—it got cancelled halfway through, because of fog, so I ended up eighth place, which wouldn't have been a bad result, had I actually skied to an eighth place, but I was skiing what I thought was a lot better than that," said Sherret.
"I crashed in my qualifying run and ended up 30th out of 31. I kind of wanted a chance to redeem myself and say, 'Hey, I don't actually ski like that'."
It was Sherret's second trip to Valmalenco, as she finished in the same position last year in the same event.
"I was really hoping that I would make finals," she added. "I would've been happy with top-six, but finals was definitely my goal."
Sherret now shifts into dryland and off season training, as everything wrapped up at Sunshine Village a week ago in Banff, with a camp featuring the Alberta, and national, ski cross teams.