Sagey's first Grand Slalom

End of a long day...about 6 hours later, for exactly 1min 22sec of actual ski racing (combined!).

I love this photo. Sagey is almost crying, but not from sadness, just from the waves of emotion she felt. I think she was excited, but terrified for the race. She didn't know what to do or what to expect, but I was useless to help her in this case. Most of the kids were older and much more experienced. In true Sagey form, she just grabbed the reins and did what she thought was right.

This little medal is the most valuable thing in the world to her right now. After we got home and she took a shower and put on her pjs, she put her medal on. Again, not with any sort of boastfulness, just with the assertion that she earned it. When she got dressed the next morning, she came out of her room with her full outfit on, and medal! She wore it the whole day, and had wanted to tell her teacher that she won it, but told me that there "wasn't time" to tell her during the day.

For the most part, the kids here start skiing when they are 2 and 3 years old. Both Silas and Sage have come amazingly far in only their 2nd real year of skiing.

The whole story behind the medal: At some point it dawned on me that Sagey was being counted as a boy (not when they called all the super microbe girls to get their vests and then said 'and now onto the boys', not after they did the first run and said 'and now onto the boys' but finally the second run when they announced 'and now the boys' and Sage was in that group...it clicked...this is much like many of things for me here, it takes about 3 tries to figure it out...

Anyway, I went up to the score keeper, who luckily was nice, and said 'Oh we didn't know because of her name, you didn't say she was a girl, how could we know?' (this is nice for a French official). Then she said, 'well, ok, it's no big deal, that just means she would be here.' and she drew an arrow on her whiteboard indicated that Sagey should be with the girl super microbes.

Silas and I looked over the results and saw that Sage would be 5th, and we knew they were awarding through 5th place! We didn't realize at the time that we had made a mistake though, figuring they took the best time of two, which was how Silas' race was counted. Anyway, since we had committed such a large chunk of our day to the race, we figured we would stay for the awards. We told Sagey our findings, who was VERY excited.

At some point I realized that we were wrong, that they were adding the two scores to rank the racers, which actually would put Sagey in at 6th place! I was all set to pack up and leave, when Sagey started pouting and saying that if she wasn't going to win, she wanted to go home right now! I thought this wasn't very good sportspersonship, so forced myself to stay longer, saying she should be happy and support her friends. Sagey pulled it together beautifully though, and was truly happy to see her friends get medals and go up on the podium.

Just before announcing the super microbes, they made an announcement that they would not be counting the results of the participants born in 2006 as super microbes, since they were actually too young...I happened to know that the girl just ahead of Sagey was born in 2006, because she had just invited Sagey to her 5th birthday party...(yes, this means two things, one, that a 5 year old is ski racing unbelievably well, and two, that by disqualifying the 5 year olds, Sagey would get her medal!) I didn't say anything to Sage, as there had been so much emotional up and down already.

They announced the super microbes, starting with 5th place, no Sagey. They quickly went through the list, and Sage was not on it...so, I summoned the NYC mom in me, and marched up to the results table and asked if they had, after all, forgotten to put Sage in with the girls. The woman told me to hold on as they were in the middle of the awards and she would check after. I felt like an idiot, standing there, possibly trying to wrestle a medal away from a 6 year old, but I was committed.

After the awards, the woman checked with another official, who showed me the list. The saw that Sagey would be 6th, so then I had to say (in my broken French) "oh but remember, you disqualified this 5 year old!" and then they were VERY apologetic and nice and, again, in true French style, announced over the loud speaker for all her peers, friends, big kids, etc. to hear "WE HAVE A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. WE HAVE A WINNER FOR 5TH PLACE SUPER MICROBES. SAGE BAILEY!!! WE THOUGHT SHE WAS A BOY, WHICH IS WHY WE DID NOT COUNT HER, WE DIDN'T REALIZE SHE WAS A GIRL, etc. "

At this time they lift Sagey on to the number one podium, high above the crowd and make a big fuss about giving her her bag of candy, and one of the young ESF guys actually puts the medal around her neck (the other 5th place winners did not get a place on the podium and were just handed their goods). Sagey, hearing the official announcement that everyone thought she was a boy, yet seeing that she won a medal, didn't know whether to jump for joy or run for her life, I think.

The announcer was very sweet and did a huge build up.... "And which club is the winner from?!?!?!" (spurring on the intense local rivalry among ski clubs) "VILLARD DE LANS!" Then, the whole crowd erupted into cheers, and several kids that she knew started yelling SAGE!!! SAGE!!!!, everyone was clapping and cheering and Sagey was so thrilled and proud. I had to finally coax her down from the podium, I don't think she ever wanted to come down. It was an incredibly emotional moment for her, but so genuine. Nothing affected or boastful about it. Her first real win. I don't think anything will feel like this again unless she wins an olympic gold! Her joy was so pure.

We are saved! A gouter is served!!!! (Should have known).

Still waiting....

Waiting....

Waiting...

In case you wondered what 6 year old Grand Slalom Racers do with their down time....

Back in business!

Sagey gets to do what she'd been wanting to do all afternoon...

Whew! now she's happy, all done. Little did we know we still had about 2 hours of waiting left...

The second run. After a little encouragement, and watching the big kids, Sagey shaves 4 seconds off her first run time, even giving a little final push with her poles as she crossed the finish line!

The big kids go faster and are more organized, so things picked up a little and Sagey was distracted into staying on....

Sagey deciding she absolutely will not do the second run of the race....

We were all a bit dismayed when the announcer informed us there would be a deuxeme manche...The racers, and there were over 60 in all the categories, have to go individually down the slope, and it started to dawn on me just how long we would be there with Sandi Thom belting out her lament....I hadn't expected it to go on so long, I figured they do the "little kids" and we'd leave, so I had not brought provisions...

Sagey finds her good friend, Nils.

Silas was very proud.

Now officially a RACER!

Sagey's first run. The adults standing there are signaling and yelling to all the youngest racers where to go for the last gate and finish line. Despite their valiant efforts, several small racers veered off course.

There was a LOT of waiting around. During much of the waiting Sagey was at the top of the hill, lined up, Silas was bopping around and I was standing there confused, listening to the continuous (but short, meaning that you heard the songs over and over and over) oddly chosen loop of music being blasted over the loudspeaker. Most notably focusing on "I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in her hair...." Delirious from sun and half sitting on the snow, so I wouldn't get wet, I started having all sorts of crazy thoughts like "Does Sandi Thom mean a hippie? Did she confuse hippie with punk rocker? Was she born too late because wearing flowers in your hair had already been 'done' so no one noticed when she did it?" Remember, I heard this song about 6,000 times....The loop would be interrupted at intervals in order for the MC to announce things like "Get off the race course immediately" etc.

Sagey does a warm up run....

Beautiful day for a race

Some last minute tips, Silas "explains" how to do slalom.....

Coach Silas

This was the first time I had ever been to any ski race, the first time Sagey had participated in a race. so Silas (having participated in a couple races, but not on this course) was our resident expert, which is a role he likes...

We really had no idea what to expect. Sagey decided at the last minute that she did not want to go. I thought she would have fun if she went, and regret it if she didn't, so I got everyone in the car anyway and "convinced" her.

The race was in Autrans, a nearby small town, on a racing hill, not part of the ski resort, but we didn't know what it would be like beforehand.

Neither Silas nor I were on skis, so we had to send Sagey up the tire-fesse by herself, acting confident so that she wouldn't get stressed out. I assumed that someone up there would explain to her what to do....and like everything we do around here, many of the people know the kids and are very friendly with them.