One of the drawbacks of being back on the U.S. Ski Team is the mandatory participation in the U.S. Anti-Doping pool. I understand why we have to be subjected to the humiliating and irritating practice of drug testing; I just don’t like it. This process includes a “whereabouts filing” and random “out-of-competition” drug testing. Every athlete needs to fill out a form that says where they are going to be, morning and night, every day for three months at a time. On top of that, we have to pick an hour, every day, where we say we will be, so that a USADA man can show up whenever he feels like it, to perform a drug test. If they show up at your door within that hour and you aren’t there, then you get a strike against you. Three strikes equal a positive drug test and a two-year suspension from the sport.

Last week, I finally got a visit from the USADA man. I can’t remember what his name is so I’ll just call him Jeff. The doorbell rang at 7:15 in the morning and I was still sleeping. The hour that I pick for a random visit is from 6:00-7:00AM so I know I’ll be there…sleeping. My girlfriend, Suzanne, was the first one to the door. She just went through a recent surgery, so she was loopy on pain meds and she had a catheter strapped to her leg. We had spent so much time discussing USADA and the possibility of a “filing failure” that she couldn’t contain her excitement that the USADA man showed up and I was actually there. I heard from a distance in her excited, yet scratchy tone “Oh my god, he’s here. The USADA man is here. I can’t believe it. Go pee in the cup!” she said as she climbed back into bed.

In my stupor, I got up to greet Jeff. Lance Armstrong just recently moved into the neighborhood so I wanted to say, “You’re at the wrong house. Lance is about 10 blocks that way.” But I held my tongue and introduced Jeff to the bathroom. I’ve been tested many times in my career so I wasn’t surprised by any of the procedures. Jeff was very professional and business like. I made sure all the numbers on the bottles matched up. I was grateful that we were doing this in the morning because I had a full bladder. If I would have relieved myself before he got there it could have been hours before I could work up another sample.

Then, it was time to pee. Jeff said, “Lift up your shirt to above your belly button, and pull your pants down so that I can see the urine come out of your penis.” Again, this was no surprise. This is always the procedure. But this time, I locked up. I got the dreaded stage fright. I held the cup out ready to receive my sample. I was holding my pants down and my shirt up. Jeff was silent…watching; and there was no pee. I called on my years of using sports psych to help me. I tried to relax, get in the zone, breathe; no pee. The more I tried to relax the more I tightened up. Then Jeff spoke. “Do you want me to run some water?” As if he had seen this a thousand times before. “Yes, please.” I knew I could do it. “Just relax,” I said to myself. Then, I figured it out. I pretended I was the only one there and I pulled the cup to the side to look at the water like I do every morning. I relaxed, and the urine flowed like the waters of the Colorado River. I was relieved.

We wrapped things up and I sent Jeff away with my pee sample. It was on the start of its journey through rigorous testing procedures to confirm that, yes, I am, and always have been, a clean, drug-free athlete. Jeff, and many like him are part of an army of scientists on a mission to ensure clean and fair competition. I may not like the 7:00am visits or the whereabouts filings, but I know, for the moment, it has to be done.

We have come to the end of what seems like the shortest summer in history. The snow is flying in Colorado and it looks like Loveland is threatening to open tomorrow. That means it’s time for weekly updates from yours truly from now until the end of April. I will be taking you behind the scenes to give you my perspective on the world of Ski Cross in its debut Olympic year. I will discuss everything from who’s playing dirty on the slopes to who’s playing around off the slopes. I’ll discuss triumphs and defeats; cooperation and controversy; who’s hot, who’s not; and everything in between.

My summer was filled with strength and conditioning. Most of the time, I was either on my road bike eating up miles or in the weight room pumping iron. I also did a lot of field workouts and some gymnastics. It’s so important to be quick out of the gate in Ski Cross so I have been focusing on upper body strength and quickness.

When I wasn’t training or working out I did a little mental cross training in the form of golf and bowling. If these two games aren’t good for mental training I don’t know what is. Right now I’m trying to get my last few games of golf in before the snow starts sticking to the ground. It’s been cold here in Colorado lately so that reality seems to be right around the corner.

My two daughters, Riley and Annalisa, are now 6 and 4. It is unbelievable how quickly they grow up. Riley is in the 1st grade now and she is enrolled in gymnastics and hip-hop dance. Annalisa hasn’t taken to the dancing just yet but she absolutely loves doing gymnastics. When I pick them up from school we rock out to Hannah Montana on the way home. As grown up as I think they are and as manly as I think I am, we’re still not above playing with dollies, Barbie dolls, Hannah Montana dolls, Polly Pockets … we do it all!

It has been a summer packed with media opportunities. I spent two days in L.A. and two days in Chicago doing nothing but NBC interviews and media. NBC Nightly News is doing a profile on Daron Rahlves and me. I don’t know when it will air but when I find out I will let you know. And last but certainly not least, I have been busy for the last two years doing a documentary film that documents my path from Alpine racer to Ski Cross racer and father and of course the path to my 5th Olympics. The film is almost finished and Anna Christopher and Seth Caplan, the director and the producer, might just be doing a screening of it around the Beaver Creek “Birds of Prey” weekend. These guys are pumped about making a good film and I can’t wait to see it!

So make sure you tune in to my blog. You never know what kind of tidbits of information or just pure entertainment you might get. It’s going to be a great year and I want you all to be there with me every step of the way.

In mid-June I found myself, once again, in the lovely town of Govt. Camp for Team Ski Cross USA’s on snow project #2. We joined forces with the Boarder Cross team and set up a nice little Ski/Boarder Cross course to train on. We set up Wu Tangs out of the start and got a ton of time in them. Wu Tangs are terrain features that are vertical on the entry and on the landing, with a small flat spot on the top. It is likely that we will see these features out of the start on the Olympic course so it makes sense to train in them.

Daron Rahlves was with us for the first two days but he had to get to a motorcycle race. Then JJ Johnson, Caitlin Ciccone, and Langely McNeal joined in for the fun for a few days.

My knee was really bothering me on snow. I contemplated going home but decided, instead, to stick it out. I realized it doesn’t really matter how much I train. If my knee hurts like it has been then all the training is worthless. So I am on a mission to fix my knee and get it feeling good again.

Of course you can’t go to Mt. Hood without golf clubs, and on the last day I decided to bring my driver up on the mountain. I connected with a couple of balls even though the boots make it difficult to move through the ball. I think these pics should go to Golf Digest. What do you think?

It’s been about seven years since I trained on the snow in Mammoth, CA. I was pretty sure, in 2002 that I would never train on snow in the summer again. But there I was, at Mammoth, running GS courses.

The Alpine team was nice enough to let me train with them. I jumped in with the speed crew, including Marco Sullivan, Stacey Cook, Thomas Biesemeyer, and some others. The tech team was also there but they were on a slightly different program and they had a lot of athletes. We were working on basic GS fundamentals; edging, balance, and turn shape. It was pretty clear that I had lost a little speed in my skiing last season so I showed up in Mammoth to get it back.

I was a little weary of having to go through GS courses again, especially with my knee, but I ended up having a blast running the gates. I was a little rusty at first, but I got better and better each day. I don’t think the tech team will be recruiting me to make another run at Alpine, but I definitely made some improvements.

Last time I checked in I was leaving the World Cup Finals in La Plagne. Since then I have been enjoying some down time at home in Aspen. I’ve spent some quality time with Riley and Annalisa. They are big fans of Hannah Montana so I had to take them to see the movie. Riley shined in her school play. Annalisa has been doing well, but she did have an episode with her feeding tube. It was enough of a scare that Kate had to take her to the hospital in Denver. She’s doing well now and is excited for summer to come along.

I managed to get away for a week in Maui with my girlfriend, Suzanne. What a great trip. We surfed, played golf, and hung out on the beach. It was crazy how many people were there also. I ran into my brother, Chris, and his family for a day. Then my Ski Cross teammate, Langely McNeal, and her friend, Lindsey Woodcock, managed to fly over from Kauai to hang with us for a day. And we also got to see Josh Wiltz, the Canadian ski tech, and Ben and Alice Black, coaches at AVSC that I used to coach with. And we just happened to be on the same flight home with Resi Stiegler. All in all, it was a great vacation. Apparently Maui is a popular spot for skiers in April.

Next stop is California. I’m supposed to do a photo shoot for NBC Olympics in LA and we have a training camp at Mammoth. I’ll let you know how that goes.

La Plagne is an expansive resort in the heart of the Savoie region of France. It was the Bobsled site during the 1992 Albertville Olympic Games. But this year they turned to Freestyle to host the 2009 World Cup Finals.

The U.S. mogul team had a rough go in their Dual Mogul event. They had a stacked team ready to score but they ran into some bad luck and got skunked on the podium. However, Hannah Kearney still walked away with a crystal globe signifying her overall mogul victory.

Then it was my turn to try and pull off a victory of my own. The overall was out of my grasp but I still had a chance to take 3rd away from Lars Lewen. So there were two races going on. The big race was between Thomas Krauss and Chris DelBosco for first place and then there was a smaller race between Lars Lewen and me for 3rd place.

DelBosco closed the gap on Krauss in the race in Meiringen and he was the only one that had a shot at defeating the Ski Cross Champ. He came up short, however, catching his buckle on the B-net and crashing in the final. Thomas Krauss managed to defend his World Cup title. It was not an easy feat considering how strong the competition was this year.

Just like every race since the middle of February I felt ready for a great showing. My body was in good shape and I was skiing well. I was the 4th seed based on my overall ranking for the season so I had good gate picks. I had a great start in the first round and won the heat by a good 20 meters. Then in the quarterfinal I missed the timing of the start and it was all over. It was one of my worst starts all year. I had the best start position and I was 4th to the hole shot. Then I followed Stanley Hayer and Xavier Kuhn down the mountain hoping for them to make a mistake so I could capitalize and pass. Xavier made a great pass on Stanley. Then Stanley made an amazing pass on Xavier to get the transfer spot.

I was left in the back kicking myself for making such a terrible start. That was it. The year was over. I set out to win the World Cup overall and I ended up 4th. It was a respectable finish. But I did have something to celebrate. I finished this year healthy. For the first time in 3 years I walked away without crutches or slings. I didn’t have to make any appointments at the Steadman Clinic. It was great.

I am now set up to have a strong off-season to prepare for the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver. Life is good.

After the race in Grindelwald was canceled, the Swiss organizers thought we had a chance to make it up on Sunday in Meiringen. In order to do this they held the original Meiringen race on Saturday. They had great weather for that event. I was optimistic in their chances of pulling off another one on Sunday, but it seems this race was not meant to happen. And considering how things went in this race for me last year,(that’s when I got K.O.’d and separated my shoulder in a nasty crash) I was not about to argue.

After the 30 minute trip up to the ski area, starting with a tram, and then a long gondola ride, we found ourselves completely mired in fog. It was so thick you could barely see your hand in front of your face. The word of the day was vertigo. We went for a free run and the only thing I could feel, besides the snow under my feet, was gravity. This stuff was thick.

The fog did clear a bit by noon and it looked like we still might get a race off. Unfortunately the weather did a number on the course conditions and, when we took our training run, we found some huge holes. In fact, I buried my right foot in the hole, which gave me a nice sprained ankle. No matter, pain is just one of the factors of this sport.

After about 10 athletes ejected out of their bindings they decided to do something about it. After about 2 hours of solutions we ran out of time and they finally decided to cancel the race. After wasting two full days trying to get this race off it was time to come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t going to happen.

Now the U.S. Ski Cross team is back down to 1. I’m going to La Plagne, France for the World Cup finals. I’m currently tied for 4th with Andreas Matt in the overall standings. The battle for first is between Thomas Kraus and Chris DelBosco. I have no shot at it now. If I win I could overtake 3rd over Lars Lewen. If I don’t win I could still get to 4th on my own and hold that position. There are a lot of guys not too far behind me so I still have to fight for everything I can get.

I’ll check in again from La Plagne so stay tuned.

UGGHHH! Every time I think I’m ready to make a breakthrough everything goes to hell. I was optimistic about the race here in Meiringen-Hasliberg, but it turned out to be my worst finish all year.

Qualifying was a disaster and, considering I had a near perfect run, I have to blame it on the wind. It seems every time there is swirling wind I end up getting the head winds. So I ended up 22nd in qualifying.

Still, I was ready to make the best of it and see how I could do in the final heats. Unfortunately my round of 32 was a nasty one. I had Lars Lewen(last year’s winner), Brady Leman(a loose cannon), and Eric Iljans(a real thorn in my side this year).

I had a good start and was out of the gate first but I got squeezed out by the Swedes at the first turn. Then I had to battle with Brady in the same turn. It looked like Brady was going to take us both out but I pushed him out of the way and it looked like he was gone. Then I focused on Eric. I got pulled into his draft at a rapid clip and I thought I was going to do an easy slingshot pass, but his skis were running well.

I tried to pass Eric on the outside but I couldn’t do it. We were going side by side across the middle flat while Brady was quietly pulling into our two-man draft. As we hit the biggest air on the course we were 3 wide. Eric had more air than me and, because he also got forced wide by Brady, he landed on my skis. It messed him up and it messed me up. Brady capitalized on our tangle and he shot right by. There was no catching up at that point and I ended up 4th in the heat. I was 27th on the day.

Andreas Steffen won the race in his home country with Chris DelBosco in 2nd, and Xavier Kuhn in 3rd.

For the overall, DelBosco closed the gap on Krauss who went out in the quarter-final. I am now tied for 4th with Andreas Matt with the 4 big points I pulled in today, and Lewen is in third.

We have our make up race from Grindelwald tomorrow on the same course. Hopefully the Ski Cross gods will be on my side.

It looks like I dodged a bullet. We had less than perfect weather yesterday for the race in Grindelwald. The course builder put rollers in questionable parts of the turns that made it difficult just to get through the course on your own without wiping out. Due to the weather we were forced to pack the training, the qualifying, and the heats into one day. It did not go well.

Because of all the new snow the course conditions were less than desirable and the course eroded quickly. The women were able to get through their qualifying run on time but not without incidents. The men were then rushed through a training run with a lot of guys missing gates and blowing out.

Then we lined up for our qualifying run and the World Champion, Andreas Matt, was first out of the gate. His ski hooked up on the “questionable roll”, he did a lincoln loop and landed on his back.

After a helicopter took him to Interlaken we started up again. There were multiple holds due to people beating it in.

My run was great with one exception. We didn’t have a lot of time to look at the course so I actually lost where I was for a moment. I jumped on a bump where I needed to press and flew way past where I wanted to land. I completely chundered the turn and lost a good 1.5 seconds at least. I was about 1.8 off the leader.

I then watched a lot of guys come down and beat me. There also were a lot more people that beat it in and the helicopter was getting a lot of use.

At about 2:30 there were still 35 guys left in the field when they decided to cancel the race. This was great news for me because I boned the qualifier so badly. All of the guys that I am in a battle with for the overall were now sitting 1..2..3..4 and I was sitting in 23rd. I needed to either race the heats, which was looking impossible at that point, or I needed them to cancel the race before all the men got down. If they all finished then the qualifier would count as the race.

The officials finally decided to cancel the race due to the time of day and the conditions of the course. I was shocked because it was the first time I had seen them cancel a race due to safety. Maybe the officials do have a soul. Or maybe they have been reading my blog.

In any case, it worked out and we may have a make up race in Meiringen. I’ll check in from there.

The team is back together.  I was on my own for the World Cups in Norway and Sweden and then Jake and Daron joined me in Inawashiro.  Daron is finished for the year.  He only wanted to do the races in North America and the World Championships.  So he is now back in Truckee helping Michelle with the twins.  Now we have Jake, JJ Johnson, Biche Rudigoz, John Teller, and Langely McNeal (the only girl).  We are on our third, and final trip to Europe.  This trip takes us through Grindelwald and Meiringen, Switzerland.  Then we head down to France again for the World Cup Finals in La Plagne. 

This trip looks promising.  The Swiss Alps have gotten dumped on and there is tons of snow.  It’s snowing right now but it’s supposed to clear up tomorrow.  It looks like there will only be one training run tomorrow before qualifying so that ought to be interesting.  We usually have 3 or 4 runs before qualifying. 

This is the race last year where I was taken out by Tommy Eliasson in a high speed wreck.  You can see it if you go to YouTube and look up casey puckett crash.  I separated my shoulder and got knocked out.  The medics thought I broke my neck so they put me in a helicopter to Interlaken.  So I’m back at the scene of the crime.  I have no fear.  In fact, I’ve come back to redeem myself and take the win here. 
 
The course looks tamer than last year.  The jumps are smaller and more forgiving.  We’ll see what the speed is like tomorrow.  All the new snow will probably make it slow. Right now I am fifth in the overall standings.  I am not far off second but there is a gap up to first.  It would be hard to win the overall but not impossible.  I’ll give you a detailed breakdown of the points standings in my next post.  
 
I will post frequently for the next two weeks so stay tuned.