At 2:00 a.m. on Christmas Day at Saskatoon's John G. Diefenbaker International Airport, Canadian moguls skier Maïa Schwinghammer couldn't wipe the smile off her face.
Exhausted from nearly two days of travel from Bakuriani, Georgia, as well as a gruelling first half of the World Cup freestyle season, she was finally back on home soil able to celebrate a career-first with her family.
Thirty-six hours earlier, Schwinghammer skied to the first World Cup podium of her young career, taking second place in a dual moguls battle against Olympic moguls champion Jakara Anthony of Australia. "It was one of my craziest days of competition ever," Schwinghammer said by phone this week from Val Saint-Côme, Que.
She had a nightmare of a morning. She forgot her competition bib, had to go back to the team hotel twice and nearly missed the course inspection, but things turned around. "I was so stressed about being late and not being ready at go-time that I had no more stress left and I was just able to ski totally relaxed.