Back In The U.S. & Defending A Title

FROM NATHAN, MARCH 8, 2015 - With my international racing season over, it's back to Park City, UT, for more training and some smaller races. The first event here in Park City: the US Western Regional title, a race I won in 2014.  Although it is an optional race, I decided to return to defend my gold. Of course, Mother Nature had her own agenda. She started dumping snow at Utah Olympic Park--which causes havoc for skeleton racing. It slows down the track and makes consistent runs more difficult. For an already complicated endeavor in which the subtlest maneuvers, knowledge of track minutiae and hundredths of seconds make the difference, snowfall adds one more variable that's undesirable and unpredictable. 
                                                                             
Luckily, navigating the snow happened without much fanfare for me. My defense of the title was a success, finishing with more than a full second to spare.