2022 recap & retirement from skating
Looking back I realize that I hadn’t posted in well over a year but mostly because I got so into what I was doing, that I completely forgot to update.
2022 was great, overall. After retiring from skating in November 2021 (not really writing a post about it because I am eventually coming back to race), I just enjoyed the down time that came with not having a strict schedule to stick to. While that was fun and lasted for an extended period of time, months later I found myself needing structure and direction; like any other athlete that has done that for 18+ years.
I started January off with working an event for the ISU, announcing the World Juniors in Innsbruck (I’m keeping a foot in the door and working in the speed skating world with coaching as well because it is all so familiar, and has been my world forEVER), and I totally fell in love – with everything around. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t made the effort prior to that, to get out there more often for both skiing and cycling. Living 90 minutes away made the returns easy, and they happened almost weekly throughout the summer as I found myself connected to some people there that added positive energy to my life.
Later on in the year I went skiing in Chamonix; a luxury I hadn’t been able to afford considering I was skating and racing all winters. Cycling trip to Tenerife, a weekend in Berlin, weeks in Mallorca, and exploring Italy by bike. Just wow.
This “retirement” from my career as a pro athlete at this point had been nothing but everything I could ever dream of. I won’t go into detail with the rest of the months, as they seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye but looking back at it all now, it was a year of immense loss (in personal ways that have deeply hurt me), and in a way of transitioning into something totally new. With that being said, sucking at something new and leaving the familiar behind, is what I will touch up on in the next blog which will already be posted by the time you’re finished reading this one.
All in all, a year where I was free, where I learned and where I grew. While I’m sitting down here in Girona writing, I can actually look back at everything with an outside perspective and reflect on how it all happened the way it was supposed to. When things don’t go according to plan, you miraculously end up on a different path that you didn’t know you needed to be on — and then it all works out.
See you later. New post on Girona living is up, so check that out next if you’d like 😉
XX
Alex
