2006 World Barefoot Championships

Jody Sherwood skied the tournament of her life at the 2006 World Barefoot Championships. This event took place September 9th - 17th, 2006 in Adna, WA. In her words you can follow her on her way to capturing six gold medals in the Senior and Open/Elite divisions...

"The 2006 World Barefoot Championships was truly the tournament of my life. I was skiing really well during the couple of weeks prior to the tournament and felt confident that I was ready when I left for Adna, WA. I skied the Senior tournament as a member of the U.S. Team and also qualified for the Open/Elite tournament in Trick and Slalom as an independent, which meant a lot of skiing for me between the two tournaments.

For each of the three rounds for each tournament I was able to build upon the one before and really put it together for the final rounds. I worked very hard to tune out the other competition and thoughts of falling and winning or losing, instead keeping my focus on treating each run as if I was practicing at home. My goal for the tournament was to ski my best and I knew that if I did I would be happy with my performance. Whether that put me in first place or last, I was ok with it as long as I knew I gave it my best.

The final rounds of the tournament were like a dream. I skied personal bests in Tricks and Slalom and tied my personal best in Jump. On Friday, August 15th, I skied in the finals for Senior Slalom and won my first gold medal of the tournament with a personal best of 13. It was a great event because all of the competitors brought their game and skied really well. If felt really good to come out on top with a personal best.

Tricks is my strongest event and the Senior Trick event was one of the few events I let myself think about possibly winning. I knew if I could ski out my run, I would have the gold. Due to some shoulder issues, I purposely kept the last trick of my run (back to front) out until the final rounds to save any unnecessary stress on it. For the final round for Tricks for the Senior tournament I went for the turn and nailed it. It was a personal best for me and it felt really good to be on my game. I now had two gold medals for the Senior tournament with only the Senior Jump Finals and the Open/Elite Trick Finals left to ski.

That same day was the Senior Jump finals and little did I know that the excitement would continue. As it played out, Andrea Eggert and I tied and had to go to a jump off for first and second. I had nothing to lose – worst case scenario I would end up with second place and that was more than I could have even imagined. When I found out that I had won the jump off, I could not believe it. I had won my third gold medal of the Senior tournament and also secured the Senior Women Overall World Champion title. The Senior U.S. Team had also won the Overall Gold team medal which gave me a gold medal sweep of the tournament.

With the Senior tournament wrapped up and five gold medals, I was walking on air. The only event I had left was the final Trick round for the Open/Elite tournament. I was the fourth seed and just happy to have made it to the finals. It was kind of my bonus fun round and I felt very little pressure. My only thoughts were to go out and nail my trick run one last time and soak in my final two passes on Lake Silverado. Luck was on my side and I was able to bring my game one more time, including my turn, and it felt awesome! I just had this huge sense of relief that the tournament was over and the greatest sense of accomplishment to have skied so consistently throughout the whole tournament. Never once did it cross my mind that I had a chance to win the event and I can’t even describe the feeling when I learned that I had won the gold medal in Open Womens Tricks. Everything that I’ve trained so hard for came together for me and I skied the best I ever have in my life. It is an experience that I will never forget."

Jody Sherwood

Date: 3.9.2007
Author: Vortex Wetsuits