Mazie Hayden races Europa Cup in Austria alongside top athletes in her sport

Killington Mountain School SkiCross athlete Mazie Hayden recently traveled to Pitzal, located in Tyrol, Austria for her first Europa Cup race. Her coach Jeff Juneau checked in with an update from the event: "Europa Cup is the stepping stone to World Cup, and the field here in Pitztal was exceptionally strong this week. The majority of the World Cup athletes raced, using it as preparation for the next SkiCross World Cup. 46 women entered the race, and Mazie placed 20th in her qualification run on Friday. Her result earned her a spot in the first round of heats. Her heat of four included Canadian Georgia Simmerling (ranked eighth in the world) and French skier Ophelie David (ranked 10th in the world). Mazie had a great run, and finished third beating Swiss skier Sixtine Cousin and just behind Ophelie. Georgia and Ophelie went on to finish first and third in the finals later today. Mazie’s heat racing earned her 21st in her first Europa Cup start." Juneau continued, "Mazie has prepared well, and was extremely focused on her preparation and execution during this trip. The majority of the racers arrived earlier and had one to two weeks of training on the track. Despite a lot less time on the course, Mazie was able to analyze the track, work through the features and get up to full race speed in only five training runs over two days. I am very impressed with her ability to figure out this course so quickly.”