It has been a strange season far for TJ Baldwin. There have been some encouraging sections and moments yet he is still struggling to put a full run down that will demonstrate his undoubted talent. Along with Dougie Crawford, baldwin stayed on in North America after the races in Beaver Creek to compete in some Nor Am races with the American Nor Am team. With few speed races outside of the World Cup taking place in Europe, the races in Copper Mountain were a good chance for both athletes to put in some encouraging performances. Posting on the Norfolk Ski Club website, Baldwin said of his races in the World Cup at Beaver Creek that although he was 3.7 seconds off the winner back in 55th spot, “I am pretty pleased with how I performed. I managed to get my skis to run and charged hard. I still had a few costly mistakes but it could have been a lot worse!”
For the Super G the following day, Baldwin made a mistake at the top and lost a load of speed: “It's a shame I shanked the top so hard! I was 25th fastest on the bottom split time, which means I was skiing fast, so I will take that!”
Copper Mountain is the Speed Camp base for the American team and the four races that took place in the last week there, incorporated the American Downhill Championship. Baldwin finished 14th and 18th in the two Nor Am's, scoring mid 30 point results in the process. In the American Downhill Championship race he posted 9th fastest time and 33 point result, his second best result in Downhill of the season so far. On Saturday he posted a rather disappointing Super G result. afterwards Baldwin posted on Facebook: "Not the day I was hoping for, couldn't have skied much worse. One more race to step it up, ski like I know I can and redeem myself."
Dougie Crawford was also in the same races and picked up two sub 40 point results in the second Nor Am Downhill and the American Championship downhill.
Follow TJ Baldwin's results
Follow Dougie Crawford's results