The sun was out today! It was an awesome day to hang out and cheer on my teammates in the World Cup Team Sprint here in Sochi, Russia. First, I went skiing, really slowly, with my teammates Liz Stephen (left), Kikkan Randall (center), Jessie Diggins and Holly Brooks (not pictured):

I was extremely tired from my race yesterday. Luckily, the girls were exahsted too so we could all ski (or maybe it would be more accurate to say walk) together. Here are Liz (left) and Holly:

We also each talked to NBC. They have a crew here doing an Olympic preview for the Today Show. In the last two days I have been interviewed by NBC, the AP, and the Los Angeles Times. Clearly this pre-Olympic World Cup is bigger than an average World Cup.

In the finishing pen for the race, this cat was hanging around:

He was pretty cute and made me miss my kitty at home.

Then it was on to the important business of cheering on our teammates in the World Cup. Here is Sadie Bjornsen following Norway and Russia in the semifinal.

Sadie and her teammate Ida Sargent won their semifinal! Here’s Sadie crossing the finish line:

Sadie (left) and Ida were psyched to win and move on to the final.

Then it was on to the men. My teammates Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell represented the U.S. Here’s Simi leading the field:

Here he is leading Italy on one of the fast downhills of the course:

Here’s Newell leading the field at the top of the huge uphill on the last lap. The men also won their semifinal and advanced to the final.

Between the semis and finals we (spectators) got a little bored. I made a snowman with a friend, Andy Kühne from Germany:

Simi was focussed warming up for the final.

Here’s one more shot of our snowman creation.

Then it was on to the finals. Here’s Ida:

And Sadie in the middle of the group:

Here’s Sadie on the fast downhill:

Here she is following Celine Brun-Lie of Norway:

The girls skied great and ended up an impressive fifth.

After the women it was straight on to the men’s final. Here’s Andy next to Norway’s Petter Northug:

Here he is next to Sweden’s Emil Joensson. Mikhail Devjatiarov of Russia is just ahead:

Here’s Simi on his last lap:

The guys skied great. They were in position to get fourth before Newell fell around the last corner. They ended up seventh.

After the race a bunch of us went down to the valley to do strength. Here’s Kikkan doing a pull-up with an impressive amount of weight:

The gym we used was a little short on heavy weight, so I used Kikkan to do deadlift:

After strength we went out to dinner with Dexter Paine, chairman of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) board of directors, and Luke Bodensteiner, Vice president of athletics at USSA. On the way to the restaurant we got caught in a ton of traffic because the road was closed up ahead for Russia’s Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev.

The area around the restartant, like everything else in Sochi, was under construction. Our taxi driver tried three times to drive over this bridge before deciding he couldn’t make the sharp corner. It’s a good thing because I’m not sure the bridge would have held the car:

We had a great dinner. Here’s a team photo at the restaurant: