Parkite and two-time Olympian Rosie Brennan took home the bronze medal over the weekend at the second FIS World Cup of the season in Gällivare, Sweden, in the 4×7.5k team relay event. Teaming up with Jessie Diggins, Sophia Laukli and Julia Kern, the trio braved cold, adverse conditions to win the first race of its kind on the season.
The medal is now Brennan’s third on this competition season, with 13 more events to go before the season concludes in mid-March. Brennan credited the hard yards she’s put in over the years in training towards her hot start, also discussing what it will take to keep the train rolling.
“(It takes) years and years of a lot of training. It takes a long time to develop the fitness and skills to compete with the best,” said Brennan in a prepared statement. “I keep training and learning from my training and racing to figure out all the little ways I can continue to improve. I love the challenge of improving and trying to find more in myself so that it keeps it entertaining for me.”
Brennan will next get to try her hand in the Sprint C and 10 km Interval F races in the third World Cup in Östersund, Sweden, to be held this upcoming weekend. She touched upon how she is able to embrace the different events that each Cup event can bring about.
“A World Cup season is always around 25-30 races so it’s always important to take each day as it comes,” said Brennan in another prepared statement. “I put my best foot forward every time I line up and when the race is over, win or lose, I move on to the next one. It’s great to take a moment to celebrate the good days and be sad on the bad days but there is always another race so I try to never get too caught up in any of it.”
Thankfully for Brennan, she’ll only have one more World Cup event after this weekend too, in Trondheim, Norway, before she can kick her feet up for a bit and enjoy some brief time away from competition. While she acknowledged she’ll still be skiing during the weekend off for Christmas, she hopes the break will give her some time to sled and find markets in Italy, where she’ll be spending the holiday.
To track Brennan’s progress at the event this weekend in Sweden, or moving forward, see the FIS’s website. The events will also be live-streamed, albeit not free of charge, on Ski and Snowboard Live’s site.