Skiing: Riegler working hard to get back on track

Christmas Day will be no different from any other for Austrian-born New Zealand skier Claudia Riegler as she hits the training slopes in a bid to regain her form before racing next week.

Riegler has failed to finish in three World Cup slalom races this season so far, and is spending as much time as possible training to try to regain her confidence.

Her poor run of form continued at the weekend when she crashed on the first run of a slalom in France. She said she seemed to get a ski caught in a rut, and in trying to make the next gate pushed too hard and fell.

After a good winter of training in New Zealand, Riegler's season began badly with a nasty fall which caused severe bruising of an ankle bone and left her on crutches for days.

She managed only one day back on skis before her next slalom, and again straddled a gate, knocking her out of the competition and aggravating her ankle injury.

"My ankle is okay, it is getting better," she said. "But it has been very difficult. I'm just trying to get some good training in. The snow is very soft at the moment, which is making racing harder, because you get more ruts and things. I'm just trying to get my confidence okay."

Riegler's next race is in Austria, and she said she would be training every day between now and the competition. - NZPA