4am wake ups
Dry land training
Full body spandex suits
Endless weekend bus trips
Countless days off school
Ah the life of a ski racer!
For many of my childhood years, I was a ski racer for the Mount Seymour Ski Club. I remember those days fondly.
The friendships forged
The discipline learned
The memories made
The nostalgia is relived every winter, especially during Olympics years, when I get to watch skiing, in all it’s forms on TV. I love seeing and cheering for my former ski buddies (I used to ski with, and go to school with Manny Osborne-Paradis), and sharing those memories with my kids, who are currently learning to ski.
This year at the Sochi Olympics, the real news makers were our Canadian Freestyle Ski Team, also known as “the Canadian Air Force”. Their incredible success captivated the world with names like Justine Dufour-Lapointe, Alexandre Bilodeau and Dara Howell quickly becoming household Canadian names.
Not only are these athletes fierce competitors, they are tremendous people, and excellent role models and ambassadors for the sport, and for today’s youth wanting to try freestyle skiing. Freestyle skiing was only just gaining popularity when I was on my way out of competitive alpine skiing, but having been an alpine racer, as well as a certified ski instructor I respect the amount of time, effort, and skill involved in this discipline.
Freestyle skiing is quite diverse including Aerials, Single Moguls, Dual moguls and, debuting in Sochi, Halfpipe and Slopestyle. “Our athletes learned Freestyle at our ski clubs across Canada. Our clubs offer excellent development opportunities with our CAN Freestyle programs that start kids on a fun and safe path to freestyle skiing.” said Bruce Robinson, CFSA CEO.
With growing interest in the two newest disciplines, freestyle skiing continues to be dynamic and relevant to skiers of all ages. The Canadian Freestyle Ski Team is the world leader in freestyle skiing and team’s medal haul of 3 gold, 3 silver and a bronze at the recent 2014 Olympics in Sochi was an all-time best for Canada – placing them at the top of the Freestyle Skiing medal rankings.
Although the Olympics are now over for another 4 years, our athletes continue on to the final FIS Freestyle Ski World Cups across Europe and Asia.
For more info on getting your child involved in freestyle skiing, check out the Freestyle Ski Club Finder, or for more information head over to the CAN Freestyle Programs Website. Also make sure to check them out on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you following on social media? Find BentoMomma on:
Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // YouTube // Pinterest
Yes, Canadian athletes completely dominated the Olympics this year, especially the freestyle ski team. Good for you for doing it when you were younger. I’m sure it’s a big part of who you are today. My 3 year old started skiing lessons this year. Hopefully he’ll enjoy it more when he’s older as he wasn’t so keen on it this year. I blame the bad weather we’ve had. Great post with lots of great info. Thanks for sharing.
So glad to hear your getting your little one out to the hill early! They will thank you later in life! 🙂
How awesome is that, you use to Freestyle Ski when you were younger.I don’t think I ever did anything that active when I was younger, wishing I had now, but both my kiddos are definitely the opposite and are loving staying and being active. The 2014 Olympics was pretty awesome. I think we did amazing! 🙂
I was an alpine racer, so no crazy jumps for me!! I’m far too chicken for that. Speed was my thing! 🙂
For someone who lives in Metro Vancouver and not more than 30 minutes from the mountain, I’ve never been much of a skier. I have nothing but admiration for these athletes!
Have you tried snowboarding or cross country? Might be more your pace! Or there’s always snowshoeing!! I know Mt.Seymour does wine and fondue snowshoe nights!
So wonderful that you were able to get started with freestyle skiing at such a young age – and it became such a big part of your life. You must have been so proud seeing your friends and colleagues at the Olympics this year! How exciting for your kids!
It’s definitely a little surreal seeing the kids I used to race with all grown up and racing in the Olympics and other big events. It’s what we all used to dream of doing as kids!
Wow, you’re actually making me wish I’d watched more of the Olympics this year. It sounds much more exciting than I thought!
Just because you missed the Olympics doesn’t mean you’ve missed your chance to. Watch some amazing skiers! The freestylers are still competing in Europe and Asia. I highly recommend looking it up!
We had a great time watching the winter Olympics as a family this year. DS was very interested in trying out skating and skiing.
That’s awesome! And it’s so easy for the littles to pick up these sports at an early age! Great to get them out now so they’ll learn for life.
I am actually grateful to the owner of this web site who has shared this wonderful article at at this
place.