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KATE RYLEYJourney to the Top

THE EDUCATION INITIATIVE

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C A N A DA W I N T E R

G A M E S

SUPPORTING ALPINE ONTARIO FOR OVER 20 YEARS

W I N T E R 2 0 1 5 t a b l e o f c o n t e n t s

05Letter from the Executive Scott Barrett

06The Education Initiative Justin Firth

08Canada Winter Games

10The Faces of A0A

11Kate the Great Andrea Russell

14AOA FIS Update

W I N T E R 2 0 1 5 t a b l e o f c o n t e n t s

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return of long time supporter to alpine ski racing Mackenzie Investments and the beginning of a new era with their involvement in alpine skiing which started out in frigid Lake Louise this past November with the first stop of the Mackenzie World Tour. The tour then travelled East just in time to set up shop at the 1st annual AOA Nik Zoricic Cup under the lights at Mt St Louis Moonstone where On-tario’s brightest stars competed for the coveted Cup named after famed Ontario racer Nik Zoricic. And now the homestretch with some fantastic race venues for our provincial championships with the U16’s just about to arrive in Thunder Bay and of course our U14’s heading to Searchmont Mountain to duke it out for provin-cial champion bragging rights! As much as we cherish and celebrate our high performance athletes we must never forget the feeling we all had when we were young, carefree and racing for fun. On behalf of AOA I would like to say thank you to all the amazing volunteers, offi-cials, coaches, parents and athletes who make our sport the best in the world and the most fun! Here’s to another great few weeks and enjoy the spring sun!

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Scott Barrett

Brad Lashley

Andrea Russell

Robyn Skinner

Angela Hobbs

Zach Matthews

Peter-Paul Du Vernet

John Grell

Brent Norton

Chris Pepper

Mary Ferguson

Kent Paisley

Patrick Arkeveld

Dave Morrison

Scott Mikalachki

Keith Duhan

Terry McLaughlan

Doug Robinson

Craig Farrow

Herman Koeslag

Cam Mackenzie

Executive Director

Technical Director

Communications Manager

Competition Manager

Accounting Manager

Race Experience Manager

Chair of the Board

Officials Chair

Communications

Governance

Government Relations

Strategic Initiatives

Strategic Initiatives

Treasurer

Southern Ontario Division

Northern Ontario Division

National Capital Division

Lake Superior Division

Past Chair of the Board

Eye in the Sky Photography

Board of Directors

Staff

As March nears and yet another season is a but a few weeks from ending, it’s worth mentioning some incredibly exciting news both here in Ontario and also nationally! What a week it was for our Canadian men and women down in Beaver Creek, Colorado for the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships with two medals, including three of our homegrown Ontario talent competing in the team event and winning a Silver medal! Don’t forget Ottawa’s own Dustin Cook who surprised the world with a performance that will long be remembered even after the last snowflake melts away this spring. Here in Ontario we saw the

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executive director

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Photography

Alpine Ontario has recently begun an education initiative aimed at providing additionalresources to parents and athletes in order to ease the conflict sometimes present between ski racing and academics. This initiative will provide parents with information on coping with these conflicts includ-ing time away from school, as well as outline programs and schools across the province that prior athletes have succeeded at; it will also demonstrate how continuing with ski racing can open a number of possibilities later in life. In order to provide comprehensive infor-mation, Alpine Ontario is conducting in-depth analysis of input provided by past and present AOA athletes and parents. These individuals have gone through the process and have a sound understand-ing of how to find academic success and the best pathway to get there. We as an organization want to continue our province’s proud ski racing tradition; helping to find ways that athletes and parents can feel comfortable continuing with the sport is to our mutual benefit. The ultimate goal is to allow all athletes to participate in ski racing past U14/U16without fear of falling behind in their academics. A guidebook will be created to help both parents and athletes navigate through a task that in the past has seen to be daunting and confusing. This initiative will not only help athletes

through high school, but will also delve into the post-secondary opportunities that competitive ski racing can open up. This will include an in depth look at the post-second-ary ski opportunities both in the United States and Canada. Steps to prepare for this while in high school will also be outlined. Lastly, this initiative will be used to celebrate the many post-ski successes of the sport’s top tier athletes. Being at the top of our sport requires perseverance, sacrifice, hard work and a variety of other skills that prepare you to succeed in the workforce. We want to highlight how they feel skiing has helped with their professional development. We look forward to completing this project and helping to ease the stress felt by current AOA racers and parents. The strategies and information provided to future ski racers will make it easier for racers to succeed both academically and athletically without compromising either. For more information about the project or any help you wish to give us with the initiative, feel free to contact Justin Firth at jfirth@alpineontario.ca . Any parent or athlete that feels as though their experience with skiing & academics could be beneficial to future racers isurged to reach out. We thank you in advance for your help.

T H E E D U C A T I O N I N I T I A T I V E

B U I L D I N G E L I T E L E V E L A T H L E T E S

B Y J U S T I N F I R T H

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M-3023-Update of AOA advertisement 2014-10-21 5:00 PM

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19 ATHLETES INCLUDING 14 ABLE-BODIED AND 5

PARA ATHLETES WILL REPRESENT ONTARIO AT THE

CANADA WINTER GAMES IN PRINCE GEORE, B.C.

TAKING PLACE FROM FEBRUARY 13TH TO MARCH 1ST.

Men

Declan McCormack Osler BluffWilliam Kornya Georgian PeaksGriffen Copp NSAHunter Watson Camp FortuneScott Thompson Devil’s GlenCam McGregor Osler BluffZachary Mayne NSA

Para

Sarah GilliesGreg MoogkAlex MartaJames BinsfeldWill Goessaert

Good Luck to all our athletes at the Games!

The Canada Winter Games will bring over 2,400 athletes from across thecountry to Prince George and will include 8 days of Alpine Skiing events.Ontario’s athletes will compete in slalom, GS, Super-G, and Ski Cross events from February 13th to 20th at Purden and Tabor Mountains.

Representing Team Ontario will be:

Women

Brianna MacDonald Osler BluffCamryn Metzger Georgian PeaksMadeline Sullivan Georgian PeaksNicole Clarke Camp FortuneCamille Vibert Georgian PeaksLarkin Casey TSCSamantha Boughner Osler Bluff

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Kate Ryley, like many on a dedicated journey to the top, knows about tenacity. She knows about the defeats, about the mental challenges, and about the physical setbacks, but she also knows about the rush, the accolades, and the wins. The path to the World Cup for this 8 time All-American has not been a straight journey but we wonder, in retrospect, if she’d have it any other way. Poised and ready now to do what it takes to dominate the NorAms this season, with her sights set on the World Cup circuit, this time around Kate is doing it under her own steam, her own way. Growing up skiing at Craigleith Ski Club, Kate was in the racing circuit by 7 years old but it wasn’t until high school, when she saw her big sisters starting to dominate the racing scene that she realised that this was something that she too could do. Ryley said, “I guess I was a bit naïve. When racing, I just wentfast…it wasn’t until later, in high school when I saw my friends and sister racing for OST and then CAST, that I thought… this could go somewhere!” When re-flecting on that time, she adds that per-haps that is something missing from our system – that perhaps we don’t make it clear enough at a young age that acareer in racing is possible. “Kids need to be recognized and told of their talents when they are young, so that they can believe in themselves and gain

confidence. We have idols growing up, but sometimes it is hard to really see ourselves being as good as them. Coaches and peers need to instil in young athletes that becoming an Olympian or World Cup ski racer isn’t so unbelievable. That they are capable of turning this weekend hobby into a career”. By high school, following in her sister Meg’s footsteps, Ryley now realised that a future in racing waswhat she wanted. Selected onto the Ontario Ski team in 2005, she says this was the turning point for her. The selection onto the team “felt great” and she remembers that time as the most fun years of her teens. While she missed out on a lot at high school – the experience she had on the team, the friendship, the travel and the memories she made showed her what skiing can be like. She was hooked.She attributes much of what she learned during this time about work, skiing, tenacity and being on ateam to her coaches Jean-Sebastian Labrie, Sven Pouliot, and Joey Lavi-gne. “At that stage, I lacked confidence, I used to give up…my coaches taught me to never, ever give up”. That advice has served Ryley well to this day – in her four year NCAA racing career, she never DNF’d. In 2007, Kate was named to the Canadian Alpine Development Team.

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“I was so excited, I wasn’t expecting it…this was my first step towards making a career out of ski racing”. She spent 2 years on the Develop-ment Team and while she acknowl-edges that she loved working with coaches Tim Gfeller and Pavel Stastny and had great support from the others on the team, the experience out west proved a blow to the skier’s confidence. “I felt a long way from home. In Ontario it seemed more fun, more loose, I was just doing my thing and winning – but on the develop-ment team I put too much pressure on myself and buckled under it. It was a different environment, I was lonely at times and more and more I began to lose confidence. I wasn’t as fast anymore.” In 2009, Ryley was dropped from the team. “I took a step back, I learned a lot from the experience on the team…over the years I had lost a lot of confidence and I learned that the only one that can change that is you. So I went back home, I learned to be ‘me’ again, to be only competing against ‘me’. I took some time to grow up and see the big picture and to learn toenjoy skiing again.” Ryley took the next year to ski the FIS/NorAm circuit in Europe – while she had a great time and learned to enjoy racing again, she just wasn’t feeling it and realised that she “wasn’t going to make it”. “I thought I’d be better, but I wasn’t per-forming, so I accepted it…it was time to go to school”. At that time, going to school felt

like capitulation – she was giving up her ski racing dreams. But it was her sister Meg who was now studying at UVM in Vermont and enjoying tremendous success skiing for the Catamounts, UVM’s NCAA Alpine Ski Team, who inspired Kate and showed her that this was just another oppor-tunity to do what she loved. Ryley began studying at UVM and racing for the Catamounts herself. At first she found it difficult to get excited… “I didn’t think I’d improve with so little training”. But she says that by the end of her first year she realised, “it was a totally different experience, a lot ofthe pressure was off…this was a team sport…I found what I lost on CAST…this time it came down to me,not everyone else and I learned that if I focus on doing my best, it helps the team”. Ryley also had agreat relationship with her coaches, Bill Reichelt and Johnny Davidson. “I felt like I was always laughing.It was so EASY to have fun.” Ryley began her first year racing focused on “taking advantage of thelimited training days and treating ev-ery moment as an opportunity to get better”. Soon her pointsimproved. By the end of her NCAA racing career, Ryley was named Ski Racing Magazine’s Top racer inNorth America 3 times, had 22 wins and 40 podiums, was NCAA All American 8 times, and never DNF’d.She also led the Catamounts to win 4 straight EISA championships.

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r e a l i t y . ”

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Reflecting on her time racing for UVM, Kate wonders if much of her success can be attributed to the factthat she had other pressures besides ski racing to tackle. Like her time on the OST, she had school work to focus on and racing became her outlet rather than her primary focus, as it was while she was on the CAST Development team. “At university I had no time to dwell on my skiing, there was always something else going on in my life – I was getting an education while doing what I loved. At University, you’re a team …it’s a whole athlete experience. This was a more comfortable environment for me and my results began to reflect that.” Ryley remembers a highlight in her sophomore year - UVM hadn’t held a National Title in 18 years, Ryley was still new to the team, with her help UVM won the National Champions and she won the Indi-vidual Title in slalom – looking back on her 2nd run that day, Ryley said, “I just thought is all I can do is go as fast as I can. I dialed my focus in on tactics, not the result... this helps me feel no pressure and calms my nerves…and I went and I won. I still want to cry thinking about it…it was so exciting.” Ryley graduated UVM last spring and now sets her sights back on the International stage. This year she is skiing independently with Jeff Fergus a coach that has been on the World Cup circuit for many years and has coached world class racers like Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso, she is also training with the Burke Mountain Academy in what you could call a mutual partnership. Though she is training this time withoutteam-mates, Ryley hopes to take all that she learned about herself and ski racing to the NorAm circuit, focusing on GS and SL with a goal to win a World Cup spot for next year. Looking forward to the season ahead, Ryley said, “I get to focus solely on skiing. While this is contrary to what worked for me throughout my 4 years at school, this is ultimately the next step in becoming a professional alpine ski racer and I feel better prepared now to do so. I make sure I balance skiing

with other hobbies off the ski hill, as well as taking online classes “for fun” to keep my brain sharp! The last 4 years have been some of the best of my life, but it does feel good to be done with my undergrad and devote 100% of my time to my sport”. Since September she has sustained a few injuries including a quad tear that set her back 8 weeks, some contusions to her shins (Ryley says, “don’t shin a GS gate!), and a broken thumb. “These are all small hurdles” Ryley says, “that only make me ever more eager to kick some butt. I had great SL results at the start of the season and justcompleted a solid training block. I am going to keep my momentum moving forward into the next set of NorAms at Nakiska and COP in February”. As the next bend in the path unfolds, we ask Kate what her journey thus far has taught her and what she thinks young racers ought to know, she says, “Give your dreams a chance… you need to TRULY believe that you can turn them into reality . Ask yourself why you are doing it? Do you love it? And then believe in yourself.” She says she sees this so often in Europe, “European kids see skiing everywhere, skiing in Europe is like hockey in Canada, you don’t have to tell a Canadian kid that the NHL is an option…they know”. When it comes to handling the pressure, Ryley advises, “being more confident will help steer you away from the pressure…you need to keep it fun, but focus on your objectives and your goals, not the immediate results.” Thinking about the road ahead and the work she has done to get here, Ryley reflects on her next challenge, “When I graduated, deciding on whether or not to continue my pursuit of this sport was a difficult one. What ultimately allowed me to make a decision was that I knew that if I didn’t try, I would never know. I didn’t want to have regrets. I believe in myself and I believe I can make it happen. I love what I am doing, I am completely dedicated, and every day I feel so fortunate and blessed to be doing what I am doing. No day is taken for granted. It’s hard work but it’s good hard fun too!!! 13

AOA COD CUP FIS SERIESAlpine Ontario Alpin was pleased to welcome a consortium of 3 prominent real estate development companies, Cadillac Fairview, Dream, and Oxford Properties as the Title Partners of the AOA FIS Series this season. In line with this series sponsorship, the group also held the Title Partnership of the 1st Annual AOA Nik Zoricic Cup FIS ‘Night’ Slalom, held at Mount St Louis Moonstone under the lights on December 29th and 30th. The night races were a huge success and a great opportunity to watch Ontario’s fastest racers competing for this coveted trophy named in honour of famed Ontario alpine and ski cross racer Nik Zoricic.

 Nic Zoricic’s father, Bebe Zoricic said of the inaugural event,

“Silvia and I were honored and grateful that Alpine Ontario and the Ontario ski racing community acknowledged Nik and his legacy in this manner and was the beginning of a new tradition in his name to be celebrated for years to come. Nik’s success at the FIS level here in Ontario ultimately propelled him into a wonderful career representing Canada in Alpine and in ski cross on the world stage.

Thank you to Alpine Ontario and Mount St Louis Moonstone for all their efforts in organizing the event and we look forward to attending many more and celebrating our proud alpine skiing heritage.”

Cadillac Fairview, Dream, and Oxford Properties represent a vast network of real estate holdings across Canada and around the world, including numerous, large-scale retail and residential developments here in Ontario, with each company promoting sustainability, responsible development and philanthropy among its core tenets. Alpine Ontario Alpin is thrilled to be partnering with this forward-thinking and global-minded group. This year’s 22-event AOA FIS series across the province will comprise the COD (Cadillac Fairview/Dream/Oxford) CUP, with overall women’s and men’s series winners each earning an all-expenses paid spot at the inaugural Ontario Ski Team Selection Camp this spring.

With the mid way mark of the series just about reached with Camp Fortune’s slalom being held on February 8th and 9th in Ottawa. See the next page for current standings.

AOA COD CUP FIS SERIESCurrent FIS standings as of Friday, February 13, 2015

LADIES

Rebecca Nadler.....360ptsJackie Atkins.....230pts

Emma Woodhouse.....226ptsAdelaide Jensen.....212ptsSabrina Cormier.....209pts

Lili Lockwood.....200ptsHannah Schmidt.....200pts

Ali Nullmeyer.....180ptsKate Ryley.....180pts

Rachel Clarke.....174pts

MENS

Will McConville.....329ptsCarter Armstrong.....236pts

Hugo Lemay.....226ptsNicolas Leblanc.....221ptsJake Gougeon.....200pts

Patrick McConville.....200ptsPatrick Biggs.....180pts

Jean-Philippe Roy.....180ptsDylan Fisher McCarney.....160pts

Charles McConville.....151pts

Mackenzie Investments is proud to support our Canadian athletesFrom elite World Cup performers, like Manny Osborne-Paradis, all the way to the club level winners of tomorrow, we’re committed to powering great performances.

Wishing all our athletes a successful season in the snow.

OFFICIAL PARTNER OF SNOW SPORTS CANADA AND ALPINE ONTARIO ALPIN

Manny Osborne-ParadisWorld Cup Alpine

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