Park City native Rell Harwood was slated to compete in this week’s slopestyle event at the world championships in Bakuriani, Georgia. After spending last season recovering from and rehabbing a torn ACL, the 21-year-old made her return to the snow and has seen some solid results. She was looking to cap off her comeback season with her second trip to the world championships.
Until she broke her collarbone.
A year after missing out on a shot to qualify for the Olympics, Harwood was once again sidelined by an injury during a major international skiing competition.
“It’s kind of like the same process of when I tore my ACL,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I can’t ski for a while.’ But a lot different and shorter, but kind of the same feeling.”
Harwood skied for what is now Park City Ski & Snowboard growing up, and she’s thankful for having the opportunity to do so in Park City.
“It was just a super fun way to grow up with skiing with my friends on the weekends and being coached and skiing all over the mountain and in the park and pipe as well,” Harwood said. “I just think having that club when I was younger and the friends I made there helped me become a really good skier now.”
The Parkite grew up competing in contests around the Mountain West, including at home. Harwood was a successful skier as a teenager, so much so that she made the U.S. Ski Team as a teenager, which she credited for improving her as a skier. She ended up competing in her first World Cup event in February 2017, a slopestyle competition at Mammoth Mountain where she finished 19th out of the 31 skiers who started.
“Just training with them helped me progress substantially, and then I got into bigger competitions, like World Cups,” Harwood said. “I think I got into my first one when I was 16 and kind of just went from there. I’ve been on the World Cup circuit for a few years now and training with the U.S. team.”
Harwood snuck into the top 10 of the slopestyle World Cup standings in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns, and she was hoping to punch her ticket to Beijing heading into last season. But her season ended before it really started when she tore her ACL attempting a switch misty 900 in Italy in September 2021. Just like that, her Olympic dreams vanished.
“I was probably fourth out of the U.S. girls, so there was a good chance I could have qualified,” she said. “And so, to do it so early on and to miss all of the World Cups and the Olympics was hard.”
Despite the setback, Harwood gained some perspective on what it takes to come back from an injury like that.
“It made me realize a lot about myself and my body,” Harwood said. “A lot of athletes, especially girls, have torn their ACL from skiing, so it made me realize what other people have gone through and that I had to work hard and it wasn’t going to be easy. But, I wanted to work hard because I truly love competing and skiing and I wanted to get back to a place where I could do that.”
Being in Park City, especially as a U.S. skier, has its perks, like U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Center of Excellence, where Harwood would work out and do her physical therapy several times a week during her long road back to the snow.
“They say, like, nine months before you can even ski,” Harwood said. “I was on crutches for four weeks, and then you move to, like, get off crutches, you can walk, but you can’t jump for, like, five months.”
Along with going through the trials and tribulations that come with rehabbing from a major injury, it didn’t help that Harwood was alone in Park City while her friends were traveling around the globe competing in the sport she loves.
“One of the more difficult things was being out of skiing and traveling – most of my friends are athletes on the U.S. Ski team with me,” Harwood said. “Just miss being around them because they’re gone doing the World Cup circuit, and I’m stuck in Park City.”
Harwood competed in her first World Cup competition since March 2021 in December, coming in 11th place in a big air event at Copper Mountain. She followed that up with another 11th-place result in slopestyle during a January stop in Laax, Switzerland, and a ninth-place finish at Mammoth Mountain last month. Harwood recalled putting down a double cork 1260 in Switzerland and how much of a breakthrough that was for her.
“Just to be able to do one of my harder tricks makes me feel pretty confident being back skiing and back from the injury,” she said.
While Harwood has had some success since making her way back to competing again, just being out on her skis and enjoying herself is a win, aside from the latest injury to her collarbone.
“I just realized what I have and I’m super thankful and grateful,” she said. “I’m definitely trying to take advantage and skiing every day that I can.”
Harwood’s future goals include making it to the Olympics, skiing at the X Games and winning a World Cup. At 21, time is on her side.
“Definitely trying to go for the 2026 Olympics in Italy,” Harwood said. “That’s one of my dreams since I was young – to qualify for an Olympics. Hopefully with the road I’m on, continue doing the World Cup circuit every season, I’d love to try to get invited to X Games. Just keep doing well in skiing, and as long as I’m having fun and skiing with my friends, I’ll keep doing it.”