EAGLE — In the world of snowsports in 2018, navigating the Choose Your Own Adventure like path to the Olympics is often more difficult than the Olympics itself.

An athlete must take advantage of favorable circumstances and make the best of the unfavorable.

The timing must be right, and in many cases, the path has been set out over the course of an athlete’s entire life.

Meghan Tierney’s favorable circumstances began at birth, when she came into the world already having two older siblings to chase around.

“She was always around snowboarding,” her father, Chris Tierney Sr., recalls. “She had the bug at an early age from watching her sister compete … and then she really got into it with her brother, who was a pro slopestyle rider.”

Meghan Tierney would tag along with her brother, Chris, to the terrain parks of Breckenridge and Keystone, and he would inspire her to hit the largest jumps in the parks.

“She’s really lucky to have had him,” Tierney Sr. said. “He really pushed her as a little kid, so she’s never been afraid to send it off jumps.”

JACOBELLIS INFLUENCE

When she was in sixth grade, Meghan Tierney met Anita Jacobellis, mother of nine-time X Games gold medalist Lindsey Jacobellis, who saw a likeness to Lindsey in Meghan.

Anita became Meghan Tierney’s tutor and became especially fond of the young snowboarder.

“She was so much fun to work with, she made me laugh every day,” Anita Jacobellis said. “She’s a great kid, very wise and sophisticated in her thinking.”

The Tierneys moved to Eagle County in 2012 and enrolled Meghan Tierney in the Vail Ski & Snowboard Academy. She attended school there as a freshman and sophomore, working with Ben Boyd’s program at Ski & Snowboard Club Vail.

“He was a great coach to her, in regard to the mental aspect of things,” Chris Tierney Sr. said.

By her junior year, however, Meghan Tierney needed more. Boyd pointed Meghan Tierney in the direction of coach Ross Hindman with the International Snowboard Training Center. That’s where her career really started to take off.

“Ross Hindman changed the way she viewed the sport and what it meant to be a pro athlete,” Chris Tierney Sr. said. “He taught her to take everything seriously, your physical training and what you put in your body.”

BROKEN BACK RECOVERY

Meghan Tierney moved through the ranks, eventually earning World Cup starts and even an invite to X Games in Aspen.

And then her unfavorable circumstances began.

“I hate my cell phone because usually when it rings it’s one of my kids, and it’s usually never good,” Chris Tierney Sr. said. “I’m driving to my office in Avon, I see the phone light up, it’s Meghan, and she’s crying and in a lot of pain.”

While at a training camp in Austria in November 2016 Meghan Tierney crashed and broke her back on the L3 vertebrae. She was helivaced out of the venue and transported back to the U.S.

She was out all of December and January, but by the end of February she was back in the starting gate.

“Going into that season she was doing really well, she was strong, and then literally, the very first run of the season at training camp, she wrecked off of a jump and broke her back,” Chris Tierney Sr. said. “So as soon as she started feeling better, she started pushing herself … it was too soon.”

Meghan Tierney started the 2017-18 season with a string of 25th- to 31st-place finishes in the first four World Cup races. Her Olympic prospects were not looking good. A 19th-place finish at the second-to-last qualifier of the season, however, gave her some confidence, but as the fourth-finishing American in that race, she needed to bump her way up further.

Meghan Tierney went into the final Olympic qualifier ranked 26th. She ended up finishing seventh, the top-finishing American, earning herself a spot on the Olympic team.

“Having that slow start made her hungry, it made her work hard,” Chris Tierney Sr. said. “The timing ended up being perfect.”

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EAGLE COUNTY — Through the performance of their athletes this season, the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team earned the option to take eight moguls skiers to the 2018 Olympics.

Four of those eight skiers are from Ski & Snowboard Club Vail.

Morgan Schild, of Pittsford, New York; Tess Johnson, of Edwards; Emerson Smith, of Breckenridge, and Casey Andringa, of Boulder, all joined the Ski & Snowboard Club Vail program with hopes of making it to the Olympics one day. The chances of them all making it to the 2018 games, however, were very slim.

Speaking from Park City, Utah, on Tuesday, Jan. 23, after receiving his official team uniform, Andringa said the common link was in the coaching.

“When I was 18, everyone that I grew up skiing with at Winter Park left to go to college,” Andringa said. “I knew I wasn’t done yet, and I also knew that John Dowling was arguably the best mogul coach in the entire world. My parents said if you’re going to do this and be serious about it, you might as well go where the best coach is.”

Andringa joined Ski & Snowboard Club Vail two years after Dowling had signed on as freestyle program director.

‘ADVISING FROM AFAR’

Dowling brought with him to Vail a bevy of talent, including coach Riley Campbell. Campbell had been one of Dowling’s athletes, and Dowling recognized the potential in him to be a great coach.

This season, Campbell has been Dowling’s man on the ground, traveling to competitions and helping the athletes.

“But Dowling was still watching and advising from afar,” Campbell said.

Certain tips, here and there, from both Dowling and Campbell throughout the season, proved to be invaluable for all of Ski & Snowboard Club Vail’s athletes.

“With Tess (Johnson), we knew she needed to shave a second and a half off her time to get into a superfinal (top-six round),” Campbell said. “Dowling had this thought that if she didn’t go as big as some of the other girls on her top air (first jump on the two-jump moguls course), she’ll spend more time on the snow, and it will be a faster approach.”

Johnson lowered her times, made the superfinal in the last Olympic qualifier of the season to earn her spot on the team.

SCHILD BUILDING

2017 National Champion Morgan Schild was among the top competitors on the World Cup circuit last season, notching a win and another podium. Her berth on the 2018 team seemed like a foregone conclusion, until the qualifiers actually started. She made the top 16 at the first event and then crashed. She didn’t find any better results at the second of five qualifiers.

“Dowling said she needed to look at it like she’s building toward Pyeongchang,” Campbell said. “She skied into sixth place at the next event, she’s always wanting the podium but I knew that was fine because we’re building.”

At the next event, a home-snow World Cup in Deer Valley, Utah, “we implemented that same planning, how she built herself up through the training runs into the competition.”

Schild notched a pair of podiums in Deer Valley and made the minimum objective criteria for the Olympic team.

“She sealed the deal in Deer Valley,” Campbell said.

FOURTH SPOT SERENADE

Emerson Smith was the only mogul skier on the U.S. men’s team to start off the season skiing well. At the first event, a tough competition in Ruka, Finland, more than 50 skiers took to the course before him. Ordinarily, this would not have been ideal.

“But in this case it was almost a blessing because he was able to see what was going on,” Campbell said.

Before Smith had a chance to touch the course, all of the other U.S. men and a large number of top skiers from other countries had crashed.

“I grabbed him by the jacket and said ‘don’t miss this opportunity,’” Campbell said.

Smith made it to the top-16 finals and was the best-finishing American on the day.

“We went to the next event in China and he made the superfinal,” Campbell said. “He then made both finals in Deer Valley, and by doing that, he helped Team USA end up with four mogul men instead of three.”

The U.S. Freestyle Ski Team encompasses several disciplines — halfpipe, slopestyle, aerials, moguls and ski cross — and if American mogul skiers weren’t making regular appearances in finals at World Cups, then they risk losing one of their potential Olympic spots to another discipline.

When the fifth Olympic qualifier had concluded, Smith was the fourth-best American in the points standing.

“Sure enough, that fourth spot that he helped to earn went to him,” Campbell said. “If they would have only taken three, he wouldn’t have made it.”

ANDRINGA’S INCREDIBLE ODDS

While Smith’s journey sounds improbable, it can’t compare to Andringa’s, which Campbell described it as a “1,000 to one shot.”

The odds started to stack up against Andringa last season, when he wasn’t named to the U.S. Ski Team.

“Last season, Todd Schirman (U.S. Freestyle program director) and Matt Gnoza (head moguls coach) were in a tough place with the amount of athletes they had,” Andringa said. “I recognized that their hands were kind of tied.”

Unfazed, Andringa came up with a plan.

“In an Olympic year, if you just keep skiing well, and keep performing, it can happen,” he said. “And that’s what I came to realize … I could do it, but it was going to take a lot of really, really good runs.”

With the best two results being tabulated from the five Olympic qualifiers, Andringa knew he needed at least two World Cup starts to have a shot. His only shot and earning two World Cup starts was to win the two events he knew he was invited to — the U.S. Selections competitions in December.

“I knew that was the only shot I would have,” he said. “I would get nauseous thinking about it.”

Andringa, with the help of his younger brother, started a total health program.

“We moved out to the woods and separated ourselves from everybody,” he said. “We cooked all our own meals and would do two to three hour workouts. It was so focused.”

Ski & Snowboard Club Vail coach Hans Gardner followed them out to the woods over the course of the summer, himself living in an Airstream, and watched Andringa’s every move on the water ramps in Steamboat.

“We just focused on jumping,” Andringa said. “Most days it would only be my brother Jesse, me, and Hans out there.”

Andringa did win both U.S. Selections events and earned his two World Cup starts. And then he caught a break.

“All of a sudden I got a call from Matt Gnoza, and he said ‘Casey, we want to congratulate you on earning your World Cup starts in Deer Valley, and we extend an invitation to come to Calgary (another World Cup) with us,’” Andringa said. “I just didn’t even know what to say.”

Andringa went to Calgary with the intention of warming up for Deer Valley.

“I started in 58th that day,” he said. “But I only made one mistake and ended up seventh. I watched everybody in superfinals, realized what I needed to do differently, had a day of travel, went to Deer Valley where I ended up getting fifth.”

The seventh and fifth place finishes were enough to guarantee him a spot on the Olympic team.

Now gearing up for Pyeongchang “I have yet to be as nervous as I was in the gate at U.S. Selections,” he said.

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“I guess he was there for me,” said Tess Johnson, of Edwards, who was the only skier from the U.S. to make the six-person superfinal.

Johnson finished fourth on the day. It was the best performance of the 17-year-old Vail Ski & Snowboard Academy senior’s career, the latest in a season of results that keep trending upward.

“Today I got better with each run which is what I was aiming for,” she said following the competition. “I think I skied my best today, in competition, that I ever have.”

LIKELY FOR OLYMPICS

The finish makes Johnson likely for the Olympic team, which is expected to take four moguls skiers to Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February. Saturday’s race was the final Olympic qualifier of the season. Motivation to make that team, along with the experience that comes with more starts at the World Cup level, has been the catalyst for the steady improvement in Johnson’s skiing, she said.

“Going to the Olympics has been a dream of mine since I was 9 years old, so it’s always in the back of my head, whenever I ski,” she said. “But this season, I’ve been focusing on what I can control, which is how I ski. I think, from training back to August, I’ve been capable of making that super final just based on my skiing, but that’s only part of the equation. You have to have a really strong mental game.”

TOP AIR NERVES

A moguls race takes skiers down a bumpy course, with two jumps along the way. The events are timed, but the final score is also based on a judges ruling which takes into account the skier’s performance on the jumps, among other things. Johnson said when she first started competing at the World Cup level last season, the first jump, or “top air” as the athletes call it, was the weak point of her run.

“I realized that was because when I pushed out of the gate, I was so nervous, and my top air reflected those nerves,” Johnson said. “But then as I went down the run, it got better, and that’s because I got less nervous in those 30 seconds.”

It’s a situation that could be used as a metaphor for Johnson’s career up to this point — as it has progressed, the nerves have calmed, and the skiing has improved.

“This season, I’ve learned to get the nerves and all the nervous energy out of the way before I push out of the gate, and just focus on skiing my best,” Johnson said. “With more starts I’m getting more experience and learning more about what I need to do mentally and physically to perform my best.”

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“I was feeling dizzy enough before trying to go out and do spins in the pipe,” he said with a laugh. “Unfortunately I just wasn’t strong enough today to put something down that was worth a spot in finals.”

Seaton finished 11th, with the top 10 competitors advancing to Friday, Jan. 19’s ski halfpipe final in Mammoth, California, the last Olympic qualifier of the season.

Seaton said U.S. Team doctors gave him flu medicine and put him in his own hotel room away from the rest of the team, which still has three Olympic spots remaining to be decided. Colorado skiers Alex Ferreira, Aaron Blunck, Torin Yater Wallace and Gus Kenworthy will all compete for those spots in Friday’s finals.

‘Fun contest’

David Wise of Reno, Nevada, who has already qualified for the Olympic team, was the top qualifier on Wednesday; the contest was pushed up from its originally scheduled date of Thursday, Jan. 18, after the weather forecast in Mammoth started showing high winds for Thursday.

“I am looking forward to seeing what everybody brings to that final on Friday,” Seaton said. “It will be at night under the lights which always makes for a fun contest.”

Seaton said another under the lights contest — X Games — will now occupy most of his focus as he tries to recover and land a big run in that event, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Jan. 25, in Aspen.

“Having X Games on tap does soften the blow of taking 11th here,” Seaton said from Mammoth on Wednesday. “These Olympic qualifiers have been a fun ride, that’s for sure. I can’t wait to see how everything ends up.”

The final team headed to Pyeongchang, South Korea, will be named from Mammoth on Sunday, Jan. 21.

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AVON — Local halfpipe skier Taylor Seaton is keeping the optimism high heading into the final Olympic qualifier of the season.

With only one American having secured a spot on the four-person team thus far, Seaton is clinging on to his one hope of making it — a win.

“The competition among Americans is insane,” Seaton said. “But it’s been so fun to be a part of. I’m new to the U.S. Team and I’m just really thankful for all the resources they have provided for such a deep squad of skiers this year.”

There’s seven members of the U.S. Pro Halfpipe Ski Team, and six of them have had podium finishes at Olympic qualifiers, including Seaton.

Heading into the fifth of five qualifiers — which takes place at Mammoth Mountain in California this week starting Thursday, Jan. 18 — David Wise, of Reno, Nevada, is the only American who is guaranteed a spot on the Olympic team.

“Honestly, the level of skiing right now is the highest I’ve ever seen it,” Wise said on Friday, Jan. 12. “The guys who are getting fifth and sixth today would have been on top of the podium two years ago, so that just speaks to the level of skiing.”

‘WIN OR FALL TRYING’

Seaton has upped his own level of skiing in an effort to progress the sport, but admits with a limited amount of training this summer he feels like he’s flying by the seat of his pants at times.

“I was injured this summer so I didn’t get a lot of training in, so I’ve been using these comps as my training,” he said of the Olympic qualifiers. “And I gotta say if you look at it that way, training is going pretty well.”

Seaton failed to land a run in finals at the last competition, the fourth-of-five Olympic qualifiers, but missed his most difficult trick by mere inches and landed the trick most would consider the most difficult — the double cork 1260.

“I hadn’t done the dub in two years but it came around no problem,” Seaton said. “It’s the alley-oop left 9 that’s is the really difficult trick, which I don’t think a lot of people realize. If I can land that one I think I could have a winning run on my hands.”

No other competitor is performing an “alley-oop,” or up the pipe spin, with a rotation of more than 540 degrees in their run. Seaton has two in his run, in addition to the coveted double cork 1260. He also has two switch (backwards facing) tricks, spinning 900 degrees to the right and 720 degrees to the left, and the variety in that combination is what Seaton says will take the sport to another level.

“I know I’d love to see a run landed with an alley-oop 7, an alley-oop 9, two switch hits and a dub, so I’m sure others would, as well,” Seaton said. “It would be a never-before-done combo if I could pull it off.”

He crashed three times attempting the run on Friday, Jan. 12, at qualifiers, but that was his plan.

“I went into the comp wanting to win or fall trying,” he said. “I fell all three times, but just barely.”

CONFIRMED FOR X GAMES

While many members of the team are hesitant to admit how much they are focused on the Olympics, Seaton is not shy about saying how much a spot would mean to him.

“My mom has been real sick, in and out of the hospital a bunch, and I just want to call her and tell her ‘Mom I landed the dream run and I’m going to the Olympics,’” he said. “But honestly it’s the dream run part that would be more important to me in that call. If I can land it in Mammoth or X Games after that, it would be just as meaningful. I’m trying to push the sport to a place where people actually acknowledge the type of variety I’m trying to bring, and this is the season to do it, while people are watching.”

Seaton received his invite to X Games this week. He will be one of only 10 athletes to drop into the pipe this year in what will be the smallest field in X Games history on Thursday, Jan. 25.

“Once again, I want to win or crash trying,” he said. “X Games, I think most of the field will tell you, is as important to our sport as the Olympics for the stage that it gives us.”

But can he win?

“My mind is in a place now where I do believe that I can win this comp here this week,” Seaton said from Mammoth on Monday, Jan. 15. “It would be my best-ever performance, but it’s not unfathomable, for me, because one year ago here at this same event I won my heat against a lot of these same guys. It’s last call and I’m going to give her my all.”

Mammoth Grand Prix qualifiers are set for Thursday, Jan. 18, and the Olympic team will be named on Sunday, Jan. 21.

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EAGLE — Jake Pates received confirmation Saturday, Jan. 13, that he will be named to the Olympic team for U.S. halfpipe snowboarding.

Considered a longshot for the team just a few short months ago, Pates said 2017-18 has been a season of dreams so far for him.

“This year, already, has exceeded my expectations,” Pates said Sunday. “I’ve definitely taken a second to look back, and there’s plenty of blessings that I never saw coming.”

Pates received the news following Saturday’s Olympic qualifying event in Snowmass, where he finished fourth. He led the field for much of the competition with a score of 94, which would be good enough for a win at many events, but an unprecedented final round saw him knocked off the podium by Shaun White, Yuto Totsucka of Japan and Scotty James of Australia.

Being second among Americans, however, put Pates in a spot where no other American can knock him out of a top-3 point total after also notching a win at an Olympic qualifier in December. Pates said he found much relief in hearing that news at this point in the season, with a couple more big competitions still remaining before Pyeongchang.

“I really just want to enjoy the moment,” he said.

‘HAD THE VISION’

Pates unveiled a signature trick this season in December at the second of four Olympic qualifier events, a never-before-seen backside double cork 1260 with a tail grab.

While spinning backside on a double cork 1260 — which includes three spins and two flips — is itself a difficult version of that trick, otherwise known as the Double McTwist, it’s the tail grab that really makes it stand out. Fans are used to seeing the trick performed with a between-the-bindings grab, and Pates’ tail grab gives this exciting maneuver and whole new look.

“I had the vision in my head,” he said. “And when I saw it on video, it looked just how I had imagined it … it was really cool to see it come to life like that.”

The ability to visualize tricks is an important skill in a sport where competitors are always looking for ways to stand out, and Pates’ mother, Amy Pates, says she saw a lot of development in Pates’ ability to visualize in his days as a young teenager working with coach Elijah Teter.

“Elijah and his wife come from a very mindful place, very meditative and very focused,” Amy Pates said. “I think that helped Jake a lot, he was very grounding.”

Pates, now 19, went on to work with the U.S. Snowboarding Team, getting pro-level invites to competitions starting at age 15.

“I’ve had so many people on my side supporting me since I was just a little kid,” he said. “Obviously my mom and dad have supported me endlessly, but my extended family, friends on the team, coaches, team managers, sponsors, everyone has always believed in me.”

X GAMES FIRST

All along, however, an X Games Aspen invite — considered the most elite in the sport — has eluded Pates.

“I foreran X Games when I was 8 years old, spent the whole day shredding with these mega pros that I had idolized,” he said. “That was where the spark of inspiration came from, for me, so it’s always been a dream.”

This year, before Pates’ dreams of competing in the Olympics come true, his dreams of competing in X Games will come true, as well, as he has now received an official invite to that event.

“It’s crazy to think about, X Games and Olympics in the same year,” he said. “It justifies for me, that if there’s something you work hard enough for, you can achieve it, and having people around you that motivate you in a positive way is a serious key to success.”

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Heading in to the prestigious Dew Tour 2017 contest in December, Jake Pates said he had been working on a couple new tricks, but didn’t want to reveal what they were.

The 19-year-old grew up snowboarding at Vail and Beaver Creek, and skateboarding at a board shop his family owned in Eagle, Colorado, where he lives.

Pates chased his older brother, freeskier Cole Pates, around the mountain and became a talented snowboarder at a young age. He turned pro at 15 years old and begin moving up the ranks from there. He had some standout performances along the way, qualified high at times but hadn’t established himself as a competitor who could win a gold medal.

Coming into the 2017-18 Olympic year, however, Jake Pates seemed motivated. Following the first Olympic qualifier, he mentioned how he was mainly competing against the other Americans at that point. It was obvious he wanted a spot on the Olympic team.

But he didn’t make finals in that contest, which featured the top athletes from all over the world, not just the U.S. Meanwhile, the U.S. alone has enough talented halfpipe snowboarders to fill a 10-man final. Making the podium in an Olympic qualifier is what the team deemed to be the “minimum objective criteria” to be considered.

‘ON THE D.L.’

The season began with nearly a dozen talented snowboarders vying for four spots.

Three of those spots will be chosen objectively, and maybe even the fourth.

Or that fourth spot could be a subjective-style nomination to the Olympic team for a competitor who the coaches feel has a shot at the podium in Pyeongchang. Going into the 2017 Dew Tour, the second of four qualifiers, Jake Pates was not thought to be one of those competitors, with no major podiums to his credit.

But at the first event of the season at Copper, when Jake Pates mentioned his competition, he also mentioned something else.

“If I could do the run that I want, I think it could be a podium run, and it could definitely be one of the top American runs,” he said. “I’ve got a couple tricks in the bag, too, that I haven’t pulled out yet.”

When pressed, he would not reveal the tricks.

“I might keep it on the D.L.,” he said.

Eight days later Jake Pates was on top of the podium at the Dew Tour after landing a never-before-seen trick in front of the same field we will see at the Olympics. Jake Pates became the first and only American to notch a win in an Olympic qualifier.

SYMBOLIC COMMENTATING

The Dew Tour’s replay is a fun one to watch; it sums up perfectly Pates’ role in the sport before and after landing his new trick. Announcers don’t give the run much of a color commentary; during the first four tricks (double Michalchuk 900, doublecork 1080, cab doublecork 1080, backside 900) commentator Todd Harris talks to co-host Todd Richards about how competitors who live near the venue get an advantage due to altitude. They don’t even bother calling the tricks. Then Jake Pates lands his fifth and final trick, and Richards realizes it’s something special.

“Wow, Jake Pates ending that run with a truly difficult grab, I’ve never seen anyone put that down. Double McTwist 1260 Tail Grab,” Richards says.

The commentary was symbolic of the type of competitor Jake Pates was before and after putting a never-before-seen tail grab into the backside doublecork 1260 and landing it in competition. Before the trick, Jake Pates is an athlete who is a good example of how living at elevation can benefit one’s snowboarding in big contests. After landing the trick, discussion during Jake Pates’ runs will surely center on the run itself, and what it might contain. “(The Olympics has) definitely been a goal, but I don’t know if it was that realistic to me,” Jake Pates told reporters following the Dew Tour. “I was just trying to better myself, and I think the more I better myself I kind of surprise myself.”

Jake Pates credits his parents – Eagle’s Chris and Amy Pates – with much of his success, as they had always supported him in his goal of becoming a professional snowboarder. While the sport has its fair share of danger, Jakes Pates is quick to admit he’s really in it for one reason: the fun.

“I don’t have anything to lose, and I’m just trying to have fun so I just wanted to have a good fun run,” Jakes Pates said. “I just thought it’d be cool if I landed that trick last hit … I think it definitely comes down to wanting to have a level of fun out there. And I knew that if I landed that trick then it would have just felt really awesome.”

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COPPER MOUNTAIN — For most of her career, Lindsey Vonn was relatively injury free.

After achieving her first World Cup win in December of 2004, she managed to go the next nine years without missing any major amount of time on the circuit, a rare feat in ski racing. In those nine years, Vonn racked up nearly 60 World Cup wins in downhill, super-G, slalom, giant slalom and the combined. She won gold and bronze at the 2010 Olympics, and also won a silver medal in the downhill at the 2011 World Alpine Ski Championships.

Then in February of 2013, Vonn had a major crash, forcing her to miss the 2014 Olympics. After winning a giant slalom race in January of 2013, it would be more than 22 months before she tasted victory again.

“I was obviously very disappointed and devastated, frustrated that I missed Sochi,” Vonn said.

After tearing a ligament in her knee in that crash in 2013, Vonn returned in the 2014-15 season and won eight more World Cup races. But that injury would prove to be the first in a string of breaks and bruises that became hard to keep up with for her fans in Vail.

BREAKS AND BRUISES

Vonn began the 2015-16 season by breaking her ankle in preseason training in August, but was able to race most of the season, winning another nine World Cup races between December of 2015 and February of 2016. In late February of 2016, she crashed and fractured her knee in a few places, causing her to miss the rest of that season. Getting back to racing in November of 2016, Vonn crashed in training and severely fractured her arm. Yet she still managed to race that season and even earned a win in January of 2017.

“Once I got things going at the end of last season, I was right back where I left off,” Vonn said as the 2017-18 season was getting underway.

But the season did not start strong for Vonn. She missed the podium in November of 2017, crashing in Lake Louise, the venue where she has found the most success in her career. She then crashed again at a race in December, suffering spinal joint dysfunction in her lower back. Things were not looking good.

Yet, in a surprise to many, Vonn returned to the top of the podium the following weekend, winning a super-G in Val D’Isere, France, for her 78th career win.

“The physical issues that I’ve had made it hard to have confidence in my body, so it was mentally challenging,” Vonn told The Associated Press following the race. “That’s been the biggest thing in the last few weeks — keep going, keep fighting, keep trying, keep picking yourself back up, especially after the crash in Lake Louise.”

‘IT’S A DANGEROUS SPORT’

The confidence boost will be exactly what she needs heading into the Olympics.

“As long as I’m healthy and I’m confident, then I’ll be in a great position when I get to Pyongchang,” Vonn told the Vail Daily in November. “Everyone asks me if I’m afraid, after so many crashes do I take my foot off the gas pedal? And while I am smarter and I try to manage my risk better than I have in the past, it’s still ski racing … you can try to manage risk as much as you want, but at the end of the day it’s a dangerous sport.”

Always positive, Vonn said she doesn’t plan on slowing down.

“I’m 33, I’ve been injured quite a few times, but my passion for the sport has never changed,” she said. “Since I started skiing and started racing when I was 8 years old, I’ve loved what I do, and I don’t want to stop doing it. As long as I’m enjoying it and I don’t have to use too much duct tape to hold my body together, I’m good.”

Along the way, Vonn is chasing another record, Ingemar Stenmark’s all time World Cup wins tally of 86. She does, however, admit her focus should be on Pyongchang rather than the regular World Cup circuit.

“I’m focused on winning the World Cups, but just getting to February healthy is the only thing I should be really focused on,” Vonn said.

And as a final goal, she wants to leave the sport of ski racing in a better place than in was before she started competing.

“I try to ski like the men,” she said. “I try to be dynamic and powerful and really create speed where most people can’t. In that way, I hope to leave a positive impact on the sport, and really raise the level of women’s skiing.”

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MINTURN — Rakai Tait was born in California, lived in Switzerland when he was 7 years old and learned to snowboard there, lived in his father’s home country of New Zealand for a few years after that and obtained citizenship and now lives in Eagle County.

His mother is a teacher at Vail Mountain School and his father is a social worker for Eagle County. They like to travel, but have always put their children’s interests first. And ever since that brief stint in Switzerland where Dwaine and Kim Cope Tait, Rakai’s parents, worked as teachers for a few years, Rakai and his brother Taiaroa have considered themselves alpine dwellers in their hearts.

“We’re both surfers so we were a little bit perplexed by having these mountain kids,” Kim Cope Tait said. “We took a few years figuring out where we want to be, but Eagle County really feels like home, it reminds us of old Santa Cruz where Rakai was born. It’s a great lifestyle that really balances athletics and academics.”

Rakai Tait graduated Vail Mountain School in 2017 and by that time he had pretty much locked in his spot for the Olympics with two top-15 finishes and a top-30 worldwide ranking. He got the call in November saying he would definitely be a member of the New Zealand Olympic team.

“I still can’t really believe it,” he said. “It’s a huge pressure off my back. Now I can get more competition practice so I can know what tricks I can do in a competition environment and what runs I can put down.”

GOOD TEST RUN

Rakai Tait, who turned 19 in December, has notched five top-20 finishes in big halfpipe events. His best result so far has been an 11th place finish at the Mammoth Grand Prix in 2016, and last season he found one of the best results of his career at the Olympic test event in Pyeongchang on Feb. 19, when he finished 15th against a stacked field of the world’s best competitors.

He says if he were a U.S. competitor he would be looking more to the 2022 Olympics than the 2018, due to the heavy competition currently facing the U.S. squad.

Dwaine Tait was born on the North Island in New Zealand, and Rakai and him talked often about their connection to that country.

“It came up a few years ago, I was talking to my dad — we have a lot of family that lives in New Zealand — and we just decided that it would be really cool opportunity to try to pursue,” Rakai Tait said of competing for New Zealand. “To be representing them in the Olympics is a huge honor.”

Nevertheless, Rakai Tait will still be able to represent his home in Minturn when he competes, as he will be riding a board made by Weston Snowboards, a small company based out of Minturn.

“I’m definitely super stoked to be repping Weston snowboards,” Rakai Tait said. “It’s a great board from a great company.”

2022 AND BEYOND

Through the New Zealand connection, Rakai Tait will get the big-level Olympic experience that could prove to be helpful in 2022 or even 2026.

And he said he definitely plans to continue competing into those Olympics, if possible.

“The key is to keep having fun,” Rakai Tait said. “When you stop having fun, you start not snowboarding as well.”

For inspiration toward the future, Tait said Shaun White, at 31 years of age, is currently serving as a good example of snowboarders being able to sustain a long competition life.

“Taking care of your body is another key,” Rakai Tait said. “(Shaun White) definitely takes care of himself. … Take care of yourself and you’ll stick around for a while.”

With that in mind, Tait said prior to the Olympics, he only plans on sending his best halfpipe runs at full-strength if the conditions are right.

“If it’s a bad weather day, then I’m not going to be trying the gnarliest stuff,” he said. “I’m definitely looking forward to what the future holds.”

The post Colorado teen Rakai Tait makes Olympics for New Zealand appeared first on Park Record.

The venue will be the site of the 2022 Olympics, but Johnson, 17, has her eye on 2018. She’s currently in a tightly contested race to be one of the four female competitors to make the team. Finishing third among Americans on Thursday, her parents described it as a breakthrough performance.

“She was pretty excited about her run and her performance,” said Carol Johnson, Tess’ mother, who talked to Tess following the race. “But she wants more.”

Moguls competitors receive their scores based on the time they post down the course, the quality of their turns and the tricks they perform in the air on the course’s two jumps.

A panel of judges examines the turns and airs, and athletes advance through rounds of semi-finals, finals and super finals to determine top finishers.

Tess Johnson, along with Americans Mikaela Matthews, Keaton McCargo and Morgan Schild all finished among the top 10 on Thursday.

BEST RESULT YET

Johnson’s score on Thursday was the best she had ever received in a competition. Finishing in seventh, she was one place behind the goal every moguls skier sets for himself or herself in a competition — making the top-six super final competition.

“Her goal is getting a super final and a podium this season, so she’s working toward that goal,” Carol Johnson said.

Before Thursday, Johnson’s best World Cup finish had been a eighth-place result in Lake Placid, New York, last season.

In the first event of this season, Johnson qualified into finals in fourth as the top-finishing American in another breakthrough performance. She skied out of the course in finals, however, and did not finish the race, settling for 15th place. Carol Johnson said those two scenarios for Tess — a breakthrough result or a “DNF” (did not finish) are the two likely outcomes the 17-year-old is facing at this point in her career.

“She doesn’t want to ski safe because if she skis safe she’s not going to end up where she wants to be, in that top six,” Carol Johnson said. “It’s definitely a bit of a journey and a puzzle, and she seems to be figuring it out.”

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