Remembering Sarah Burke

Sarah's friends pay tribute to a true pioneer of women's skiing

X Games

Pretty amazing that we have 2 of our coaches competing at the XGames this week!

Anna has been competing at the invitational-only event for a few years now and this year Katya joins her for the first time, in the SkiX event.  You can catch the action on ESPN, meanwhile check out the SkiX course from an athlete's point of view... it's a whopping 1 minute and 40 seconds long!!!

Sarah Burke

This morning I was confronted with heartbreaking news that the skiing community has lost a champion. I have been following Sarah’s journey from the time of her accident 10 days ago. Even though I am well aware of the risks involved in sustaining the injuries that Sarah did on Jan 10^th, it still shocked me to read of Sarah’s death. I was overwhelmed with such sadness that we have lost a pioneer, a friend, a competitor, a role model, a very gifted skier and a beautiful person.

I remember being 16 and hearing about this 18 year old girl in North America who was spinning 10’s. I had to get onto youtube and check it out for myself. When I first got into this sport Sarah Burke and Kristy Leskinen were paving the way. When Sarah started competing, she was competing against boys or was forerunning the competition, not allowed to compete as a girl. Sarah helped change people’s perceptions of women in skiing, showing people that women did have a place in freestyle skiing and that we were worth looking at in the park and in the pipe. She advocated for the inclusion of women in freestyle skiing competitions. Not only did Sarah demonstrate this to the media, she also instilled passion and motivation into a generation of girls. These girls are now following in her footsteps and encouraging younger generations to get into freeskiing. Our sport helps young girls to create a positive image, a healthy lifestyle, a good social network and a strong self confidence. Sarah Burke has helped us all recognize these benefits. She has held a presence in the sport at all levels from the grass roots to the top level. Sarah won Pipe in the Xgames in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 and was a key player in getting ski halfpipe into the Olympics.

Sarah will always be remembered as a pioneer and a legend of our sport. Every female freeskier owes a debt of gratitude to Sarah for advocating for the inclusion of women in our sport. Sarah you have made our sport what it is today.

Our support goes out to Sarah’s family, her husband Rory, and her friends. You are all in our thoughts.

anna's injury

in other, not so great, news....Anna has broken her metacarpal bone (thumb) OUCH!

head over to her blog here to read all about it.... heal fast Anna ! x

yay for katya!

Big shout out to Katya who achieved great result today at the race in Les Contamines.... 3rd in the small finals, 7th overall!

She says that she is "....very excited to finally have a top 8 World Cup result under my belt..."

For those who are in Australia and are interested in seeing the highlights, check out all the action from today's Ski Cross World Cup in Les Contamines, France, on Eurosport at 6:30pm (Monday 16 Jan)

http://tv.au.eurosport.com/consumers.shtml

katya looking happy (3rd from left)

Summer Days

Hi Chicks,

Sorry the blog posts have been a bit sparse in recent times. The CwS crew are everywhere at the moment! We have Nat in Utah working and training and ripping up all things gnarly. Anna in Colorardo hitting up the parks. Katya in Switzerland waiting for good weather so they can get back to training. Katie just arriving in the US, ready to shred some bumps. And Lorraine, Nicole, Han, Karinya and I left back in Aus to enjoy a Christmas at home.

Unfortunately my season plans changed at the last minute after having some bad news. My sister, Anita, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. Neat is a snowboarder and big supporter of CwS. She was scheduled to coach at Hotham last Aussie winter but the surf was too good on the Gold Coast so she headed North instead!

Anita had a cold that she couldn’t shake and was diagnosed by her GP one day and started chemo 2 days later. Since then it has been a whirlwind of hospitals, and tests, and transfusions, and chemo. BUT one thing has not changed through this entire journey. Her strong will and positive frame of mind. From day 1 Neat has remained positive and strong. People around her gain strength from her positivity.

With Neat in and out of hospital, I decided not to go on the Skiers Junction camp. I left this coaching role in the very capable hands of my good friend and ski buddy Lachy Clark. Lachy is an incredible skier and a great coach. I know he will do a killer job over in Colorado with the Skiers Junction crew. Also Anna is on the cards for some guest coaching so stay tuned.

All of the CwS crew have been massively supportive of Neat through this situation. Ali, Nat, Anna, Nicole and Han you have been amazing friends and our whole family is so appreciative.

This is a picture of me after shaving my head for solidarity 

I wish everybody a very merry Christmas!! If you are somewhere in the snow, please make sure you take a few runs for those of us back in Aus!!

Best Wishes,Zoe

Katya heads into winter 2011/2012

Chicks with Stix team member, Katya is heading OS to compete in the next northern ski winter season.....  just before leaving she spent a gruelling weekend of training (honestly, sounds like boot camp to me)

here is her story :


"As our final team training camp before we head off overseas for the 2011/12 World Cup season, the Australian Ski Cross Team spent three adventurous days at Mount Buller; my home mountain in Victoria. The camp kicked off in Melbourne with an ice hockey training session at the Ice House. Being padded up from head to toe in protective gear is always a bit of fun… if only we wore that kind of protection in ski cross! This was followed by a strength testing session at the VIS.


When we arrived at Buller on Friday evening, we were told to pack a backpack with enough food and clothes for three days. That was literally about it. We had no clue what was to lie ahead, except that it was undoubtedly going to be a tough two days. Little did we know how tough it would actually be!

When I was woken up the next morning, I checked my phone for the time. 3:13am. Hardly awake, the team met outside within 10 minutes. Between the four of us, we were given two small headlights, a carabineer each, and a rope to latch ourselves onto. The next two hours would involve us hiking to the summit attached together, working as a team. We had no idea of our final destination; when we reached a checkpoint, we were given another location to travel to. And to make things interesting, about an hour into the hike it started to pour with rain. 


After 4 hours of hard hiking and running with 10kg packs on our backs, we reached Howqua Gap at 7:30am where we were met by our mountain bikes. The next challenged involved us riding to the top of Mt. Stirling, a solid 7km climb up hill on a rough stone track. We were given a map of the bushland area with directions as to where to go from there. The pouring rain didn’t help our situation, and when we got lost about four hours into the ride, things weren’t looking great. We lost about two hours backtracking what we had already ridden. Finally, with Anton’s knowledge of the area, we made it back to Mirrimbah at about 4:30pm; tired, cold, wet and starving. We had been going for 13 hours by this stage, and all I could think about was a hot shower and an endless supply of food.

The next morning, we were woken up at 5am (almost a sleep in compared to Saturday!) and we drove to a reservoir past Whittfield, about 90km out of Mansfield. Our next challenge was to build a raft that was able to travel down ‘class 10’ (advanced) rapids. With the limited materials provided, as a team we worked together to come up with a reasonably functioning raft. I doubt how well it would have travelled down advanced rapids, but I think we did a great job considering the lack of directions we had.

By 10:30am, we were on our road bikes. We rode 20km to Whitfield, and then continued on from Whitfield to Mansfield. The first 30km were basically all up hill. By the time we arrived in Mansfield, we had ridden a total of 85km. I thought surely the ride would stop there, but that was definitely not the case. After refuelling with anything I could get my hands on at the Mansfield bakery, including sandwiches, chocolate milk, cake, chocolate, protein bars, nuts and an energy gel, we jumped back on our bikes. Next stop was Mirrimbah, the base of Mt Buller. Once in Mirrimbah, we had totalled 115km on the bike. Before I could even consider the day to be over, next I knew we were riding Danish cargo bikes up Mt Buller, carrying each other up the hill. By this stage it was 5:30pm, and given the task ahead of it the day seemed as if it would never end!

At about the half way point up Mount Buller (8km of steep incline), I hit the wall. I have never been so depleted of energy in my life. I could hardly walk or talk, my lungs were exploding; and I could hardly move. I rode 125km in total. Not a bad effort I thought, particularly given the exhausting day before. The boys jumped on their road bikes and finished off the last 8km of Mt Buller, almost collapsing at the top. The final challenge was one last hike to the summit. By the time we reached the top it was 8pm and we were all just about ready to roll back down the hill.

All in all, an extremely tough (both mentally and physically) training camp, but enjoyable none the less. The team worked extremely well together, and it was a good ‘test’ leading up to the long four-month season ahead.

WOW! What a weekend that was! Good luck in Europe Katya.... hope all the hard work pays off!

ARMADA SPONSORSHIP

Ok girls, here it is!! What we have all been waiting for .... The Armada Chicks with Stix sponsorship deal for 2011 is going to a very deserving athlete. This chick has been involved with the CwS program since its inception in 2010. She hails from Melbourne and calls Mt Buller her home resort. She is dynamic on the snow, exciting in the air and unbeatable on rails. She has created a name for herself in the Australian freeriding world and we believe that she is on her way to making her mark on the international scene. Her versatility as a skier is unnerving. Starting out as a racer, then moving into bumps and now focusing on Park, she even has some skills in big mountain, as demonstrated in the 2011 World Helli Challenge. Congratulations to Tori Hamilton-Wilson!  As part of the sponsorship deal Armada will supply Tori with a set of 2013 women's ski, a set of the new 2012 women's outerwear (only just released globally), poles, gloves, hoodies and t-shirts.  Chicks with Stix would like to thanks Armada for making this sponsorship package possible. Armada offer chicks a high quality ski to learn to ride park, pipe and powder, at any level. They came to the party in a massive way this year and I would like to acknowledge the contribution that they have made to CwS this season. We are so stoked to have them as a partner. Best of luck to Tori for all of her endeavours for the 2011/2012 seasons. No doubt we will all be hearing from her soon. Stay tuned!