Last Saturday at Stevens Pass the Stevens Pass Alpine Club had a race that was open to all kids. It was an official USSA ski race and drew skiers from Crystal, Mission Ridge, Mt. Spokane, Loup Loup and of course both Stevens Pass race teams. We thought the kids would have fun participating in the race so we signed them up. It is important to mention that neither kid has ever raced before. The closest they have been to a race course is seeing the race team training on the run under the Hogsback chair. We did watch some ski racing during the Olympics last year but that would be about all of their racing exposure. My only hope was that they would finish the race and not crash. Caedan raced in the 6 and under category. Olivia competed in the 7-8 year old category. Both races consisted of two runs.
This video pretty much sums up the race.
(If you have speakers you should turn on your sound.)
Some important things about the race that I am sure you will want to know:
- Caedan finished 5th out of 10 boys.
- He was the youngest racer of the day.
- At the end of his second run he asked if he could go again!
- The 4 place finisher was twice his age and all of the skiers ahead of him were 5 or 6 years old.
- The only other 3 year old in the race took almost three times as long to finish.
- His second run was 4.5 seconds faster than his first.
- Olivia finished 6th out of 16 girls.
- She was the top finishing 7 year old and top finisher not on a race team.
- She beat 8 girls who race for teams from three different mountains.
- Olivia has a competitive side that I had not seen before.
- Olivia's second run was the 4th fastest and more than 4 seconds faster than her first run.
- No other top finisher improved by more than half a second.
