Westlock-area athletes competing in the 2012 Alberta Winter Games skiing events will get some top-level competition in their own backyard this weekend.
For Emma Siegle, Jesse Keats and Klayton Potts, having the event hosted at the hill they practice on weekly — and have been practicing on for years — gives them an extra boost of confidence going into this Friday’s competition.
“We feel more comfortable with the event at our own hill,” Keats said.
“It’s always intimidating going to competitions and not knowing what the run’s going to be like and not knowing what the features are going to be,” Siegle added.
The three members of the Tawatinaw Valley Freeriders were on the hill Saturday afternoon working on some new moves and putting some polishing touches on old ones.
For Keats and Siegle, this will be their second attempt at the Winter Games; both took part in the 2010 games in Bonnyville and Cold Lake.
Neither is taking that experience for granted, though, and all three skiers said they’ve been working hard to get some new tricks down — in particular, all three were trying to perfect a 360-degree spin.
The three skiers admitted they had thought about the fact that some Olympic athletes got their start in the Alberta Winter Games, and that helped fuel their drive to improve their own performances.
“It makes me really excited knowing some of the best skiers in the world started by doing something like this,” Siegle said.
“It kind of makes think about getting to that point and being that good,” Potts said.
That said, the three young athletes were humble about their own chances and emphasized the importance of the effort put in as opposed to the results that come out.
“You just have to believe in yourself and you’ll do fine,” Keats said.
Watching the skiers launch themselves 20 or 30 feet into the air, spin around then still manage to land on their two skis, it’s clear that none of them — or the other Freeriders for that matter — are lacking in self-confidence in their sport.
“You just have to really trust your coaches,” Potts said. “If they say you can do it, they’re probably right.”
The coaches, of course, would know. Kevin Buck, Trevor Lendrum and Sarah Engram work together to coach the team, and it’s clear from watching a practice that safety is a high priority.
At competitions, skiers are prohibited from performing many of the more dangerous tricks until they’ve proven they can successfully do it during a summer training session over water.
“You sure don’t want to be doing inverts if you don’t know how,” Keats said.
All three athletes emphasized that first and foremost, the part of the games they’re looking forward to most is being able to represent their hometowns for the games and represent the ski hill they spend so much time on.
The skiing events will take place at the hill on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.
