Heading into the 2014鈥�15 ski season, the Jasper Freestyle Team has more female racers than ever before.
Coach Nic Bazin attributes the growth to the girls鈥� camp with Canadian freestyle skier Jennifer Heil last April.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of males in our sport, so for the younger girls to see a role model, to see this is what it looks like to be a professional skier or top skier, that helped quite a bit,鈥� he said, noting that he knows for a fact the camp had a huge effect on one athlete in particular.
鈥淚鈥檓 not going to say her name, but after the camp, she looked at me and said, 鈥楴ic, tell me more about that summer program鈥擨 want to know what鈥檚 next for me.鈥欌��
When Bazin asked her what happened鈥攚hy she was suddenly interested in becoming more than just a recreational freestyle skier鈥攕he told him, 鈥淚 did that camp and I see myself doing that.鈥�
鈥淔or me that was a revelation,鈥� said Bazin. 鈥淪he saw a female role model, one of her idols, and she said 鈥業 see myself doing that. I see myself competing and eventually providing some coaching for other girls.鈥� I wasn鈥檛 expecting that.鈥�
The freestyle team has about 40 athletes in total from around the region. They range in age from nine years old to 17.
The young ones attend practises to learn the basics of freestyle. They visit the terrain park, the moguls and increase their level of carving.
The older kids, from age nine to 12, are more advanced. It鈥檚 in this age range where they start dry land training and working toward competitive skiing.
Most skiers don鈥檛 compete until they鈥檙e 12 or above, although the team currently has two skiers who are under 12 that have competed. One of those skiers is Ezra Jenkins, who has accompanied the team to national competitions.
鈥淟ast year he travelled with us all the way to Ottawa and Quebec for some competitions, national events. In some of them he had to ski duals against 16- to 20-year-old athletes鈥攈e鈥檚 at that level. He鈥檚 a bit slow because he doesn鈥檛 have the body maturity to get there, but his jumping is way out there,鈥� said Bazin.
When athletes reach age 12, the program starts becoming objective based. Each athletes sets goals as to what they want to achieve, whether its on the trampoline, on a jump or in the moguls, and they each work toward that goal.
鈥淪o they all have their own focus on the hill and that gives more possibility for the coach to try to make everyday count for everybody, in terms of getting closer to their individual objectives,鈥� said Bazin, noting that some athletes are there for recreation and others are there to compete.
鈥淓verybody is in the same group. The idea is we all share the mountain, we all share the same kind of team spirit.鈥�
This season the team will host a couple of competitions at Marmot Basin. The first is a club聽 competition Jan. 9鈥�11. The other is the Alberta Championship in March.
Follow along with the team all season long by checking in with the 51暗网.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
