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Featured Athlete:
Kristy Bond
This weeks Featured Athlete is Kristy Bond. Kristy joined the Mt. Shasta Ski & Snowboard Team's Masters Program seventeen years ago to improve her skiing. The Master’s Program focuses on further developing skills on and off the race course with personalized coaching in race training and free skiing. She soon began entering MSST community races, making friends and getting to the podium on a regular basis. Kristy enjoys racing, all kinds of racing, including camel and ostrich racing as a jockey. She competes in long board ski racing at the Plumas Ski Club.
Kristy volunteers for race course maintenance at all the MSRA/MSST events including the California/Nevada CIF High School State Championships. Her course qualifications include working at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and on the elite Talon Crew for the Beaver Creek FIS World Cup and World Championship Races.
Kristy is retired from her position as a Captain in Cal Fire and now enjoys working out, training and skiing all over the Western States. She has a goal of skiing every area west of the Rockies and this winter is traveling to the Alps to ski Chamonix and Val d'Isère.
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Featured Athlete:
Robby Burns
This weeks Featured Athlete is home town athlete Robby Burns. Robby grew up in Mt. Shasta, trained with the MSRA, and is now a team member of the US Snowboard Racing Team. Robby is currently on the FIS World Cup Alpine Snowboard circuit racing in Bad Gastein Austria. With Olympic qualifying trials taking place Robby is training and racing in hopes of qualifying for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. Read more below about Robbie and his life as a member the US Snowboard Racing Team.
Robby's Biography from the USSRT website:
Robby Burns was born and raised in the small mountain town of Mt. Shasta, CA, where his passion for alpine snowboarding began at a young age. A 25 year old graduate of the University of Idaho, holding 2 Bachelor of Science Degrees, he has pursued that passion full time and now has his eyes set on the 2018 Winter Olympics. With that goal before him, he is committed to rigorous training both on and off the slopes. In the off-season, he has been an integral member of the Shasta Lake Interagency Hot Shot Crew, fighting wildland fire for the U.S. Forest Service. He also enjoys spending quality time with family and close friends who are his biggest fans! Having success in the Nor-Am races, he jumped headfirst into International Competition during the 2015-2016 season, competing in several World Cup Events. His best finish was 29th at the World Cup Finals in Winterburg, Germany. Robby is determined, motivated and excited to be a part of the USSRT, believing that this is just the beginning of his career as a professional snowboarder. His enthusiasm for the sport is evident by the hard work, kindness and generosity that he brings to the table.
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Our Race Administrator, Alyssa Backes interviewed Robby who is currently in Bad Gastein Austria. That interview is transcribed below:
"It really started out as a dream for me. Growing up in the Mt. Shasta Community was a blessing when I was a kid I got to watch so many talented racers; both skiers and snowboarders succeed at what I had a growing passion to do. Coaches worked hard to set courses, prepare adequate training and having the Ski Park in our backyard was amazing. Than environment, the willingness to inspire young athletes to work hard and have fun was such an important part for me.
As a professional snowboarder the process of developing my riding has taught me so much more about life and less about snowboarding. What I do now is not so much different from what I did growing up in Mt. Shasta. I go to work each day training in and out of gates, on and off the snow, it’s really a never ending process. The process of trial and error, success and failure, it continues to show you what you’re doing well and what you can work on to get better, or in our case faster. I find myself constantly breaking things down. If you don’t understand something at first then it’s just another opportunity to learn. And that’s what it was all about when I was a kid in Mt. Shasta and the same still holds true today.
What I can say is that some of the most important lessons I have learned I started learning when I was a kid listening to my coaches and I continue to learn those same lessons today as a professional athlete. Life has a way of putting you in challenging situations that seem overwhelming, you’ll always want to take it seriously. Challenge is opportunity, take every opportunity you get and don’t worry as much about failure. Don’t be too hard on yourself, take a moment to acknowledge the life you get to live, work hard at whatever you are doing, and don’t forget to have fun."
We wish Robby the best in his racing and qualifying for the Winter Olympics this February!
You can follow Robby's World Cup racing on his Facebook Page or Instagram.
Learn more about the US Snowboard Racing Team here.
Featured Athletes:
Cooper Laloli and Sydnie Williams
Cooper Nick Sydnie
Sydnie Williams and Cooper Laloli are a part of the Mt Shasta Far West Team. This weekend, Sydnie and Cooper are competing at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard, U16 Far West Qualifier at Mammoth Mountain. This U16 qualifying race is one of three, three day events throughout the season where Syd and Coop have an opportunity to win a spot on the U16 Far West Championship Team. If successful, Sydnie and Cooper will be two of forty-four athletes (22 girls, 22 boys) selected to compete in the Western Region Championships held in Alyeska, Alaska this coming March and have an opportunity to compete at U16 Nationals in April.
Good Luck you guys. Go fast and take chances!
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Support Syd and Coop on their journey– Donate to the Mt Shasta Far West Team