Last weekend, January 15/16, 2022, were the first youth races in Alpine Skiing since early March of 2020! Racers from Apex, Silver Star, Revelstoke, and Big White had a spectacular weekend at the Okanagan Zone Race hosted by the Sun Peaks Racers. The Big White Ski Club (BWSC) had a large showing at the event with FORTY racers in attendance and TEN MEDALS!!!. The weekend featured race training on Friday followed by Giant Slalom races on Saturday and Slalom races on Sunday.

The competition started off Saturday morning with BWSC’s Liv Willoughby (2006) topping the list in a FIRST-PLACE finish in the U16 2-run combined Giant Slalom races. Other top 10 finishes were Tabitha Taylor (2007) and Kael Oberlander (2007) finishing 9 and 10 respectively. In the men’s U16 category, David Brundula had a 5th place finish.

Mikalah Taylor medalled at 3rd and Kyla Thompson placed 7th for U14 Women in the 2-run combined GS, while Keir Phillips placed 5th for the U14 Men’s GS.

In the U12 category, there were two individual GS races each day. Saturday Alexandra Walker placed 4th, Lily Edstrom 7th, and Ella Thomas 9th in the first race. Alexandra improved to FIRST PLACE in the second race, with Ella Thomas placing 6th, Lily Edstrom 9th, and Marin Oberlander 10th. The U12 men’s Saturday races, Cameron Roworth placed 9th in the first race, then 4th in the second. Ken Ferenci also made the top ten at 7th in the second race.

Sunday switched to Slalom races with Liv Willoughby (2006) placing 2nd, Serena Richards (2007) 5th, Tabitha Taylor (2007) 6th, Gabby Tymchuck (2007) 8th, and Skyla Campbell (2007) 9th for their 2-run combined event. In the men’s category Callum Sutton-Macmillan (2007) also cracked the top ten with a 9th place result.

For the U14 women, Alivia Haddad placed 3rd, Kyla Thompson 6th, Rae Roworth 7th, and Sarah Martin 8th. Ryan Rebagliati made a 6th place finish in the combined event for the U14 men.

Sunday, U12’s second day of individual GS races had Alexandra Walker taking SILVER medals in BOTH races, while Lily Edstrom placed 4th, Marin Oberlander 7th, and Ella Thomas 8th in the first race. The second race had Lily Edstrom taking 4th again while Ella Thomas placed 9th and Marin Oberlander held on at 10th. The men’s races had Cameron Roworth medalling TWICE by placing 2nd in the first race and 3rd in the second race.

“It was so great to see the excitement in the athletes as it’s been such a long wait to get back into racing other clubs!” stated Diana Veitch, VP of the BWSC. “Some of these kids have never experienced a ski race. With last season being training-only, this event was a long time coming!”

The BWSC U16 racers stayed at Sun Peaks after the race to continue with two more days of Super G training to prep for races later this season.