Coal Ridge skier takes gold

Sophomore finishes first in USASA Girls Division skiercross

By Joelle Milholm
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
April 2, 2008

Print Email

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colorado — Kourtney Mitchell’s stomach was consumed by butterflies.
As the 15-year-old skier stood atop Copper Mountain about to see how fast she could go in her time trial in Tuesday’s USA Snowboard Association National competition, she was understandably nervous.

After only her first season competing in skiercross — an event also known as skier X and made popular by the Winter X Games where a group of skiers race down a course with features like jumps, rollers and banks and try to be the first to cross the finish line — Mitchell was about to test her skills against the best in the country.

After taking a moment to pray, the Coal Ridge High School sophomore zoomed down the mountain in 52 seconds — good enough for the No. 1 seed in the 12-skier field.

“It was really nerve racking. I had butterflies in my stomach and I didn’t know what to do,” Mitchell said, “So I sat down and prayed and all the feelings of nervousness went away and I kicked butt in the time trials — by seconds.”

Her first-place positioning held strong through the first heat run and the final as Mitchell won both and finished as the USASA Girls Division (11- to 15-year-old) Skiercross National Champion.

“It was so exciting,” Mitchell said on a phone interview from Copper after her win. “I still can’t believe it.”

As the only skier from Colorado, she was faster than her competitors from California, Washington, Rhode Island, Montana, Nevada, Idaho, New York and Massachusetts.

“She smoked them pretty good,” Kourtney’s mother Andrea Mitchell said after watching her daughter win.

Mitchell has skied Alpine for years. She is still a member of the Aspen Ski Team and always enjoyed watching skiercross. She was always interested in how to get involved in competing in the event, but never knew where to start. That’s when 11-year-old Cole Pates, a fellow skier on the Aspen team, turned her onto the sport.

“He is my best friend here and has taught me so much,” Mitchell said.

Pates’ teachings obviously paid off as Mitchell now possesses a gold medal and bragging rights to say she’s the best in the country. And to think it all started as something to do on the side of her Alpine competitions.

“I am still doing Alpine. I just needed something to have fun with and go for and so I started doing skiercross,” Mitchell said. “I got to nationals and won it and the rest is history.”

Mitchell is now hoping skiercross can become a bigger part of her life in the future. Her goal is to get an invitation to the Winter X Games in Aspen, where skier X has been a popular event for years. Down the road, her future could be even brighter as skiercross will be a part of the Winter Olympics for the first time in the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

For now, Mitchell will have some time to enjoy her newly acquired jewelry as her victory wrapped up her competitive winter season.

“It was good to go out like that,” Mitchell said. “I am blown away.”