DESPITE THE FACT that she is Canada’s one and only Olympic gold medalist in alpine ski racing, Kerrin Lee-Gartner advocates for keeping it casual on the slopes. “I’m about heartfelt family time,” she says on a call from her home.
She’s taken time out of her afternoon to talk to us about skiing as an extracurricular activity. It’s more accessible than you think.
“The one thing with skiing is that it’s a family sport. That’s why you see four-year-olds out there,” she says. Lee-Gartner herself started when she was four. She was following in her big sister’s footsteps.
Her career as a racer just happened. “It was a very natural progression for me,” she says. Lee-Gartner’s teenage daughters are now junior racers and also went competitive in a selfdirected way. “We offered so many different options to our kids: piano lessons, figure skating, golf lessons, ski lessons,” she says.
They said no to ski racing for years. Eventually though, the girls said yes.
“There are competitive genes in everyone, and our children definitely have them,” Lee-Gartner says and laughs. She doesn’t attribute the girls’ success to good genes, though. “Our kids were gifted genetically with athletic ability.… They came by that naturally, but I can tell you for sure that it’s very rarely the child with natural athletic ability that excels.… If you don’t work hard and love it and breathe it, it won’t happen. That’s probably true across the board.”
Ultimately, Lee-Gartner says a relaxed approach is wise. “One thing you have to think about is what you’re trying to get out of it,” she says. “If it’s family time and leisure … then that can be had on a bunny hill on a riverbank in Saskatchewan, which is where my dad skiied growing up in Saskatoon.… For me, it isn’t about getting a certain number of runs in every day to pay off the pass. To me, it’s not goal oriented other than really enjoying the quality time.”
And if, as with Lee-Gartner’s kids, yours eventually show interest in competitive racing, being in Ontario shouldn’t be a deterrent. She says the idea that the best training is in the mountains is false.
Ontario hills have many wonderful qualities, she says. “Sometimes the smaller ski resorts have the best racing programs. Lift lines are smaller, it’s a more competitive run, and the training quality is fantastic.”
Furthermore, she adds, “the snow in Ontario and eastern Canada is made for racing. Typically, it’s hard snow, which is what racing is on. Out west, if we have problems … normally it’s because there is too much snow. It’s powder, and the kids can’t race.”
Since her racing days, Lee- Gartner has become a sports broadcaster with the CBC, but because that network didn’t win the rights to the upcoming Vancouver Olympics, in January, she’ll be moving temporarily to a position at the BBC, just to call the 2010 alpine races. She is excited about the coming event and expects it to have a major impact on Canadian kids.
“I really do think having the Olympics here makes a difference,” she says. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people who really remember the impact that the Calgary Olympics had.… The kids who are most impacted are the ones who are at that age where, all of a sudden, they can look at a moment and a dream is formed.”
She says children anywhere from age seven to 16 may have a formative Olympic moment watching a Canadian athlete win gold in any event in 2010.
And if one of those winners dethrones her as this country’s only alpine gold medalist? “I would enjoy that very much,” she says. “It’s time.
“I guess I just believe in the Olympic ideals,” she says. “I believe in what sport brings to our communities, in how healthy it is, in the social qualities of it.
I just think it’s fantastic, and I think Olympics represent excellence across the board not just for sport. For me, when I’m watching, I really believe in those athletes’ dreams, and I would love them to come true.”
