Mikayla Martin is hoping for a top 15 placing in the Nor-Am Cup race circuit on the slopes this season.
Already, the Squamish skier is off to a strong start for the B.C. Alpine team.
At last month’s Nor-Am Cup event in Lake Louise, which kicked off the racing season for downhill and Super-G, Martin finished in eighth spot.
“I was pretty excited about that,” she told The Squamish Chief. “I had done a lot of hard work in the pre-season and it was nice to see it pay off, and I hope to keep building from there.”
The Lake Louise event also gave her a taste of World Cup level skiing. On her blog, she recounted the experience of being a forerunner on the downhill and Super-G courses, or a “guinea pig,” as she likes to joke.
She says she is more used to speeds of 100 km/h but on the Lake Louise runs she was moving at roughly 130 km/h.
“I’ve never gone that fast on a course. That gets the heart beating.”
At the next Nor-Am event in Panorama, she finished 10th overall and second among juniors in the Ladies Super-G. In the Ladies Alpine Combined, she finished sixth, just behind her Whistler club teammate Stefanie Fleckenstein.
While the competitions might be seasonal, the life of a competitive skier is not, as Martin’s training takes places throughout much of the year.
She and her teammates get a short break after the season ends in April, then head to Mount Hood in Oregon for a few weeks of training.
In the summer, they live at the athletes’ centre at Whistler, where the 10-person team spends six days a week doing a variety of dry-land activities that include everything from gym exercises to yoga.
“I spend more time with them than my actual family,” Martin said. “It’s great because we all push each other.”
She has also ridden a mountain bike competitively and enjoys biking as part of the training.
Martin started skiing when she was very young, although she did not have her sights set on competition. In fact, she was not even happy to be out on the slopes.
“I was about three but I hated it,” she said. “I would scream and cry when parents would make me go.”
At that point, the family would only go occasionally, but her feeling about skiing changed at age nine after being inspired by a local talk given by Olympic mogul skier Kristi Richards. Now, she is always happy to be on a pair of skis, even skiing for fun when back at Christmas break.
“I want to ski,” she said. “I never get enough of it.”
This year marks Martin’s second season with B.C. Alpine. So far, the highlight came with a strong finish at the senior national championships in 2014.
“That was a big step for me…. That was a huge surprise. It was my first downhill race ever.”
She had been in 12th place the day before and weathered the fog and bumpy conditions, and just “went for it,” ending up in fourth place.
For this season, she is aiming for consistency when she goes up against top competition and is again looking forward to the senior national championships on the home hill in Whistler come March.
“My goal is to be in top 15 consistently in Nor-Am,” she said, adding, “The Olympics is my ultimate goal.”
