Chelsie Mitchell
Following her passion to unexpected places: Chelsie
Mitchell takes on the big jumps
Starting out as a competitive alpine skier, Chelsie Mitchell quit
racing at 16 to snowboard and hang out with friends. What she
didn’t expect was that her passion for snowboard and
her commitment to excellence would, at 22, land her a place in the
ranks of the most elite snowboarders in British Columbia, as the
first Aboriginal female to make the BC Snowboard Team.
Chelsie Mitchell
Chelsie grew up on a Reserve in Moricetown, BC, a town of about
7,000. Her parents introduced her to skiing when she was only four
years old, so she would grow up active, out of trouble and have a
chance to meet other kids. It became something the family did every
weekend.
When she was 12, a coach recruited Chelsie for a racing team of
13-17-year-olds. Though she trained with the team for the next four
years, her heart wasn’t in it.
“Racing took a lot out of me, because we were
basically training seven days a week,” said Chelsie.
“It took up a lot of my time, and at that point in my
life I just wanted to hang out with friends.”
One snowboarding lesson was enough for Chelsie to sell her
skis and buy a board. She never looked back.“All my friends snowboarded and we would all go up
on the weekends,” said Chelsie. “If you
hung out with me, you went snowboarding.”
Chelsie entered a couple races for fun during her first year as
a boarder and was surprised by her results.
In one race, she was snowboard-to-snowboard with a far more
experienced girl, fighting for first place. But just short of the
finish line, Chelsie’s board slipped on the ice.
“I took second, but I realized that this was
something I could do – something I should
pursue,” said Chelsie. She moved to Whistler, where she
read an article about a new snowboarding initiative for Aboriginal
youth, the
First
Nations Snowboard Team (FNST). Immediately, she wanted to be
part of the team. Chelsie was excited to learn about the group,
thinking she was the only First Nations person that was
snowboarding.
The FNST gave Chelsie the opportunity to train during the
off-season, and to travel to competitions across Canada, including
Nationals in Quebec. After only a year of training and competing
with the FNST, Chelsie – along with teammate Jonathan
Redman – were asked to try out for the provincial team.
Later that year, they became the first-ever Aboriginal athletes to
land a spot on the BC Snowboard Team.
“Making the BC team was a big accomplishment,
especially when I was just having fun and loving what I was doing,
and stepping it up a notch,” said Chelsie.
“In my own mind I had set goals, and I got help from
the FNST with training. There is no way I would be here without
them.”
Chelsie Mitchell ponders the big jumps in the half pipe.
“You know your skills, and you know you can do
something and that your body is built to step it up –
it’s only you that is holding you back,”
she said. “So when you do it, the adrenaline kicks in,
and it is so satisfying.”
Today, Chelsie lives in Whistler and trains six days a week.
Each day she’s on the slope, she focuses on meeting her
goals in different ways. Some days she practices basic skills, such
as stance and balance. On other days she hits the big jumps, the
good ‘rails’ and does her
‘half-pipe routine.’ Maintaining a healthy
lifestyle – eating right, getting enough sleep, and
taking time off every week – is an important element of
her success.
Chelsie dreams of making the Canadian national team, and perhaps
competing in the Olympic Winter Games, but her long-term plan is to
coach and inspire other Aboriginal youth.
“Coaching is amazing . . . you can tell that it has
such an impact on them [Aboriginal youth] and that they really look
up to you. Maybe they’ll make the BC team, or maybe
they’ll make it the Olympics,” she said.
“Or maybe we’ll just help them to have
healthy lifestyles.”
“And the impact of that,” she added,
“is huge.”
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