Mar 5, 2007

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 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 enjoys competing against other snowboarders at the national level because it pushes her to improve. “I love it when people whip my butt, because it makes me step up,” she said. “When you ride with good people, it makes you perform better.”

“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 – are important elements 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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