Last week, Kelly O'Hear '07 led the ski team to a seventh-place finish in the USCSA National Championships in Colorado. O'Hear was riding a five-race win streak going into the event, after winning both the slalom and giant slalom events at the regional competition. She finished sixth in the slalom and 13th in the giant slalom at Nationals, good enough to earn All-American status for the fourth straight year.
Herald: What did you think of your performance at Nationals?
O'Hear: Going into Nationals, I was the favorite ... I had a lot of anxiety going in, especially since I had fallen in at least one event each year I had skied at Nationals. The first event was the giant slalom. In the first run, I hip-checked twice and placed 23rd overall. I was pretty angry and knew I wasn't in the zone. In my second run I was first overall, but they averaged the two, dropping me to 13th. In the slalom on Friday, I was seventh after a mediocre first run and sixth after my second run. I finished sixth in the slalom and sixth overall, after they combined all four runs.
How did you feel about sixth place?
I was happy to get two quality finishes. I hadn't done that in two years. I was happy to score for my team but I was a bit disappointed. I do expect more from myself and knew I could do better, but I was still sixth in the nation.
When did you start skiing?
I've been skiing since I was two years old. At that age, the skis are around a foot, maybe a-foot-and-a-half-long.
Why did you start skiing at such a young age?
Skiing is one of those sports that if you don't learn when you are younger, it is very difficult to pick up. There are very few racers who learn the sport after age 10 because it's such a technically demanding sport. There is also the element of fear. When you are younger, you don't fear anything. You slap your skis on and go straight downhill. When you are older, you have more reservation and that doesn't help you.
Do your parents ski?
My parents have been together since they were in high school and my dad taught my mom and her family how to ski. He got everyone into it because he raced in college. After college, he continued ski racing. He coached at our home mountain and had always been very involved in the sport. Now, he lives vicariously through me. He gives me extra coaching advice in addition to (the advice given to me by) my Head Coach Mike LeBlanc.
How did your mom react to seeing her daughter on skis at two years old?
She was very supportive. She wasn't as die-hard as my dad was when I was two years old. I would beg my parents to ski and they would only give me one ski and let me slide around the driveway. As I got older, I started winning some events and my parents realized I loved the sport. I had goals of being on the U.S. ski team and one day being in the Olympics.
Do you still have aspirations of making the U.S. ski team?
When I was a year in high school, I was rethinking my ambitions. I considered medical school since I would have the opportunity to work with athletes ... but I also realized I'm not quite finished with my skiing career. I've done very well here, but trying to balance pre-med classes at an Ivy League school in addition to training made me realize that I haven't trained as much as I would have liked over the past few years. I feel that if I dedicated myself to training and didn't have as many pressures, I could do better. Next year, I'm taking some time off to pursue these dreams and see how far I can take my career. My life goal would be to make the U.S. national team. The best 10 to 15 skiers in the nation travel around the world to different World Cup events. Then the best skiers on the national team are selected for the Olympics.
Where is your home mountain?
Holimont in western New York, near Buffalo. It's my favorite mountain because I know all of the terrain, all the trail names and I know what to expect. I feel very comfortable there. It's a private area, similar to a golf club for skiing. There are only a few in the country and it has one of the largest private memberships with around 1,000 families. They have a racing club and everyone knows each other. During breaks, I'll go back and coach. It's a lot of fun to work with kids. They look up to me because I've stayed with the sport for so long.
Outside of your home mountain, where is the coolest place you've skied?
One of my favorite mountains was in Hintertux, Austria. I went there two of the four fall seasons in high school. It was one of my favorite places to train because you see a lot of the national teams there. I saw Benjamin Raich there. He's a member of the World Cup team and one of best skiers in the world. It's like seeing the Brad Pitt of skiing.
How often did you ski in high school?
When I was 14, I went to boarding school at the Stratton Mountain School. It's basically an elite school for ski racers. You train all year round and travel the world, attending both national and international ski competitions.
What was a typical week like at your high school?
It was definitely a different atmosphere when compared to your average high schools. In the fall and spring, we would wake up around 5:30 a.m., work out for two hours and then eat breakfast. Class was from 9 until 2 p.m. and then we had afternoon sport, lifting or conditioning, dinner, study hall and then bed. Since there is less snow during these times, we had many fall camps. We would often have intense class for two weeks and then travel for two weeks of skiing. Teachers knew about our difficult schedules and we often had to fax our assignments or complete assignments on the redeye flight from Colorado. The best thing I learned from Stratton was time management skills. During the winter, we would get up at 7:00 a.m., eat breakfast and train until noon. Early morning skiing is the best because the snow is firm from the overnight freeze. It's important for skiing.
Did you ever have to pay for a lift ticket?
Stratton was the name of my high school and the name of the mountain. Part of our tuition went towards the lift passes. But we also traveled throughout the East Coast, skiing in Maine, Vermont, New York and some parts of Canada.
Did you watch the Winter Olympic skiing events in Torino last winter?
Our ski team spends winter break in Waterville Valley, N.H. For the entire month, we focus on skiing and spending quality time as a team. When you aren't skiing, there isn't much to do up there, so we watched the Olympics every single day. We only got three channels, but we were lucky that NBC was one of them.
What did you think of Bode Miller's performance?
Most ski racers know that Bode could have done better, so I was disappointed with his results. But I also realize how difficult ski racing can be. Your career can be defined by a single minute and a half. It's only that minute and a half that counts. It doesn't matter how well you trained and prepared. He didn't perform as well as he should have and it's unfortunate that people only know him for his sub-par performance in the Olympics, even though he finished sixth, and is one of the best skiers in the world.
What did you think of NBC's coverage of skiing?
I think NBC did a great job covering the skiing events. Speed racing doesn't usually get a lot of coverage because it's not a media-friendly sport. It's tough to film up on the mountain with uncertain weather conditions. But NBC did a great job in Torino because they showed the top 30 runs and they would actually air it during hours in the evening when people were watching. For ski racing fans, it was greatly appreciated.
What injuries have you overcome as a skier?
I tore my right ACL and meniscus as a freshman in high school. I had surgery and did a lot of physical therapy. I went to Austria as a sophomore in the fall. It was my first time back on snow since the injury. It went well but when I went to Colorado, I went off course and hit a tree. It was a terrifying experience. I had a compound fracture, breaking my left tibia and fibula. I was very lucky to escape that with only a broken leg. I had six screws and a rod put in my leg and I had to come back very slowly. The hardest thing for me was to be off the snow, especially living in a ski academy community.
