By Steve Hubrecht
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Panorama alpine racer Cassidy Gray had her World Cup debut earlier this month and what a debut it was.
Gray turned heads by finishing 26th in the women’s giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, earning World Cup points and posting what the CBC termed “one of the best starts to a World Cup career by a Canadian in recent memory”.
The weekend of Saturday, Jan. 16 and Sunday, Jan. 17, with a different women’s giant slalom race on each day, was Gray’s first appearance in the World Cup. In her first-ever World Cup start on Saturday, Jan. 16, she posted a great first run, managing to qualify for the second run. Unfortunately, she didn’t finish the second run. But she didn’t let that rattle her. Instead, she turned her focus to her second-ever World Cup start in the race on Sunday, Jan. 17. Again she had a great first run, qualifying for a second run. Her nerves were getting to her before the second run on Sunday, she later admitted, but she overcame them, finished the second run in style and grabbed 26th place with a combined time of two minutes and 4.25 seconds. The 26th place finish puts Gray on the points board for the season: an excellent result for a first-time time World Cup appearance, and all the more eye-catching given that Gray is just 19 years old.
“The whole weekend accomplished so many of my dreams, and it was so crazy to have it happen in two days. From starting my first World Cup, to then starting my first World Cup second run, and then getting my first World Cup points, it really was just so many dreams coming true at once,” Gray told the Pioneer by email. “I came into the weekend being confident about my skiing, but at the same time not expecting much because it is such a competitive field. All my coaches were great at not putting too much pressure on me. I really was not expecting anything. I was racing for experience, and it seemed to work out pretty well.”
Gary has been close to World Cup level for the past couple of season, and this year was finally able to push her game that extra notch higher needed to take her skiing to the most elite level on the planet.
“I have always felt like the World Cup was this-out-of-reach place, and there were times that I really didn’t know if I would ever make it or not. I think in the last two years, I started realizing that I was almost there, which really motivated me to work even harder,” she said. “I think that this season, though, was a perfect time for me to start racing on the tour, because I was mature enough and had learned enough that I could hold my own a little better than I would have been able to a year or two ago.”
National and international alpine race media frequently describe the course at Kranjska Gora as being among the more difficult on the World Cup circuit. Gray outlined what makes it so to the Pioneer saying, “the terrain on its own was already quite challenging, with a few steep sections and rolls, but then once you add the ice and the bumps, it’s a whole other level of challenging. It was probably some of the hardest conditions I’ve ever raced in.”
This World Cup season has been unlike any other, owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with no throngs of cheering spectators furiously ringing cowbells on the sidelines and with social distancing protocols in effect.
“It does seem quite different because the venues are all empty, but that almost makes it easier for me because I don’t have the added nerves of a huge crowd at the finish,” said Gray, adding that on the other hand, “travel restrictions and quarantines make training and racing difficult. There has also been very few FIS (International Ski Federation) races to happen in North America, which also makes things tough.”
Gray is a full-time university student at the University of Colorado (where she also races for the varsity team), and dealing with pandemic travel restrictions on top of time zone differences, class schedules, varsity schedules, and Canadian team schedules is no small challenge. However, she credits her Canadian teammates with making things smoother.
“My teammates here in Europe have made everything feel like home. Being the youngest and coming in part way through the season definitely could have been a tough experience, but the girls here have been so good to me and so supportive,” said Gray. “My teammate Valérie Grenier has really mentored me through all these new experiences, and she really believed in me a lot, which made it easier to believe in myself too.”
In terms of goals for the rest of the season, Gray is gunning to earn a few more points on the World Cup tour, and also help her University of Colorado ski team earn an NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) title.
Gray says Panorama Mountain Resort is “one of the best places to grow up skiing at in the country.” Her whole family lives at Panorama and goes to school in Invermere (she has four younger siblings who all currently go to David Thompson Secondary School or J.A. Laird Elementary School, as well as one older brother already graduated from DTSS), and their support from afar has been a huge deal for Gray. “My family has been my biggest fans for as long as I can remember, and from what I saw in videos and pictures, they were all pretty excited to get to cheer me on,” she said.
Gray extended thanks to all her friends, family and indeed the whole community at Panorama and throughout the Columbia Valley. “I was blown away by how much the community stood behind me, from my former teachers and coaches, to all my friends that I grew up with, and everyone in-between, I really felt the love over in Europe,” said Gray.
