Count Ashleigh Alexander as one of the most excited participants at the 2015 Canada Winter Games. The 14-year-old Cochranite is skiing for Team Alberta at the Games and can’t wait to get started.
“I’m really excited,” the Cochrane High School Grade 9 student said. “I’ve been told it’s kind of like the Canadian Olympics.”
She’ll be skiing in slalom, giant slalom, super-giant slalom and skier-cross events. The inclusion of skier-cross on the alpine-ski events list caught her a little off guard.
“We did (train for it) a little bit. We’ve done a few days over the years but nothing major,” she said of the free-skiing-ish event that sends four skiers at a time down a course with banked turns and large jumps. “We haven’t trained for it a ton. I did it at the last CanAm’s which was two or three years ago, I think. That was fun.
“You’re just trying to dodge all the people because there are four of us on the course at a time. That’s just scary.”
She qualified for the Canada Games by finishing top three last spring at an Alberta alpine qualifier in Panorama, B.C., and placing first in a slalom event last month at Mt. Norquay in Banff.
“I don’t even know what to say about that,” she said of making Team Alberta’s alpine skiing squad. “I did not think I was even going to make the trials. Last year I had no clue what was going to happen. I’m just super excited and really happy.”
She’s looking forward to Feb. 13 Games opening day at Prince George. Alpine skiing is taking place at Purden Ski Village with skier-cross going at Tabor Mountain Resort.
“It’s going to be really fun,” Alexander said. “The Alberta Team, I know a lot of the people and I’m really excited to get to know them even better.”
