Coming off a tough season, Kassidy Todd has her sights set on qualifying for the national team.
Todd spent the majority of the 2016/2017 recovering from a concussion she suffered early in the season during the first Canadian Series event of the year.
“I wasn’t allowed to ski for seven weeks, which threw me for a loop,” the 19-year-old Keremeos woman said after a day of training at Apex. “I was only able to compete at two events at the beginning of the year and one at the end of the year. I did well at the first two events.”
Although competition doesn’t start for about a month, the mogul skier is already busy on the hill.
She chased the snow this fall and ended up in Zermatt, Switzerland with the rest of her BC Mogul teammates.
This is the second year she’s travelled to Switzerland to train.
“It was fall there so it was a little more icy. It’s harder to get the edge into the snow and stay on the course. Even the national team guys were having trouble. It was great though and now that we’re hope in Apex after being on that challenging course in Switzerland it makes it a bit less challenging.”
Todd spent about 10 days in Switzerland. She spent most of her time on the hill either skiing herself or watching some of the skiers she’s grown up admiring.
“It was such a cool opportunity because pretty much every national team was there because it’s the only place with snow at that time. We got to watch them all so that was pretty amazing,” she said.
Todd noted she’s known most of her teammates since she was five years old and it’s always fun travelling together.
“We’ve grown up together. We all know each other pretty well and encourage each other,” she said.
She had a few weeks off from skiing when she returned to Canada, but is glad to be back on her home hill.
Apex Ski Resort doesn’t officially open until Dec. 2 but the BC skiers are allowed access with one little catch.
“We have to hike up,” Todd said with a laugh.
The team trains three days on and one day off. On training days they ski during the morning and go to the gym in the afternoon.
“It’s a pretty busy schedule,” she said.
Todd said she works odd jobs throughout the winter months to help pay for competitions and training and each summer she trains in Whistler with the team where she lifeguards to make ends meet.
Currently the team is preparing for the first competition of the year for the Canadian Selections. The qualifier is being held Dec. 16 and 17.
Todd was pretty sure the team will also compete in four Nor-Am Cup competitions in the coming months as well.
“It’s going to be a busy year,” she said.