AST Athlete Journal: Liam Wallace

Hello and greetings to all!

For those who may not know me, my name is Liam Wallace and I am on the Alberta Ski Team for the 2020-21 season.

I first want to say that I hope you are all safe and staying healthy during these uncertain times. This year has been one of the most challenging situations of our lives and for me, skiing has provided an escape from all the chaos. The team and I feel extremely fortunate to say the least. At the end last year, all kinds of uncertainty came to light for me. I desperately needed a place to ski for this season and Alberta Alpine worked hard to get a crew of athletes together and on snow in November. We have been going strong since.

I am now 21 years old and have ski raced since I was five. I am currently completing my sixth season in FIS where I compete in Slalom, GS, and Super-G. Something you may not know about me is that I was once on the Alberta Ski Team back in 2017. My time spent on the team led me to ski for the University of Alaska Anchorage, and also found myself alongside the Alpine Canada Development and C-team for the past couple years. My early days in ski racing were spent up at Sunshine Village, where I learned to race and challenge my skills all over the mountain.

During the past 120 days on snow, almost all of our training has been in the Bow Valley area and Panorama. Our men’s team consists of six great guys and two coaches who have been an absolute blast to learn from and progress with. Jonas Haehlen and Peter Rybarik have given us maximum opportunity to progress despite the restrictions and shortened season. In years past I was always one of the youngest athletes on the team. So being the oldest this year definitely feels different. I think it has been a nice change from what I am used to, and I have developed some great new friendships on the team.

My highlight this season was my trip out to Europe back in January with Jonas. Our trip took us through many beautiful resorts across Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. We raced in many new resorts and ski towns that each hosted high intensity races. As always, I am blown away by how many athletes there are who are pushing to do whatever it takes to get to the next level. I am excited to try and close the gaps to these guys in the future.

I am also happy to have had some solid results in both Panorama and Europe. I am currently training at home in Alberta before one final push of racing down in Steamboat Springs and Aspen in early April. I think my goal for the short term is to finish up this year with a couple slalom results and re-qualify for the Canadian team criteria at the end of this season and get back to skiing with that team.

I can’t thank my parents and family enough for being so supportive of me. I’d like to also thank everyone on the board of Alberta Alpine, Pat Gillespie, Alied ten Broek, Heather McRae, for your hard work and dedication over the past months to keep our season going. Your flexibility and readiness at any moment has been greatly appreciated. I would also like to send a big thank you to my coaches who have been fantastic support this season. You have all helped create a high-performance environment and positive vibe have made our group ski much faster.

I hope that you have all found some solace on the ski hill and other outdoor activities this year. I appreciate you visiting this page and enjoy some spring skiing.

See you on the slopes!

-Liam Wallace

 

Here are a couple moments from the season:

Pre-season training in Saas Fee Switzerland.

Crazy light above the tbar on the Allalin Glacier Switzerland.

Riding the t-bar with some guy in Obdach Austria at 6:45 am.

Alberta Alpine Long drive contest, Quest for Gold Tournament.

Morning ahead of European Cup Super G in Zinal Switzerland.

Sunrise in Italy.

One of the many great days spent training at home recently. Mens DH GS training.