ASXT Athlete Journal: Austin Boehm

Hello everyone, I should start by introducing myself. My name is Austin Boehm, I am 19 years old, and the newest member of the Alberta Ski Cross Team. I was raised in a small town in Northern British Columbia called Williams Lake and have been racing for 5 years. When I am not skiing you can find me outside as my favourite summer activity is mountain biking. In the summers I work hard as a tree planter to raise enough funds to ski all winter and go to school. Currently I am enrolled at the University of Calgary and taking classes while skiing.

I would like to start off by saying “wow” what a crazy year. It appears when things get wild, everything gets wild at the same time. Well at least that is the story for me. I was accepted onto the team this summer and had been hitting the dryland training hard thanks to the amazing trainers at CSI. Approaching the season our team had a slight hiccup; a COVID-19 scare. The team powered though, and we all came out healthy. It was now time to get some real training in. We packed our bags and headed to Panorama for a first training camp, but for me the camp came to a quick close. Unfortunately, on the second day I took an unlucky tumble while training GS and later found out I had torn my ACL. Just over three weeks has passed since my injury and I have been rehabbing in preparation for surgery in Golden later this week. I am very grateful for the support received from Alpine Canada and Alberta Alpine during this time. My focus has changed from skiing fast to healing fast. With all the new time on my hands I have been able to dedicate a lot of time to school and have developed a few new hobbies, like playing the guitar. I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who has helped me, especially everyone at Alberta Alpine. I will be back soon thanks to the support of my team, my coaches and many more. Wish me luck! Happy holidays!!