The Chilean Connection
Let’s make a list of the top alpine ski racing nations in the world. No doubt the juggernauts of Austria, Norway, France, Italy, and other European and North American nations top lists year after year, but would you ever think of Chile?
The small South American country that is the summer training destination of choice for many of the world’s powerhouse alpine nations might not immediately come to mind when talking about where fast skiers come from, but anyone who has had a finely tuned ear to the ground at the junior levels knows that there just might be something special brewing in the land of pisco and breathtaking landscapes.
Recent history has seen an influx of Chilean-born athletes making their way to American ski academies to train, race, and attend school with access to top-notch training facilities aimed at producing some of the fastest skiers in the world. With recent World Cup success stories hailing from smaller, non-traditional alpine nations like Russia and Great Britain, it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility for athletes from more obscure corners of the globe to carve out a place of their own on the World Cup.
The Holscher family from Santiago is an example of foreign athletes realizing the potential at an American ski academy. The family with five children moved to Connecticut four years ago, albeit without any intention of making a serious go at ski racing. Oldest brother Kay, who graduated from Stratton Mountain School (SMS) this past spring, explains that the kids all grew up skiing and racing at the resorts outside of Santiago but didn’t see much of a future for them in the sport until making the move to the States.
“When we moved to the U.S., we still liked ski racing, it just wasn’t really a priority for us until we rented a condo in Stratton,” says Kay. “When the season started, I was a FIS racer and my brother was a U14. When he started racing on the weekends, we realized that a lot of the top kids were from SMS.”
Later that winter, Kay and his younger brother Diego decided to enroll at SMS to begin life as full-time ski racers.
SMS Alpine Program Director Mike Morin has coached both Kay and Diego and sees clear benefits for all athletes when foreign students decide to enroll in the program.
“We have a number of foreign kids every year – not only from Chile, but all over the world,” Morin says. “They really add a lot to the culture of the schools, especially in the ski academy scene where many of the academies are fairly isolated programs in the mountains where it’s pretty quiet around.”
Ski academies can develop a reputation of being homogeneous as far as the student body is concerned, so adding diversity to the mix by way of foreign athletes exposes American students to fresh perspectives and new friendships that could be absent otherwise.
There are a number of hurdles that a South American student must deal with in order to get the most out of an American academy experience, the most obvious being English language proficiency in order to effectively take classes and communicate with coaches and classmates. Also, the Southern Hemisphere school year is the opposite of that in the States, meaning a regular school year in Chile takes place during the American summer vacation and vice-versa.
“It’s way different,” explains Sven Von Appen, who attended Burke Mountain Academy. “I had to skip half a year because of how the school system is different. But school-wise, it was pretty much the same. We cover the same stuff, so it wasn’t that hard to adjust but learning English was for sure the hardest part. I didn’t speak any English before I went to Burke.”
“I think one thing you see right away is that they are here because they have received an opportunity to go ski and train in an American system,” says Morin. “You can tell right away that they highly value the opportunity; that’s exciting as a coach. Every once in a while you get the diamond in the rough like Diego Holscher, who is clearly becoming one of the best skiers his age in the world.”
Morin’s “diamond in the rough” made a name for himself in the U.S. when he won the 2016 U16 National giant slalom title as a first-year competitor by nearly a half second over very strong competition. By attending the Topolino children’s race in Italy last season, Diego missed out on the U16 National qualifying races. He was unable to defend his title due to rules forbidding discretionary selections for foreign athletes. Although unable to compete for a repeat title, Diego’s competitive spirit was still present at the event.
“When I got to U16 Nationals, it was incredible how many kids asked where Diego was,” Morin explains. “They all said that it was a bummer he wasn’t there because they wanted the chance to compete against him. This wasn’t one kid that said this, it was 10 kids.”
Now a sophomore and first-year FIS athlete, Diego has his sights set high heading into this season with qualifying for the Chilean national team set square in his crosshairs.
“I just want to keep working hard and try to get to a level where people in Chile can recognize me as a ski racer,” Diego says. “That’s why I came here to Stratton, to be more dedicated to the sport and work hard. I really like it. All the coaches are really focused on you getting better and the skiing is really good as well. The people here in the U.S. are way more dedicated to the sport than in Chile.”
Diego admits that he gets more than a few raised eyebrows when people see how fast he is and find out where he’s from.
“It feels really good because people ask me where I’m from and when I tell them I’m from Chile, some people don’t even know where it is,” he adds. “It feels really good to let people know that there are more countries in South America that can actually ski.”
Von Appen turned his time at Burke Mountain Academy into a 2017 World Ski Championship appearance and a runner-up finish in a South American Cup GS this September. Skiing runs in the family as Sven’s older brother, Henrik, is a regular on the World Cup speed circuit and has come close to top-30 finishes on a number of occasions.
“I was there for four years, and it was a great experience for sure,” says Von Appen of his time at Burke. “I was really grateful the entire time to get in and get to go there and meet a bunch of people and a bunch of skiers by the end.”
“It was my last U16 year and I had a really good season in the Southern Hemisphere and was planning on competing at Topolino the next March, so I wanted to prepare well,” he adds. “I met a bunch of teams down in Chile and trained with the Burke guys and really liked it so I went for it.”
All of the guys agree that although the racing culture in Chile is not as robust as what is found in North America or Europe, there are actually many Chilean children who learn to ski and begin racing at a young age only to leave the sport as they get older due to the lack of opportunity and motivation.
“I think the kids in Chile can go really far if they work hard,” says Diego. “The kids there are actually really good but they don’t have ski academies and clubs are usually only on the weekends. They don’t ski every day, and I think that’s the biggest part.”
If the potential these athletes have shown in recent years comes to fruition, don’t be surprised if a few of them start to turn heads on the World Cup and a new crop of young Chilean athletes grow up wanting to be ski racers just like their famous countrymen.