Kelsey Cioffi ’13, President and Women’s Team Captain of the Skidmore Alpine Ski Team, has been taking the slopes by storm this year. After leading the men’s and women’s teams to the Regional Club Championships, marking the first time for the men’s team to make it in Skidmore history, Cioffi became the first Skidmore student to ever make Nationals. After a recent successful run at this year’s National Championships in Idaho, Cioffi is back and doing our campus proud. We managed to catch up with her to see what her experience has been like and what going to Nationals meant to her.
Her Campus: When did you first start skiing?
Kelsey Cioffi: I first started skiing with my family when I was two years old, and I started to race at seven for the Gore Mountain Ski Team, which I stayed with all the way up until college. This season was my 14th and final.
HC: When did you join the Skidmore ski team?
KC: I signed up for the Skidmore team at the fall club fair my freshman year and I have been a part of it ever since. I never missed a race in all four years.
HC: How has being on the Skidmore ski team impacted your time here?
KC: The ski team has not only allowed me to continue doing something that I enjoyed and had become a serious part of my life and identity, but it also gave me a close knit group of friends that I have relied on a lot in my time at Skidmore.
HC: Did you think you’d make it to Nationals this year?
KC: Nationals was something that I always wanted to get to. The team almost made it my sophomore year, but unfortunately didn’t. After that I was always aware of Nationals as a possibility, but with the amount of exceptional skiers that we race against, I didn’t think that I would be the one to overcome the odds. It took hard work and a lot of luck to get this far.
HC: What was it like when you found out you had qualified to go?
KC: I was at the regional championships at Bristol Mountain, and it was actually a two day qualifier. The two best teams in the region and the best individual not from one of those teams would have the opportunity to go. After the first day of competition I had come in third place, behind two girls that it looked like were going to make it with their team, but the rest of the competition was not far behind me. That night I was simultaneously extremely excited and overwhelmingly nervous. I ended up winning the race on the second day, and was so excited that I (embarassingly) actually cried. After that there was a lot of phone calls and screaming and jumping up and down.
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HC: How did the rest of the team react?
KC: Everyone on the team was really supportive. They were all just as excited as I was. As I said before, they’re not only my teammates, but some of my close friends so it meant a lot that they were there to celebrate with me. Many of them watched the race online and were calling and texting me after every run.
HC: How did you get yourself ready for the competition?
KC: We ran practices twice a week for the entire season, and the first full day that I was in Idaho I had the opportunity to ski on the trail that I would be racing on (which was really steep!). I didn’t have a coach or a team, so I ended up spending a lot of time with the teams that had made it from our region (Cornell and William Smith for girls, and Cornell and RPI for boys).
HC: What was your mindset going in?
KC: I was very overwhelmed with the shock that I had actually made it. Since I had never competed in a race at such a large scale I didn’t really know what a realistic goal was to set for myself, so I went into the races telling myself that I would do my best and try to make the people supporting me proud.
HC: How did the race go?
KC: Overall the races went well! I came in 33rd out of 92 in the Giant Slalom. The slalom was both exciting and a bit of a bummer. At the first split time I was in third place, at the second split I was in seventh place, but I crashed eight gates from the finish. I still finished the race, but after falling and having to hike I ended up 78th for the run and 65th for the day overall. As I said, a bit of a bummer, but I was still very excited to have gone and I am still proud that I can say that for some portion of a National Championship, I was in the top 10.
HC: What will you take away from the experience?
KC: Before this year I had only won one race in my fourteen years of ski racing, and had never even come in the top three at a college race. It sounds cheesy, but achieving this much success in my senior season really makes me realize that when I really (or anyone, really) want something and am willing to put in the work, that good things will happen. Hopefully I am the first of many Skidmore racers to have the opportunity to represent the school on such a big stage.