George Clark of Plains Road in Raymond still remembers a day he shared with his daughter Kirsten at Loon Mountain.
They were eating lunch between her races when they witnessed a father yelling at his son; scolding him for his less-than-perfect performance on the slopes.
Kirsten leaned toward her father and said, “I’m so glad you don’t do that.”
Now, almost 20 years later, Kirsten, 28, is poised to compete in the Super G at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy – her third Olympic appearance.
For parents George and Joan Clark, raising an Olympic skier required them to show their support, not their criticism. And this steady support through the years helped Kirsten, as well as her older brother Sean, find the drive to practice and compete, while finding the encouragement to pursue a passion for skiing.
Not that they looked at Kirsten as a future Olympian.
“Let them have fun,” Joan said. “The worst thing any parent can do is to tell them they can be in the Olympics. If they have the desire to do it, they’re going to figure it out.”
The entire Clark family skis, so it was natural for Kirsten to begin at a young age – just three years old, in fact. And, while her parents say she was always good, “she didn’t win every race.”
As Kristen grew, so did her talent. But George and Joan’s pragmatic approach to their daughter’s sport kept them focused on a balance in their family life.
“She was always athletic and outdoorsy,” Joan said. “I don’t know if I paid too much attention to it.”
In addition to her skiing, Kirsten loved to play soccer and was a starter on the boys’ team at North Yarmouth Academy. She was also the first girl on a Raymond Little League team.
By the time Kirsten reached eighth grade, she and Sean both wanted to attend Carrabassett Valley Academy (CVA), a high school at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain that provides serious skiers training on the slopes as well as in the classroom. Unwilling to send their children away to boarding school, George and Joan moved the family up to their camp, located near the school, for five years between the months of November and April.
As an airline pilot, now retired, George had a work schedule that allowed him to commute. But he and Joan agree that they had no idea what they were getting into financially. Not only is the school expensive, the cost of traveling to competitions becomes astronomical.
Still, the couple believes the training was worth it – not just for skiing but also for life.
“We believe they got a lot out of the experience,” George said. “They learned independence and time management. And they’re well-grounded.”
After he graduated, Sean took a year off before college and came very close to making the U.S. Ski Team.
By spring of her junior year, Kirsten had made the U.S. Team. And Joan says Sean has always been Kirsten’s “biggest fan.”
Sean’s friends had accepted his little sister at CVA from the start because she could keep up with them on the slopes. In fact, years later, when she brought her fiancA?© home, Sean’s friends told George not to worry; that they were going to check the guy out to make sure he was good enough for Kirsten.
The Clarks had watched Kirsten ski, injury free, for years. But in January 2004, at a World Cup race in Haus, Austria, they stood helpless at the base of the mountain, surrounded by a crowd of people, as they witnessed her horrific fall on the huge screen TV.
“It was kind of like slow motion,” Joan said. “After she fell it was sort of a surreal experience – you just wanted her to stop sliding.”
Kirsten had torn the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in her left knee, broken her right wrist and strained the MCL (medial collateral ligament) in her right knee.
Facing her rehabilitation with the same determination she had always shown in her skiing, Kirsten began the long process of recovery. She was back on the slopes by the end of June but struggled during most of the 2004-2005 World Cup season.
Kirsten completed the season with two 11th-place finishes – certainly not her best but a milestone in her comeback. But last September, she contracted a staph infection from surgery to remove a cyst on the back of her knee. It was serious enough to delay the start of her World Cup season and to jeopardize her Olympic dreams.
But when she did return to skiing, her times began improving along with her confidence, earning her another spot on the U.S. Olympic Team.
And as George and Joan prepare to watch their daughter in Torino on Sunday, Feb. 19, they are excited but they both acknowledge that now, it is harder not to think about the possibility of injury as they watch her scream down the mountain.
“You always knew (injury) was a possibility but you kind of got used to it,” Joan said. “She was injury free for so long. After it happened, it no longer goes on the back burner. It is a risk.”
Joan’s favorite way to watch her daughter race is to watch on TV after she knows the results. That way, she can relax and watch objectively.
Now that Kirsten has “made it” as a skier, it would seem the family’s sacrifice and her determination has all paid off. But George and Joan measure their daughter’s success in different terms.
Years ago, when talking to Kirsten about her skiing and about her responsibility to continue being a kind, thoughtful person, George told his daughter, “If you come out of this process any different than you are now, it’s not going to mean anything.”
But the proud parents say, if anything, their daughter has “turned out” even better than before.
“We’re very proud of her,” Joan said. “What a nice person she is.”
George and Joan Clark, of Raymond, left for Torino Thursday to watch their daughter Kirsten ski in the Olympics.Send questions/comments to the editors.
