Carnes: A River runs (skis) through it
It was 15 years ago, in March of 2009, when a group of 9-10-year-olds from Ski and Snowboard Club Vail traveled six hours to compete in Purgatory with over 40 other kids in a giant slalom to prove who was the best in the Rockies.
In one race, SSCV placed all eight of its racers in the top 10, with one racer, in particular, standing atop the podium, a place he would become more and more comfortable with as he approached his teen years.
He was also the soccer goalie for our son’s Vail Valley Soccer Club team, and this chubby little kid with tree trunks for legs could fling them like cooked spaghetti around GS gates with the ease of a seasoned veteran.
Fast forward seven years to 2016 and the young man won three gold medals at the Youth Olympic Games.
Jump ahead to 2022 in Beijing and the man, now a member of the US Ski Team, was only 26/hundredths of a second away from a bronze medal at his first Olympics.
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At the following season’s Birds of Prey race right here in his backyard, he skyrocketed in front of his hometown crowd from a 57th start all the way to a 16th finish, and the crowd went full-goose-bozo nuts.
Just three weeks ago in Palisades (the old Squaw Valley on the California side of Lake Tahoe) he had his first professional career podium finish, a third just behind Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen and this season’s overall globe winner, Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt.
And last Saturday in Saalbach, Austria, for the final World Cup GS of the season he was in a top 20 position after the first run and actually beat the eventual winner, Switzerland’s Loic Meillard, in the second run.
And way back in 2009 a group of local parents would have placed bets, and indeed actually debated the possibilities, that this little chunky kid was destined for the Olympics someday, based exclusively on his total dominance around the state at the time.
No pressure from us, of course, as I’m sure potential prodigies pop in and out of parents’ minds in every ski club and every sport around the country with regularity, but at the time we felt it literally every race. We just knew he was something special.
And lo and behold, knowing local River Radamus would have a successful professional ski racing career is like knowing Putin would win last week’s “election” in Russia — some things in life you just know, ya know?
Sure, we also happen to have the greatest ski racer in the history of the sport living in our midst, and she too began her amazing career on our mountains. Still, when I saw last week’s Vail Daily article “What’s the secret behind River Radamus’ best season ever?” it brought back a flood of memories about this 25-year-old my family has had the pleasure of knowing since he was 7.
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To paraphrase (poorly) once again from Norman Maclean’s wonderful book, “Eventually, all things merge into one, and now yet another world-class ski racer runs their life right through Happy Valley.”
River Radamus has been methodically perfecting his skills since early childhood, and believe me when I say it has been the worst-kept secret around here for almost the last two decades.
Richard Carnes, of Avon, writes weekly. He can be reached at poor@vail.net.
