There's something about Resi

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Jackson Hole native Resi Stiegler, the up-and-coming U.S. Ski Team phenom, was dealt a blow in December when an accident sidelined her from the World Cup season.

The injuries - the first major setback of her career - forced Resi (pronounced RAY-zee) off of skis for the first time in her life. That she was injured while racing in Lienz, Austria, the hometown of her father, Olympic gold-medalist Pepi Stiegler, marked the tough beginning of an unexpected journey - one that has returned the gifted slalom and giant slalom specialist to her home and the community she had not yet had a chance to acquaint herself with as an adult.

Quirky, pretty and eternally optimistic, Resi found a way to embrace both disappointment and a rigorous rehab schedule in the months following her accident. Through the process, she made discoveries about herself and the world that have reinforced her positivism, not eroded it.

At 22, Resi has swapped in her fuzzy striped ears (a symbol of her on-slopes persona, “The Tiger”) and colorful rubber bracelets for worldly sartorial style and an iPod playlist to rival that of any jet-setting, club-going fashionista.

In an interview with Planet Jackson Hole, Resi talks about growing through injuries, her Olympic and World Championship hopes and the welcome return to the place she calls, simply, home.

Planet Jackson Hole: Tell me about your injury. What was going on leading up to that day in late December?
Resi Stiegler: I was in a funky place before I got injured and I didn’t realize it until recently. I’ve never been scared of skiing in my whole entire life and a little before the crash I was so scared skiing every day. I’d go down the downhill course and be petrified and I’ve never been like that.

PJH: Had you trained hard? Were you feeling strong?
RS: Yes. I had the best year I’ve ever had in training. I was the strongest I’ve ever been. My skiing was the strongest. I’d had the best results I’ve ever had and the season had barely even started. So physically I was in a really good place but mentally I think there was something holding me back and I’m not sure what it was. I still don’t know what it is but that was a sign beforehand that something was wrong. I don’t know if I was angry or just not in a peaceful place.

PJH: Were you enjoying yourself at the time?
RS: I was but there was something wrong. I wasn’t totally myself the week before I got injured. Looking back there definitely was something off there. So when I crashed I knew I was really injured, obviously. As a ski racer I think you always try to prepare mentally for when you get injured, you think, ‘oh, I know exactly what I’ll do when I get hurt.’

Then you actually get injured and you never expect what’s going to happen, and it’s like 100 times worse than it you imagined, and you’re sitting in the hospital for eight days and you can’t move. And you’re like, ‘sweet, this is completely different than what I thought I was going to do,’ and now my whole plan of attack for when I’m injured has totally flown out the door. You have your panics and you’re so confused. … For me I wasn’t even worried about skiing. That wasn’t my thing. My thing was, like, I just want to be able to breathe without oxygen and be off an IV right now.

PJH: You actually delayed getting all the treatment you needed until you returned to the U.S., right?
RS: Right. I had the option to stay in Austria and I chose to leave immediately and I flew home the next morning after the accident.

PJH: Was it a special Medivac flight?
RS: No. Nobody knew how bad it was. That’s why I was like ‘get me out of here and get me to the U.S.’ I got back stateside and they didn’t realize how bad I was. I was sick before I got injured, really sick. They had to put me through trauma and get me better so I could go through surgery. I pretty much had pneumonia coming on before the accident. It turned into this respiratory problem and they were worried my lungs were going to get pneumonia. And I was so dehydrated that they couldn’t operate on me for two days.

PJH: Your optimism is well known and you’ve said before that when the going gets tough, you always know it will only get better. Has injury put your optimism to the test?
RS: Well I wanted to talk about my frame of mind, and the excitement of actually having an injury is the craziest thing. It’s the craziest thing because I think it probably happens differently for each person. For me it’s been very powerful. I feel like I’ve learned so much about myself and I didn’t know I was going to learn so much. It really has come down to not being about the injury but just about life in so many different ways.

Another thing I wanted to talk about [is] that in Jackson, I’ve never been able to relax and be home since I was 12 or 13 years old. I’ve been on the road traveling and meeting new people and always coming home for just a short period of time and seeing my friends. But now I have a chance to really get involved with the community and go to events like the Alpinist Film Festival. Stuff like that is just so cool because I never got to do that before. And you also get to see all the people that supported you through the years and that, to me, is amazing. I really want to thank everyone for that. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would get so many cards and flowers and so many nice things said to me in light of the injury. It’s crazy how cool this town is. And the children.

 ... The little kids in Wilson wrote me so many letters. They were so cute.

PJH: And now you’ve had more downtime than you’ve had pretty much your whole life?
RS: Yeah. At first I was freaking out and then I realized there’s so much I never get done when I’m on the road – that this is like the perfect chance to catch up on everything. I’ve actually not had one day when I was bored. My friends have been amazing. I’ve been sit-skiing. I went to Maui. I towed-in for some of my surfer buddies and I’m learning how fire dance. And I’m getting into painting and I’m reading; I’m playing the violin again. There’s like a million things I never get to do or get into and I’m always worrying about the next time I have to pack up and leave, and now I don’t have that worry about that at all. It’s really cool to just relax a little bit and hang out with your friends and just be you.

PJH: So as an athlete praised for her work ethic, is it difficult to lose the focus on skiing that has occupied so much of your life?
RS: To me it’s all about balance. You’ve got to play hard but you got to work hard. You have your good days, your bad days. Things are never going to be perfect but you’re going to have the greatest times of your life with your friends. On beautiful days like this one you have to live and have a good time and just laugh. I think a lot of people forget that.

That’s probably why I got through my injury a little easier than most people would. I don’t mind having a break. It’s a mid-career break for me and I learned a lot about myself and a lot about who my friends really are. I learned about the importance of the time I put into other people and the time other people put into me. … It’s like there’s this big circle that goes around and its all about the vibe and the energy that you create and that other people create for you, and it involves and kindness and courage and all of that stuff.

PJH: Has it all added up to one of the most difficult experiences of your life?
RS: No. It’s not difficult. It’s a challenge in a different way. It’s a challenge to make sure you take the injury and learn why you had an injury. I feel like a lot of people get injured and they go ‘oh, this sucks. My life sucks. Why did this happen to me?’ You can sit there and do that and I’ve sat there and done that a million times. I’ve sat and thought ‘of all the people why did this happen to me?’ It’s never going to change the fact that it did happen to you and it’s something you’ve got to look at and really find out why it happened to you.

You have to ask, ‘how is this opening new doors?’ It’s closing one door but opening another one and you’ve got to find that door and you’ve got to go in there and figure out why you are supposed to be where you are. I think everything happens for a reason. I just want to go with that belief and I’m having a great time in my life because of it.

PJH: In ski racing, does a season-ending injury seem like a rite of passage?
RS: In the hospital in Vail everyone’s like, ‘this is perfect for you, this will be your little break.’ And before that I was lying there thinking, ‘oh god, how could this happen to me?’ But people told me not to worry about it because once you come back you’re going to have the best season you’ve ever had and the best life you’ve ever had.

PJH: Did you buy into that?
RS: Yeah. I think you have to buy into something. I have my negative times but I definitely try to push for the positive ones. I think you just have to cling onto something. I really have to think of my friends. I’ve been away from my family my whole life, been on the road meeting people every day, and every person I’ve met has probably given me something to take along to the next journey I have, and I really enjoy that.

JH: What are your goals?
RS: In skiing?

PJH: Sure. What are they, say, two years from now?
RS: Two years from now I want to win my first gold medal [at 2010 Vancouver Olympics]. My first of many … I actually am really excited: the day I got off crutches is a year to the day of the World Championships, which is the biggest thing for us besides the Olympics. That’s in Val d’Isére and that’s a year from Feb. 14, the day I got my crutches off and that is when the slalom is. That is a dream I will always have: winning the World Championship slalom. I’ve been so close and have probably been capable of doing it for many years and I don’t know why I haven’t and I think that’s part of the injury.

The thing people always talk about when you come back from injury is that you’ve always had the tools to be a champion, always had the ability to be the best but something’s been holding you back because you’re just that person but the minute you’re injured you realize you’re not missing out on anything. I’m so happy right now and I’m happy knowing that when I get back on snow again, I will not have missed out on anything. I’m going to be just as good as I was before. Maybe even better. It’s all about mental toughness. You can work out as much as you want or as little as you want, but if you’ve got the game inside of you and you know you can win, that’s all that matters. I wasn’t the girl that’s winning everything or maybe I win a run and then crash, all I need is that one win … then you’ve got the whole line-up. That’s my goal: to win World Championships a year from now and go from there.

PJH: And after skiing?
RS: I look forward to loving someone and having children. Just enjoying every moment that you have to live.

PJH: And do you only date World Cup skiers?
RS: No, no. Lived and learned that. I’ve actually only really dated people in my town – very down to earth people. I’m more of a ‘let’s have fun with my friends’ kind of gal. I’m not the girlfriend girl.

Photo by Cameron R. Neilson
theseenphoto.com


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