Having blown away her own pre-season expectations on the Nor-Am ski cross circuit this winter, Tiana Gairns is about to find herself in some exclusive company at the Canadian championships.
Next week in Smithers, the 17-year-old from Prince George will racing two Olympians - Marielle Thompson of North Vancouver and Kelsey Serwa of Kelowna - the respective gold and silver medalists at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
"Kelsey and Marielle are going, so I'm not likely to win that, but I'm super-stoked to go and see what lines they take and follow them through the course," said Gairns.
"I got to race them a bit at a camp in the spring. I'm kind of in awe thinking that I'll actually be beside people who were in the Olympics and won the Olympics. It's amazing to see I've come so far that I'm able to not just see them ski away, that I can actually stay a little bit behind them."
And who knows what can happen in a race in a sport as unpredictable as ski cross, where even the best skiers sometimes wipe out.
Gairns started the season with a pair of wins on her home course at Tabor Mountain Ski Resort. Last week at NorAm races in Sugarloaf, Maine she posted a third-place finish, then reeled off two consecutive wins, and the winning continued at Mont Ste-Marie, Quebec. She won both weekend FIS races and on Monday captured the junior national title.
"I feel like I've definitely accomplished my goals and right now I'm just kind of seeing how far I can go, said Gairns, who placed fourth and fifth at the other NorAm races in Nakiska, Alta., in February.
"It feels like all the hard work I've done over the years is finally starting to show and I can see it in my results."
Gairns holds a four-point lead over Mara White of Squaw Valley, Calif., atop the women's NorAm points standings, with three races left on the calendar. Two of those races will be in Smithers, March 17-18, just prior to the Canadian finals. Gairns is hoping to do well enough to maintain a comfortable lead to avoid the expense of traveling to Cooper, Colo., for the season-ending NorAm event. She's familiar with the Smithers course, having competed there the past three years in zone races. Last year at nationals, her highest finish was fourth.
Aside from Thompson and Serwa, Gairns will have stiff competition in Smithers from Brittany Falun of Mont-Tremblant, Que., and Courtney Hoffos of Invermere.
This is the first full season of ski cross for Gairns, who took up ski racing at age 10 with the Prince George Alpine Ski Club. She got her first taste of NorAm ski cross racing last season, while racing provincial and national alpine FIS races. She still competes in slalom, GS, super-G and downhill alpine disciplines. Her national team coaches encourage her to race alpine for its cross-training benefits.
"It has been relatively easy transitioning from alpine to ski cross," said Gairns, on the BC Alpine website. "Even though there are a ton of new aspects to think and learn about, the ski cross community has been very inviting and super helpful. The skills I learned in alpine are definitely useful, and are the groundwork of what I have to work on.
"It has been pretty busy doing both disciplines in one season. I have learned to prioritize my races, but I still find myself searching for training time."
Now on the verge of joining Canada's Next Gen (development) national team, Gairns has her eyes on racing the Europa Cup series next season - the stepping stone to the World Cup level.
Gairns was in Pyeongchang, South Korea two weekends ago.
The Koreans asked Canada to supply forerunners to ski the course at a World Cup race, which gave Gairns a chance to ski the course to be used for the 2018 Olympics. It also gave her chance to cheer on Meryeta O'Dine of Prince George, her classmate at the PacificSport Northern B.C. sport school, race in World Cup snowboard cross in an Olympic test event.
"I watched her get sixth and that was super cool," said Gairns.
"The Korean federation doesn't have ski cross skiers over there and Canada has a good relationship with them and they asked anyone on the Next Gen team to come and they paid for everything."
Gairns says she's looking forward to racing the best in the world next week.
She's become a role model herself for younger ski racers in the Prince George club who want to follow a similar path to national-team status.
"It kind of reminds me, when I was little I always looked up to Alix Wells because she was an amazing skier and she made it onto the B.C. team," said Gairns. "She encouraged me to think that, even though I'm from Prince George, which is smaller and has a smaller ski hill, I can still become great. She's still skiing and she's going to school in Alaska."
