Erik Read wants to carve his own path while living up to family name
Canadian to compete in alpine World Cup event in Beaver Creek, Colo. this weekend
There's something different about the way Erik Read is feeling to start this alpine ski season. He can't quite put his finger on it just yet. But there's a different type of energy, focus and motivation as he gets set to take on the rest of the world.
Maybe, though, it's because for the first time in a while he was finally able to focus solely on training preparations for the season on the slopes after completing his four-year business degree at the University of Denver last summer.
With school out of the way Read spent more time in the gym, as he chased the snowy slopes around the world to train and fuelled his body with proper nutrition – it may seem like fundamental stuff, but Read says it's those little things that can make a massive difference.
So, when it came time to carve down the hill in his first race of the season and put all that preparation to the test, Read was ready. He finished with a career-best result in the Giant Slalom at the end of October in Austria, finishing seventh and just 1.29 seconds back of the leader.
"So much of this sport is confidence and trust to throw yourself down the hill. And so, if you have that from all the work you've put in, you're in so much better of a place," Read said.
"I've had times when I've thought, how am I going to make it down the hill? Those are the ups and downs of the sport."
Read, 28, knows those ups and downs all too well. He's literally been at this his entire life, thanks in-large part to being raised by a powerhouse family of skiers. His parents are well-known Canadian skiers, Lynda and Ken Read. His two brothers, Kevyn and Jeff, are also skiers.
WATCH | A BOOTquet of questions with alpine skier Erik Read:
The mental aspect to skiing, being able to have the trust to ski fast without fear of crashing, is perhaps the most difficult part of the sport – throw in changing conditions and equipment and Read says it can be nearly impossible to be fully prepared. And so he's learned to embrace the unknowns and surrender to it all.
"Every day is unique and different. I'm a thinker. When you're skiing fast, you're not thinking. It's when you start thinking your way down it's not going to work," he said. "It's about getting out of my head and into my body."
Read's sometimes-obsessive analysis of his technique and races became too much at times. That's why, a number of years ago, Read started to see a sports psychologist.
"That was one of the biggest turning points in my career. I started working with [a psychologist] four or five years ago. Almost immediately it started improving my routine and that translated into results," Read said.
Carving his own path
Read made his goal for this season very clear – he was to finish in the top-15 in the final World Cup rankings. He's 28th in the Giant Slalom and 45th in the Slalom event. He says he's not getting any younger in his career and now is the time to take his skiing to a different level.
"I'm in my golden years and I'm starting to go silver," Read said. "Details. It's the little things every day. Those are the things that keep a body together."
There's also a level of pride in the family name Erik is trying to live up to. His father, Ken Read, is considered one of the best skiers in Canada's history. Ken is one of five members of the "Crazy Canucks", the name given to Jim Hunter, Dave Irwin, Dave Murray, Steve Podborski, and Ken Read in the 1970s for their fast and reckless need for speed down the hill.
It paid off, too. Ken Read became the first non-European to win both the Austrian downhill Hahnenkamm (Kitzbühel) and the Swiss race Lauberhorn (Wengen). In 1978, Read was named the country's athlete of the year and was also named to the Order of Canada years later.
Erik had always been aware of his father's success but admits the two never really talked much about it. It wasn't until a trip to Europe more than a decade ago that Erik finally realized just how important his father was to the skiing world.
"Growing up I didn't totally comprehend what he had done. He was just my dad. But when he took me over to Europe for the first time I think I was 14 or 15, seeing the amount of respect he garnered across the pond was when I realized just how strongly ski-racing is held in the hearts of Europeans and where he fits into that," Erik said.
Ken was a downhill specialist. Erik is a technical skier competing in Giant Slalom and Slalom. Erik says he's admired his dad's ability to let him choose his own path and separate himself from what his coaches are doing. The two also joke about comparing their successes.
"I always say, I've achieved better slalom and giant slalom World Cup results than my dad ever did," Erik says, laughing. "It's cool. It's not a bad pressure in any sense. I'm proud of what my family has accomplished but I want to carve my own way."
He gets another opportunity to do that this weekend while competing in a men's World Cup event in Beaver Creek, Colo.
"The winds of luck are always blowing and I've set myself up for success," Read said.
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