CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – Both an empowering sense of freedom and discombobulating fear may be hitting ski racing athletes every time they leap past the gates at the mountaintop and slalom down the hill at over 60 mph.
It takes a firm and willful attitude to embrace any sport, but alpine ski racers leave it all on the field in a matter of less than two minutes.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team’s female division hit Cortina d’Ampezzo, the tony ski destination in the Italian Dolomites, on a sunny and warm weekend in late January for the FIS World Cup, three days of women downhill competitions, energized by a strong track record that has seen team member Mikaela Shiffrin amass numerous successes.
Shiffrin was mildly injured on the first competition day, leaving the team holding its breath in a season that has seen many talented athletes crash out, including Italy’s Sofia Goggia a few weeks later.
Jaqueline Wiles, Isabella Wright, Tricia Mangan, Lauren Macuga, Keely Cashman, and Alice Merryweather at the Kappa store in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Courtesy of Kappa
Skiing requires lots of dedication and mental preparation — perhaps even more so than physical.
“I think ski racing is 90 percent mental,” says skier Keely Cashman. “Once you get to our level, I think it’s about who can do it on race day; a lot of girls are fast and trained, but they can’t move on race day. And so, I think once you get to this level, it’s a mental game and being able to get faster. And that’s something you learn over time; I think that’s something all of us are still learning.”
What goes into mental prep work is personal and as varied as listening to ’80s rock music, as Lauren Macuga does, or simply repeating self-motivational mantras.
“This year, I’ve just been able to really focus in, I’m using music now to kind of like, space out from everything else around me and really dial in on what I’m trying to do on my run,” Macuga explains.
“I think it’s evolved over time. Like, as you get better, there’s different sort of nerves as you do more intense races, like the World Cup. So, you just get better at figuring it out,” adds Tricia Mangan. “But I would say the main thing for me is to just remain calm and think about all of the hard work that we put in and then that helps give me confidence in competition.”
Asked if she ever regretted becoming a professional skier, the athlete admits she questioned it — after all, she acknowledges, descending the slopes at over 60 mph can be scary, but also thrilling.
“When you’re doing it, it’s very hard and intense. And especially with speed, it can be scary. And so sometimes, it’s like, ‘why am I doing this?’ Like, ‘do I even want to do this?’ The questions come up, but at the end of every day and every race, I’m reminded that I want to be doing this so badly. I think every day it’s a choice, so there’s absolutely no regrets,” she says.
Her teammates have similar feelings.
“It’s so tough mentally to keep going. But it’s always you’re like, oh, no, I enjoyed this. I love going down and like going fast. And it’s just ‘get me right back on the hill,’” echoes Macuga.
The bubbly athlete was wearing a bucket hat bearing cartoon mushroom drawings, channeling a skater girl vibe, but she says her lucky charm item is socks — the same blue style she wears on every competition.
Every athlete has their own Linus’ blanket. For Isabella Wright, it’s all about her “neckies,” or neck warmers, “depicting my mood for the day,” she says, while Alice Merryweather’s scrunchies are a feminine, energizing touch.
Keely Cashman on the slopes in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Courtesy of Kappa
“It’s hard to feel feminine when you’re stuffed into a helmet. And we joke all the time that we look like a bunch of little boys. And so occasionally, if I’m free-skiing, sometimes I’d pull hair out the front of my helmet. But for racing that just gets in my mouth. And it’s hard to feel feminine. So I tried to dress up whatever. I’m putting my ponytail or braid,” she explains.
To be sure, fashion does play more than one role during competitions, starting from technical gear supplied by sponsoring brands.
In 2022, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team scored a partnership with Kappa, the BasicNet-owned sportswear brand, which now supplies the team with ski suits and race gear through 2032, including for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games to be held in Italy in 2026, between Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, as well as the following 2030 edition, in a still-to-be-confirmed location. As part of its deal, the sportswear brand hosted activations in Cortina d’Ampezzo, including an in-store meet-and-great with athletes in town.
Fashion brands across the board are increasingly rushing to nab sponsorship deals and securing in-the-spotlight sportspeople as ambassadors, conscious that the space can be a lucrative, high-return on investment marketing tool. Fashion brands also are increasingly entering the skiwear sector, ranging from from Louis Vuitton and Chanel to Balenciaga. Fendi, Brunello Cucinelli, Bottega Veneta, Paul & Shark, Pollini and Golden Goose also have added skiwear to their lineups.
For their part, athletes — used to self-expression and proving their stamina and personality through their sporting style — are increasingly eager to bring more of themselves to the competition.
On the slopes, that’s oftentimes tied to fashion choices, although they are limited ones.
“We try to kind of separate ourselves and express ourselves and that’s ‘neckies’ for some people; a lot of girls paint their helmets,” says Cashman, who usually wears some jewelry to spice up her ski suit.
Wright contends she’s the group’s fashionista, having learned to appreciate high fashion from her parents. “My middle name is Chanel,” she says, as if to provide proof.
Seeing them off the slopes in their everyday gear, clean faces and grounded attitude gives the impression of girls-next-door. Yet they are aware that they can be role models for same- or younger-aged women looking to establish a footing in professional sports.
“I mean, number one, I would say believe in yourself; I think there are a lot of forces working against women in sport, namely that a lot of young women don’t get to see a lot of female athletes lifted up,” opines Merryweather. “And I think that’s changing a lot these days where women’s sports are becoming more popular and put on TV more, shown to the public more. But I think that as a little girl, for me, like I only had one or two women that I really looked up to as athletes. I wanted to be Mia Hamm, the soccer player, and I wanted to be Picabo Street, the skier. And so I think girls should look for those icons and those role models and cling on to them because I think it can be such a powerful driver and believe that they can get there too,” she says.
Icons and role models do not only provide targets to aspire to, but also a rulebook for embracing challenges with the right attitude.
“As a young woman, you go through a lot of different changes with your body mentally, physically. And I think there’s a lot of different opinions placed on you. I think what I’ve learned, and what I’m still learning, is to really trust my own instincts and also my own opinions in my head and learn how I want to fall in between everything outside of myself, but really trying to stay true to who I call the ‘six-year-old Bella.’ That’s kind of where I always go back to because I feel like that’s when I was just always trying to stay true to yourself,” says Wright.
Many of these athletes started off skiing as toddlers, discovering they had an innate talent for it and rapidly climbed through the ladder from amateurs to pros.
“I just grew up skiing with my siblings,” Mangan explains. “And I have a twin brother and I really don’t like losing. So I was always trying to be better than him. And then I just became better than him. And then I wanted to be better than other people, too. But, yeah, I just loved ski racing from the first time I tried it,” she says.