Real Talk / Have ski academies diminished chances for less fortunate athletes to compete at high levels?

Jemspeople figuring out modern success in skiing is almost entirely money based 🤯🤯

hegleezyWell yeah, people with better financial opportunities will be better off, but this isn’t entirely about that. I think academies are accelerating the standards for competitive skiing and leaving a disproportionate amount of people in the dust.

Jemspeople figuring out modern success in skiing is almost entirely money based 🤯🤯

Professor-ModeloWait… so you mean to tell me that academies whose sole purpose is to make kids good at free skiing might accelerate the standards for competitive skiing and make those kids better than other people?

theabortionatorAccess to ski programs, summer camps, having some $$$ in the family goes a long way. At the same time there will always be those kids that don't have it that are hungry. The ones that come out of nowhere from some small mountain with a mediocre park. Having the talent and the drive is something money can't buy. Sure you can skip a few steps and move up the ladder, but there will always be that person that wants it, and won't let anything get in their way.

The pros that come out of bullshit east coast and midwest ski areas. A lot more out west after HS to have access to bigger mountains, parks, the comps, filming etc. But they grew up without a lot of the other stuff.

Sometimes people get bitter about it, and I get it. It's just not worth it.

The airbag thing has had a big impact in the big air and slop scene. People are learning dubs while they're learning to turn. It's just different. Ski programs at mountains have been a thing for a long time. Hell a friend of mine started going to mount snow to theirs back in 2002. It was expensive and a long drive but his mom was making it work to give him a better shot at snowboarding. I don't think they were super well off, but that was a big opportunity for him.

I grew up at a mountain with no park. Literally no park. Sometimes you'd get kicked off for building jumps. The jumps you build would get run over. No rails at all. All I wanted to do was ride park. I would think about this sometimes, "What if I had access to a park?" What if I could go to one of those bigger mtns. Idk. At the end of the day I was just super lucky to move to a place that had skiing, and a school program. I was able to get into the winter sports I probably wouldn't have elsewhere. Sure, with more opportunities I would have probably gone further with it, but I had a chance to get into it, and I'm still doing it today. If I was really, really driven, I could have made it work. Some people in my situation would have found a way to get crazy good still. That wasn't me, and that's fine.

Take advantage of the opportunities around you as best you can, and try not to dwell on what could be or could've been. There's always somebody with money that has a better shot than you, but you likely have some opportunities that many others don't. Best of luck. Sorry for the scrollbomb.

SamuelForsgrenSki academy i guess its like the skidgymnasium its free here i think you have to pay for apartment if you go in Kläppen but its not so much i think. I was thinking if i would go to the one in Vännäs but didnt. I use to say i already know how to ski and dont need ski school lol

Goretex_VidalIt’s because you live in a semi-functional nation state that invests in its citizenry for the greater good rather than a corporate state that exists to extract every penny from its labor force.

**This post was edited on Jan 10th 2023 at 8:09:02pm

hegleezyThis is a pretty complex issue, and something I probably shouldn't care about, but I thought it would be interesting to talk about. Do ski academies have an impact on who competes now, and will they have an impact on who competes at higher levels in a few years? The first place I'd look to see if it's true would be ski racing. Ski racing academies have been around for decades now, with the first one being established in the 1970’s. There's now countless across the continental United States, and countless Olympic athletes who have graduated from these (Mikayla Shiffrin, Luke Winters, etc). You can assume that a LARGE number of professional ski racers were put into these ski academies. Now how the fuck do I relay ski racing into park skiing, well, academies like Wyeast do exist. In episode 57 of the Two Planker Podcast, Luke Votaw, Newschoolers favorite skier, discusses competing against high level ski academy kids. At first glance he does give off that academy kid vibe, and I think it's a common misconception that he is one. “Maybe going out to windells or wyeast would be beneficial, but my high school was pretty lenient”, Luke chose to complete High School online with his local public school, this allowed him to ski, and compete. Later on they discuss the benefits of having a coach and access to terrain ,which would obviously make a great skier. This begs the question, will academy kids who drown in money take over the competitive park skiing scene in the coming years? Some of these students ski at professional levels at decades younger ages than we see now, so why wouldn't they be able to dominate the scene in 10 years? If these skiers do manage to ski at that high level in the coming years, wouldn't that end up just like the current state of ski racing and create even more disparity?

steez_apprenticelook at walker shredz and inshane shredder and tell me those kids aren't fueled off their parents money

Mad_MaxskiAgree but you can’t buy style or work ethic
Walker definitely gets sponsor money for sure but he doesn’t go to an academy

Michigan_SucksActing like normal skiing isn't already expensive as is.*

*Unless you grew up in the Midwest from 1980 to 2010 because skiing was cheap but places like Bittershit are charging $570 for a season pass for all 200 vertical feet.

hegleezyThis is a pretty complex issue, and something I probably shouldn't care about, but I thought it would be interesting to talk about. Do ski academies have an impact on who competes now, and will they have an impact on who competes at higher levels in a few years? The first place I'd look to see if it's true would be ski racing. Ski racing academies have been around for decades now, with the first one being established in the 1970’s. There's now countless across the continental United States, and countless Olympic athletes who have graduated from these (Mikayla Shiffrin, Luke Winters, etc). You can assume that a LARGE number of professional ski racers were put into these ski academies. Now how the fuck do I relay ski racing into park skiing, well, academies like Wyeast do exist. In episode 57 of the Two Planker Podcast, Luke Votaw, Newschoolers favorite skier, discusses competing against high level ski academy kids. At first glance he does give off that academy kid vibe, and I think it's a common misconception that he is one. “Maybe going out to windells or wyeast would be beneficial, but my high school was pretty lenient”, Luke chose to complete High School online with his local public school, this allowed him to ski, and compete. Later on they discuss the benefits of having a coach and access to terrain ,which would obviously make a great skier. This begs the question, will academy kids who drown in money take over the competitive park skiing scene in the coming years? Some of these students ski at professional levels at decades younger ages than we see now, so why wouldn't they be able to dominate the scene in 10 years? If these skiers do manage to ski at that high level in the coming years, wouldn't that end up just like the current state of ski racing and create even more disparity?

andreyerThis is 100% the case, skiing is now a sport of how rich your family is. Kind of blows but if you put a focus on more accesible types of skiing we can lowkee reverse this.

beck_shredzbru bsweet my home hill, its so ass, the season pass is actually 660
only 4 runs are open right now

thankagaperReal Talk.
You cant train on a mogul venue without PAYING to be on a ski team.
I will never forget Mount Snow Academy trying to rig a railjam in vermont for the kiddos...
the trophies were hand blown glass, and I got mine.

THE INDUSTRY IS PAY TO PLAY, STRAIGHT IGNORANT LOSERS, but you all hate when,
I speaka da truff.