Crested Butte
At first glance, the student-athletes at Crested Butte Academy are happy, outdoorsy teens. But a fire burns in several of the academy’s most successful athletes who have dedicated themselves to being champions. These are true athletes who have sacrificed social lives, family time and the frivolity of their teenage years to be the best.
Daniel runs. Elizabeth races skis. John weaves through gates. Madeline races every snow tool. Francesca rips the steeps. Five different athletes with five different passions, all products of the Crested Butte Academy. Remember their names. They are on track to be Colorado’s international champions.
Madeline Pavillard-Cain
Skier/snowboarder
Pavillard-Cain grew up in Crested Butte, giving her a healthy head start at honing her on-mountain skills. In 2002, as a freshman at Crested Butte Academy, she won the junior snowboarding extreme championships. The next year she won the same contest for skiing. In 2004 she took second in the junior ski extremes, and this year she won the junior boardercross national championships in the 18-22 age group. Yeah, she rips. She’s graduates from CBA this spring and plans to spend a year in Switzerland teaching snowboarding and skiing. She’s aiming for a spot on the 2010 Winter Olympic squad, a challenge many coaches tell her she can complete if she bulks up her petite frame.
“I’m definitely smaller, but I practice a lot of yoga,” says the 18-year-old, who dances when she’s not mountain biking, climbing and skiing. “That gives me a lot of lightness and agility you need for snowboarding.”
Francesca Pavillard-Cain
Extreme skier
Madeline’s little sister, Fran- cesca chose a beautiful, amazingly fluid line down Body Bag Chutes in the U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championships in February, earning her top honors among junior girls. The 15-year-old in her first year at Crested Butte Academy followed up the alpine ski win with a second-place finish in the U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Telemark Championships a month later. She credits her father for her fluid and seemingly fearless skiing.
“He really skis with such grace, he makes it look easy,” she says. “He makes everything look fun. He’s the model for my ski style.”
Francesca ranked ninth among all the women in the February extreme comp. She’s planning to step up her skiing this next year to put more pressure on veterans such as Carrie Jo Chernoff and Wendy Fisher, both of whom coach Francesca at CBA. Watch for the pupil to school the teachers in this pending showdown.
Daniel Roberts
Runner
Roberts remembers the day he logged a blazing mile time of 4 minutes, 10.72 seconds as a high school runner at the Southern Track Classic in Richmond, Va., this month. He was feeling good with his second-fastest mile of the season – he ran 4:09.68 in Arcadia, Calif., in April. His coach, Crested Butte Academy’s Trent Sanderson, asked him if he could run the 800 meters, too. Roberts stepped up and was leading until the final few seconds, when three runners passed him. The loss, even in an event that is not his expertise, stung. When he got back to Crested Butte, he trained harder. Ran farther and faster.
The Michigan native, who plans to attend Cedarville University in Ohio this fall, is not one to tolerate anything but first. That kind of determination will unquestionably shatter records at Cedarville and could land him a berth in the 2008 Olympic trials, where he hopes to prepare himself for gold in London in 2012. He’s a rarity at Crested Butte Academy because he doesn’t do anything but run. He is singularly focused on walking with God and running a sub-four-minute mile.
“I’m planning on going to the Olympics,” says the steady 19- year-old. “I mean, I want a normal family life. But I want to go the Olympics, too. I’m hoping I can have both.”
John Kemp
Alpine skier
Two years ago, an administrator told Kemp he needed to quit ski racing and focus on academics. He never was a good student. A learning disability mixes up the images he sees in his head when he sees or hears a particular word. But on the ski hill, he boils his life down to three things: Go fast, don’t miss a gate and finish. Nothing else matters when he’s on snow. And he’s done well, ranking as the world’s fastest 16-year-old giant slalom skier.
Luckily, the chieftains at Crested Butte Academy told him would let him do what he does best, and he has excelled under the ski-and-study approach. He spent two months away from classes racing this season, but 40-hour work weeks this spring have readied him for final exams this week.
Last winter he got to ski and train with Ted Ligety, Daron Rahlves and Bode Miller, a highlight in his quest to make the U.S. Ski Team and compete in the Olympics.
“I think I have it in me to beat those guys,” he says. “I just have to keep in good shape. You can’t finish a GS course and you can’t be a champion if you are not in good shape. I’m going for it. I’ll hopefully be on the U.S. Ski Team by my senior year.”
Elizabeth Woods
Alpine skier
Woods has had one goal since she stepped into skis at age 5: Make the U.S. Ski Team. Then win World Cups.
She made the U.S. Ski Team’s development squad this spring after a remarkable season that included two top-five finishes in the NorAm Cup and the best American super-G finish at Canada’s junior world championships in March.
She graduates this spring and, although Crested Butte Academy does not rank its students, Woods likely is one of the most successful student-athletes in the school’s history.
“I really kept my head down, just concentrating on academics and athletics and really focusing on my goal,” says the 18-year-old, who is taking next year off to focus solely on skiing. After that she plans to study pre-med at the University of Denver while continuing her ski career.
“I just have to keep the work ethic I had at CBA going,” she says. “If I work as hard as I did there, I can go 100 percent into my skiing and conditioning.”
Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-820-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
