When Kurt Smitz left the University of Denver last year after reviving the school’s dormant ski program and coaching the Pioneers to four NCAA titles in 14 seasons, it didn’t take him long to find another calling.
The earnest Wisconsin native quietly found a new home as an assistant coach on the U.S. Disabled Ski Team.
“I knew I could move on from some things, but I wasn’t ready to let go of the personal interaction with athletes,” Smitz said. “For me, that meant wanting to get back on the hill in some capacity.”
Smitz knows disabled athletes have the potential to inspire others. He takes it as his job to help them succeed as racers so their stories will be heard.
“Whether it be an able-bodied athlete or disabled, I think (coaching) is about helping someone with self-discovery – What’s possible? – and how to reach farther than you can grab, but at the same time experience the moment and give back,” Smitz said. “It’s a privilege to be involved in skiing because it’s not jaded or all about the dollars. It is a lot about what you can accomplish for yourself, for your country, and living in that moment rather than what it’s going to allow you to buy.”
Smitz is intrigued by the impact disabled Iraq war vets can make on the U.S. team, believing they can raise the profile of disabled skiing far beyond what it has been, and he wants to help them do it.
“A lot of them are athletic guys,” Smitz said. “It calls upon all your capacities to do what they’re doing over there. They have to take orders. They have to train. There’s a plan.
“There’s going to be a number of them who will want to get on with their lives in a lot of different ways. Sport can be a tremendous outlet, and a source not only of personal satisfaction but also of closure.”
At the Ski Spectacular for the disabled last month in Breckenridge, Smitz spoke with a war veteran who is benefiting from the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project. The vet lost both legs in a roadside bombing three years ago.
“He said, ‘Skiing has given me my freedom,”‘ Smitz said. “Then he pointed to an elderly, able-bodied lady trying to snowplow down the hill and said, ‘See her? She’s disabled. I’m not.”‘
The Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project provides sports programs for severely wounded service members from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Smitz believes it can become a feeder program for the U.S. Disabled Team.
Learning to ski is one thing, learning to race at an elite level is another. There aren’t any Iraq war veterans on the U.S. team, but Smitz believes they could make it in time for the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver.
“A lot of these disabled warriors are going to be the poster children for how big this can become,” Smitz said.
Before DU, Smitz coached at the University of Wyoming from 1985-92. On a ski trip to Jackson Hole, former Olympic slalom gold medalist Pepi Stiegler asked Smitz to help Diana Golden, who was training in Jackson. Golden, one of the most successful disabled athletes, enjoyed working with Smitz and asked him to be her personal trainer that summer.
So when coaching positions opened on the U.S. Disabled Team after the Turin Games, Smitz thought: Why not?
Smitz enjoys having to think about technique in new ways. A one-legged skier can’t unweight one ski to weight the other. It requires transferring force from one edge to the other, releasing edges when the ski finds the fall line.
“I found it having to think different than the traditional explanation of able-bodied technique,” Smitz said. “You have to learn about capacities, what is possible, what might be possible but not readily apparent and you go exploring.”
It also requires coaching disabled people without coddling them.
“Just because these guys sit down or stand up, missing a body part, doesn’t mean we don’t get after them as athletes,” Smitz said. “It’s straight up.”
John Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
