Zach Wozniak joined the sport of alpine skiing when he was 12. Now at 16, he is a part of the Regina Alpine Race Team (RART) and participates in slalom, giant slalom and super giant slalom races. Photo by Jessica Colby.
Before seeing an alpine ski slalom course and inspecting it prior to a race, 16-year-old Zach Wozniak tries not to overthink the upcoming event too much. The nerves make it so much worse, but he doesn’t often get nervous.
Before an event, he makes sure to wax his skis to match the temperature of the snow and outside conditions. This aids in his speed going down the hill. He also makes sure that the skis are sharp enough to carve through the snow on the hill when going around the gates, which are poles drilled into the snow.
Zach’s skiing journey started when his parents, Chris and Merril Wozniak, met on a ski trip. As they both enjoyed the activity, they thought it would be a good tradition to keep going when they had a family.
When Zach was three years old, they decided to take him skiing for his very first ski trip to Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna, B.C.
“Well, we tried to ski with him and after the morning, we said, ‘that’s enough of that’ and we put him in lessons,” Zach’s mom, Chris, said with a laugh.
After the lessons, they were able to take Zach on the lifts with them and ski as a family. From then on, they have tried to take one to two trips to the mountains every year.
“It’s more like a family thing that you do together and keeps you a little closer,” said Chris.
From there, to keep the tradition going, they go skiing as a family a few times each year.
Zach was also involved with the local hockey team in Montmartre, Sask. When he turned 12, he wasn’t enjoying the sport anymore. While at Sunshine & Ski in Regina, the Wozniaks discovered an alpine ski racing pamphlet while waiting for their skis to get tuned. This process involves checking for damage, sharpening the skis’ edges and waxing the skis.
“We brought that pamphlet home, we kind of read it over and … we thought it would be a nice way to meet other people that ski,” said Chris.
After Chris and Zach’s dad, Merril, gave Zach the summer to make his decision on which sport he wanted to pursue – hockey or skiing – he chose skiing.
“He loves it now,” said Chris, adding he doesn’t miss playing hockey like he would miss the world of alpine ski racing.
The alpine ski racing season is a rather short one. The operation of the sport depends on if there’s snow on the ground, so the season will often run from early December until late March.
There are four different types of alpine ski racing: slalom, giant slalom (GS), super giant slalom (Super G) and downhill. The sport consists of athletes skiing down the hill at fast speeds and dodging around plastic poles – called gates – to see who can get the best combined time at the end of two runs.
Athletes cannot participate in downhill skiing until they are 18 years old. This particular branch of the sport is a little riskier due to the high speeds and requires a back brace in addition to the other equipment the skiers wear.
Zach’s favourite type of alpine ski racing is Super G. This is the third type of ski racing right before downhill skiing, which is often showcased at the Olympic level and athletes can easily reach speeds of up to nearly 130 kilometres per hour.
Due to Saskatchewan’s hills’ height and length, only slalom can be trained in the province. All of the other types of alpine racing must be trained in the mountains.
Similar to Zach, his Regina Alpine Race Team (RART) teammate Allie Silverthorn started skiing when she was three years old. Silverthorn started racing when she was 10 or 11 years old.
“My best friends are all in skiing,” said Silverthorn, now 15.
When preparing for a race, Zach will make sure he’s thinking through what to do on the course, including having good body position. If you don’t think about it, it’ll never happen.
“Everything has to be so perfect to get the fastest time,” said Zach. “You don’t want to be sliding, you want to be carving through your turns.”
One of the most important things in ski racing for Zach is something called “tucking.”
“You bend down, get your hands up nice and close into you, get your body as tight as possible,” he said. “It reduces drag.”
On a typical practise day, Zach and his team will practise for four to five hours per day. But on a race day, he’ll wake up at 6 a.m. and go for a run before heading to the hill.
Zach’s RART coach, Morgan Waldo, competed in alpine skiing at the elite level before becoming a coach.
“I like to plan three to four weeks in advance per race,” Waldo said of training with her team. “It isn’t really much different than how you practise piano.”
Naomi Ottenbreit started coaching when she was 21 years old. Ottenbreit is the head coach of the Qu’Appelle Valley Ski Club (QVSC) and she coached Zach from the time he started skiing at 12 to when he left the club to join RART in 2020.
Zach left the QVSC because he wanted to be with other kids his age. At the QVSC, Zach was the oldest member of the club.
“Every kid has a different goal. Every kid has a different motivation,” said Ottenbreit. “They make me feel like a kid again.”
For competing, Zach wears a red-and-black speed suit. These suits are usually skin-tight ski suits which aid in speed going down the hill. He also wears very tight ski boots, which are like hockey skates, and you don’t want your foot to move around. He also wears different lengths of skis, depending on which type of race he’s in that day.
There are many protective pieces of equipment that a slalom skier must wear as well. This includes shin guards, pole guards to protect your hands, gloves with metal backings and a chin bar to protect your face.
As well, he wears what’s called a “bib,” a skin-tight piece of fabric with his contestant number on it.
In the sport, male and female athletes wear similar outfits. Although, female athletes’ skis are slightly shorter than male athletes’, to account for their shorter statures.
For Silverthorn, her favourite type of the four alpine ski races is GS, which is the race type that includes fast, wide turns and racers can reach speeds of around 80 kilometres per hour.
“I get so invested in my runs. It’s such an emotional sport,” said Silverthorn. “I’m quite superstitious. It’s just so easy to get in your head.”
There are four different types of alpine ski racing. Each requires their own pair of skis, getting longer in length as the difficulty of the course increases. Graphic by Jessica Colby.
On the day of the race, Zach, his coaches and his teammates do what they call “course inspection.” They go down the hill slowly with their skis in the “pizza” position to map out the course. The coaches talk the team through tricky spots and the team can give their opinion as well for how they would approach it. They are not allowed to go down the course as they would in a race.
While going up the ski lift to the top of the course, Zach is usually with two of his teammates. They talk through the course together and how they should handle those tricky spots.
“He’s always been very determined,” Ottenbreit said of Zach. “He’s just developed into such a strong skier.”
Chris and Merril never thought they would get involved in a mountain sport being from a small town on the Prairies, both chuckling at the irony of the situation.
“We just thought of it as a recreational thing to do as a family,” said Chris.
Once at the top, Wozniak can smell the mountain air, as that’s where some of his races take place, and the trees. He can hear the chatter of other contestants and the radios of each contestant constantly going off as their coaches talk to them from different points on the course.
Zach Wozniak at a practise with his ski team at Mission Ridge near Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask. Photo by Jessica Colby.
Average run times in the mountains are about one minute. Other courses, including the courses in Saskatchewan, tend to run under 30 seconds, which Silverthorn said her times are usually consistent with.
During Zach’s first race at the Saskatchewan Winter Games, Chris felt happy Zach was getting the experience. Nowadays, though, when he races, their emotions are a bit different.
“[We feel] nervous for him, want him to do good,” said Merril.
Before he is to take his turn, he’ll strip off his coat and waterproof shorts that went over his speed suit to keep him warm before the race.
On a ski slalom course, the athletes go down in 30-second intervals. The goal is to get down the hill and complete the slalom course the fastest. There are usually upwards of 60 competitors in a race, and Wozniak says when standing in the starting gate, you can see the ruts that have been left around the gates on the course.
As he stands in the start gate, he lets everything around him fade away. The start ref counts him down from 10.
“Racer ready,” the start ref will say. “GO!”
From the time the start ref says ‘go’, Zach has five seconds to flick open the start gate with his skis to start his timeclock. From there, all he can focus on is the next gate in front of him. He hears nothing.
Many racers have nothing going through their heads as they go down the hill – it’s all autopilot and muscle memory.
“I don’t even remember my runs after I’m done usually because you’re just in a zone,” said Silverthorn. “It’s kind of cool.”
Zach agreed with his teammate in that he goes on autopilot when he’s going down the hill during his run. He also likes the speed aspect of the sport.
“Probably going really fast,” Zach said about his favourite part of the sport. “Almost feeling like you’re outta control, but then you feel in control at the same time.”
Chris agreed with her husband, Merril, about the nerves. As Zach’s mom, she mostly worries about him being injured when she’s trying to film his run and he doesn’t come over the hill when expected.
“You just worry that he’s okay and nine times out of ten, he’s okay,” said Chris.
Then, he reaches the bottom, completely exhausted after his minute-long run. He can hear everybody screaming and all the moms ringing their cowbells in celebration.
When it comes to the future of his skiing, Zach is hopeful that he can place better while racing in the mountains.
“Probably top 25, top 20 at mountain races,” Zach said of where he hopes to place.
When it comes to offseason training, the team will do what is called “dryland training.”
“[It’s] a lot of cross training,” said Waldo. “Endurance, quick feet, flexibility, mobility – those are the key aspects.”
According to Chris, Zach had a very successful ski season in 2021-2022.
“He ended up winning all his races, taking home six gold medals,” Chris said in a text message about the Saskatchewan Cup races. “Also, at the Manitoba finals in March, he ended up placing third for a bronze in the slalom race.”
In the next couple years, Chris and Merril are hoping Zach can continue to be successful in ski racing and make it to the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island.
“It’s a sport for life,” said Waldo. “It’s a sport for family and why not do it?
“I think it’s the coolest sport in the world.”
