Olympic Zone: Bend boarder Kent Callister flies high
At just 22 years old, Kent Callister just finished competing in his second Winter Olympics. He competes for Team Australia, but he’s never forgotten where it all started: Bend.
Growing up in Australia, Callister’s sport of choice was skateboarding. When he was 9 years old, he and his family moved to Central Oregon, and that’s when he traded pavement for powder.
“Once we moved to Bend, there was the mountain here, and my dad had been snowboarding a few times, so he just kind of naturally took me up,” Callister said before he left for PyeongChang. “I just really liked it and started going up all the time.”
Like many Central Oregonians, Callister grew up competing with the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation. Then, at 16 years old, both teams USA and Australia scouted him to compete for their Olympic teams. Callister eventually chose to compete for the land Down Under. Those who know him, however, never question his roots – or his attitude.
His close friend, Julie Burket said, “He’s just a fantastic representation of Bend and Australia.”
“I think that Kent represents Bend very well, because he’s such a great person and a great human being,” she added. “He doesn’t have an arrogant bone in his body, and a lot of athletes of his caliber certainly can.”
Burket calls Callister the “High Flying Fox.” Why? She said it’s “because he’s so cute! And a flying fox, of course, is native to Australia.”
Callister competed in the Sochi Winter Olympics back in 2014. While there, he placed ninth in the men’s halfpipe. This time around, before Callister took off for South Korea, Bend threw him a send-off party at the Dakine Cafe.
At the party, Callister was all smiles. Surrounded by friends and family, he said, “Everyone’s so nice, and coming here to support me its awesome. It’s sweet to have everyone from Bend come out to say ‘hi’ and wish me good luck.”
Callister’s fans, both big and small, filled the cafe to wish him farewell. The “High Flying Fox” writes on his Instagram: “meeting kids who are inspired by me is the ultimate high.”
One man at the gathering said, “It’s absolutely amazing that somebody from Central Oregon is going to go over to South Korea and represent Central Oregon.”
PyeongChang is thousands of miles away, but Callister made sure to bring his hometown to the halfpipe. “It’s just so awesome having a community that supports me so much, and yeah I’ll be bringing some Bend spirit with me to the Olympics of course!”
Callister didn’t grab the gold this time, but he came close. He rounded out the top 10 in the men’s halfpipe final, scoring 62 points on his final run. Callister told reporters he was simply enjoying the whole experience; happy to be at the Olympics a second time around.
