Olympic Zone: Laurenne Ross’ comeback story
She describes it as a “beautifully terrible day.”
Bend ski racer Laurenne Ross was set to compete for a Super G title at the 2017 U.S. Alpine Ski Championships in Sugarloaf, Maine. And for the first half of the course, she was flying.
Then it all went wrong.
“It was about the sixth gate when I slid out on my right ski,” Ross recalled in a FaceTime interview in December. “I went to stand up so I could make the next gate and I caught my outside edge on a big pile of snow and from then I just — I don’t remember anything.”
Ross’ knee had twisted with incredible force after her ski slipped under a pile of snow.
But one thing she does remember is pain — pain she describes as some of the worse she’s endured as a professional alpine skier.
Ross had climbed the U.S. rankings after her World Cup debut in 2010, and made the official move to Bend in 2011 after training at Mt. Bachelor as a teen. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Ross came to Oregon with her parents at a young age. Her first ski race was in Lake Louise, Alberta, when she was just 6 years old.
Once in Oregon, she made the trip up to Mt. Bachelor almost once a week, ski season after ski season, to chase her dream.
But Ross’ aspirations as a ski racer weren’t always to achieve Olympic gold. She describes her path to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team as one lacking the pressure or precision of a typical teen talent. She simply loved to ski, and had the natural skill to compete at the highest level.
In 2014, Ross made her Olympic debut, earning an 11th place finish in the ladies’ downhill event in Sochi. Looking ahead to PyeongChang, her aspirations turned toward a medal.
After her crash in Sugarloaf, the 2018 Olympic Winter Games were just 10 months away, and a podium finish had all but vanished from Ross’ future — replaced instead by weeks of physical therapy, recovery,and the possibility of never clipping into her skis again. In a blog post, Ross admits to crying en route to each appointment, but those tears were driven by something she felt was stronger than sadness: fear.
“I felt very alone, going through those very dark times of not knowing and being uncertain of what would happen in the future — not just as far as ski racing goes, but as far as walking and riding a bike and living a normal life again,” she recalled. “I was surrounded by friends and family and loved ones and people helping to take care of me, but I still felt really alone.”
Ross’ resilience served as a light to guide her recovery, and she’d spend seven months chasing another ride up the chairlift. In November, that moment finally came.
Eight months and 11 days after the crash that almost derailed her skiing career, Ross competed at St. Moritz in the first of many races leading up to the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang. On January 24, the official announcement confirmed the comeback of a lifetime — Laurenne Ross was headed to compete in the Super G, and potentially, the alpine combined event in South Korea.
In some ways, Ross is the perfect Olympic competitor, despite chasing standardized technical perfection in the likes of Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, because she seems to understand what the Games are all about. In a sport built on rivalry, Ross brings an attitude of togetherness.
“Alpine skiing is such an individual sport. It’s so special to go to the Olympics and feel like you’re actually a part of a bigger team,” she said with a smile. “That’s not something we get to experience very often.”
After the Opening Ceremonies, Ross posted a photo to social media, with the caption:
“Until this O thing, we forget to see…
How together in sport the world can be.
–Yours Truly, Humans”
Friday night, Central Oregon cheered on a ski racer who emanates determination, preaches unity and strives for fun, reaching all the way back to things she learned on the mountain that shaped her.
She didn’t grab a medal, but she gave it her all and drew cheers from the crowd and fellow athletes who knew just what a comeback she’d made to even be there, competing at the Olympics a second time.
