Coming up ski racing with Cassidy Gray

If we’re all a product of our environment, then Alpine Canada’s Cassidy Gray is a glowing representation of her community. They have shaped her throughout this road to the World Cup and she is still actively motivated by all of them today. I spoke with Cassidy the week leading into their home World Cups in Mt. Tremblant, Quebec. Excited at the opportunity to race on home soil, she shared her journey to becoming one of Canada’s top ski racers. 

Back in January of 2021, the twenty-two year old made waves in Canadian ski racing circles when at nineteen, she qualified for the second run at her first World Cup and made points the next day in a set of back to back GS races in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. “When they [coaches] told me I was starting the World Cup, I was like ‘Oh hell ya!’ I just wanted it so bad.” Her words convey a deep sense of relief in drawing out the “Oh hell” portion of the sentence.

You could sense a growing smile from ear to ear as she recounted the rest of that first World Cup race weekend. “It’s one of those things, you don’t want to tell anyone your goals because you don’t want to sound stupid. You’d rather everyone just be surprised when you achieve them and I think I surprised a lot of people.” A surprise to those looking in maybe, but for friends, family and those who know her well, this was Cass doing what she does best.

With an innate competitive spirit that was nurtured from an early age her family dynamic played a big role in this. “I think I was just born to be a competitive person. That’s just how it is. My siblings and I were just horrifically competitive with each other, anything from free skiing to Monopoly games. It’s a rowdy bunch, that’s for sure.” 

Coming from a family of six kids, Cassidy the second oldest, grew up in Calgary and started skiing at the Canadian Olympic Park (COP) in the city. Soon thereafter, the family decided to transition for a bigger mountain, joining the club and racing program in Panorama, BC. “When I started skiing at COP, it was really chill skiing, just doing it for fun and trying to get good enough to get to the chairlift. After a bit, I think my parents realized how much my older brother, younger sister and I liked it and so they put us in the ski program out in Pano.”

“I was only about eight years old but they [her parents] knew I was only going to get carried away with my competitiveness. Which is basically what happened, even though I was pretty bad at skiing at that time. I was racking in the last places like nobody’s business.” Gray chuckles some more, reminiscing on those early days. “But since I was young, skiing was just so fun.”

What lit up for Cassidy was not just the skiing, but everything else that came with the sport. “I couldn’t imagine growing up doing anything else on the weekends. There’s the family aspect, the friends, the aspect that gives you a ton of adrenaline but then you also get to go hang out in the lodge at lunch. It was just such a cool community thing.”

It was in this environment and being surrounded by people who love the sport, that stoked her fire to keep improving. “I just kept going until my last places turned into tenth places which turned into fifths and sixths.” Though she was an active player in this as well. “I also just wanted to go fast. Like every kid who has no brain cells and is on skis.” More laughs from her, “That really helped develop some courage in my skiing.”

A few years into her time with Team Panorama, the sport she loved to do on the weekends suddenly shifted. “Around the 2010 Olympics, Mark Sharp was coaching the national team at the time, and came to Pano for a weekend to ski with the club. I remember that I was like ‘this is an Olympic team coach, this is so cool.’ I wanted to impress him and I didn’t even know what impressing a coach would look like.” 

In this bout of inspiration, a new world of possibilities opened up for her. “That was the moment that I realized that you could be an Olympian in this sport. It didn’t have to be just what I did on the weekends, but a professional athletic career.”

After Mark Sharp’s time with Alpine Canada, he returned to his home in Invermere and started coaching Team Pano and working as the club’s program director. Much to Cassidy’s excitement and fortunes, “When I was in U14, he became my coach on the weekdays and I have never wanted to impress somebody as much as little thirteen year old me wanted to impress Mark Sharp. It’s funny, I think he’d laugh hearing me say this now, but I still send him videos of all my best runs.”

This type of extrinsic motivation paired perfectly with her intrinsic desire to get to the top of the group. “I always had a very clear idea of what good skiing looked like and I always wanted more. Like if I was forerunning a U16 race as a U14, I wanted to beat all the U16s. Even though it didn’t matter, I just wanted more and nobody told me I couldn’t have it.” Gray, gave a little chuckle with this. “I just kept believing that everything was possible.”

This march to the top of the field didn’t come without its growing pains though. “Races were such a horrendous reflection of what I was doing in training in U14 and U16. I was losing skis, crashing into the B-nets, DNF-ing. I was very inconsistent but it didn’t strike me as an issue at the time. I was like ‘huh, I just crash all the time.’” 

Always ready to give acknowledgement to her supporters, Cass highlighted the power of belief that the coaches gave her. “It didn’t crush me if I had a bad result because my coaches would give me this confidence that I was going in the right direction to become a really great skier. There’s something that’s so different when a coach believes in you.”

The desire to go fast and the courage to stick to getting better, eventually clicked into results. When it did, it wasn’t long for Gray to make big leaps. “I had a pretty good season in my first year FIS. I had my first Nor Am top ten, even though I was shitting my pants now racing and being around all the national team girls.” 

Pretty good may be an understatement but Cassidy is naturally humble with her successes. This success came with a unique mindset shift to racing. “When I got to FIS, I was like, this is awesome. I have as many races as I want to do this year and nobody’s watching too closely when you’re starting in the back. It’s basically do what you can with a worse case scenario. I found it a fun little challenge. It was just so much less pressure than in U16.” 

Her results after first year FIS qualified her for the national development group. Due to lack of funding though, ACA didn’t have a team and so Cassidy remained with Team Pano for another season. Which suited her just fine. “That year we had an extreme, amazing, elite, super girls team! We had so much fun.” Even with a broken ankle injury that she sustained in the fall from playing volleyball, Cass is grateful for what that group gave her. “The way that they made me forget that I was down and out for a bit, that’s something pretty special.”

Team Panorama created a program for her and her teammates to hit up races that they needed to continue to reach the next level. “They brought us to NorAms and they really provided a program for everybody. Whether you had 200 points or 20 points, we all skied and hung out together, but you could go to the races to match your level. It was a pretty cool situation.”

The following season Gray did move on from her cherished club and community, going up to the Alberta Ski Team. Though it seems through luck or the law of attraction, she found herself in another driven and supportive group of competitive athletes. “My year on the Alberta Ski Team, I had another awesome group of girls and really just an awesome team in general.”

In this more unified and focused team environment, Cassidy’s competitive spirit thrived. “We made each other all so much better. There was a lot of competitive energy. And when we were getting competitive with the boys, then it was getting dangerous. We were all just pushing each other a lot. It was a good crew.” Her smile and slight laughter signalled a deep relish for those days. 

In this transition to the Alberta team, Cassidy was also coming into a new group of coaches. “One of the biggest things that the Team Pano coaches did for me is that they gave me the tools to be coached by everybody. They always encouraged talking to other coaches and if they have advice that sparks something in your brain, then listen to them.” 

“When I came into the Alberta team, I was able to get a lot of important things from every single coach. It was cool because there’s a lot of experience in this group.” This group being Darin McBeath, Leslie Firstbrook, and Jonas Haehlen, all respected and accomplished coaches in the field. 

One of these “important things” was the ever present booster of belief that has run through Gray’s career. “We went to watch Sölden during a camp in Hintertux and while watching the Women’s race, Darin looked at me and said, ‘You know you should be racing this race.’ I was like ‘ya ok’ ‘No I’m dead serious, you should be racing this race.’”

This had an impact on her. “The next day we were watching the men’s race and I remember looking at the hill and saying that the next time I come back here, I’m going to be racing. I’m not coming back here as a spectator.” Sure enough, the next time Cassidy came back two years later, she indeed had a start number on. 

Following her season on the Alberta Team, Gray chose to go to the University of Colorado as her next step to reach the World Cup. As luck would have it, that winter, the national team decided to bring Cassidy and Justine Clément over to join them. “It was the Covid year and I wasn’t supposed to start school in January. In December, the national team kind of randomly decided to bring us over to Europe. I think all of the provincial team coaches fought really hard for Justine and I to be able to go over.”

This seemingly random event sparked Gray’s competitive spirit again and proved to be the opportunity that jumped her to the next step. “I was sitting there with them [the national team athletes] and thinking, I’m not going to train with people and try not to beat them. So obviously I’m going to try and beat all these girls who are great World Cup skiers.” Her fire comes through with honesty and laughter. 

“When I started skiing well, they [the coaches] mentioned the idea of me starting World Cup, but I just didn’t want to believe anything until it was set in stone. And a few weeks later, they put me in.” Which brings us back to the beginning of our story with Cass, back to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia where she may have surprised most people but herself. 

Gray summed up her performance in what seems to have been her approach on most race days of her career. “For me, I’m not going to go easy, I’m not going to let up. I thought this was maybe one of the few opportunities that I would get and I know how hard it is to come by.”

The energy from this result continued and carried her forward. “I was just floating. From that first World Cup Start, I then raced in World Champs, and I got to go to the NCAA finals.” In which she undoubtedly won the GS. 

Cassidy then finished her 2020/21 World Cup year with a 27th place in Jasna, Slovakia. “The rest of that season was like that part in the movie where the athlete is doing really well and it just flashes the highlights. It just felt like it was not ending. It was pretty cool.”

All seasons do come to an end though, and we have to start anew. One of these new pieces for Gray is that she was now officially named to the Alpine Canada’s roster. Secondly, there was an upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, China. “I decided to take the year off of school because I didn’t want to come off of this last season and not qualify for the Olympics and feel like I hadn’t given it everything.”

Cassidy did qualify for the Olympics that season, which was an incredible milestone, but the rest of her year wasn’t filled with the same highlights. “Since that first year [on the World Cup] there were a lot of things that happened. It was probably the lowest my confidence in myself has ever been, which was a hard hole to fall into. I had never dealt with that before. I’ve never been in a start gate and not thought that I could win the race and I was suddenly coming into races thinking, I don’t think I have this. That was a really hard year for me.”

Confidence can be a fickle thing and when you’re trying to touch the sun, to be the best in the world, it’s no wonder we need an extra boost from those around us. “I felt a little bit more removed from the community that year. Because it was the Olympic season, we had to be so careful with COVID. I never went home, I never saw my family and I just felt so distant from the community that I grew up loving the sport with.” 

There were a few glimmers in that season and likely by no big coincidence, one happened to be back where it all started and surrounded by her community. “The highlight of that season was World Juniors in Pano. We won the gold medal in the team event and that was probably the best race experience I’ve ever had in my life.”

Growth usually comes from the challenges we face and Cassidy is aware of what she’s been through in the last couple seasons. “It has definitely been a little bit of a tougher time for me since coming on to the World Cup. Last season I was starting to get my footing a little more. I picked up a NorAm (GS) title and the first NorAm win of that season was like coming out of the hole. Now I understand why people say ups and downs because it will come back up eventually.” 

With the momentum continuing up, she feels like her self belief is back with it. “Coming into this season, I think little Cass is coming back. My confidence is a lot better and skiing wise, in training, I feel like this is probably the best I’ve ever been skiing in my life. I know my stuff again.” Gray stumbles over a few words after this last sentence, and you can tell there’s a joy in her voice. “I don’t really know how to describe it, but it’s just kind of a lightness. You know?”

This lightness could be attributed to feeling the support around her again. Trusting that her team, sponsors and ski company have her back. When directly asked about the role others have played in her successes, she is not shy to share the spotlight. “I don’t think that takes anything away from my work at all. If anything that makes me feel super proud to say that I think I’m a total accumulation of all the people that have supported me.” She pauses for a moment. “Who I am is just a sum of everybody that has added to my life.” 

Shortly after our conversation, Cassidy went on to post career best finishes, back to back 24th place finishes in the Mt. Tremblant World Cups in early December. She is looking to carry this momentum into the rest of the season and you can catch her at the next GS World Cups in Lienz, Austria on December 28th and 29th. Also, be sure to subscribe to her new podcast, Bad Boy Line, hosted with fellow national ski team member, Asher Jordan and follow her on Instagram @_cassidy_gray.

Written by Michael Janyk

To Purchase Michael's first book "Go To The Start. Life as a World Cup ski racer" Click here.
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