92
MLBLUE
WINTER2017
ATHLETE
PROFILE
words :: Allison Kennedy Davies
In 2017, Kylie Sivell joins 10 other international
women on the Swatch FreerideWorld Tour. It’s a
coveted spot, and the tour will take Sivell from
France toAndorra toAustria. If she remains in
the top seven after three rounds, she’ll continue
on toAlaska and Switzerland. For Sivell, it’s
been a crazy journey; one that began on the
slopes of Osler Bluff at just two years old. We
caught up with the hard-charging, easygoing
Sivell at her parents’ home during a quick
Ontario visit for a fundraiser to help back her
global adventures.
ML: Let’sstart at thebeginning.
KylieSivell:
I started skiing at age two at Osler
Bluff [Ski Club]. Later I started skiingmoguls
competitively at age 10. I had snowboarded
and wasn’t too sure about that so I went into
their Freestyle Moguls programwith a bunch
of friends and that took on its own little life. I
ended up on the Ontario team and later on the
BC/Alberta team. Until I was about 21, I was on
the NorAm circuit and had somuch pressure to
win that I ended up not really liking skiing for a
year. There was toomuch focus on winning and
not enough focus on fun.
Howdidsteppingaway frommogulschange
your skiing?
I moved out west for school and I plannedmy
schedule so I could ski at BigWhite as much as
possible. I had all this freedom all of a sudden.
Back when I was skiingmoguls, I couldn’t ski
trees, I couldn’t ski park, I couldn’t snowboard,
I wasn’t supposed to play hockey or rugby. I
had to keep it all a secret (
laughs
). So I started
skiing trees and park and all these other things
for fun and it was awesome. I figured I’d take
one year and be a ski bum. That turned into
four years and here we are. I'm living full time
in Rossland and skiing at RedMountain.
FROMMOGULSTOMOUNTAINS
THORNBURY,ONTARIONATIVEKYLIESIVELLTAKESONTHE2017SWATCHFREERIDEWORLDTOUR
Trainingat JacksonHole,WY. CYWHITLING
