At the age of 61, my hip went. I was skiing in Chile with my son, and there was a turn, and I kept falling. I thought, 'What an idiot; what's going on here?'
I always channeled what I felt emotionally into skiing - my insecurities, my anger, my disappointment. Skiing was always my outlet, and it worked.
The idea that skiing might not be fun, might not be for everyone, had never occurred to me. Where I come from, the sport signified pleasure, nature, family happiness.
When I'm skiing, I listen to electronic music. It's repetitive and let's me get into a groove and crank out the miles.
I've had a deep love affair with skiing for many years.
Anything that involves the outdoors I'm all about, whether it be skiing, snowboarding, wakesurfing to mountain-biking. Anything that gets me outside.
When I start a book, I write a minimum of five pages every day, except weekends. If I'm going on a ski trip, I take my computer with me, get up at six, do my five pages, and then go skiing.
I was lucky enough that my parents knew about World Cup skiing, so since I was really little, we were watching World Cup winning runs.
I really love mountain sports, hiking, skiing, and I love to travel and get to know different places and cultures.
I like to go wakeboarding. It's my new favorite sport. It's like skiing but on a snowboard that has little shoes on it.
The truth is, the sport of skiing takes so much effort, setting up and traveling with equipment, that you can only train for a certain number of days in the summer. Most of my peers ski between 40 to 60 days. I ski about 55 days.
I don't want to leave skiing early. I want to feel like I've done everything I can do.
For me, personally, skiing holds everything. I used to race cars, but skiing is a step beyond that. It removes the machinery and puts you one step closer to the elements. And it's a complete physical expression of freedom.
I love skiing, I love the sun, I love my children, I love my grandchildren, I love my family and friends... and whatever I haven't done.
I love sport and will do just about anything. Someone said they'd had a go at skiing off a mountain with a parachute, and that sounds great!
I think the Winter Olympics are definitely on a smaller scale than the summer games, but with the inclusion of cool new sports like slope style skiing and snowboarding, it is going to breathe new life into them and attract a whole new crowd.
