Meeting a Winter Olympian in Steamboat Springs doesn’t take much effort. In fact, it would be difficult to live there for very long without rubbing elbows with an Olympic skier. The city has produced 98 Olympians – more than any other town in North America. Of those Olympians, 96 are alumni of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.

For more than 100 years, the club has trained local children in Nordic and alpine skiing at Howelsen Hill, the city-owned ski hill in downtown Steamboat Springs that includes a full-size ski jump. Roughly one-third of children in Steamboat Springs participate in the club’s programs.

“The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club is known for sending more Olympians than some small countries,” the club’s Rory Clow said.

The club sent 14 athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. After Team USA’s 2022 Olympic roster is finalized in January, the club expects to send enough athletes to push its total number of Olympians above 100.

Carl Howelsen, the Norwegian skier who built the city’s first ski jump, inspired the
creation of the club to develop athletes to
participate in the first Steamboat Springs Winter Carnival in 1914. The annual festival, which features a skijoring competition and a night skiing show, is marking the 109th celebration of the Winter Carnival this year, Feb. 9-13. The event coincides with the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Feb. 4-20.

Colorado Life interviewed four Olympians who have trained, coached or both at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club to find out what has made it a success for a century and counting.

 

Moose Barrows

Jim “Moose” Barrows joined the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club at age 5 and has remained involved for the 70-plus years since. Barrows competed in downhill skiing in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, and coached the downhill team at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

When I went to the Olympics in 1968, three of the eight members of our men’s alpine skiing team were kids from the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.

In the ’50s and ’60s, the club didn’t have a management structure – just two or three people and a rope tow. Gordy Wren, who had been in the Olympics, ran it. At the time, there were only three alpine events. Now, you have 37 different events in the Olympics that take place on skis, and those are all now part of the Winter Sports Club.

I started the Moose’s Loose Golf Tournament as a fundraiser for the Winter Sports Club in 1975. We needed to have something to make sure kids in the Yampa Valley always have the chance to ski. The golf tournament benefits a scholarship fund we formed. We shoot to raise $20,000 to $25,000 each year.

The community revolves around skiing. It was a mechanism for a great lifestyle for me. Kids who live here should be able to at least try skiing. I just want to make sure kids have the same opportunities we did when I was growing up. I feel a responsibility toward the club. It has been part of the community for over 100 years – we have to continue cultivating it.

 

Caroline Lalive

After training with the Winter Sports Club, Caroline Lalive competed in alpine skiing events at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. Her husband, Nelson Carmichael, is also an Olympic skier, competing in the 1988 Games in Calgary, Alberta, and 1992 Games in Albertville, France; his 1992 bronze medal in moguls made him Steamboat’s first Olympic medalist. Both have been coaches at the club.

My family movedhere when I was almost 16. I have two younger siblings, and we all were ski racers. My parents wanted to find a great spot for skiing and schools. I finished high school here and have been here ever since.

What is so unique about Steamboat is the community. In my mind, and for so many kids, the club is the heartbeat of the community. At Howelsen Hill, you’re surrounded by all the different sports, all the kids together. In all my travels around the world, there’s nowhere like it.

I knew from a young age I wanted to be an Olympian, but being in the club helped me realize it is attainable. It can be a bit of a Catch-22 for kids: Because there are so many Olympians, it can create a sense that it’s easier than it is. The club does a really good job of recognizing that, yes, competing in the Olympics is the ultimate dream for many kids, but also facilitating the experience for kids who aren’t going to the Olympics and just want to have an awesome experience.

Our 6-year-old daughter is in the Winter Sports Club. My son, who is 3, will start next year. If they show a certain talent or interest, I’d definitely want to foster that, but by no means are we pushing one way or the other. My hope is that they just love skiing. It has brought so much to our life, and we hope we can share it with them.

 

Johnny Spillane

Born and raised in Steamboat Springs, Johnny Spillane competed in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, taking home three Nordic combined silver medals at his final Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. He now owns the local business Steamboat Flyfisher.

 I was 7 or 8 when I started in the Winter Sports Club. I did a little bit of everything at first, but I pretty quickly gravitated toward the Nordic combined. I really liked the uniqueness of it; ski jumping and cross-country are so different from each other that it kept me interested the whole time.

The first time I went off the biggest jump at Howelsen Hill, I was 13 or 14. It’s nerve-racking when you go from one size jump to the next size up, but I didn’t have too many wipeouts. I had a few here and there on the World Cup circuit. In ski jumping, you don’t have many bad crashes over the course of a career, but the ones you do have can set you back a bit.

There’s a such a unique culture at the Winter Sports Club and here in town. From what I’ve seen, it hasn’t been replicated anywhere in the world. To have all the disciplines training at one facility, with Steamboat’s history of having so many Olympians involved in the club, prepares you very well for the Olympics.

After school, everybody migrates down to Howelsen, whether it’s for figure skating or any of the skiing sports. It’s a big community family. I have three kids: My 11-year-old is a cross-country skier, and my 9-year-old is a figure skater. My 4-year-old doesn’t know up from down yet – but he’s a good skier.

 

Todd Wilson

Though he grew up in Winter Park, Todd Wilson began training on the Howelsen Hill ski jumps when he was 8. After competing in the Nordic combined at the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, Wilson joined the staff of the Winter Sports Club, where he is director of the ski jumping/Nordic combined program.

When I started working here in 1992, there were 300 kids in the entire club. We’re just north of 1,000 kids this winter. Our ski jumping and Nordic combined program is the largest in the world.

The magic of the club is that you don’t have to be a rockstar athlete to take advantage of this culture. The longer I’m here, the more I realize the athletic part is the icing on the cake. We use youth athletics as a vehicle to teaching life lessons. We are just as proud of the kids who go on to start their own businesses as we are of the kids who make it to the Olympics. It turns out that becoming an Olympian, or just becoming successful in anything you choose to do, comes from the same foundation of life skills.

In sport and in life, you get out what you put into it – and what you get may not be what your goal was. I had a goal of being an Olympic medalist. I didn’t quite reach that goal, but in that pursuit, I learned an awful lot about myself and the grit of falling on your face and getting back up.

That’s one of the best lessons we teach our kids. When people fail for the first time, they’re devastated, and they often don’t want to do it anymore. But you can’t succeed without failure. Is it easy? No. But we all have to pick ourselves up. When life is hardest, that’s when I think we grow the most.