PG Skier Makes Team BC, Despite Off-Season Injury

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Prince George alpine skier, Alix Wells, is off the Halifax later this month

Prince George, B.C. - She expected this winter to be a 'recovery' season, but 15-year-old Prince George skier, Alix Wells, is ranked as the top woman on the B.C. Alpine team heading to the 2011 Winter Games in Halifax later this month.

Many may remember Alix as the final torch-bearer during the relay's stop in our city in the run-up to the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympics.  From that high, she suffered a very definite low on June 1st of last year when she collided with another player while going for a soccer ball.  The teen's shoelace got caught on the other player's cleats, she fell awkwardly and broke her leg.

The Grade 10 student had surgery, complete with a plate and pins, and spent the next several weeks unable to put any weight on her leg.  "So I had to sit on the couch with a broken leg and study for exams."  Alix says she continued to take it very easy over the summer and into the fall, with no contact sports or vigorous activity.  Instead, she spent time at the gym maintaining her strength using weights.

The Kelly Road Secondary student began her ski training in November, with realistic expectations, given her injury.  "Going into the season, I just thought of it as a recovery season,"  Alix says.  "I didn't expect to place, but once I began racing and started doing well, I was actually pretty surprised."  She says she still can't really believe she made Team BC, but says, "It's pretty cool."

For the first time, Alix has been dividing this ski season between home and Invermere, where's it's easier for her to train during the week.  She's in Prince George for two weeks, then goes back to Invermere for a two-week training block.  She says,  "It's a little tough to keep up with school, but I go to school there, too, so that helps.  And I ski there in the afternoons.  In Prince George, I can only train on the weekend."  Overall, the teen says it's been a good experience.

She heads back to Invermere tomorrow to prepare for her February 19th trip to Halifax where she'll compete in four alpine events.  Alix says she's never been to Nova Scotia, so she's thrilled about the trip.  As for any pre-Games anxiety, she says simply and easily that she just doesn't seem to get nervous when it comes to skiing.

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