This past winter we had some amazing success among three of our racers! Shirley Cheng, Brendan Kelsey, and Robyn Loverro all qualified for both the Vertical Challenge Finals and the NASTAR championship! This deserves some major recognition and we wanted to highlight this accomplishment. Read Shirley’s story below and look for posts about our other ambitious competitors later this summer.
Shirley Cheng
Shirely Cheng qualified with us this year at Bromley Mountain in Peru, Vermont in the category of women skiers ages 71-76. Shirley shared with us her journey of how she found her love for skiing. She revealed that she did not learn to ski until her early thirties. Growing up, she described how women were not encouraged to participate in team sports as much as they are today. Even though she’s been skiing for years, she told us that she’s hardly ever raced. The VC was her first local race and NASTAR was her first national race.
Sunday, March 12, 2023 Shirley headed to Bromley Mountain to enjoy some morning skiing. She described the day as “a beautiful bluebird day”. She noticed VC’s event happening at the mountain that day and began wondering what was going on. She stated that “the crowd gathered at the base of the mountain and the excitement piqued my interest.” Shirley decided to sign up for the race and the rest was history. Shirley commented “Little did I know how that’d change my path in the days and months which followed.”
Later that afternoon, during the award ceremony, Shirely’s husband heard her name being called out. He brought back the medal to their condo at Bromley Village. She said “We were jubilant and totally surprised at the turn of events.” This sparked something within Shirley and she decided to buy a ticket to Aspen for the NASTAR Championship. On April 4, 2023 she raced in very different conditions than she was used to here in the Northeast. She described some struggles with altitude sickness, but “ mustered enough energy to win a blue ribbon.”
After being purely exhausted from traveling, racing, and conquering unfamiliar conditions, Shirley was able to reflect on everything she has learned this year. She elaborated,- “I’m proud of what I did. Mostly, I’m grateful for all the support and encouragement from family — as well as strangers I met on this journey.”
We are so proud of all that Shirley accomplished this past season and are so glad she stepped out of her comfort zone. Stay tuned for the next blog posts which will feature Brendan Kelsey and Robyn Loverro. They will tell their stories about finding a love for skiing and their experiences racing.
Have a story you’d like to share? Email us at [email protected].
