Olympic women’s moguls skiier Andi Naude has left a permanent mark on the trails at Apex Mountain Resort.
The resort revealed yesterday that they’ve named one of their newest runs after the Penticton athlete. Andi’s Alley is part of the resort’s mogul courses and will cater to young skiiers.
”It’s really exciting that all of the little ones will be skiing on it fairly soon,” said Naude. “I’m thrilled to see it, it was hard to find words yesterday when they revealed it. I shed a couple tears even, it was pretty cool. Quite an honour for sure.”
Naude competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and finished in the top six. Although she’s taking a break from her athletic career to pursue post-secondary education, she hasn’t forgotten her life on the slopes and training at Apex.
“I started skiing at Apex when I was four-years-old and I just really fell in love with the sport of skiing and joined the local freestyle club. It just all sort of fell into place from there,” said Naude. “It’s such an honour to have a trail named after me because I remember growing up, you remember the names of the trails when you tell people the runs that you did. You really look up to the names when you’re little.”
Naude still hasn’t decided if she’ll officially retire from the sport this year, but says leaving the mountains behind is something she’ll never do.
“I’m really loving school, I’ve had a great break back home but I’m looking forward to get back for second semester,” said Naude, who is currently attending university in Ontario. “I definitely miss the mountains but I’m really happy and enjoying the new challenge that school has to offer. I still have of thinking to do and want to speak to coaches and sports association to decide if I want to retire after this year.”
“Even if I do retire, mogul skiing and skiing in general is just such a large part of my life so I’d never say goodbye and just walk away. Even this last Christmas I got out and managed to coach a couple days with the kids… it was really cool to get back on the course and put the mogul skis back on. It’s going to be a part of me forever.”
In the meantime, Naude hopes having her name displayed on a popular trail will inspire other young competitors.
“Some advice that I’d really like to give the little ones is just really do your best every single day. Be out there and have fun. There’s more to life than just grinding away and training every day,” said Naude. “The reason I continued to ski for as long as I did competitively is because I absolutely loved it. I tried to make every day as much fun as possible. There’s going to be days that you don’t want to be out there, but just give it your all and your hard work will pay off.”
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