Taylor Hutchen feature jump

10 SPORTS WEDNESDAY, MARCH ,  WWW.HIGHTIMBERTIMES.COM
for X-Game-type skiers and
snowboarders. Case in point, while
Taylor was busy winning her first
slopestyle race, -year-old Team
Summit alumni George Rodney
was winning his first professional
competition on the Freeride World
Tour in Andorra — a landlocked
nation in Europe bordering France
and Spain. Rodney impressed
judges by skiing down rocky cliffs
and landing impossibly high jumps.
Watching Rodney’s winning
decent, one can’t help but wonder
what lay ahead for young competi-
tors, like Taylor, who already alludes
to wanting a similar fate when she
says “I love the bowls and trees and
moguls most, and I like it steep now
because I’m older.”
It isn’t uncommon, said
Hutchen’s Team Summit ski team
coach Julia Lewis, to find Taylor
searching any given run for hidden
treasures.
“Taylor always wants to explore.
Even when we are doing cruisers,
I’ll look over and she’ll be on the
edge of the run trying to find
bumps or skiing around trees,”
Lewis said.
Although Lewis wasn’t there to
witness Taylor’s victory due to work
commitments, she said that she was
thrilled to receive, via text, pictures
of Taylor sporting a gold medal.
“At first, I didn’t recognize (that
it was) her, because she wasn’t wear-
ing her helmet,” Lewis said.
That just shows how much
Taylor loves to ski that her own
coach hardly recognizes her without
her helmet on because she never
wants to take it off. She never wants
to stop skiing, either.
Taylor’s dad, John, says that his
daughter’s fearlessness sometimes
shocks him. He said that he’s
seen other kids her age shy away
from new challenges, but Taylor is
thrilled by new adventures.
“I consider myself a good
downhill skier, but when Taylor says
she wants to go do bowls and boxes,
I have to admit, I feel a little out of
my element,” Hutchen said.
But, for all of her thrill-seeking
ways, Taylor still gets apprehensive.
When asked how she feels at the
start of a competition, again she
gives a simple, yet thoughtful,
answer.
“Nervous,” she said.
Taylor is lost for words to explain
such nerves. She shakes off the
suggestion that the nervousness
makes her heart race, but vigorously
will nod her head in agreement
when asked if it makes her legs feel
like Jell-O.
So how does she cope with her
nerves and brave such daring tasks?
She just shrugs her shoulders and
smiles.
“Taylor is the kind of kid who
never complains,” explains Lewis.
“Other kids will cry or whine when
they get cold or tired, or sometimes
they want to (stay inside) after a hot
chocolate break. But Taylor wants to
hurry up and get back out there. She
is the kind of kid who is just happy
to be out skiing and can’t wait to
take the next run.”
Taylor’s avid adventurer spirit
is reflected in her birthday wishes.
She wished, not only for a win at
the slopestyle competition, but also
for a mountain bike and a unicorn
J-Animal, a full-body wearable
pajama suit. But a word to the wise,
don’t ever suggest that she wear her
J-Animal while skiing.
“I wear my helmet,” she said.
HUTCHEN
From Page 9
Photo by GABRIEL CHRISTUS |TheTimes
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD TAYLOR HUTCHEN is a member of Team
Summit, which is coached by Julia Lewis.
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