Click on images to Zoom +
Bio and Photos: Callan Chythlook-Sifsof
Callan Chythlook-Sifsof was raised in a rural village in the Wood-Tikchik State Park, on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska. She began snowboarding on the surrounding mountains, snowmachining as far as her family would take her and following her brother's lead to the summits. At 12, the family moved to Girdwood, Alaska, home of Alyeska Ski Resort.
After an entire life of hiking, she embraced the chairlift and rode nearly every day of the year. She participated in Mighty Mites and joined a snowboard club and began racing locally on the weekends. A love for free-riding made snowboardcross an instant favorite.
As her race experience grew, she found herself racing National Competitions and FIS events. She started alpine gates training (Slalom/Giant Slalom) with the Steamboat Springs Pro-Am Race Team.
In 2006, she earned a berth on the United States Snowboard Team. She landed on the podium in her first World Cup snowboardcross in Japan, taking the Bronze medal. The same season brought her a U.S. National Championship title and a 4th-place in World Cup Finals in Quebec. Determined to be able to commit herself to full-time training and competition, she worked very hard to graduate from high school in three years with a 3.2 grade-point-average.
She is the 2008 Jeep World Professional Ski & Snowboard Champion, the World Junior Championships Silver Medalist and Gold Medalist with Lindsey Jacobellis in the Lake Placid Team Ultracross. She was the highest-placing Alaskan (8th) at the final stop of the NorthFace Masters Extreme competition, going into the second day of finals holding 3rd place. She holds the double title of 2007 U.S. National Champion and Junior National Champion in Boardercross.
At the start of the 2009 season, Callan earned a bronze medal in the South America Continental Cup in Argentina and advanced to finals in the first World Cup, sustaining an injury that put competition on hold.
She starts the 2010 season ranked second for the United States and 14th in the world. This is her fourth year on the World Cup Tour leading to Olympic Team qualification for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Callan Chythlook-Sifsof is the first Yupik/Iñupiaq Eskimo (Inuit) to be selected to the United States National Ski and Snowboard Team.
INFO
Nickname, Why: “Alaska”. Sometimes people can’t pronounce my name, but they remember where I’m from.
Home: Girdwood, Alaska
Home away from home: The airport
Stance: Front: 21 degrees, Back: 9 degrees
Size: 160 cm
Weight: 135 lbs
Sponsors: Ocean Beauty Seafoods, The NorthFace, Orthopedic Physicians of Anchorage, Go211.com
Snowboarding, Why: Because it feels so good! There's nothing better!
BEST
Spot: Las Lenas, Argentina
Country: Argentina and Japan
Trick: A beautiful cliff drop is as good as any 360
Success: Feeling moments of progression
Contest: Team Boardercross Exhibition in Lake Placid, New York
Sound: Reggae
Movie: The TB movies. I grew up watching them with my older brother and they're always what I think of when I think of snowboarding.
Drink: Odwalla Superfood
Experience: Growing up in a place like no other – Alaska.
Dream: Having the privilege to spend my entire life snowboarding
WORST
Spot: In the fish hold of a commercial fishing boat
Country: Doesn't exist
Trick: Iron Cross
Success: Being a "good volleyball player" on my highschool team : )
Contest: The Hot Dog Run in elementary school... when you’re slow, you’re slow.
Sound: My grandfather’s hearing aid
Movie: Clash of The Titans
Drink: A bad energy drink
Experience: Crashing my bicycle in kindergarten
Dream: Scary ones
LAST WORDS
”A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place” - Neil Young
|
