ASPEN– On March 23, the U.S. Free Skiing Team sent several student athletes to compete in the 2017 International and skiing Federation Junior World Championships. One of these students was Aspen High School junior Cassidy Jarrell, who qualified for men’s half pipe event in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Jarrell is the only athlete representing Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club. This year, the U.S., men’s half pipe team is comprised of athletes from Colorado. According to a release from USSA, “U.S Free skiing will send a strong team of athletes.” Jarrell said he never expected to compete.

“I have been training very hard this year to make it to higher level competitions this comp wasn’t even in my thoughts,” Jarrell said.

He qualified by ranking eighth in junior world rankings.

Jarrell competed against 15 other competitors and placed fifth. He also said he struggled with the weather and had hoped to place higher.

“It was the worst competition, horrible weather and I was only allowed one run because of the fog,” Jarrell said. “I didn’t do as well as I hoped, so I couldn’t do the rest of the run I wanted to do.”

Although conditions were not what Jarrell expected, he learned a lot about himself and his skiing.

“I gained lot of self knowledge about myself at this contest because the conditions were really tough and had to keep my stress down,” Jarrell said. “I had to keep my thoughts positive even though everything was not going my way.”

Jarrell plans to take a gap year after his senior year of 2018 to “keep shredding”.

Jarrell is not the only current AHS student to have competed in the Junior World Championship. Senior Carson Campisi competed in 2015 in Italy. She said that her experience getting to compete was exciting.

“It was a little scary because I did not go with my coaches but it was really fun to be with a lot of girls since I normally ski with all boys,” Campisi said. “I think that because it was so far away it made it a lot more exciting. The skiing was very different but it was a very fun and different experience.”