Article September 1, 2013

Super-intense? Or patient precision?

Bob Gates

Originally published in the 1975 pamphlet titled “It’s about you”

She tucked a pillow into the corner next to the window and looked down at silvery patches of ocean peeking through the clouds. As the huge jet droned east across the Atlantic she thought about what the next few weeks would bring. She was too excited to sleep.

Jenny, just turned seventeen, was one of five girls chosen by the United States Ski Team to take part in the season's first series of World Cup races in Europe. Until a year ago she was just another wide-eyed girl from New Hampshire trying to adjust to the vast snowfields of Vail and Aspen. But if there was one thing Jenny could do well it was carve a turn on skis. She had something else going for her, too—an inner calm and trust that she credited to what she had learned in Sunday School.

This trust in God, the ever-present source of all the qualities she tried to express on the mountain, had been the key to her progress in racing. It had helped her gain the strength and endurance, the rhythm and timing, the poise and patience so necessary in competitive skiing.

Send a comment to the editors