Canadian champion now U.S. champion

It’s easy to make the argument that Lauren McKay is the best slalom snowboarder her age on the entire continent, because the only data available confirms it.

The 14-year-old from Stoney Creek won the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association Under-16 slalom national championship at Copper Mountain in Colorado this week, beating New Jersey’s Olivia Bellek in the two-run final.

“She was amazing,” McKay says of Bellek. “There are so many great girls here, especially in the top eight. It’s just great to meet all these amazing people.”

And they must have thought it was great to meet her, because McKay was also awarded the Kindness Award for her age group.

McKay was the only Canadian among the 27 entrants in the 14and 15-year-old age class, and added the American national title to the Canadian U-15 grand slalom title she won last spring, which she’ll defend this weekend at Mont Tremblant.

She’ll be riding in heavier air in Quebec than at Copper Mountain, where the top of the course is located 11,000 feet above sea level.

“The air is thin and the hills are super long,” McKay said Tuesday morning from Colorado. “I’m not used to it. The first day was really hard. All it takes is one brisk run and I’m out of breath.”

It’s McKay’s first time at the American championships. She qualified through racing in the Western New York series and, although she’s the sole Canadian in her age class, some of her teammates from Collingwood’s Alpine Ski Club are in Colorado in other events.

Before she embarks on Friday’s marathon travel day from Colorado to Quebec, McKay still has the USASA Grand Slalom championship ahead of her on Thursday morning. Although she’s the reigning Canadian champion in Grand Slalom, she feels the tighter parameters of the slalom are better suited to her style and smaller physique.

“People around me think my GS is stronger,” she said, “but I am personally more confident in the slalom. It gives the larger people less of an advantage. In the GS, extra weight can help.”

And her attitude toward Thursday’s American grand slalom championship races?

“Ideally, my first goal is to enjoy it,” she says. “But obviously, everyone who competes in it is in it, at least partly, to win.”