Reaching New Heights: The Kelly Clark Story

By Natalie Davis Miller

Reaching New Heights

Snowboarder and Olympic Gold Medalist Kelly Clark had accomplished her life’s goals by the age of 18.

Yet, success didn’t leave her feeling fulfilled. Two years later, at an event in Salt Lake City, Kelly stood at the bottom of the pipe, listening to one snowboarder console another who had just crashed: “It’s alright. God still loves you.” These words led Kelly on a new journey from an Olympian snowboarder into an awesome relationship with Jesus. This story of one of the world’s greatest snowboarders will encourage readers young and old to reach for the next level, knowing that God will be with them, win or lose.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Oct 16, 2012
• ISBN: 9780310725435

Natalie Davis Miller

Natalie Davis Miller has been a professional writer for more that seventeen years, writing a variety of stories for print and web, including articles on many sports figures such as football legend and movie icon Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger and Olympians Cullen Jones and Kelly Clark in the Zonderkidz biographies, Speed to Glory, The Cullen Jones Story and Reaching New Heights, The Kelly Clark Story. Miller connects with her subjects and tells their stories in an informative and inspiring way, with a personal goal to glorify God using her writing talents.  

Book preview

Reaching

New Heights

the

Kelly Clark

Story

Natalie Davis Miller

For my wonderful husband,

Greg, and our precious girls, Taylor and Sydney.

Thank you for believing in me.

I love you.

A Message from Kelly Clark

Snowboarding is a unique sport — it allows you to challenge yourself and reach new heights. Most importantly for me, it was the place where I found God. When I started snowboarding, I didn’t know who God was. I didn’t even know how to approach faith and religion. But now that God is in my life, others see the happiness, goodness, and fullness that come from knowing Jesus.

I hope you enjoy this book. And if you take anything away from it, let it be the knowledge that you can be an awesome person who lives powerfully instead of being persuaded by the people and circumstances around you. Be who you are called to be and always reach for new heights.

—Kelly Clark

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

A Message from Kelly Clark

1  A Big Blast of Powder

2  A Snowboarder Is Born

3  Puppy Love

4  School Days

5  A Family Affair

6  The Road to Success Starts Here

7  The Mountaintop — The 2002

Winter Olympics

8  Finding Faith at the Bottom of the Hill

9  A New Life in God

10  We Fall Down, We Get Up—

The 2006 Winter Olympics

11  Setting the Bar — The 2011 Winter X Games

12  A Season to Remember

13  Sometimes the Good Die Young

14  Living Intentionally and Focusing

15  Let’s Get Physical — Training to Be the Best

16  The 2014 Winter Olympics — Sochi, Russia

   Snowboarding Tricks and Terms

   Sources

About the Author

Other Books in the Zonderkidz Biography Series:

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Chapter 1

A Big Blast of Powder

U.S. Olympic snowboarder Kelly Clark watched as the monstrous avalanche moved down the hill, gaining speed and force. Inside that powdery mass of uncontrollable snow was her friend and fellow snowboarder. Kelly unstrapped her boots from her snowboard and ran — shouting and praying — to the area where her friend would most likely be deposited. Kelly had gone down the mountain first, and she was the first person on the scene. Thoughts raced through her brain: Dig her out, resuscitate her — bring her back from the dead, if necessary. Kelly had to move quickly. When the snow swallows a body whole, only a few seconds separate life from death.

Kelly thought of the science behind an avalanche. The melting, refreezing, and new fallen snow create layers that are unable to bond together, so they move and slide over each other. Snow on the side of a mountain can become an avalanche from the addition of one simple factor: a person moving down the snow.

You can prepare as much as you can, you can be as smart as you can, and you can be educated and take as many safety courses as possible; but when it comes to backcountry snowboarding, sometimes that isn’t enough, said Kelly. You are out there in nature, and you can’t control everything.

Kelly and her friend were backcountry snowboarding in New Zealand. Together with their guide, they’d flown to the location by helicopter and been dropped off on the mountaintop. Kelly was the first one down, navigating trees, rocks, crevasses, and cliffs — all the rugged features you’d expect to find on a snow-covered mountain.

Before their run, they’d flown over the area by helicopter and checked the zone from the air. They took photos, looked at the lines they wanted to run, and carefully planned where they wanted to go. They planned well; and in doing so, they also planned for the possibility of things going badly.

You think about everything, and this area looked to be the safest of the day, said Kelly. While she admits she’s done some sketchy stuff in the past with crevasses and ice cliffs where bad things definitely could have happened, the area they chose that day seemed pretty mellow.

Kelly rode her line to the bottom and waited for her friend to do her run. I’m watching her, and basically the unimaginable happens. Something goes wrong at the very top, which is the worst thing because you have nowhere to go but down, said Kelly. She had a few cliffs to get over that — if you’re not on your feet, they’re very scary.

The event happening right before her eyes looked like something you’d see on a TV show, and Kelly felt like one of the actors. A bellowing cloud of snow moved down the mountain, and the whole time Kelly watched for her friend to see exactly where she landed and, ultimately, where to start digging. But as Kelly watched, her friend simply disappeared.

Kelly unstrapped her boots and ran. I just started running. And all of a sudden, as the snow is settling at the bottom, and I’m [still] running, the thing just spits her out. She gets spit out at the bottom of this huge avalanche, and she is completely fine.

Watching her friend travel down the mountainside in an avalanche was by far the scariest thing Kelly Clark had ever experienced while snowboarding. Yet, even in those seconds while it was occurring, Kelly knew she could call on Jesus. I’m glad no one was around me because I just started yelling and praying as soon as it happened. They would have thought I was nuts. I’m watching it, and without even realizing it, I’m praying and running at the same time.

People may think she’s a crazy snowboarder, and Kelly admits to being a calculated risk taker. Yet Kelly explained, I do it at my own level and in my own comfort zone. It’s a fine line to walk.

Kelly Clark is a two-time Olympic medalist, winning a gold medal for the women’s halfpipe in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a bronze medal for the same event at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. In 2006, she missed the podium by just one spot, coming in fourth in the women’s halfpipe at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

As the winningest female snowboarder, Kelly recently laid down a streak of sixteen wins going back to 2011. Her winning streak ended when she came in second at the Burton U.S. Open in March 2012. The competition was held in her home state of Vermont, where she has a huge fan base. If she was going to break a streak, home was as good a place as any, according to Kelly. At least in Vermont she would be loved, win or lose.

But more important than all of the medals