Discipline: Alpine

Olympic Participation: Salt Lake City 2002

Growing up in Cooma, Rowena was inspired to become an Olympian while watching the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Her family took up cross-country skiing initially.  When Rowena was 11, a girl on her school’s team for Interschools broke her arm. Another person was needed to complete the team. Knowing Rowena cross-country skied they asked her to try alpine. As Rowena says, “That’s when I started, and I’ve never looked back.” The following year she was the Australian children’s champion.

Rowena earned sponsorship with the Sport and Rec program which allowed her to train and compete overseas. She made her World Cup debut in 2000. That season she placed 10^th in the combined and 16th in the slalom at the World Junior Championships.

Around this time, Rowena’s siblings Ben, Torah, and Abi, were also race training. One season saw low snow levels and her siblings decided to take the season off from ski racing and decided to try snowboarding because it could be done on man-made snow. They all became very good quickly, and that was it.

Rowena had a setback one year out from the Salt Lake City Olympics.  She fell and was injured just before the first Olympic qualifying event. She went on to compete in the event, which qualified her for the Olympics even though it was discovered that she had broken her ankle after the event.  Her best result from her career came at the 2001 World Championships in St. Anton where she placed 14th in the combined.

At 21 years of age, Rowena competed in slalom and super combined alpine skiing at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. She recorded a DNF in the slalom and placed 24^th in the super combined.

After competing in the 2002 Games she was recruited by the University of Utah Ski team, where she raced on the College Circuit for three years.

Her sister Torah went on to win a gold medal in snowboard halfpipe at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and a silver at the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

Reflecting on her career, Rowena says “It’s the toughest sport I’ve ever done. I tell people that you need to have the precision of a car racer, the agility of a gymnast, the speed of a sprinter, and the focus of a golfer. I think there is so much that makes up being at the highest levels of ski racing. You need all those skills.”