NAST athlete Henry Heaydon has impressive streak in U.S. races

While the Alpine season is in full swing in Europe, with World Cup races in Kitzbühel next on the FIS calendar, ski racing is also underway in the U.S. and an Australian skier has been producing some great results lately. 
 
National Alpine Ski Team (NAST) member Henry Heaydon is coming off an impressive string of performances, having won three of his last four races - including three wins in Giant Slalom (GS) at FIS and National Junior Race events held in his adoptive home State of Colorado, where his family moved when he was 10 years old. 
 
Henry, who represented Australia at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships last year, is obviously happy with where his skiing is currently at and particularly pleased that he was able to deliver consistent performances in both runs of the GSs. 
 
“Over the past couple of years I have been in a similar position where I had the fastest first run, but had not been able to convert that into a win. So I was happy that I could finally do that three times out of four, recently,” Henry said.
 
Henry’s winning streak is the result of some hard fitness training and conditioning performed over the 2020 northern summer, which included mountain biking, lifting and field workouts. Even more importantly, he also conducted a significant technical overhaul under the guidance of Slovenian coach and former World Cup athlete Miha Kurner. 
 
“Miha has completely changed my skiing over the past two years and I am so grateful to have met him. I really enjoy working with him and the coaching team.”
 
Though it does sound like a small miracle that any form of ski racing is happening in the U.S. at the moment, Henry was fortunate enough not to be overly penalised by the restrictions related to the COVID-19 outbreak in North America. 
 
“Colorado has not been greatly affected by COVID-19 and this area has one of the most reliable early season training in the world. Obviously there have been races cancelled around the country, but I have been fortunate enough to compete quite regularly over the past two months”. 
 
The Ski and Snowboard Club Vail has been Henry’s home club for the past twelve years and his sister Phoebe, an under-16 racer, also competes for the same team. “This meant that between the US Ski team training arena at Copper Mountain and the dedicated training arena at Vail, there has been great access to training within 30 minutes of my house. It has allowed me to train and race without having to travel far from home, which I think is so important right now”, Henry said.
 
Of course the organisers in Colorado have implemented all the necessary precautions so that the athletes and the support teams can be adequately protected. Awards ceremonies have gone virtual and so have all meetings, with chat applications used to share information. “We have to follow strict protocols of wearing masks, distancing on the lifts and races have been limited to single-gender events. We generally race two events per day, so four runs in GS and SL and two in Super-G and Downhill,” said Henry. 
 
Despite enjoying relatively favorable conditions at the moment, Henry’s plans cannot be set in stone, given the current environment. But the young NAST team member is certainly hoping to head to Europe in late February and compete again at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Bansko (BUL), after his previous experience was abruptly cut short. Henry was in Norway competing at the Junior Worlds last March when the event was cancelled part way through due to COVID-19.
 
“But I am focusing on some NCAA College races at the moment and then I will travel to Jackson, Wyoming for some Western Region FIS races. I am going to take each week at a time.” 
 
When he’s in Australia, Henry trains with the Thredbo Ski Racing Club. At this stage it’s hard to foresee whether we’ll see him competing on home soil any time soon, though. “I wasn’t able to make it to Australia this past winter due to COVID, but I was fortunate enough to work one-on-one with [three-time Olympian] Head Coach Craig Branch the previous year and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with a top-level Aussie coach,” said Henry. 
 
What’s quite certain is that in the off-season he will continue working on his conditioning, trying to stay healthy and building on his recent success. “I am fortunate enough to be injury-free and I will continue to work in the gym to stay strong,” Henry said. He also wanted to give a shout-out to fellow NAST member Harry Laidlaw, who earlier in the season suffered an ACL rupture in training. “My heart sank when I heard about Harry’s injury in Europe. I wish him a speedy recovery."