Yupik teen tears up the slopes
Alaska Native now competing in Switzerland
by Sam Lewin
4/4/2005
A Yupik teen from Alaska has won the Junior Olympic Snowboard Championships in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and is now competing in the 2005 Junior World Championships in Switzerland.
The success of Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, 15, is a sign of something positive being done by a Native youth, said former Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee. Chafee is the co-chair of Native Voices Foundation. She recently sent Callan an e-mail of support.
A victory in Switzerland, Chafee wrote to Callan, “would seriously lift the spirits and dreams of every American Indian.”
Callan’s mother, Gloria Chythlook, recently recalled when her daughter first began her fascination with all things ice and snow related. The family was living at the time in a rural area of the Alaska tundra called Lake Aleknagik. Callan’s father, James Sifsof, told the Anchorage Daily News that his daughter "took to it right from the beginning. She'd be going down the hill, just straight down, laughing and having a ball. She didn't know fear because she was so young."
The family eventually moved near Anchorage, but that didn’t stop Callan. An example of her success: In 2004 she won Gold Medals in both slope style and giant slalom in snowboarding at the Arctic Winter Games in Canada.
While Callan enjoys her moments in the snow, Chafee believes the teen is proof of something National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall once said: "Indian youth sports opportunities are the answer."
Officials point to the White Mountain Apache of Arizona to show that the slopes can do wonders for tribes and their people. The tribe has the lowest level of unemployment of any reservation in the country.
They opened two ski resorts three decades ago.
"It had everything to do with skiing,” said Chairman Dallas Massey. "Skiing is the No 1 motivator of our youth [then rodeo], and prevents alcohol abuse if we can reach our children early enough."
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Last updated on April 09, 2005