OCR Text |
Show Tori Pillinger: a racer on the verge of the big time given Tori a different perspective than that of the average high school senior. She said she has a lot of friends at school, but not that many close friends. It may be hard for her to relate to them. "You learn to be pretty independent indepen-dent (in ski racing)," she said. "Then you come back (to Park City and school) and their (the other girls at school) greatest crisis is who's going to ask them out on Friday." Sure, but isn't it a pain to be gone from home so often? "It seems that we're always in a van or a plane, but it's fun. I love it," she says. "Sometimes you have to come home and just veg for awhile, but after a week I'm ready to leave again." She is expecially looking forward to this season. Now in her third year of association with the development program of the U.S. Ski Team, Tori said she no longer feels intimidated by the other racers on the team. "I've gotten used to it. Now I fit in." And her racing reflects that confidence. She said in summer camps racing against A and B team members her times have been very competitive, as high as second place. "In the past I have been seconds off their pace, but now it's only tenths and hundredths." be asked to race tor the United States on the Europa Cut circuit. And the Europa Cup is only a single step below the World Cup. In fact, Tori has already gotten a taste of the World and Europa Cups. They capped off a season last year which snowballed for Tori. First she was named to the NorAm downhill team in February, and did well enough in those five races to qualify for the U.S. National Championships, where she took 18th place in both downhill and giant slalom against the likes of Tamara McKinney. Then she was selected to the World Junior Championships, where her 15th place finish in the women's ML Ihuiw ' the Europa Cup's final four races of the season. Finally, she returned home to race in the NorAm technical events held in the West in late March and early April. There, with the entire U.S. Ski Team in attendance and racing, Tori grabbed an eighth, a 13 th, a 16th, and a 20th place in the four slalom races. Pretty hot! Tori, currently a member of the training group of the U.S. Ski Team (USST), says her goal for the upcoming year is to make the USST's C team. En route to that, she would like to place in the top 10 in all three disciplines on the NorAms, getting some Europa Cup action under her belt in the meantime. Long-term goal? "It's the long-term long-term goal of every ski racer to make the A team," she said, "but that's a long way away." As the Solden camp nears Tori is trying to juggle a dual life ski racing and volleyball. Tori is one of the two setters on the Park City High School volleyball team. She said she loves to play volleyball and would like to eam a college scholarship in the sport. "The problem is that it would run into ski season," she said. But which does she like better? No -question skiing. The independence is appealing to her.t"Volleyball is a team sport where you , have to depend on others,'.' she explained. "In skiing you make your own destiny." Her trip to Austria will cramp her volleyball style, as she will have to miss two regular season games and the region tournament while she is away. But skiing comes first for Tori. The skiing, the world travel, the necessity to live away from home for long periods of time, all of it, have j Y I K. A1 Tori in action busting from the starting gate in last year's NorAm series at Park City. photo by Randy Hanskat Tamara McKinney, Christin Cooper, Coop-er, Tori Pillinger. You don't say the names of those three ski racers in the same breath now. But one day you may. Tori is one of the Park City Ski Team's most famous products. And when she leaves Oct. 12 for Solden, Austria and a U.S. Ski Team Development Camp, Tori will be on the verge of entering the big time in ski racing. You see, if Tori does well at that camp in Austria, and then in the North American Ski Trophy Series in the East in early December, she may Tori Pillinger downhill was the top American result on the day. Then came three World Cup races in Lake Placid and Waterville Valley, where Tori placed in the 30s. Next as |