Elli Terwiel of Sun Peaks is aiming to be part of Team Canada for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Image Credit: elliterwiel.blogspot.ca/
October 07, 2013 - 2:52 PM
KAMLOOPS – Born to two ski racers/instructors, Elli Terwiel grew up on the slopes of Sun Peaks and now she is looking to take on the slopes of Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics as part of the Canadian alpine ski team.
The 2013 season has been the 24-year-old's most successful to date, even though she was told nearly five years ago she may never be able to even run again, never mind ski, after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament and bruising her femur so badly it caused a permanent dent in the bone. The accident happened during a training session less than a year before the Vancouver Olympics and kept her off the snow for 15 months.
This season she has had two 17 place finishes and a 23 place finish at the World Cup level and won races in the National Collegiate Athletic Association and NorAm circuits, in addition to a third place finish at the Canadian Nationals.
Terwiel attends the University of Vermont as a civil engineering student and a competitive skier. Because she is an NCAA athlete she is not allowed to accept sponsorship or prize money to pay for team fees, so she has turned to an online donation platform to help raise the needed money.
“I am currently skiing the best I ever have and I BELIEVE I CAN make the Olympics,” she says. “I just need the funds now to get me there!”
She is trying to raise $10,000 of her $15,000 in team fees this year and with 54 days left she is just over half way to her goal. As an added incentive she is offering handmade items, personalized workout plans of motivational speeches to those who donate.
To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca, call (250)819-3723 or tweet @JennStahn.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013