Big White athlete Tess Critchlow is retiring
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Big White Ski Resort
June 27, 2022 - 11:30 AM
Olympic Big White snowboarder Tess Critchlow is hanging up her race jersey. After 20 years of competing, the snowboard cross competitor is calling it quits.
“This hunt for excellence in my SBX career has been such a crazy and fulfilling journey,” she said in a Big White press release issued today, June 27.
“The constant challenges mentally and physically pushed me to grow in a way nothing else could have. And with each challenge there was also reward, whether it was the satisfaction of seeing progress on snow or having the opportunity to travel to some of the most epic mountain ranges around the world.”
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Critchlow competed in her first race at six years of age during the annual Neil Edgeworth Memorial Banked Slalom, coming in second only to her brother, according to Big White Ski Resort.
At age 14, she was picked up by the B.C. Snowboard team and four years later she found herself on Team Canada’s roster.
She has three Canadian National Championship wins, multiple top-10 World Cup finishes, podium finishes in team events, a ninth overall placement in the Women's Snowboard Cross at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, and sixth at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
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Critchlow said she may be retiring from competition but she's not giving up the sport.
"I hope in the coming years I’ll have more time to free ride and get back to the roots of why I fell in love with racing.”
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