Fernie ski cross athlete Kaleb Barnum is preparing to race a second season with Team Canada.
Alpine Canada announced Barnum and other Canadian athletes to the team in June, ahead of the Nor-Am, Europa and World Cups.
Barnum will be heading to Chile in September for a pre-season training camp and then on to Yukon, leading up to the start of the season. He'd like to achieve a few podium finishes at the Europa Cup and a NorAm title this year.
At age 21, he's among the younger athletes on the team.
"I think our team has some of the most experience on the circuit. It's great to go to the training camp with some of our more senior athletes and really learn from that. I think that's where we make the most improvement," he said.
In ski cross, athletes race four at a time down a slope, filled with free-style terrain elements like big-air jumps and high-banked turns.
Barnum joined the team last season. He placed 30th in his first World Cup start in Idre Fjäll, Sweden on March 28.
He sustained injuries after crashing with a Swiss racer at the Europa Cup in Les Contamines, France in February, and returned to Canada for a month to recover from a concussion, and injuries to his shoulder, knee and back. He later bounced back with an eighth place finish in the Europa Cup in Reiteralm, Austria. He's continued to focus on strength training this summer.
He's set his sights set on making the 2030 Olympics, and a high-ranking placement at the World Cup is his ticket to getting there.
Barnum has dreamed of pursuing sports at an elite level, ever since he was introduced to skiing in the driveway of his house at 18 months old. He started taking ski lessons at two years of age and entered ski racing at age four, and eventually made the transition from alpine skiing to ski cross two years ago.
"In 2018 I was at B.C Games for alpine and the Olympics was going on at the same time. I got to watch the current and past athletes win some [ski cross] medals at the Olympics and see everyone erupt for them was awesome. I knew that that's what I wanted to do in the future. I just had to build a good base of skills," he said.
