February 25, 2025 • 41 mins
Welcome back PowHERful Pod Squad! After a brief hiatus we are back with one of the most badass moms around; Canada’s Cassie Sharpe! The 2x Olympic medalist recently made history by becoming the first mom to ever win an X Games Gold Medal in Ski SuperPipe. At 32 years old, Cassie is redefining what it looks like to be a mom AND an extreme athlete. In this episode she shares advice for those of us who are child-hesitant, how being a middle child pushed her to excellence in the pipe and how to take the pressure off and enter your flow zone whether you’re standing at the top of the pipe or pursuing a less extreme passion/hobby.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello friends, and welcome to the Powerful Podcast. I'm your host,
Aja McCord.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
In this podcast, we introduce you to powerful women who
were changing the game in and.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Outside of their field of play.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
These are women's stories, women who happen to be doing
things that many of us can only dream of, but
the lessons and inspiration they share is universal.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hey friends, welcome back to the Powerful Podcast. I'm so
excited to have you guys back. We had to take
a brief hiatus last week because everybody is everywhere this winter.
The World Cups are all over the world. I have
been traveling a ton for my job with the World
Surf League and so I was in Abu Dhabi and
the Nazare and our guest this week has also been
(00:41):
all over as she tries to make the Olympics for
Team Canada in twenty twenty six. Cassie Sharp is a
badass new mom who just made history at the X
Games by becoming the first woman to ever win a
gold medal as a mom in ski super pipe at
the X Games. Also been to the Olympics before. We
(01:02):
talk about overcoming the injury, the catastrophic injury that almost
cost her her spot in the twenty two games, what
she has learned in the last fifteen months since becoming
a mother to her new daughter, Luela, And honestly, you guys,
this one hit really close to home for me, which
I wasn't expecting. But we talked about what has changed
(01:24):
since she's become a mom and what has actually stayed
exactly the same. And as someone who is a bit
child hesitant of I'm not sure if I want to
become a mom or not, this episode was really meaningful
for me and I'm really grateful to Cassie for the
vulnerability that she shared. And I think I'm going to
be playing this one back a few times, so I
(01:45):
hope you guys enjoy it. Welcome back to the Powerful.
I am so excited for you to hear this episode
with Cassie Sharp. Welcome back to the Powerful. We are
so excited to be back. We had to take last
week off because it was just a little too hectic
with the start of the year, but my goodness, are
we getting back into the swing of things with a
guest that I cannot wait to introduce you to. She
(02:05):
is a Canadian free skier. She is redefining what is
possible in extreme sports and motherhood. Cassie Sharp has been
to not one but two Olympics. She's brought home a
gold and a silver, and just recently ourb has croused
in Aspen, Colorado for the twenty twenty five X Games,
where Cassie came out and dominated in the women's at
(02:26):
ski super pipe, ringing home the gold medal with her
mom and her daughter at the base of the half five.
I was crying. I think everybody was crying. Cassie. I'm
so excited to have you on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Thank you so much. What an introduction. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well that was only like half your accolades too.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
No, that's awesome. So start to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So I want to start first with just introducing people
to who you are a little bit. Obviously your two
time Olympian, looking to make it three next year in
Italy for Team Canada. Give me a little bit about
how you feel in love not just with skiing, but
with super pipe where you know you're going like fifteen
twenty feet above a twenty two foot super pipe and
(03:09):
throwing all sorts of flips and tricks into it.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, it actually started when I was not like a
lot of people come in like, I've been skiing since
I was two, But I started skiing when I was ten.
We moved to Vancouver Island and my dad got a
job at Mount Washington. So my brothers and I would
just go up every weekend. They were snowboarding, I was skiing.
We'd be in the train park altogether. They'd be bullying
(03:35):
me to hit jumps and like, do my first backflip
on a wind blip, like in the middle of the trees,
like got all brothers exactly, Like so sketchy, but so fun.
And then when I was sixteen, I started traveling and competing,
and in twenty twenty twelve, I went to a slopestyle
(03:55):
contest in California and my coach at the time, we
were training the jumps and I just could not land
my cork seven and I was getting so frustrated and
so mad. He was like, why don't we just go
check out the half pipe, see what it's all about.
I was like, okay, And at the time, I was
pretty fearless, I think from having brothers, Like I'm the
(04:16):
middle of my older and younger brother and so I
went to the half pipe and he's like, tryflip I
was like, okay, I try spin. I'm like okay. And
I entered like my first half pipe contest and I won,
and I was like, oh, I like this.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I like winning.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Like I'm a very competitive person, so it's like that
seems fun. We should do that more often. So I
just every time there was a slop stock contest, they
kind of go hand in hand, like slopestyle, half pipe,
big air. All of them kind of happened at the
same places. So every time we did a slop style contest,
I'd enter the half pipe contest. And then eventually I
got on the World Cup circuit and I was like,
(04:54):
not good by any means when I first started. That
was a pretty small contest that I won, but I
built over the next couple of years, and in twenty
fourteen I made it onto the Canadian national team and
the rest is history. I love it. I love half
ie ski. It's scary and it's fun and it's rewarding
(05:14):
and when you get it right, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Oh my gosh. Well and you, I have gotten to
see you in person just the one time at x
Skan's ASP in twenty twenty five, and it is crazy
to watch you guys go up above the lips so far,
and then it really is like when you get it right,
it's like even I who I, you know, I don't
half pipe. I like to snowboard very casually down the
(05:38):
blues and the groomers. That's my vibe. You can tell
yeah when you hit it correctly, because it's just so
smooth and it flows so well. What do you think
was the difference between half pipe and slope style for you?
That you just obviously you won that first half pipe competition,
but I know you've had to work very hard. It's
not like you've just like happened to come along with
(05:59):
half pipe. How have you developed that love with the
halfpipe to where you've won some medals?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, I think like going from slopestyle the half pipe,
it's like it's very similar. But I think that the
challenge of like landing kind of like on the angle, right,
like when you're hitting jumps, you're going straight to straight,
and I think the angle is kind of like what
drew me in. My younger brother, Darcy is a competitive
(06:27):
snowboarder in slope style, so he kept going slopestyle and
then I start watching him do that, and I was like,
you know what, I think he's better at that than
I am. So I'm going to do my own thing
and I'm going to go into halfpipe. But I feel
like I just like dove in head first and was
like I want to do this. I like I remember
(06:49):
watching the twenty fourteen Olympics in Aspen at the Aspen
World Cup and I was watching all the girls at
the Olympics and I was like, you know what, I
could be there. I want to do that. I want
to go And I kind of like just dug my
heels in at that moment and was like, I'm going
to the twenty eighteen Olympics and.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
You did just like that? I did. Where does where
does that competitive and like certain drive come from? Because
it's one thing to be like, oh I'm going to
the Olympics, it's another thing to actually make it happen.
How'd you do that?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah? I think like there's a couple factors. Again, being
the middle child and only girl of a family, I'm
like I got to like fight for my attention, like
both my brothers are. We're a big personality family, so
we're always just battling each other. But I think once
(07:42):
I got like a bit of a taste of winning.
I think my like intuition of like competitiveness just kind
of like kicked off, and I was like, I like that,
I want to do more of that. And I mean,
like obviously there's like all the things behind the scenes
that nobody seeses. I'm going to gym four times a week,
I'm trampolining, I'm going roller blading, like I'm doing all
(08:05):
these things behind the scenes that kind of translate to
bring me into that gold medal in twenty eighteen and
silver in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So I'm sorry explain how roller blading helps you get
a gold medal in half fife skiing.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
It's so embarrassing. I rollerblading is so embarrassing for myself
and like not good at it. But like imagine X
Games vert ramp, like a huge twenty two foot vert
ramp where there's skateboarding and rollerblading on it. Our coach
made us, in the nicest way, made us go and
(08:39):
just like try to like ride the transitions on roller
blades because you have to be so much more balanced
and so much more centered on rollerblades than you do
on skis. Like on skis you can rely on your
tips and tails, whereas on roller blades you've got this
much error, and so we're all like wristpads, knee pads,
elbow pads, helmet were just so scared in this huge
(09:01):
twenty two of vert ramp. But in the end, like
it actually like translates to like switch riding through the pipe,
and it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Wow, that is. Of all the ways that I've heard
people train for their sports, I don't know that I
ever would have guessed rollerblading super pipe skiing out of
all that would have crossed my mind as a crossover.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
No, But I mean if you look right now Alex Ferrera,
he's been on the podium fourteen podiums in a row,
and he's killing it, and he probably goes and rollerblades
at Woodward every week. Like wow, yeah, it really it
really translates, which is crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
That is, and that's such a cool insight into I
always think of like those reels that you see of
like people at the gym, like somebody with like one
hand down on the side of the treadmill and like
running running, running, and you're like, what are they training for?
And it turns out it's like bob slid where you
know they have to like run and hold on, yeah,
hold on yeah. So it's so cool that so duly noted.
(10:01):
If you want to become one of the best half
pipe skiers in the world, start by being a really
good rollerblader in a half Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Okay, it's a crazy translation, but it works well.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Clearly because we have a gold medal in the Olympics
and then a silver medal in twenty twenty two. And
then I want to talk about the comeback that you
made to Aspen this year, because I know that that
was one I mean, we're going to get into the
fact that you did it as a mom in just
a minute, because that in and of itself is incredible
(10:33):
and I don't think you, I don't think you'll ever
know how many women you inspire by doing that as
a mom. But first you as the human being, as
the athlete, Cassie Sharp, why was it so meaningful to
come back and win the gold at X Games Aspen
in the super pipe?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I think for me, like I was coming back to
this to obviously compete and like be a comp editor
and push myself to like get back to where I was,
and you know, like the energy behind my Like my
comeback was like get out there, be a competitor, make
the finals, get an invite to X Games, like just
(11:13):
go back and be a part of the mix, you know,
and and like truly like it might be weird, but like,
deep down, I never thought I would win X Games again.
Like I was like my husband, he was like he
was like, yeah, I was. I was like hoping you
got third, like we were like we were shooting for third,
and then he won and he was like what the heck,
(11:34):
Like that's crazy. And I think because I just like
didn't expect it. It came as like such an amazing
surprise and like I like not, I mean, yeah, to
toot my own horn. I was seeing really well that night,
like I was on and I feel like I like
because I didn't have all the pressure on myself to
(11:55):
be like, oh, you're like you're in here to win,
I was like, oh, I'm in here to like have fun,
like hope for third. Like it just like kind of
set a different tone of my skiing. Like I kind
of felt like I like I had nothing to lose.
It was like either you'd land a really good run
or you don't. And yeah, it all came together and
(12:15):
I put it down. And I think because because it
was just like, so, WHOA, you won, that's crazy. I
didn't expect it that it meant even more than just
you know, hitting the podium well.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And it was a place you had to exercise some
demons from right because a few years ago that super
pipe forced everything to halt for you. So walk me
through the injury that happened three years before, and why
that super pipe in particular you had a little vendetta
against for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, in twenty twenty one at the X Games, I
was trying a new trick. I was doing the cork twelve.
I'd landed it the run before, but it wasn't super clean,
and I went back up to the top and my
tech he goes, he goes, what are you gonna do
this run? I said, I'm gonna go big or go home,
and I went home. So now, but yeah, I just
(13:10):
landed a little deep with a bit of a twist
and I tore my ACL and my MCL and I
was sitting in the bottom of the pipe just there's
just like such a nervous system like shock that comes
through with doing that, and I like I've seen other
people blow their knees and they always scream and I'm
always like, oh, like that's so like just like ooh,
(13:31):
like I hate that. And then I did it and
I was screaming and I was like, this is so embarrassing.
Like I was so embarrassed. And one of my monster tms,
he was on the deck like twenty two feet up.
I'm sitting in the bottom, and he goes, Cassie, somebody's coming.
Someone's coming, And I looked at him. I was like,
I just blew my knee. I need help. They're coming,
(13:53):
They're coming. And so anyways, I left that contest. I
still got silver, which was great from my run before,
but I definitely left feeling pretty battered and pretty sad
and the like stressful part about it was it was
like a year out to the Olympics, like and I
was like, ah, how am I gonna make this work?
(14:14):
Like usually like usually you can't ski before like ten
eleven months, you're pushing it at nine months, and I
had to be competing at ten months. So I was
like trying to like play with the timeline and like
how can I make this work? And then because of COVID,
when we got back to Canada, I had to quarantine
(14:36):
for fourteen days, so I couldn't even get into surgery
before that. So then I go into surgery two weeks
after getting home. In surgery, they're hitting the staple into
my femur to like fix it. Broke my femur in surgery,
so I'm sorry, it's insane. So I ended up spending
like three days at the hospital because I was just
(14:58):
in so much pain because they broke my feet. Right,
It's just like a one in a million freak accident.
So I spent three days at the hospital and then
I came home, spent two weeks with my mom and dad,
and then just like really hit the rehab hard. And
then yeah, at nine months, I went to Switzerland, started
(15:20):
skiing groomers, came back and then kind of got thrown
into contests. And again I think honestly, the like no
pressure thing kind of helped, because like as soon as
I qualified for the Olympics, I was like, great, like
I've done what I did to do, like let's just
have some fun. And then when I like go into
the Olympics with just fun, I go into the Xpens
(15:40):
with just fun. It's like the results follow the like
no pressure take Why.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Do you think that is? Because your competitiveness and like
your attention to detail is clearly a massive part of
why you've become such an accomplished skier. But why do
you think it is that taking that pro sure off
is actually what's bringing out the best in you.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
I think when you take the pressure off, you're like
able to see clearly, Like I don't know if that
I don't know if that translates the way I'm trying
to think of it. But like when I'm at the
top of the pipe and I'm like, okay, here's my run,
Like I'm zoned in, like I listen to music, I
don't hear it when I'm in the pipe, Like I'm
just locked into what I'm doing. And I feel like
(16:25):
that like flow state kind of happens regardless if I
have pressure or not. But it's the like the vibes
with the lead up to being at the top of
the pipe. This year, I've like I've been putting pressure
on myself. I think like nobody else has done that,
like my parents, my husband, my friends, like everybody's like
just have fun, like we love you, like enjoy it.
(16:47):
And me, I'm like compete with charge, and then I
get so nervous that like I start like like almost
threw up at the top of the pipe. I'm like gagging.
I'm like, why am I so nervous? I'm putting so
much pressure on my self. So I feel like the
energy behind like being like that's all good, like have fun,
do what you know how to do, and like enjoy
yourself is very different from the like, oh my god,
(17:09):
I'm so nervous, because then you get all like tight
and scared, and yeah, it's just a different, totally different vibe.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It's it's so interesting. So I cover a lot of
professional surfing too, and we always talk hear them talk
about the flow state and trying to find that rhythm
and like get in that mode before they hit the water.
And I think semi similar, right, Like, oftentimes they're competing
in an ocean, and so it's easy to sort of
feel that rhythm with mother nature, and obviously you're also
(17:37):
competing on mother nature, but a much more stable and
created mother nature. But I think the thing that is
always so hard. So I was a competitive gymnast, and
I think entering that flow state is something that almost
every athlete can relate to right, Like there's something about
when you come into it and you're like just locked in,
and it's like your body, your mind trusts that you
(18:01):
know what you're about to do and that you can
execute what you're about to do. But how do you
get how do you manage the before part? Like how
have you figured out how to make that switch? As
a fierce competitor from I am I have to be
locked in. This has to be intense. I have to
charge to I'm just gonna have fun and I'm just
(18:22):
gonna see what happens. Like what do you mentally have
to remind yourself of to switch that.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
We've worked with a team psych for a really long time.
She's like the dean of the University of Calgary and
she's got these crazy tools that leading up to the
twenty eighteen Olympics, like I obviously going into it, there
was like articles that came out and it was like
Katsie's are shoeing to win and I'm like, how do
you know that? Like I don't even know that, Like
don't say that, And it's like you have to like
(18:52):
separate yourself from these things. And so we've like I
guess trained ourselves like block out the noise, and I
feel like when I'm like okay, I'm about to drop in,
like I just have to pay attention to what I'm doing,
like nothing else matters. Like there's people on the deck
(19:13):
screaming at me, they don't matter. There's you know, cameras,
there's an announcer. You can hear them talking about you,
but it all doesn't matter what you. What I have
control over is just what I'm doing. And so I
think that's like where I take like my most like
flow state is like I'm in control of me and
my movement. So that's where I thrive, is like when
(19:37):
I'm not paying attention to things that are kind of
outside of my control.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, oh, f only it was so easy to do.
It was easy to just let go of it. But
I like that sort of mindfulness practice of coming back
to just control what I can control, focus on that,
and then sort of let the chips fall where they may. Yeah,
one of the things that you just I had to
take control of was coming back to the X Games
(20:04):
at all after having your daughter Luella in It was
August of twenty twenty three. So I want you. I
was reading a bunch of articles and it sounds like
it was X Games twenty twenty four. You were sitting
on the floor with Luella watching everybody else drop into
the super pipe, and what did you think to yourself.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I want to do that. It was kind of like
I was watching them go and like I was watching
the girls go big, and I just like that like
weightlessness of like flipping and spinning. I was just like
I don't think I'm done yet, Like I feel like
I can come back, Like I want I want to
come back. I want to keep doing that. And it
(20:47):
was kind of like the timing worked really well to
like come back this year as like an Olympic qualifying
year and then go to the Olympics like the way
that I had her, and like it all just kind
of worked out. And like my husband and I had
this big conversation like are you serious, Like do you
actually want to do it? Like how do we make
this work? And it took a few months to like
(21:09):
understand that, Like I wasn't just like being competitive watching them,
being like I just want to compete, like I just
want to do that. Like it was like no, no,
like I actually want to do skiing, like I want
to like not only do I want to compete, but
like I want to go skiing. I want to go
back in the haff, like I want to do flips.
And it was like, if I don't do it now,
(21:29):
I'm not going to ever do it again. I'm thirty two,
which isn't old, but it's the oldest in the field.
And now I'm a mother. And it's like, if if
I didn't go for it right now, I would have
always regretted not trying. Hmm.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
And why was it so important for you to have
Luella there with you?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I think it's like not only for me really cool
to have her there, but like it's cool for all
of the competitors and all of our friends and all
of their parents that come out, and all the fans,
and like it's so like beautiful to have her, just
this little beaming ray of sunshine, just so happy to
(22:13):
be there, so happy to be She loves the cold.
She loves ice, like it's crazy. We'll be sitting on
the couch and she just look at me, go ice ice.
I'm like sure, So I get her like an ice
cube from the fridge. Like she's obsessed. So yeah, she's
she's a big sweetheart. And I think if maybe if
(22:34):
she wasn't as easygoing or as sweet or like as
like well traveled, like I brought her with me all
over because when I first started skiing, I was still breastfeeding,
like I kind of had to have her with me,
And also, like the mom guilt is pretty real, Like
I feel like having her with me is easier than
missing her or wondering if I'm doing enough if I'm
(22:56):
not there. So it's it's kind of like a big
circular answer that it's just better, cooler, funner to have
her with.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Me than not. Yeah, it is. And I mean I
can still picture you coming down at the end of
your run in Aspen and your mom's holding your daughter,
and we were talking after you stepped off the podium
and you said, I want my daughter to know that
her mom's a badass. And I think that that's something
(23:29):
that is really I mean, I feel like all around sports,
right we are seeing women come back to be competitive
athletes in their field once they've had a child, and
I think in sports like basketball and soccer, we've seen
a lot of examples of that, and we're seeing more
and more every year, which is amazing because women are
(23:50):
redefining what's possible. When you look around the world of
extreme and Olympic and action sports, there's not that many
who have I've been able to come back and do it,
I think partially innately because the sport is so risky
to begin with. I mean, you just walked us through
a terrible injury that you suffered in twenty twenty one.
(24:10):
What gave you the confidence and sort of the certainty
that this was the right path for you.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
I think it's honestly a bit of a selfish answer
where it was like, I, I don't know yet who
I am without skiing, So like, I, yeah, I'm a
mom now and it's the best thing I've ever done.
Like I honestly don't remember what I was doing without her,
(24:41):
Like she's the best thing ever. But I like as
like as Cassie, like as a person, like I don't
know what my calling is, what my interests are, what
my hobbies are, what my job is, Like, I don't
know who I am without skiing yet. So when I
was kind of like thinking about it, when I was
sitting on the floor watching X Games last year, I
(25:02):
was like I am not ready to give it up.
And it comes with like risk reward too, because I
know that like if I get injured, like I still
have a baby to watch, I like, who's gonna do that?
I have to do that. So it's like, yeah, there's
like the risks that come with it, but there's also
(25:23):
like massive rewards of winning X Games and having my
daughter there watching and like exactly that like in a
few years she'd be like I was there when my
mom went X Games, Like that's the coolest thing ever.
So I feel like it's like it's a bit selfish,
but it's also like a reminder that like your life
(25:45):
doesn't end after having a kid. And I was just
trying to look but I saw yesterday I think Lexi
dPOINT she just won best performance out surfing on the
big Waves, and like just.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
To find I was, I was in Nazare. That's why
we had to push this interview.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, it's so cool, Like that's that's huge that she's
like out there with her little baby and just like
riding these massive ways and you're like, what are you doing?
Like you know, and like and then I think of
myself too, and I like watch myself do like a
fourteen foot quark ten. I'm like, what are you doing? Like,
(26:21):
you know, like, but it's so cool that it's like
the world is changing that like you can be a
mom and you can do these extreme sports and you
can still be successful while also being a really good mom.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
What do you think? Because I literally talked with Justine
about that two days ago before the Nazaree contest, and
she was she almost joked with me because you know her,
her son is actually not much older than than Luella is,
or he's younger than Luella is younger. He's younger, so
he's just about to be a year old. And I
asked her, you know, hey, how'd you do it? How'd
(26:57):
you come back to surfing Nazaret so quickly? And she
looked at me and she's like, this wasn't quick. This
was a year. And I was like, people train their
whole lives and don't don't have the confidence or the
skills to go out and serve frickin fifty foot nazaree right,
And to her, it was like, no, this is actually
a really this is a really long time for me
(27:18):
to be out of surfing. And I think It's so
cool to see women still hold on to their identities
right and like not not have their entire identity become
It's it's the best. It's the best element I can
imagine of like being a mom. But my gosh, you
also get to hold on to that identity. How do
you feel like that impacts the way you mother, Luela.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I think that like being able
to like have your own interests, in your own hobbies
and your own identity as like I'm Cassie the Halfpipes here,
but I'm also Cassie Luella's mom. Like there's like two
pieces of it, and it's so special because like exactly
like she said, like that wasn't fast. It was a year.
(28:05):
Like I started skiing when lou was like seven months old,
and everybody's like, you're crazy. I'm like, I mean I
came back approximately at the same time after a knee injury.
Like it's like, you know, you build yourself up. Obviously,
I'm going to the gym three times a week, and
like you train to be back to do what you
want to do. But it's like if you're committed to
(28:29):
doing your sport or you're committed to doing. You want
to run a marathon, you want to do the Iron Man,
you want to go rock climbing. You know, you're going
to train and you're gonna take the steps to get
yourself back up there. So I feel like it's like
once I made that decision, like lou was just along
for the ride, and she was like happy to be there.
Like we were going to the gym and I brought
(28:51):
her jolly jumper and I like hooked it up onto
the chin up bar and she was just jolly jumping
while I'm back squatting. You know, Like we made it
work and you was just a part of it. So
it's pretty cool to like make your world kind of
revolve around your daughter still, but it's still your endeavors.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, well, I think when you know, when when I
say that, you're going to impact more people, and I
think you could ever know, right, Like I'm similar age
to you. I don't have any kids yet, but I
think of my career where I'm jet setting around the
world to cover the best athletes in the world, And
for a long time, it was hard for me to
even picture having a kid in my career, right because
(29:34):
it's kind of like, dang, how how can I do this?
How can I travel internationally around the world? Because I
don't want to give that up. I don't want to
miss out on telling the stories of incredible athletes like you,
like Justine, like who I get to cover on the
World Surf League. So how can I do that when
I have if there's a daughter involved, or a son
or whomever, and then I see you, and then I
(29:56):
see Justine, and then I see somebody like Chris More
who's going to you know, who's who's about to have
her child? And Jack Robinson and his wife travel with
their son Zen all around the world, and I go, oh,
there are people doing this. It is possible. It is
something that like I don't have to give up this
thing that has defined me for so long. This can
(30:19):
be an additive you know, this can be additive?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Like I have a girlfriend who
lives in Squamish as well, and she texted me and
she's like, fully, like, thank you for showing me that,
Like my life doesn't have to be over when I
have a kid, Like I don't have to like we're
going to Mexico next week. She's like, if I had
a kid, like I could bring the kid. I'm like,
of course, you can bring the kid, like, like obviously,
(30:43):
it's it actually gets harder as they get older to travel,
like lose a year and a half now, and it's
like you get on the plane, You're like, Okay, I've
got snacks, I've got a book, I've got toys, I've
got like everything to like distract her. But when they're like,
I don't know, like five to nine months old, they're
just little puddles and they just travel along. You just
strap them to your chest, and it's like, you know,
(31:05):
there's definitely like ways to make it work that you
can thrive in your own life and have your little
baby in tow.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
What do you think is the thing if you're talking
to you know, someone like your friend, someone like me
who has that anxiety, who has that fear that hey,
having a kid will change everything, and by changing everything,
it means that my life is actually not going to
feel like my own anymore. What's the piece of advice
that you would give those of us who are child
(31:37):
hesitant because we like our lives just the way they are.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, so much. But if I had to like file
it down into like one little like little neat thing
is that the first four months are going to be hell.
That's what it is. That's just there's nothing there's nothing
else you can do. But if you leave the house once,
you're gonna keep a bit of normalcy. And that was
(32:04):
something that like saved me with somebody who's like just
leave the house once a day, like after the first
month and you've healed and like you've recovered, leave the house.
Trust yourself that like you know that if you leave
the house and the baby's crying, you can you know
what it means. It's the diaper, it's milk, it's cuddles,
it's whatever it is. And then I think like from
like the first few months of like trusting yourself and
(32:27):
like building your confidence and like understanding that like you
know what your baby needs. I think it like set
me up for success to like trust myself to leave
the house and like go on adventures and we go
to the pool, or we go to the city, or
we like you know, we do a lot of stuff
and we travel, and I think like being able to
(32:50):
like take your kid with you, it just builds so
much confidence that like down the road now, like I'll
grab her I'll throw over my shoulder and we're out
the door, Like I don't even think about it anymore.
Like we just go and we do what we need
to do. And having that confidence is what's the difference
of like being like, oh do I have this? Do
I need this? Like what do we got to do?
(33:12):
Like it's like not hesitating to leave your comfort zone.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Mmmm, that's a good one. It's so refreshing to hear
it phrased as just leaving your comfort zone because I think,
you know, that's that's something that again, so many of
our listeners are and myself right, we're athletes in some perspective,
not competitively, maybe not at an elite level, but I
think pushing our comfort zone is something that no matter
(33:39):
the career, no matter the person, it's a really good thing.
It's something that you want to try and do. And
so that's a good that's a good way to taste
something that feels really big and put it in really
familiar phrasing for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah, And I think like for both my husband and I,
like we like, obviously you're pregnant for nine months, like
you've got a lot of time to like lean into it.
But there's literally nothing as scary as leaving the hospital
with like a two day old baby and being like
what do I do with this?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Like you know, like it's just like my job to
keep it alive?
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Yeah, Like who said I could do this? Like who
who gave me permission? Like I'm still actually fifteen years old?
Like what am I doing? People see me all it's
like it's okay, it's not a team pregnancy anymore, and
like I still feel the fifteen, but I'm actually thirty two.
So it's very funny. It's very unfamiliar territory. But the
(34:39):
more you can lean into, like the confidence of leaving
your comfort zone, you'll get there.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I love that. That's I'm gonna lock that away. And
when I when it comes time for me to decide
if we're gonna have kiddos or not, I'm gonna call
you and be like I need a first memo what
you say? We're to play the podcast on repeat so
that people can listen that embrace it and I love awesome. Well,
Cassie this. I am so grateful that you shared, not
only about just your competitive journey and everything, but I think, yeah,
(35:08):
I think it's it's so incredible. What you're doing as
a mom, and Luella's Luila is going to have no
doubt that her mom's a bad ass. And if she
ever has a question about that, she's gonna have aunties
from around the world reminding her because she's now been
at all these places with all your girls, and they're
gonna be like, no, no, no, your mom's a bad ass.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, I got my village behind me exactly.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
That's anohing's good. It gets everyone on your side. When
the kid gets older and starts with these mom and
dad are cool, we'll be there to remind them.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Okay, we're gonna switch gears. Now to our something to
sip on segment. It is brought to you by the
sports Bra, which is a women's sports bar in Portland, Oregon.
And so the week that we have your episode coming out,
there's going to be a drink called the Cassie. And
I want to know what is it? Your favorite cocktailor mocktails.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I am obsessed with shafts. It's like an espresso martini
but creamy. Oh and they're kind of like an Island special,
So from Vancouver Island. I'm pretty sure that they were
created in Victoria and I like, as soon as I
was of legal drinking age in BC, that was kind
(36:23):
of all we drank was the shaft.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Wow. Okay, so can you list out the ingredients for me?
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I could not.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Okay, we'll look it up. We'll make sure that the
sports bra has the recipe. I'm sure they can do it.
They're just down there. They're just down the freeway from
where you are in Squamish. That one of my favorite
trips that I ever took living in Portland. I lived
in Portland for five years and one of my favorite
trips was Squamish. I freaking love that town. It is
if you've not gotten a chance to go, oh it,
(36:51):
Like I was just talking about it the other day
of like the next Northwest trip, we do, gotta figure
out how to get back to Squamish. Yeah you got
all those smishes.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
The ocean, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
That one almost killed me.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Now you've got the gondola though, don't.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Even get that up but like it's the same. I
could gondola, but it's not as exciting as carrying my
thirty pound dog up it, because that's what I ended
up doing because she is the hiker bug and she
did not want to be left, and I didn't know
there were ladders, so I ended up carrying Perfect.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
That's really good, really good for my thoughts. All right,
it's signed out for our Powered Up segment. This is
our rapid fire questions where we just get to know
you a little bit. Oh yeah, likes, dislikes, et cetera.
So what is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Uh? Nepoulton.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Oh, okay, that's a good one to not really have
to pick at all.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
I know, indecisive coffee or tea coffee.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
What is your go to meal before or after skiing?
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Steak? Barbingued steak?
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Oh? Are you a girl master?
Speaker 3 (37:58):
My husband's more of the girl master, but if I
had to, I could.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Nice. That's a that's a really good life skill. Are
you an early bird or a night owl?
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Unfortunately I'm a night owl, but also an early bird
because of the baby Perfect, I don't really sleep Perfect.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
We love sleeplessness.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
What is a favorite place your sport has taken you?
Speaker 3 (38:22):
France?
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Mm?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
What? Personance? It's a little ski village called teen It's
the best place on earth. I love it. There's so
much the food, the people, the partying, the skiing so good.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Oh, that sounds amazing. If you weren't an Olympic skier,
what sport would you want to be an Olympian inn.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Something low risk? I'm thinking like curling. I was going
to go curling, but I kind of wanted to go summer.
So javelin.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Oh, we think that's low risk.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Well you're kind of launching.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Oh, I was thinking fencing javelin. I like that track
and field that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Yeah, I feel like I could throw pretty far.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah. I don't have no doubt that you could throw
very far. What was your favorite dessert.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
I love a good cheesecake.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
M that's a good one. What is your dream vacation Spotorora? Oh?
Have you been there?
Speaker 3 (39:30):
No, I'd love to go to French Polynesia, the Tahiti
or anywhere is that area.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
But yeah, it's expensive and it's far.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
It's so far.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Yeah, it's not easy. You've got to go l A
or Seattle. You can probably get there from Seattle, I
would guess, maybe not easily or cheaply, but you can
get there.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
You could definitely get there somehow.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah. What is the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Uh, my brain is just going to packing my ski bag.
I always like, you always pack so much stuff in
your ski bag and I can never zip it up.
But Sarah Burke told a couple of our teammates that
if you've tilt your ski bag on the side, everything
slumps and you can close your zippery way easier. Honestly,
(40:22):
life changing.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
That's really good, practical, life changing advice.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah. I put it into practice almost every week.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
That's amazing. Okay, And then the last question, Cassie is
we obviously are on the Powerful podcast. What does powerful
mean to you?
Speaker 3 (40:45):
I think, like, honestly, my brain goes to, like my village,
Like surrounding myself with my people is like it's like
powerful to have my mom and my husband and my friends,
and like this village surrounding me, hold me up.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I love that, and I think it's I think it's
so such a good reminder that no one is ever
really in it alone. And I think behind every powerful
woman is a village. And we're so great for that.
Always awesome, Casie, Well, thank you so much for joining us.
I cannot wait to watch you and the rest of
(41:22):
the World Cup season and hopefully in Italy next year
we will be rooting for you, cheering you on, and yeah,
don't worry, You've got a lot of people who remind
Luela how much of a bad ass her mom is.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Hell yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate it. So fun,
so fun.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
We'll see you next time, Powerful Squad. This is a
reminder to check us out every Tuesday everywhere you get
your podcasts. And if you really enjoy this and don't
want to miss an episode, be sure to hit that
subscribe button.
Hello friends, and welcome to the Powerful Podcast. I'm your host,
Aja McCord.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
In this podcast, we introduce you to powerful women who
were changing the game in and.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Outside of their field of play.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
These are women's stories, women who happen to be doing
things that many of us can only dream of, but
the lessons and inspiration they share is universal.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hey friends, welcome back to the Powerful Podcast. I'm so
excited to have you guys back. We had to take
a brief hiatus last week because everybody is everywhere this winter.
The World Cups are all over the world. I have
been traveling a ton for my job with the World
Surf League and so I was in Abu Dhabi and
the Nazare and our guest this week has also been
(00:41):
all over as she tries to make the Olympics for
Team Canada in twenty twenty six. Cassie Sharp is a
badass new mom who just made history at the X
Games by becoming the first woman to ever win a
gold medal as a mom in ski super pipe at
the X Games. Also been to the Olympics before. We
(01:02):
talk about overcoming the injury, the catastrophic injury that almost
cost her her spot in the twenty two games, what
she has learned in the last fifteen months since becoming
a mother to her new daughter, Luela, And honestly, you guys,
this one hit really close to home for me, which
I wasn't expecting. But we talked about what has changed
(01:24):
since she's become a mom and what has actually stayed
exactly the same. And as someone who is a bit
child hesitant of I'm not sure if I want to
become a mom or not, this episode was really meaningful
for me and I'm really grateful to Cassie for the
vulnerability that she shared. And I think I'm going to
be playing this one back a few times, so I
(01:45):
hope you guys enjoy it. Welcome back to the Powerful.
I am so excited for you to hear this episode
with Cassie Sharp. Welcome back to the Powerful. We are
so excited to be back. We had to take last
week off because it was just a little too hectic
with the start of the year, but my goodness, are
we getting back into the swing of things with a
guest that I cannot wait to introduce you to. She
(02:05):
is a Canadian free skier. She is redefining what is
possible in extreme sports and motherhood. Cassie Sharp has been
to not one but two Olympics. She's brought home a
gold and a silver, and just recently ourb has croused
in Aspen, Colorado for the twenty twenty five X Games,
where Cassie came out and dominated in the women's at
(02:26):
ski super pipe, ringing home the gold medal with her
mom and her daughter at the base of the half five.
I was crying. I think everybody was crying. Cassie. I'm
so excited to have you on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Thank you so much. What an introduction. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well that was only like half your accolades too.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
No, that's awesome. So start to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So I want to start first with just introducing people
to who you are a little bit. Obviously your two
time Olympian, looking to make it three next year in
Italy for Team Canada. Give me a little bit about
how you feel in love not just with skiing, but
with super pipe where you know you're going like fifteen
twenty feet above a twenty two foot super pipe and
(03:09):
throwing all sorts of flips and tricks into it.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, it actually started when I was not like a
lot of people come in like, I've been skiing since
I was two, But I started skiing when I was ten.
We moved to Vancouver Island and my dad got a
job at Mount Washington. So my brothers and I would
just go up every weekend. They were snowboarding, I was skiing.
We'd be in the train park altogether. They'd be bullying
(03:35):
me to hit jumps and like, do my first backflip
on a wind blip, like in the middle of the trees,
like got all brothers exactly, Like so sketchy, but so fun.
And then when I was sixteen, I started traveling and competing,
and in twenty twenty twelve, I went to a slopestyle
(03:55):
contest in California and my coach at the time, we
were training the jumps and I just could not land
my cork seven and I was getting so frustrated and
so mad. He was like, why don't we just go
check out the half pipe, see what it's all about.
I was like, okay, And at the time, I was
pretty fearless, I think from having brothers, Like I'm the
(04:16):
middle of my older and younger brother and so I
went to the half pipe and he's like, tryflip I
was like, okay, I try spin. I'm like okay. And
I entered like my first half pipe contest and I won,
and I was like, oh, I like this.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I like winning.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Like I'm a very competitive person, so it's like that
seems fun. We should do that more often. So I
just every time there was a slop stock contest, they
kind of go hand in hand, like slopestyle, half pipe,
big air. All of them kind of happened at the
same places. So every time we did a slop style contest,
I'd enter the half pipe contest. And then eventually I
got on the World Cup circuit and I was like,
(04:54):
not good by any means when I first started. That
was a pretty small contest that I won, but I
built over the next couple of years, and in twenty
fourteen I made it onto the Canadian national team and
the rest is history. I love it. I love half
ie ski. It's scary and it's fun and it's rewarding
(05:14):
and when you get it right, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Oh my gosh. Well and you, I have gotten to
see you in person just the one time at x
Skan's ASP in twenty twenty five, and it is crazy
to watch you guys go up above the lips so far,
and then it really is like when you get it right,
it's like even I who I, you know, I don't
half pipe. I like to snowboard very casually down the
(05:38):
blues and the groomers. That's my vibe. You can tell
yeah when you hit it correctly, because it's just so
smooth and it flows so well. What do you think
was the difference between half pipe and slope style for you?
That you just obviously you won that first half pipe competition,
but I know you've had to work very hard. It's
not like you've just like happened to come along with
(05:59):
half pipe. How have you developed that love with the
halfpipe to where you've won some medals?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, I think like going from slopestyle the half pipe,
it's like it's very similar. But I think that the
challenge of like landing kind of like on the angle, right,
like when you're hitting jumps, you're going straight to straight,
and I think the angle is kind of like what
drew me in. My younger brother, Darcy is a competitive
(06:27):
snowboarder in slope style, so he kept going slopestyle and
then I start watching him do that, and I was like,
you know what, I think he's better at that than
I am. So I'm going to do my own thing
and I'm going to go into halfpipe. But I feel
like I just like dove in head first and was
like I want to do this. I like I remember
(06:49):
watching the twenty fourteen Olympics in Aspen at the Aspen
World Cup and I was watching all the girls at
the Olympics and I was like, you know what, I
could be there. I want to do that. I want
to go And I kind of like just dug my
heels in at that moment and was like, I'm going
to the twenty eighteen Olympics and.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
You did just like that? I did. Where does where
does that competitive and like certain drive come from? Because
it's one thing to be like, oh I'm going to
the Olympics, it's another thing to actually make it happen.
How'd you do that?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah? I think like there's a couple factors. Again, being
the middle child and only girl of a family, I'm
like I got to like fight for my attention, like
both my brothers are. We're a big personality family, so
we're always just battling each other. But I think once
(07:42):
I got like a bit of a taste of winning.
I think my like intuition of like competitiveness just kind
of like kicked off, and I was like, I like that,
I want to do more of that. And I mean,
like obviously there's like all the things behind the scenes
that nobody seeses. I'm going to gym four times a week,
I'm trampolining, I'm going roller blading, like I'm doing all
(08:05):
these things behind the scenes that kind of translate to
bring me into that gold medal in twenty eighteen and
silver in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So I'm sorry explain how roller blading helps you get
a gold medal in half fife skiing.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
It's so embarrassing. I rollerblading is so embarrassing for myself
and like not good at it. But like imagine X
Games vert ramp, like a huge twenty two foot vert
ramp where there's skateboarding and rollerblading on it. Our coach
made us, in the nicest way, made us go and
(08:39):
just like try to like ride the transitions on roller
blades because you have to be so much more balanced
and so much more centered on rollerblades than you do
on skis. Like on skis you can rely on your
tips and tails, whereas on roller blades you've got this
much error, and so we're all like wristpads, knee pads,
elbow pads, helmet were just so scared in this huge
(09:01):
twenty two of vert ramp. But in the end, like
it actually like translates to like switch riding through the pipe,
and it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Wow, that is. Of all the ways that I've heard
people train for their sports, I don't know that I
ever would have guessed rollerblading super pipe skiing out of
all that would have crossed my mind as a crossover.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
No, But I mean if you look right now Alex Ferrera,
he's been on the podium fourteen podiums in a row,
and he's killing it, and he probably goes and rollerblades
at Woodward every week. Like wow, yeah, it really it
really translates, which is crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
That is, and that's such a cool insight into I
always think of like those reels that you see of
like people at the gym, like somebody with like one
hand down on the side of the treadmill and like
running running, running, and you're like, what are they training for?
And it turns out it's like bob slid where you
know they have to like run and hold on, yeah,
hold on yeah. So it's so cool that so duly noted.
(10:01):
If you want to become one of the best half
pipe skiers in the world, start by being a really
good rollerblader in a half Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Okay, it's a crazy translation, but it works well.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Clearly because we have a gold medal in the Olympics
and then a silver medal in twenty twenty two. And
then I want to talk about the comeback that you
made to Aspen this year, because I know that that
was one I mean, we're going to get into the
fact that you did it as a mom in just
a minute, because that in and of itself is incredible
(10:33):
and I don't think you, I don't think you'll ever
know how many women you inspire by doing that as
a mom. But first you as the human being, as
the athlete, Cassie Sharp, why was it so meaningful to
come back and win the gold at X Games Aspen
in the super pipe?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I think for me, like I was coming back to
this to obviously compete and like be a comp editor
and push myself to like get back to where I was,
and you know, like the energy behind my Like my
comeback was like get out there, be a competitor, make
the finals, get an invite to X Games, like just
(11:13):
go back and be a part of the mix, you know,
and and like truly like it might be weird, but like,
deep down, I never thought I would win X Games again.
Like I was like my husband, he was like he
was like, yeah, I was. I was like hoping you
got third, like we were like we were shooting for third,
and then he won and he was like what the heck,
(11:34):
Like that's crazy. And I think because I just like
didn't expect it. It came as like such an amazing
surprise and like I like not, I mean, yeah, to
toot my own horn. I was seeing really well that night,
like I was on and I feel like I like
because I didn't have all the pressure on myself to
(11:55):
be like, oh, you're like you're in here to win,
I was like, oh, I'm in here to like have fun,
like hope for third. Like it just like kind of
set a different tone of my skiing. Like I kind
of felt like I like I had nothing to lose.
It was like either you'd land a really good run
or you don't. And yeah, it all came together and
(12:15):
I put it down. And I think because because it
was just like, so, WHOA, you won, that's crazy. I
didn't expect it that it meant even more than just
you know, hitting the podium well.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And it was a place you had to exercise some
demons from right because a few years ago that super
pipe forced everything to halt for you. So walk me
through the injury that happened three years before, and why
that super pipe in particular you had a little vendetta
against for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, in twenty twenty one at the X Games, I
was trying a new trick. I was doing the cork twelve.
I'd landed it the run before, but it wasn't super clean,
and I went back up to the top and my
tech he goes, he goes, what are you gonna do
this run? I said, I'm gonna go big or go home,
and I went home. So now, but yeah, I just
(13:10):
landed a little deep with a bit of a twist
and I tore my ACL and my MCL and I
was sitting in the bottom of the pipe just there's
just like such a nervous system like shock that comes
through with doing that, and I like I've seen other
people blow their knees and they always scream and I'm
always like, oh, like that's so like just like ooh,
(13:31):
like I hate that. And then I did it and
I was screaming and I was like, this is so embarrassing.
Like I was so embarrassed. And one of my monster tms,
he was on the deck like twenty two feet up.
I'm sitting in the bottom, and he goes, Cassie, somebody's coming.
Someone's coming, And I looked at him. I was like,
I just blew my knee. I need help. They're coming,
(13:53):
They're coming. And so anyways, I left that contest. I
still got silver, which was great from my run before,
but I definitely left feeling pretty battered and pretty sad
and the like stressful part about it was it was
like a year out to the Olympics, like and I
was like, ah, how am I gonna make this work?
(14:14):
Like usually like usually you can't ski before like ten
eleven months, you're pushing it at nine months, and I
had to be competing at ten months. So I was
like trying to like play with the timeline and like
how can I make this work? And then because of COVID,
when we got back to Canada, I had to quarantine
(14:36):
for fourteen days, so I couldn't even get into surgery
before that. So then I go into surgery two weeks
after getting home. In surgery, they're hitting the staple into
my femur to like fix it. Broke my femur in surgery,
so I'm sorry, it's insane. So I ended up spending
like three days at the hospital because I was just
(14:58):
in so much pain because they broke my feet. Right,
It's just like a one in a million freak accident.
So I spent three days at the hospital and then
I came home, spent two weeks with my mom and dad,
and then just like really hit the rehab hard. And
then yeah, at nine months, I went to Switzerland, started
(15:20):
skiing groomers, came back and then kind of got thrown
into contests. And again I think honestly, the like no
pressure thing kind of helped, because like as soon as
I qualified for the Olympics, I was like, great, like
I've done what I did to do, like let's just
have some fun. And then when I like go into
the Olympics with just fun, I go into the Xpens
(15:40):
with just fun. It's like the results follow the like
no pressure take Why.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Do you think that is? Because your competitiveness and like
your attention to detail is clearly a massive part of
why you've become such an accomplished skier. But why do
you think it is that taking that pro sure off
is actually what's bringing out the best in you.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
I think when you take the pressure off, you're like
able to see clearly, Like I don't know if that
I don't know if that translates the way I'm trying
to think of it. But like when I'm at the
top of the pipe and I'm like, okay, here's my run,
Like I'm zoned in, like I listen to music, I
don't hear it when I'm in the pipe, Like I'm
just locked into what I'm doing. And I feel like
(16:25):
that like flow state kind of happens regardless if I
have pressure or not. But it's the like the vibes
with the lead up to being at the top of
the pipe. This year, I've like I've been putting pressure
on myself. I think like nobody else has done that,
like my parents, my husband, my friends, like everybody's like
just have fun, like we love you, like enjoy it.
(16:47):
And me, I'm like compete with charge, and then I
get so nervous that like I start like like almost
threw up at the top of the pipe. I'm like gagging.
I'm like, why am I so nervous? I'm putting so
much pressure on my self. So I feel like the
energy behind like being like that's all good, like have fun,
do what you know how to do, and like enjoy
yourself is very different from the like, oh my god,
(17:09):
I'm so nervous, because then you get all like tight
and scared, and yeah, it's just a different, totally different vibe.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It's it's so interesting. So I cover a lot of
professional surfing too, and we always talk hear them talk
about the flow state and trying to find that rhythm
and like get in that mode before they hit the water.
And I think semi similar, right, Like, oftentimes they're competing
in an ocean, and so it's easy to sort of
feel that rhythm with mother nature, and obviously you're also
(17:37):
competing on mother nature, but a much more stable and
created mother nature. But I think the thing that is
always so hard. So I was a competitive gymnast, and
I think entering that flow state is something that almost
every athlete can relate to right, Like there's something about
when you come into it and you're like just locked in,
and it's like your body, your mind trusts that you
(18:01):
know what you're about to do and that you can
execute what you're about to do. But how do you
get how do you manage the before part? Like how
have you figured out how to make that switch? As
a fierce competitor from I am I have to be
locked in. This has to be intense. I have to
charge to I'm just gonna have fun and I'm just
(18:22):
gonna see what happens. Like what do you mentally have
to remind yourself of to switch that.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
We've worked with a team psych for a really long time.
She's like the dean of the University of Calgary and
she's got these crazy tools that leading up to the
twenty eighteen Olympics, like I obviously going into it, there
was like articles that came out and it was like
Katsie's are shoeing to win and I'm like, how do
you know that? Like I don't even know that, Like
don't say that, And it's like you have to like
(18:52):
separate yourself from these things. And so we've like I
guess trained ourselves like block out the noise, and I
feel like when I'm like okay, I'm about to drop in,
like I just have to pay attention to what I'm doing,
like nothing else matters. Like there's people on the deck
(19:13):
screaming at me, they don't matter. There's you know, cameras,
there's an announcer. You can hear them talking about you,
but it all doesn't matter what you. What I have
control over is just what I'm doing. And so I
think that's like where I take like my most like
flow state is like I'm in control of me and
my movement. So that's where I thrive, is like when
(19:37):
I'm not paying attention to things that are kind of
outside of my control.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, oh, f only it was so easy to do.
It was easy to just let go of it. But
I like that sort of mindfulness practice of coming back
to just control what I can control, focus on that,
and then sort of let the chips fall where they may. Yeah,
one of the things that you just I had to
take control of was coming back to the X Games
(20:04):
at all after having your daughter Luella in It was
August of twenty twenty three. So I want you. I
was reading a bunch of articles and it sounds like
it was X Games twenty twenty four. You were sitting
on the floor with Luella watching everybody else drop into
the super pipe, and what did you think to yourself.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I want to do that. It was kind of like
I was watching them go and like I was watching
the girls go big, and I just like that like
weightlessness of like flipping and spinning. I was just like
I don't think I'm done yet, Like I feel like
I can come back, Like I want I want to
come back. I want to keep doing that. And it
(20:47):
was kind of like the timing worked really well to
like come back this year as like an Olympic qualifying
year and then go to the Olympics like the way
that I had her, and like it all just kind
of worked out. And like my husband and I had
this big conversation like are you serious, Like do you
actually want to do it? Like how do we make
this work? And it took a few months to like
(21:09):
understand that, Like I wasn't just like being competitive watching them,
being like I just want to compete, like I just
want to do that. Like it was like no, no,
like I actually want to do skiing, like I want
to like not only do I want to compete, but
like I want to go skiing. I want to go
back in the haff, like I want to do flips.
And it was like, if I don't do it now,
(21:29):
I'm not going to ever do it again. I'm thirty two,
which isn't old, but it's the oldest in the field.
And now I'm a mother. And it's like, if if
I didn't go for it right now, I would have
always regretted not trying. Hmm.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
And why was it so important for you to have
Luella there with you?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I think it's like not only for me really cool
to have her there, but like it's cool for all
of the competitors and all of our friends and all
of their parents that come out, and all the fans,
and like it's so like beautiful to have her, just
this little beaming ray of sunshine, just so happy to
(22:13):
be there, so happy to be She loves the cold.
She loves ice, like it's crazy. We'll be sitting on
the couch and she just look at me, go ice ice.
I'm like sure, So I get her like an ice
cube from the fridge. Like she's obsessed. So yeah, she's
she's a big sweetheart. And I think if maybe if
(22:34):
she wasn't as easygoing or as sweet or like as
like well traveled, like I brought her with me all
over because when I first started skiing, I was still breastfeeding,
like I kind of had to have her with me,
And also, like the mom guilt is pretty real, Like
I feel like having her with me is easier than
missing her or wondering if I'm doing enough if I'm
(22:56):
not there. So it's it's kind of like a big
circular answer that it's just better, cooler, funner to have
her with.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Me than not. Yeah, it is. And I mean I
can still picture you coming down at the end of
your run in Aspen and your mom's holding your daughter,
and we were talking after you stepped off the podium
and you said, I want my daughter to know that
her mom's a badass. And I think that that's something
(23:29):
that is really I mean, I feel like all around sports,
right we are seeing women come back to be competitive
athletes in their field once they've had a child, and
I think in sports like basketball and soccer, we've seen
a lot of examples of that, and we're seeing more
and more every year, which is amazing because women are
(23:50):
redefining what's possible. When you look around the world of
extreme and Olympic and action sports, there's not that many
who have I've been able to come back and do it,
I think partially innately because the sport is so risky
to begin with. I mean, you just walked us through
a terrible injury that you suffered in twenty twenty one.
(24:10):
What gave you the confidence and sort of the certainty
that this was the right path for you.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
I think it's honestly a bit of a selfish answer
where it was like, I, I don't know yet who
I am without skiing, So like, I, yeah, I'm a
mom now and it's the best thing I've ever done.
Like I honestly don't remember what I was doing without her,
(24:41):
Like she's the best thing ever. But I like as
like as Cassie, like as a person, like I don't
know what my calling is, what my interests are, what
my hobbies are, what my job is, Like, I don't
know who I am without skiing yet. So when I
was kind of like thinking about it, when I was
sitting on the floor watching X Games last year, I
(25:02):
was like I am not ready to give it up.
And it comes with like risk reward too, because I
know that like if I get injured, like I still
have a baby to watch, I like, who's gonna do that?
I have to do that. So it's like, yeah, there's
like the risks that come with it, but there's also
(25:23):
like massive rewards of winning X Games and having my
daughter there watching and like exactly that like in a
few years she'd be like I was there when my
mom went X Games, Like that's the coolest thing ever.
So I feel like it's like it's a bit selfish,
but it's also like a reminder that like your life
(25:45):
doesn't end after having a kid. And I was just
trying to look but I saw yesterday I think Lexi
dPOINT she just won best performance out surfing on the
big Waves, and like just.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
To find I was, I was in Nazare. That's why
we had to push this interview.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, it's so cool, Like that's that's huge that she's
like out there with her little baby and just like
riding these massive ways and you're like, what are you doing?
Like you know, and like and then I think of
myself too, and I like watch myself do like a
fourteen foot quark ten. I'm like, what are you doing? Like,
(26:21):
you know, like, but it's so cool that it's like
the world is changing that like you can be a
mom and you can do these extreme sports and you
can still be successful while also being a really good mom.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
What do you think? Because I literally talked with Justine
about that two days ago before the Nazaree contest, and
she was she almost joked with me because you know her,
her son is actually not much older than than Luella is,
or he's younger than Luella is younger. He's younger, so
he's just about to be a year old. And I
asked her, you know, hey, how'd you do it? How'd
(26:57):
you come back to surfing Nazaret so quickly? And she
looked at me and she's like, this wasn't quick. This
was a year. And I was like, people train their
whole lives and don't don't have the confidence or the
skills to go out and serve frickin fifty foot nazaree right,
And to her, it was like, no, this is actually
a really this is a really long time for me
(27:18):
to be out of surfing. And I think It's so
cool to see women still hold on to their identities
right and like not not have their entire identity become
It's it's the best. It's the best element I can
imagine of like being a mom. But my gosh, you
also get to hold on to that identity. How do
you feel like that impacts the way you mother, Luela.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I think that like being able
to like have your own interests, in your own hobbies
and your own identity as like I'm Cassie the Halfpipes here,
but I'm also Cassie Luella's mom. Like there's like two
pieces of it, and it's so special because like exactly
like she said, like that wasn't fast. It was a year.
(28:05):
Like I started skiing when lou was like seven months old,
and everybody's like, you're crazy. I'm like, I mean I
came back approximately at the same time after a knee injury.
Like it's like, you know, you build yourself up. Obviously,
I'm going to the gym three times a week, and
like you train to be back to do what you
want to do. But it's like if you're committed to
(28:29):
doing your sport or you're committed to doing. You want
to run a marathon, you want to do the Iron Man,
you want to go rock climbing. You know, you're going
to train and you're gonna take the steps to get
yourself back up there. So I feel like it's like
once I made that decision, like lou was just along
for the ride, and she was like happy to be there.
Like we were going to the gym and I brought
(28:51):
her jolly jumper and I like hooked it up onto
the chin up bar and she was just jolly jumping
while I'm back squatting. You know, Like we made it
work and you was just a part of it. So
it's pretty cool to like make your world kind of
revolve around your daughter still, but it's still your endeavors.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, well, I think when you know, when when I
say that, you're going to impact more people, and I
think you could ever know, right, Like I'm similar age
to you. I don't have any kids yet, but I
think of my career where I'm jet setting around the
world to cover the best athletes in the world, And
for a long time, it was hard for me to
even picture having a kid in my career, right because
(29:34):
it's kind of like, dang, how how can I do this?
How can I travel internationally around the world? Because I
don't want to give that up. I don't want to
miss out on telling the stories of incredible athletes like you,
like Justine, like who I get to cover on the
World Surf League. So how can I do that when
I have if there's a daughter involved, or a son
or whomever, and then I see you, and then I
(29:56):
see Justine, and then I see somebody like Chris More
who's going to you know, who's who's about to have
her child? And Jack Robinson and his wife travel with
their son Zen all around the world, and I go, oh,
there are people doing this. It is possible. It is
something that like I don't have to give up this
thing that has defined me for so long. This can
(30:19):
be an additive you know, this can be additive?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Like I have a girlfriend who
lives in Squamish as well, and she texted me and
she's like, fully, like, thank you for showing me that,
Like my life doesn't have to be over when I
have a kid, Like I don't have to like we're
going to Mexico next week. She's like, if I had
a kid, like I could bring the kid. I'm like,
of course, you can bring the kid, like, like obviously,
(30:43):
it's it actually gets harder as they get older to travel,
like lose a year and a half now, and it's
like you get on the plane, You're like, Okay, I've
got snacks, I've got a book, I've got toys, I've
got like everything to like distract her. But when they're like,
I don't know, like five to nine months old, they're
just little puddles and they just travel along. You just
strap them to your chest, and it's like, you know,
(31:05):
there's definitely like ways to make it work that you
can thrive in your own life and have your little
baby in tow.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
What do you think is the thing if you're talking
to you know, someone like your friend, someone like me
who has that anxiety, who has that fear that hey,
having a kid will change everything, and by changing everything,
it means that my life is actually not going to
feel like my own anymore. What's the piece of advice
that you would give those of us who are child
(31:37):
hesitant because we like our lives just the way they are.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, so much. But if I had to like file
it down into like one little like little neat thing
is that the first four months are going to be hell.
That's what it is. That's just there's nothing there's nothing
else you can do. But if you leave the house once,
you're gonna keep a bit of normalcy. And that was
(32:04):
something that like saved me with somebody who's like just
leave the house once a day, like after the first
month and you've healed and like you've recovered, leave the house.
Trust yourself that like you know that if you leave
the house and the baby's crying, you can you know
what it means. It's the diaper, it's milk, it's cuddles,
it's whatever it is. And then I think like from
like the first few months of like trusting yourself and
(32:27):
like building your confidence and like understanding that like you
know what your baby needs. I think it like set
me up for success to like trust myself to leave
the house and like go on adventures and we go
to the pool, or we go to the city, or
we like you know, we do a lot of stuff
and we travel, and I think like being able to
(32:50):
like take your kid with you, it just builds so
much confidence that like down the road now, like I'll
grab her I'll throw over my shoulder and we're out
the door, Like I don't even think about it anymore.
Like we just go and we do what we need
to do. And having that confidence is what's the difference
of like being like, oh do I have this? Do
I need this? Like what do we got to do?
(33:12):
Like it's like not hesitating to leave your comfort zone.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Mmmm, that's a good one. It's so refreshing to hear
it phrased as just leaving your comfort zone because I think,
you know, that's that's something that again, so many of
our listeners are and myself right, we're athletes in some perspective,
not competitively, maybe not at an elite level, but I
think pushing our comfort zone is something that no matter
(33:39):
the career, no matter the person, it's a really good thing.
It's something that you want to try and do. And
so that's a good that's a good way to taste
something that feels really big and put it in really
familiar phrasing for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah, And I think like for both my husband and I,
like we like, obviously you're pregnant for nine months, like
you've got a lot of time to like lean into it.
But there's literally nothing as scary as leaving the hospital
with like a two day old baby and being like
what do I do with this?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Like you know, like it's just like my job to
keep it alive?
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Yeah, Like who said I could do this? Like who
who gave me permission? Like I'm still actually fifteen years old?
Like what am I doing? People see me all it's
like it's okay, it's not a team pregnancy anymore, and
like I still feel the fifteen, but I'm actually thirty two.
So it's very funny. It's very unfamiliar territory. But the
(34:39):
more you can lean into, like the confidence of leaving
your comfort zone, you'll get there.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I love that. That's I'm gonna lock that away. And
when I when it comes time for me to decide
if we're gonna have kiddos or not, I'm gonna call
you and be like I need a first memo what
you say? We're to play the podcast on repeat so
that people can listen that embrace it and I love awesome. Well,
Cassie this. I am so grateful that you shared, not
only about just your competitive journey and everything, but I think, yeah,
(35:08):
I think it's it's so incredible. What you're doing as
a mom, and Luella's Luila is going to have no
doubt that her mom's a bad ass. And if she
ever has a question about that, she's gonna have aunties
from around the world reminding her because she's now been
at all these places with all your girls, and they're
gonna be like, no, no, no, your mom's a bad ass.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, I got my village behind me exactly.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
That's anohing's good. It gets everyone on your side. When
the kid gets older and starts with these mom and
dad are cool, we'll be there to remind them.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Okay, we're gonna switch gears. Now to our something to
sip on segment. It is brought to you by the
sports Bra, which is a women's sports bar in Portland, Oregon.
And so the week that we have your episode coming out,
there's going to be a drink called the Cassie. And
I want to know what is it? Your favorite cocktailor mocktails.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I am obsessed with shafts. It's like an espresso martini
but creamy. Oh and they're kind of like an Island special,
So from Vancouver Island. I'm pretty sure that they were
created in Victoria and I like, as soon as I
was of legal drinking age in BC, that was kind
(36:23):
of all we drank was the shaft.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Wow. Okay, so can you list out the ingredients for me?
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I could not.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Okay, we'll look it up. We'll make sure that the
sports bra has the recipe. I'm sure they can do it.
They're just down there. They're just down the freeway from
where you are in Squamish. That one of my favorite
trips that I ever took living in Portland. I lived
in Portland for five years and one of my favorite
trips was Squamish. I freaking love that town. It is
if you've not gotten a chance to go, oh it,
(36:51):
Like I was just talking about it the other day
of like the next Northwest trip, we do, gotta figure
out how to get back to Squamish. Yeah you got
all those smishes.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
The ocean, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
That one almost killed me.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Now you've got the gondola though, don't.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Even get that up but like it's the same. I
could gondola, but it's not as exciting as carrying my
thirty pound dog up it, because that's what I ended
up doing because she is the hiker bug and she
did not want to be left, and I didn't know
there were ladders, so I ended up carrying Perfect.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
That's really good, really good for my thoughts. All right,
it's signed out for our Powered Up segment. This is
our rapid fire questions where we just get to know
you a little bit. Oh yeah, likes, dislikes, et cetera.
So what is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Uh? Nepoulton.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Oh, okay, that's a good one to not really have
to pick at all.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
I know, indecisive coffee or tea coffee.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
What is your go to meal before or after skiing?
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Steak? Barbingued steak?
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Oh? Are you a girl master?
Speaker 3 (37:58):
My husband's more of the girl master, but if I
had to, I could.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Nice. That's a that's a really good life skill. Are
you an early bird or a night owl?
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Unfortunately I'm a night owl, but also an early bird
because of the baby Perfect, I don't really sleep Perfect.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
We love sleeplessness.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
What is a favorite place your sport has taken you?
Speaker 3 (38:22):
France?
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Mm?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
What? Personance? It's a little ski village called teen It's
the best place on earth. I love it. There's so
much the food, the people, the partying, the skiing so good.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Oh, that sounds amazing. If you weren't an Olympic skier,
what sport would you want to be an Olympian inn.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Something low risk? I'm thinking like curling. I was going
to go curling, but I kind of wanted to go summer.
So javelin.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Oh, we think that's low risk.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Well you're kind of launching.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Oh, I was thinking fencing javelin. I like that track
and field that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Yeah, I feel like I could throw pretty far.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah. I don't have no doubt that you could throw
very far. What was your favorite dessert.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
I love a good cheesecake.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
M that's a good one. What is your dream vacation Spotorora? Oh?
Have you been there?
Speaker 3 (39:30):
No, I'd love to go to French Polynesia, the Tahiti
or anywhere is that area.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
But yeah, it's expensive and it's far.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
It's so far.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Yeah, it's not easy. You've got to go l A
or Seattle. You can probably get there from Seattle, I
would guess, maybe not easily or cheaply, but you can
get there.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
You could definitely get there somehow.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah. What is the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Uh, my brain is just going to packing my ski bag.
I always like, you always pack so much stuff in
your ski bag and I can never zip it up.
But Sarah Burke told a couple of our teammates that
if you've tilt your ski bag on the side, everything
slumps and you can close your zippery way easier. Honestly,
(40:22):
life changing.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
That's really good, practical, life changing advice.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah. I put it into practice almost every week.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
That's amazing. Okay, And then the last question, Cassie is
we obviously are on the Powerful podcast. What does powerful
mean to you?
Speaker 3 (40:45):
I think, like, honestly, my brain goes to, like my village,
Like surrounding myself with my people is like it's like
powerful to have my mom and my husband and my friends,
and like this village surrounding me, hold me up.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I love that, and I think it's I think it's
so such a good reminder that no one is ever
really in it alone. And I think behind every powerful
woman is a village. And we're so great for that.
Always awesome, Casie, Well, thank you so much for joining us.
I cannot wait to watch you and the rest of
(41:22):
the World Cup season and hopefully in Italy next year
we will be rooting for you, cheering you on, and yeah,
don't worry, You've got a lot of people who remind
Luela how much of a bad ass her mom is.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Hell yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate it. So fun,
so fun.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
We'll see you next time, Powerful Squad. This is a
reminder to check us out every Tuesday everywhere you get
your podcasts. And if you really enjoy this and don't
want to miss an episode, be sure to hit that
subscribe button.
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