Smith Slopes Toward Greatness North Central Junior Ponders Options After Winning Western Junior Olympic Championship

Natural ability will usually allow a person to remain competitive in a sport.

People who couple natural ability with skill are those who stand out in sports.

Cody Smith used that combination two weeks ago to capture the overall skiing title at the 1996 USSA/Rolex Western Junior Olympic Alpine Championships at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Mont.

To put the win in perspective, Smith won one of the three Junior Olympic races held in the United States each year. The win qualified him for the U.S. Alpine Championships at Sugarloaf, Maine - the nation’s highest level of ski racing, next to World Cup.

The 17-year-old North Central High School junior used consistency to take the title. He finished second place in the slalom and the super giant slalom, third in the downhill and seventh in the giant slalom.

“He’s always had good balance,” said Cody’s mom Kathy. “But he’s to the level now where his natural ability is not enough.”

Cody realizes that to become an Olympic ski racer he must focus on his skills. Out of the more than 80,000 competitive skiers across the nation, the U.S. Ski Team selects approximately 30 to train on the team every year.

“The biggest thing I don’t do enough is weights,” Smith said. “I need to be more into weights and do situps everyday, and then I would be really good.”

Smith is already a member of the Western Elite Ski Team, comprised of the top 12 skiers younger than 21 from the western third of the country. He trains all summer with the team under the leadership of U.S. Ski Team coaches.

Smith’s home team is the Spokane Ski Racing Association, coached under the watchful eye of SSRA head coach Jeff Pickering.

During the ski season, Smith trains four days a week at local resorts - usually Mt. Spokane - when he’s not competing. In the offseason, he attends camps and does dryland training. School and Smith’s second love, soccer, occupy his non-skiing time.

“If I’m not skiing, I’m playing soccer,” said Smith, a starting forward for the Indians.

School has also been a problem. Smith missed 20 days during his first semester and has missed nearly that many this semester.

He traveled to Bend, Ore., this week for the North American Finals, which last until Tuesday. From Bend, Smith will fly to Mammoth Mountain, Calif., until April 10, then fly back to Oregon for the Northwest Cup Finals in Bend, April 12-14. The earliest he will be back in Spokane is April 15.

“The toughest thing is you leave for a week or more and it’s really rough because when you come back, you have to make up all that work,” Smith said. “I don’t like to leave sometimes because school is my only life.”

With the packed skiing schedule, Smith will play just five soccer matches this year.

The schedule helped Smith make one of the biggest decisions of his life. He skipped last weekend’s U.S. Alpine Championships in Maine. He could have showcased his talent in front of the country’s best skiers and coaches.

“That would have been three more straight weeks out of school and I had already missed two weeks in a row,” Smith said. “It is too hard to take that much time off, plus I wanted to play soccer.”

Waiting may be the best option because it will allow Smith to hone his skills for next year - his final season of junior racing and the most important time to impress U.S. Ski Team coaches.

Smith concedes that if he doesn’t make the U.S. team next year, his chances of ever qualifying will decrease. So he has college in the back of his mind.

“I’m pretty sure I could get a full scholarship to ski somewhere,” Smith said, naming Whitman, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado as his top choices.

But Pickering believes Smith has a legitimate shot at his dream.

“Cody has the talent and can go as far as his goals and dreams will let him,” Pickering said. “He has a lot of passion for what he does and a lot of desire, and he loves doing it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos (1 color)