Reno-Tahoe has given rise to a lot of snow-sport Olympians. One of the up-and-coming athletes is a local Truckee student Cody LaPlant. He is a freshman in high school and a member of the US Ski Team. Reno Youth Radio’s Jacob Lee interviewed him about the pressures of school and performing at world-class events.
At 15 years old, Cody is the youngest athlete on the US Ski Team. He realized that he wanted to compete when he was just 9.
“I didn’t really think of it as competition. I was just like, 'This is what I want to do. This is really fun.'”
While that was a dream at the time, his path forward was solidified when he competed in the U.S. Nationals.
“Luckily, I’m still pretty young, so I’m still a freshman this year, but when I travel a lot it’s really hard to accommodate school and skiing because you're always focusing on one thing. So mostly I just ski when I am away and when I come back I try to do a bunch of catch up work.”
He has traveled all over, including Austria and Italy. Being a part of the US Ski Team would seem like a lot of pressure, but Cody says it’s not.
“I tried to put the pressure away and focus on my skiing and having fun and doing the best I can”
And it has paid off. He is a record holder, even at 15 years old. At age of 11, he did a double flat spin on skis and landed it. Now he holds the record for doing the triple misty, which is three front flips while spinning around five times. Cody is looking forward to the Olympics, the X-games, and many other competitions in the future.
