The Costco Connection - January 2014

JOEKUSUMOTO/ U.S.PARALYMPICS

Rob and Danelle Umstead: Alpine skiing

MEMBERconnection

IMAGINE BEGINNING AT the top of an icy hill and running as fast as you can toward the hill’s edge. Just before the drop-off, you jump onto a small sled and begin a head-first, mile-long slide at speeds of more than 90 mph, with your face only millimeters from the frozen track. This is the everyday life of 28-year- old John Daly, an American Olympic skeleton racer from Long Island, New York.

Skeleton, which takes place on a bobsled track, received its name because the sled comprises only the frame, or skeleton, of the bobsled.

Daly was first introduced to the sport in
eighth grade. The bobsled track is where he
first witnessed skeleton, and he says he never
looked back. “I prefer individual sports,” he
says. “There is no one to blame but yourself.”
So, what does one think about while fly-
ing around icy turns and taking on forces of
5 g, or five times Earth’s gravity? Daly says,
“There is usually at least one challenging
curve on a track, but if you think ahead to
that part you might not concentrate on the
curve you are on. I have to take it one curve
at a time.”—Jordan Maughan

Skeleto

DESPITE SNOWBOARDER Kelly Clark’s airborne acrobatics and gutsy midair grabs, the Olympic gold and bronze medalist is actually rather grounded.

“As a professional athlete,
it’s easy to think about yourself
all the time,” says Clark, a Dover, Vermont,
native. “But I wanted to have an impact beyond
my ability to perform.”
It’s why the 30-year-old started The Kelly
Clark Foundation, which to date has provided
more than $70,000 for gear, training, competi-
tion fees and winter sport school costs for aspir-
ing young shredders and riders.

“I want to create as much opportunity [as possible] for people to enjoy snowboarding as much as I do,” says Clark.

Knowing full well she won’t be going full tilt
on the half-pipe forever, Clark hopes to eventu-
ally turn more of her attention to the foundation.;
“It’s been very rewarding,;and I love the idea
that I can put my efforts into the foundation that I
hope will outlast my ability to compete.”

—Molly Blake
humility
High-flying

Kelly Clark: Snowboard

Far-sıghted

DANELLE UMSTEAD has won two bronze medals and is a five-time world ski champion. While anyone would find that impressive enough, most are blown away to learn that Umstead achieved it all without sight.

Diagnosed at age 13 with retinitis pigmentosa, which causes gradual but inevitable blindness, Umstead had lost all usable vision by her late 20s.

“I spent two years feeling sorry for myself and
really not thinking that people with disabilities could
do anything,” says Umstead, now 41. That’s when
her dad insisted on taking her skiing for the very first
time. “It just became my life,” she says. “I moved to
the mountains and I started to live again.”
After she met her husband, Rob, previously
a ski-racing coach, they moved to Park City,
Utah, where she discovered the ski-racing
program offered through the National Ability
Center. She quickly rose to the top of the
competitive world and eventually asked her
husband to be her full-time ski guide.
Rob guides her down each high-