My name is Sophia Hallstein. I’m 13 years old, and I live in California, USA.
I have been skiing since I was four years old, and have wanted to race for as long as I can remember. I started on a team at Squaw Valley when I was 7, and haven’t really looked back since. Although races continue to get more and more competitive and intense, I still love my sport and intend to continue for a quite a while longer. As it becomes more difficult to balance skiing with school, I find that I have to work even harder at both to still be a good skier and obtain an education. It’s hard, but worth it.

I will be going into my first year of U16 next season, which is super exciting, especially coming off a successful season like the past one. Even though many races were cancelled this year, I took first and second place in the Far West Super G qualifiers, had multiple other top ten finishes, placed 5th overall in Far West, and had the 8th best points in Super G nationally for my year (’06).

• Motivation

  Sometimes I have hard days where I feel like I don't ski so well, or just feel down and like I don't want to be out there training. But I also see a lot of good days, when I work really hard to improve and feel and look like I'm skiing well. Seeing those things translate into results at races, I feel really good about myself and my skiing and am reminded how much I really love this sport. That's why I want to keep working hard so I can be a better skier.

• Goals

  Short-term, I hope to qualify for next year's regional championship and perform well as a first year u16. Long-term, I would like to race FIS, and possibly ski NCAA in college. All of these are still very far ahead of me, but they are things I have thought about. However, US ski team is still the ultimate goal for a racer like me.

• Other Interests

  Skiing is my main sport, but over the years I've participated in so many others! The only other sport I'm doing now is playing basketball in the fall season, but I also like to cook, sing, learn, and read. Although I'm not exactly sure what I want to study later in life, I want to pursue a full university/graduate education in whatever that field is.