{"id":12467,"date":"2024-12-12T07:48:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T07:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swisslearning.com\/?p=12467"},"modified":"2024-12-12T07:48:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T07:48:01","slug":"aiglon-college-where-ski-racing-is-more-than-just-a-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swisslearning.com\/uz\/news\/aiglon-college-where-ski-racing-is-more-than-just-a-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"Aiglon College: Where Ski Racing is more than just a Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nestled amidst the Swiss Alps, Aiglon College has long been synonymous with mountain sports, particularly skiing \u2014 as many alumni will no doubt fondly remember. Ski racing has always been ingrained in Aiglon life and this sport has come to represent an emotional connection with the school for many generations of students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How, then, do you take something that is such a fundamental part of a school\u2019s DNA and improve on it? That was the task assigned to Jamie Wilcocks when he started as the Head of High Performance Athletes and Innovation in Sports last January. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to put sports, and particularly performance sports and skiing, into the limelight,\u201d he explains of his role. To make that happen, he and a team of highly accomplished former athletes and trainers have been \u201cthinking outside of the box to bring new ideas and new activities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The approach they have adopted might sound counterintuitive, but it draws heavily on Aiglon\u2019s guiding philosophy of balance: putting in place a holistic programme that focuses not just on the practical sport itself. \u201cWe don\u2019t want our students to just learn skiing to only achieve medals,\u201d says Caroline George, Snowsports Team Manager at Aiglon. Before joining the school three years ago, she had worked as a ski instructor as well as an Alpine educator and examiner at the national ski instructor governing body. \u201cThat\u2019s not the point; in fact, that\u2019s almost the last thing that comes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, the three programmes on offer for students from the junior school all the way up to senior school includes its fair share of skiing. \u201cIf you are a Junior Academy or Development racer \u2014 programmes we introduced just last year \u2014 you\u2019re doing squad training three times a week, twice in physical education (PE) lessons and once at the weekend. Those on the performance programme ski four times a week,\u201d Ms George explains. In fact, this year already, the ski team will have had 28 days on snow before Christmas, training indoors in Peer alongside World Cup athletes, and on Glacier 3000 in Les Diablerets, Zermatt and Zinal, part of the goal of making skiing at Aiglon a 10-month full-time programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But added to these practical, on-snow training sessions are a whole host of other offerings, covering everything from nutrition to ski tuning to high-performance psychology. \u201cSomeone on the junior academy or development programme will have at least one ski tuning and psychology workshop a week,\u201d Ms George says. \u201cSo, for example, the students are responsible for maintaining their own equipment, because it teaches them to care for and respect what they have, and helps them learn the dedication that goes into being an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s an approach that is familiar to Head Coach Marusa Ferk Saioni, a former Olympian who joined the school in August 2024, and whose expertise will help elevate Aiglon’s young skiers, instilling in them an athlete’s mentality and a love for the sport. Originally from Slovenia, she has represented her country at four Winter Olympics and finished third in the slalom at the 2009 Ski World Cup; in 2022, she started working as a coach with her former team. \u201cI learned so much over my career, from ski tuning, to nutrition, to how to train off the snow, even how to rest,\u201d she remembers. \u201cIt\u2019s all these little pieces that come together and make a great athlete, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing with students at Aiglon, starting from the basics and building our way up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The coaching team of three full time Aiglon staff is supported by a wider support team, including David Mansfield (Belvedere, 1982) who has been an Aiglon ski coach for over two decades, as well the dedicated local Villars Swiss Ski School (ESS) instructors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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