THE Riverina is home to some of the finest agricultural producers in Australia. It is also a region that is renowned for sporting success stories.
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It is not unusual for an individual to juggle the commitments of working in a family farming business and then backing it up with several sessions of strenuous training a week to meet their sporting goals. This week The Rural talks to Charles Sturt University (CSU) veterinary biology/veterinary science student and accomplished skiing competitor Krystle Yin. Yin is a member of the CSU’s Elite Athlete program for Moguls (snow skiing).
KRYSTLE Yin balances her time between studying at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga and training at an elite level as part of the Moguls Snow Skiing team.
Her aim is to become a veterinary surgeon after completing her studies in Wagga.
While her career ambitions fit firmly into the rural and regional sector her sporting success has provided an opportunity to travel the world.
From her base at Arcadia, and hour-and-a-half from Sydney, she can make the trip to Wagga to study or to the snow to train. However, training is not just about hitting the slopes. There are gym sessions and other challenges too.
“I compete in freestyle mogul skiing for the NSW institute of sport,” Yin said.
“I started this sport as an extra competing for the NSW inter schools races. I was mainly competitive in alpine racing at the time, and I joined mogul skiing as a fun way to give more to the school and make up team numbers. I ended up enjoying the sport far more than racing and I gradually made the switch,” she said.
Freestyle mogul skiing is on a 250 to 280 meter piste (run) consisting of three sections of bumps and two sets of jumps. The sport is judged on technical ability to move through the bumps efficiently, speed, and the execution of jumps. On average this all happens in a 30 second time frame. This sport pushes endurance, strength and aerial skills.
“The benefit of my sport is that for half of the year, our training is predominantly home based, being gym conditioning and water ramp training (aerial skill improvement),” Yin said.
“During this stage it is much easier to focus on my studies and catch up … however the disadvantage, is that for the other half of the year is spent travelling overseas to different mountains and following the snow,” she said.
Yin trains at the gym throughout the year and the months from November to February consist of travelling through the World Cup tour overseas to countries including Finland, China, USA and Canada.
“Through June to August I train in Australia during our winter season, due to studies though I need to be in Wagga for compulsory practicals, this means I can only train on weekends, so I drive up on Friday night and back on Sunday night for Monday classes,” she said.
“It is hard to manage training programs especially when they are so far away from home, but I have had so much support from family, friends, the university, and the elite athlete program.”
Career highlights:
- 14th at the 2017 freestyle Calgary mogul skiing World Cup (Canada)
- 12th at the 2017 freestyle Deer Valley mogul skiing World Cup dual event. (USA)
- 3rd in the 2016 US selections in Winter Park (USA)
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