[Windspeaker Confidential] Sammy Kent

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Sammy Kent: Trust

W: What is it that really makes you mad?
S.K.: Ignorance

W: When are you at your happiest?
S.K.: On a beautiful bluebird day in the mountains with a good friend skiing 20-plus centimetres of fresh powder.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?
S.K.: Bitter

W: What one person do you most admire and why?
S.K.: My grandmother. No matter the situation she is always able to find a positive outlook. When she is down, she does not place the weight on anyone’s shoulders, even if you want her to. She always has a great smile and makes you feel loved.

W: What is the most difficult thing you’ve ever had to do?
S.K.: Accept that I will lose the ones I love.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?
S.K.: Ask me again after the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

W: What one goal remains out of reach?
S.K.: Time Travel

W: If you couldn’t do what you’re doing today, what would you be doing?
S.K.: What I’m going to do tomorrow.

W: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
S.K.: Try your best.

W: Did you take it?
S.K.: I live by it.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?
S.K.: I only hope to be remembered by people who truly want to remember me. And I hope that when they think of me, they are happy to have met me.

We didn’t see Sammy “Tempy” Templeton Kent on our Vanoc 2010 television screens, but he was there as a self-described “guinea pig” and “forerunner” who tested the track, timing and cameras for the Canadian Alpine Ski Team. Could it have been a dress rehearsal for a Sochi, Russia medal grab? From here on in, it’ll be training, top-of-the-line equipment testing, and diet and lifestyle tweaking to render him ready to make it so in 2014.

Kent began skiing at age two on a family trip to Whistler and by the time he was six, after a move to northern Canada, he started in the Nancy Greene Ski League on Yukon’s Mount Sima. That’s where then-head coach Dick Eastmure first got to know him, watching Kent use his exceptional sense of balance, agility and great reflexes to out-ski the competition, taking him further than any skier to come out of the Yukon.

Kent, originally from Fort McKay First Nation in Alberta, ended last winter with strong finishes in the National championships in Canada and the U.S. Originally an Alpine skier, he made the switch to the new Olympic event Ski Cross two years ago, igniting a new love for skiing. On attending the National Sports School in Calgary, where “classes work around your sports schedule and teachers help you get through it,” Kent admits that keeping up with both studies and sport was “tough work.”

On his competitive life, he adds: “being an athlete has taught me that, in sport and life, it’s extremely important to set goals and markers to attain your dreams. Never give up and never look back at what you could have done better or should have done differently.”