12-Year-Old Extreme Skier Wins 25th Place in National Championships

Fairfax has a budding young extreme sports star by the name of Gilbert Le Floch, the 12-year-old recently placed 25th in the half pipe event of the United States of America Snowboarding Association National Championships.

The Great Oaks resident and 7th grader at Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church has been skiing since he was just 3 years old. His snow home? Wintergreen Resort along the eastern slopes of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, where his grandparents own a condo.

“Freeride skiing and snowboarding is very popular and a serious athletic endeavor,” said Chris Shepard, the Winter Teams Director at Wintergreen Resort. “Athletes on the Wintergreen team, like Gilbert, train year-round, on and off the snow, to make sure they are competitive enough to advance to national events at the end of the winter season each year."

After capturing first place in the half pipe event of the USASA Appalachain Region, Le Floch and his father traveled to Colorado to compete against 42 of the nation’s top amateur freestyle skiers.

“I did ok, I finished 25th place, middle of the pack,” he said. “We spent five days there, I did grabs, I also did 360s and alleyoop 180s.”

2011 also marked Le Floch's first year gaining a sponsor, Liberty Skis, a ski company based in Avon, Colo. Liberty decided to extend a sponsorship to him based on his 2010 season.

Gilbert’s father, Patrick, who is also a skier, was proud to see his son among the top amateur skiers in the nation and looks for him to keep making progress throughout his young career.

“It’s a great privilege to see him compete at such a high level,” he said. “Especially against kids who probably have a lot more exposure to cold weather and mountains than we do. 25th place is a great achievement, especially considering that the other competitors have a lot longer practice season than he gets.”

Though the summer is coming up and most kids' minds are far from the cold slopes of Colorado, Gilbert intends to train through the summer and get ready for next season.

“This summer I’m going to start going down to Snowflex at Liberty University,” he said. “Snowflex has Astroturf that you can ski on, so I’ll be spending a lot of my summer there training.”

Le Floch will return to the USASA Appalachian circuit next season for another shot at competing in the national championships.