The Whistler Mountain Ski Club’s (WMSC) Tait Jordan and Nathan Romanin have made their way to Panorama Mountain Resort to compete in their first ever FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships from March 1 to 9.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, neither skier was able to attend the event in the last two years, but with this year’s event being hosted on home soil, the longtime WMSC members can barely contain their excitement to finally put their skills to the test against the world’s best junior ski racers.
“Panorama is a great location for us. The snow is always pretty hard, we have a good relationship with the mountain, and because of that, really great training, and I think it all plays as a huge benefit for me and Tait leading into these races,” said Romanin, who is in his last year of eligibility for the Junior World Champs.
“I’m super excited. It’s something I’ve looked forward to for a number of years, as we haven’t been able to send teams from Canada due to COVID … and especially to have this home field advantage skiing in Panorama, I’m really looking forward to it.”
At 19 and 20 years of age, respectively, North Vancouver’s Jordan and Squamish’s Romanin have been skiing together at the WMSC for nearly 10 years already.
So to be able to experience their first junior World Championships together makes it all the more exciting for them.
“It’s so awesome. I’ve grown up with Tait now for the past 10 years of ski racing. We’ve always gone back and forth in the racing, and we’ve grown a really strong friendship to build off of,” said Romanin. “And I think it brings you a lot of confidence having your best buddy next to you going through the same thing, whether it’s success or failure. I think we’ve learned a lot together.”
So far this year, both skiers have seen some success on the Nor-Am Cup level.
Romanin, who plans to compete in all five alpine events in Panorama but is focusing mostly on super-G and giant slalom, started off the year with a podium finish in Colorado and said he’s been building off that throughout the season.
Meanwhile, Jordan has been able to snag a couple top-15 finishes as well as a near-podium finish with his sixth-place in Panorama earlier in the season.
But despite the successful seasons to date, neither Romanin nor Jordan are putting too much emphasis on their results this week in Panorama, preferring to instead focus on the process.
However, at the same time, they know strong results here could go a long way towards making the jump to the World Cup level in the next couple seasons.
“I’m trying not to put any results or positions in my head, but I really do think just between having skied so much at Panorama and my confidence through this year, [that] I can really compete and push the pace out there. I don’t really have any results in mind but definitely some high expectations,” said Jordan, who also plans to compete in all five alpine events.
“I try to keep my mind clear for sure, but I think that doing well at the World Juniors would definitely help me make that step up to the national ski team, which is a huge goal of mine. But as we get into this whole series I think that just trying to keep my mind clear and [skiing] hard is going to be probably the most productive approach that I can take.”
Even though neither of them have a specific placement goal in mind, with the combination of home soil advantage and the strong skiing from the entire Canadian team so far this year, Romanin believes some podium finishes are definitely within reach for Canada.
“I think it’s looking really great. We have a really strong group of 12 athletes—six guys and six girls—so I could see some big results coming down the pipeline with the team,” he said. “I’m really excited for myself but also my entire team to be having this opportunity. I think we’ll be having a really good look at it this year.”
