It’s safe to say Wei Tien Ho’s career is on the up and up.
The Whistler fan-favourite junior athlete made the cut for the Freeride World Tour (FWT) earlier this year after racking up 4,050 points on the FWT Challenger Series. In just a few months, he’ll join childhood friend Marcus Goguen and another fellow Whistlerite, Jackson Bathgate, at the pinnacle of the freeride universe.
“That’s a bit of a dream come true, honestly, and to have one of my best friends on the tour as well,” he said. “Ever since we started competing in the freeride scene, [Marcus and I] always looked up to the Freeride World Tour and dreamed about being on a livestream one day. Over the years, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night to watch it, so now to be on the big scene is pretty surreal.”
Sometimes good things come in bunches, and they did for the 19-year-old back in July when he struck gold at the Canadian Open Enduro on home soil. More recently, he and Goguen joined Olympians Megan Oldham and Maggie Voisin, plus a bevy of other athletes, in Teton Gravity’s latest snow sports film Legend Has It.
For Ho, who loves filmmaking virtually as much as he does competing, it’s yet another dream come to fruition—as well as a learning experience.
“I’ve always wanted to be featured in a ski film, and then to do it with one of my best friends, Marcus, is pretty surreal as well,” he revealed. “We had a lot of learning curves there. I was pretty new to [snowmobiling], plus just figuring out how much patience the whole filming process takes. To get a three-minute segment takes what feels like forever, days after days of waking up early … but I definitely feel like we ended up with something pretty sick.”
Room to progress
As leaves and temperatures continue to fall, Ho is getting ready to break out the skis and stow his mountain bike away for the winter. He finished seventh overall in the UCI Enduro World Cup (EDR) rankings, but believes he has much more to offer.
Indeed, Ho would’ve accumulated more than 691 EDR points if not for a few unfortunate mishaps. His bike chain broke during an event in Châtel, France, relegating him to 10th. There was also a one-minute penalty he took during his season-opening contest in Italy for handing in his timing chip late, which bumped him down from sixth to 16th. Ho admits it was an honest mistake, as he was used to event organizers collecting his chip at race’s end rather than needing to return it himself.
It’s a frustrating gaffe, and Ho feels he made his fair share of “stupid mistakes” this past summer. At the same time, he’s poised enough to move on from the past.
“Definitely some ups and downs,” said the two-sport competitor. “I wouldn’t say I’m very satisfied with my end result. I am satisfied with some process goals, things that I’ve learned along the way, and that I can work on going into this offseason. There were definitely some highs with Canadian Nationals and some decent individual results, but I feel like I have potential that I haven’t tapped into and a lot of room to progress.”
Ties that bind
For now, Ho looks forward to upgrading his ski skills in preparation for the FWT. He naturally took up the sport as a child, switching to his bike in summer months as many Sea to Sky residents do. As he realized not many compete in skiing and biking at a high level, it drove him to keep up with both and set himself apart.
Ho met Goguen at a local ski camp when they were eight years old. They’ve been piggybacking off of each other’s abilities and experiences ever since, building a fraternal bond that isn’t fading anytime soon.
“We’ve spent so much time together, both in sports and out of sports, and we’ve just gotten to know each other like the backs of our hands,” Ho said. “We’re like brothers, pretty much, and yeah, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am without him.”
Don’t get Ho wrong—he and Goguen are dedicated athletes who push one another hard every day. Yet intense competition rarely, if ever, erodes relationships between athletes in their community. Skiers and bikers from different nations routinely look out for one another, maintaining an atmosphere of safety and good cheer.
Podium results are obviously in the back of his mind, but Ho’s primary goal is to focus on the little things and put down runs he can be proud of all winter long. Win or lose, he doesn’t intend to hold back.
