For someone who has spent 20 of her 22 years on this planet striving to go faster on skis, Lila Lapanja not long ago discovered the secret to Olympic success might just exist in slowing down.
“Yeah that's actually a good point: slow down to go faster, less is more all those little analogies,” Lapanja said during a recent interview with NBC Bay Area at the Incline Village in Tahoe.
It was not, Lapanja adds, an easy lesson to learn.
Ever since she first strapped on skis at the age of two … speed is what Lila has been after.
At first, it was just keeping up with her ski-racing father.
“I kind of saw him as my older brother, someone I really wanted to compete with and beat and we would always have little races,” Lapanja said. “I'd say I’ll race you to the car, I’ll race you to the mountain, I’ll race you down the hill. Everything was a race.”
But as Lapanja rose through the national ranks as a slalom skier and made the U.S. Ski Team, she pushed herself ever harder.
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Intense is the first word Lapanja uses to describe her athletic style.
Her coaches and parents urged her to dial it back, but it wasn’t until her body spoke up in 2015 that she had no choice but to listen.[[458276313, C]]
“I think I was overtraining a little bit and I was not doing the right kind of training.” Lapanja said. “There was just a moment in time in training where I just hit a bump and my back said, ‘nope we’re done, you can't ski anymore, we are done, you have to stop, you have to slow down.’ My whole life I've seen myself as an athlete, and to suddenly not be able to move and be athletic, it felt like someone had stolen my soul.”
Lapanja battled back, learning smarter ways to train and ski, sometimes wondering if it was all worth it.
But finally standing atop a world cup race course in Austria last year, she knew the answer was yes: “it was a magical night and it was snowing and there were probably 20,000 people in the crowd and I just remember thinking this is exactly where I want to be … This is exactly the feeling I want to feel.”
The only better feeling, Lapanja said, will be doing the same thing at the 2018 games.
Clubs:
Diamond Peak Ski Team/Sugar Bowl Ski Academy
WORLD CUP HIGHLIGHTS
23rd, SL, Flachau, AUT, 2016
First World Cup points scored in only three starts
U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS
3rd, SL, Sugarloaf, ME, 2017
2nd, SL, Sun Valley, ID, 2016
3rd, SL, Squaw Valley, CO, 2014 (Junior SL Champion)
Back-to-back U.S. Junior combined champion, 2012 and 2013
FIS JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Teams: 2013, 2014
6th, SL, Jasna, SVK, 2014
15th, SL, Mont St. Anne, CAN, 2013 (Top American in SL and GS)
OTHER
NorAm Slalom Champion, 2014 and 2016
Ranked 4th, NorAm Overall, 2016
Western Region Overall and Jr. Slalom Champion, 2011
