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Published on February 4th, 2010

Chythlook-Sifsof caps busy week at X Games

By VAN WILLIAMS

What a week it was for Alaskan Callan Chythlook-Sifsof.

On Jan. 25, the Yup'ik/Inupiat 20-year-old became the first Alaska Native to be named to the U.S. Olympic snowboard team and by the weekend she had advanced to the boardercross finals at the X Games.

Chythlook-Sifsof, of Girdwood by way of Dillingham, will head to the 2010 Vancouver Games soon to compete Feb. 16 in boardercross, two days after her 21st birthday. She is one of seven Alaskans representing Uncle Sam at the Olympic Games.

"It's really a huge amount of work. People got to realize that this doesn't just land in your lap," said her mom, Gloria Chythlook. "It really takes a tremendous amount of dedication and time and it's stressful. It's super stressful. It's easy to quit. It's easy to give up.

"It's lots of fun when it works out ... but man, you know, we've had six years of trying."

But her Olympic dream nearly was derailed at the X Games in Aspen, Colo., after a brutal crash during Saturday's semifinal action knocked her out of the race and out of commission. Her mom said Chythlook-Sifsof suffered a mild concussion and some bruises on the spill, yet she still managed to come back later to finish second in the consolation round.

This is the first trip to the Olympics for Chythlook-Sifsof, who broke onto the scene in 2006 when she made the U.S. snowboard team and won a national championship.

In 2007 she bagged a podium spot in her very first World Cup race in Japan with a third-place finish and backed it up with a fourth-place showing in Canada. In 2008 she won he King of the Mountain crown.

Then disaster struck in 2009 when Chythlook-Sifsof suffered a season-ending knee injury while racing in Argentina.

But she never gave up her dream of the Olympics, using the adversity to fuel an amazing comeback story.

She returned this season full strength and got right back into the swing of things, working herself back into shape and climbing all the way to No. 2 in the national rankings. She is ranked 21st in the world.

Chythlook-Sifsof will be joined at the Olympics by American boardercross teammates Faye Gulini and Lindsey Jacobellis, the defending Olympic silver medalist and reigning X Games champion in the event.

The Alaskan was introduced to snowboarding by her big brother Will on local hills near Dillingham.

"We loved to go snowmachining and hiking to the mountain there," she has said, "and any time we weren't doing that, we were messing around behind my grandfather's house on snowboards, always together, 'C'mon sister, let's go,' he'd say."

Then as a crazy coincidence, William, now 27, won a snowboarding medal at a competition in Girdwood on the same day Callan was named to the U.S. Olympic Team.

William has Olympic aspirations, too.

He's a stud in the USASA Big Alaska Series at Mount Alyeska and has a strong chance to qualify for nationals, going down the same road that led younger sis Callan to her sport's mountain top.

"It's lots of fun," the proud mom said.