The Ski Siblings The Ski Siblings

WRITTEN BY PJ RIDDELL DESIGNED BY ISABELLA KERN

The term “sibling rivalry” probably doesn’t bring to mind images of racing down icy slopes. But for siblings Caleb and Faith Richert, competitive slalom skiing has been a central part of their lives at home that they brought with them to Messiah.

“We’ve been competitive all our life,” Caleb Richert said. “I’ve always had some plan to compete in college.”

While not as widely-known as the main NCAA-regulated sports on campus, competitive skiing, as with many other sports, has different levels of competition. Teams and individuals at the collegiate level compete throughout the season in at least two regular season races to qualify for regional competitions. The regional competitions then decide who moves on to compete at the national level - often held at former winter Olympics locations, such as Lake Placid, New York in 2022.

However, competing collegiately wouldn’t be as easy as simply joining the Messiah ski team for Caleb Richert, a senior Environmental Science major. He would have to blaze that trail himself initially, as there was no official club team on campus when he first arrived.

“When I got to Messiah, I wanted to start [skiing] up as a formal club sport,” Caleb Richert said.

As many things were, Caleb’s first season skiing collegiately was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the delay allowed for his sister Faith, a sophomore Education major, to join him as they pushed for a ski club, and prepared for their first competitive season at Messiah in the early months of 2022.

Despite the efforts of Caleb and his sister Faith, the club hasn’t been officially recognized as a club sport due to the lack of an advisor. However, Caleb and Faith still plan to continue meeting and competing at Ski Roundtop, and the invitation remains open to any student at Messiah.

“We could pay our own way, make our own path,” Caleb Richert said. “But we’d love to have a more formal recognition.”

For the Richert siblings, only being a team of two makes competitive matters a bit more complicated. Since the minimum size of a team in USCSA competition is four members, Caleb and Faith had to earn their own ways into nationals as individuals in 2022.

They succeeded, both qualifying for nationals in their very first collegiate season. Faith placed first in both of her competitions during regionals, convincingly securing her trip to the national stage.

“Just by getting [to nationals] as individuals, that’s really huge for us,” Faith Richert said. “It was great just being there, with everyone being on teams, but we made it as individuals.

But for Caleb, even just competing in regionals was a bit more of a challenge, and a testament to his resilience in the face of injuries.

“I had an ACL tear, a tibial spinal avulsion fracture, and a back surgery, all in high school,” Caleb Richert said. “Then last year…I get spun around…and break my collarbone. Later that season I tried skiing again and ended up dislocating my kneecap.”

While his main priority following his injuries was regaining physical health to ski, he found optimism in using the time to assess his faith.

“I was taking physical therapy seriously to get back into the sport, but there are times I felt like I needed…to be able to step back and put sports back in the right perspective,” Caleb Richert said. “If God makes a way, He will.”

Sure enough, Caleb’s faith and patience paid off as he found a way to compete in regionals.

“I had to get special permission to compete at regionals, because you have to compete in at least two races during the regular season to compete,” Caleb Richert said. “I only competed in one race that season.”

Caleb made the most of the chance he’d been given, finding a way to sneak into nationals by placing sixth and eighth at regionals.

“I just barely got in, and it was awesome,” Caleb Richert said. “It really felt like a miracle to be honest, I was so happy, so thankful just praising God.”

Despite punching their tickets to the national stage through individual competition, Faith and Caleb have made certain not to forget their team focus, and what they represent at each competition.

“It was really great just representing Messiah in general,” Faith Richert said. “Kids would show up being like ‘Messiah? We’ve never heard of that, who even are you?’ so it was really cool going to a national event, having so many different people there… no one really knew who we were, so we were able to make a name for ourselves.”

The Richert siblings have their sights set on competing once again in 2023, with the hopes of arriving on the national stage once again in Mammoth, California in early March.

RATING: 8/10