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Community Corner

Help K.C. Oakley Go for the Gold!

Hometown girl, K.C. Oakley, PHS '06, is doing her best to go to the next Winter Olympics. The road to Sochi, where the Winter Olympics will begin next February, began for K.C. at ten years of age, when she joined the Alpine Meadows Freestyle Team. Since then, the road has had many twists and turns, some bumps and even some detours; some good, like getting her B.A. at Cal in three-and-a half years; some bad, like losing her best friend, Jill Costello, Varsity8 coxswain for Cal Women's Crew, to lung cancer at age 21.

On the fast track through college so she could concentrate on her skiing, K.C. made the U.S. Ski Team at the end of the next season. As things are amping up for 2014 Winter Olympics, K.C. has already had two on-snow training sessions at Mt. Hood and El Colorado, Chile. She is currently training in Zermatt, Switzerland, with one more session in Colorado, USA before the World Cups begin December 13/14 in Ruka, Finalnd. Once January comes, a compressed circuit kicks in, with competitions scheduled in Calgary, Deer Valley, Val St. Come and Lake Placid. All these events are Olympic qualifiers, with the U.S. Olympic Freestyle Team being named on January 18th.

As it turns out, skiing on the World Cup circuit and preparing for the Olympics is really expensive! Recently the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) formed a relationship with RallyMe, an online crowdfunding platform, to help their athletes deal with the financial strain of year-round training and competition. K.C.'s RallyMe site is now up-and-running. Please visit the site, https://www.rallyme.com/rallies/173, and read, in K.C.’s own words, about her passion for her sport and her dream to make the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team. You will also be treated to a short, action-packed video of highlights from K.C.'s last couple of seasons on the U.S. Ski Team.

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Help support your hometown girl! Help K.C. Oakley go for the gold!

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