Calgary’s Pathway to the Podium Series highlights 10 local Canadian athletes on their backstories and hopes in Pyeongchang. Taylor Henrich is one of them.
Three years ago at 19 years old, Calgary’s Taylor Henrich put the sport of ski jumping on the map in Canada. She became the first Canadian woman to win a World Cup medal, earning a bronze in Oberstdorf, Germany. Then fifth at the World Championships, the best-ever for a Canadian woman. Then another World Cup bronze.
One year after appearing in the Olympic debut for women’s ski jumping in Sochi, Henrich’s success prompted attention and – more importantly – funding for her individually and for Ski Jumping Canada.
“I had no idea I could even do it,” the soft-spoken Henrich said, thinking back on her success. “I’ve already experienced the hindering of the performance.”
To say body composition is important in ski jumping is a drastic understatement. After the V-technique came into prominence in the 1980s – replacing the traditional position of having the skis parallel – with it came the problem of weight loss among its athletes. The 1990s and early 2000s included several high-profile cases of anorexia and bulimia, prompting the International Ski Federation in 2004 to tie maximum ski length to an athlete’s relative height and body weight.
While much of these developments happened well before the rise of Henrich, she wasn’t immune to the reality of weight in the sport.
“You have to stay lean, but stay strong,” she said. At just 19, her body was still changing and growing.
“I lost a lot of weight at one point, lost a lot of muscle, gained it back,” she said. “That was one of the hardest things.”
After describing the struggle, the 22-year-old suddenly smiles about what she’s learned.
“You know what, this is my body,” she said. “This is what works for me and this is what made me podium, so why not work with what I have?”
Henrich began ski jumping at eight years old, hitting her first K-90 jump three years later. Her knack for historic moments began in 2012 at the Winter Youth Games in Innsbruck, when she became the first woman take part in ski jumping at an IOC-sanctioned event, wearing bib number one. She finished fifth and Canada won bronze in the mixed team event.
“I would say two years up until the Games (Sochi), I struggled a little bit with am I even going to make the team,” she said. “I really turned it on and put the throttle in full and you know what, I’m going for the Games and who cares what happens.”
Of course she would make that team, in that historic year of women’s ski jumping finally being included at the Games.
“There’s nothing that compares to it,” she said, calling walking in the opening ceremonies one of the best experiences of her life.
For some, the idea of skiing straight down a hill, lifting off at 90 km/hr and flying over the length of a football field seems nauseating at best and downright terrifying at worst.
Not for Henrich.
She can’t get enough of the adrenaline, considering she takes part in surfing, wakeboarding, water skiing and rock-climbing. The idea of a normal 9-to-5 job is the farthest thing from her mind, as she sees herself someday becoming a stunt double, with some of her family already in the film industry. Although she has plenty of family in sports too: her father is a six-degree black belt, her brother does martial arts, her cousins Adam and Michael Henrich were drafted to the NHL and she has a cousin who was a college track athlete.
As for the near future, Henrich is one of just two Canadians competing in ski jumping in Pyeongchang, along with 26-year-old Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes on the men’s side. After dealing with an ankle injury, she recently said she’s hoping for a top-10 finish. While the last two years were very long ones for Henrich, she’s following her pattern of going all-out and letting the chips – or in this case the skis – fall where they may. She went for it in 2012 and two years later, made it to Sochi. She wanted to enjoy 2015 and then made her historic mark. Now accepting her body, maybe magic can happen again.
“When people tell me that the sky is the limit, I tell them I live in a world with no sky, I fly though the air,” she said. “Just go for it, never give up and there’s never really a limit.”
Lucas Meyer is a reporter and producer for 660News in Calgary. He is also the play-by-play voice of the University of Calgary Dinos basketball teams. Follow him on Twitter @meyer_lucas.
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