Abby Olson worked tirelessly in the offseason to recover from a torn ACL and meniscus injury she suffered last winter. 

The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club skier made the ultimate comeback, winning the U18 Overall National Alpine Championship on Monday in Aspen. Olson also became the individual champion in downhill and giant slalom. 

“To come back and be able to perform in a place where I’m under pressure and perform my best, it felt pretty good,” Olson said. 

It was a rough nine months for Olson who was not cleared to get back on snow until August, giving her a later start than most for the season. She spent a lot of time working on strength training this fall preparing for what was to come. 

“Coming back I was working on being centered on my skis and being more forward instead of getting pushed back at the middle of my turn,” Olson said. “That was working well for me and I’ve been working on depth and taking it out on the top of my turn, and I think I did that well in the GS. That helped for sure.”

At U18 Nationals, Olson opened the competition weekend with the fastest time in each of her two downhill runs, her first downhill race back from injury. She followed that performance just one place off the podium in super-G for 4th and a second U18 national title in giant slalom on Sunday. 

SSWSC’s Caley Goforth started in 49th position on downhill day, finishing in seventh at the event. 

For the men, Owen Wither took the second-place podium in downhill and had two additional top-10 finishes with ninth-place showings in both giant slalom and slalom. He finished fourth in the men’s overall U18 National Championship series. 

Olson said the key to success over the weekend was not putting too much pressure on herself. She hopes to bring that ideology to the Nor-Am Alpine Finals and U.S. Alpine National Championships later this month.