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Sondra Van Ert

Height: 5-9
Weight: 140
Birthday: March 9, 1964
Birthplace: Des Moines, IA

Ski racing burnout Sondra Van Ert spit in the face of age a year ago. In her fourth decade, she was the only woman earning two medals at the '96 World Snowboard Championships, collected her first World Cup victory, and repeated as national slalom and GS champion. Coincidentally, her win came on what will be the '98 Olympic GS hill. Attitude, she said, is more important than age.

Comment: "Goals are a hard thing to talk about. I would hope and assume everyone has these. It's hard to lay them out there and be scrutinized. I've got no control over everyone else, just myself. So, I want to approach the season and hope that I'm prepared."

Start-up: On skis at two (Utah's Beaver Mountain after the family moved from Iowa), she was a U.S. Ski Team member until retiring to enter the Univ. of Utah. Van Ert was second in the 1985 Nor Am DH standings, DH silver medalist at the 1987 World University Games in then-Czechoslovakia.

After a post-racing knee injury, she watched kids have so much fun while snowboarding in 1990 at Sun Valley and decided to ride. On the season's last day, she took two hours to ride, slide and tumble on Sun Valley's famed Baldy. Mountain. She improved with every run after that first-time spillfest.

Coachquote: "Sondra had a killer year and she's still riding fast. She's a great role model - athletes' rep, hard worker, a good leader." - Peter Foley

Fab four-legger: Her 75-pound husky mix, a female, is named Avy, short for "Avalanche." She used to be one of Sun Valley's avalanche rescue dogs.

Cross-training: Preseason conditioning dovetails nicely with her outdoor lifestyle which includes mountainbiking, road riding, backpacking, waterskiing and mountain boarding (a skateboard with big wheels that can travel off-road).

Real life: "When I'm not training, I play catch-up on life as it exists. Dig up all my bills, play on the computer, things like that." (Her college degree was in finance; she sold her slice of a Ketchum paint store so she could zero-in on her riding.) And...: She coaches with the Hailey Ski Team (near Sun Valley) and has done occasional land surveying for several years.

Champ chow: Thai, Oriental.

Family: Youngest of four daughters (all ski raced); Mom and Dad live in the Sun Valley area.