Kelly VanderBeek

At the time of her retirement from professional skiing in 2013, Kelly VanderBeek was the most decorated female member of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team.

VanderBeek began her skiing career and her Olympic dreams at her home club of Chicopee Ski Club in Kitchener. She first qualified for the Canadian National Ski Team in 2000. In her junior career, she finished third in super-G at the 2002 and 2003 FIS (International Ski Federation) Junior World Ski Championships. She won the NorAm titles for downhill and super-G those same years. In 2002, VanderBeek was named the Canadian Junior Athlete of the Year.

VanderBeek earned three top-three World Cup career medals, including a third-place finish in the super-G held at Lake Louise. This made her the first Canadian woman to win a medal at the event since Lake Louise began hosting it. VanderBeek had a fourth-place finish in super-G at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy; she was 0.03 seconds behind the third place skier.

A crash in 2009 resulted in a full knee dislocation and prevented VanderBeek from competing in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. However, she was asked to carry the torch by VANOC president John Furlong, and joined the on-air broadcast team.

This led to VanderBeek working as an on-air broadcaster with CTV during the Vancouver (2010) and London (2012) Olympic Games and with CBC at the Sochi (2014) and Rio (2016) Olympic Games. She has also covered other notable sports events, such as the Rogers Cup, for CTV, CBC and Sportsnet.

VanderBeek has created her own not-for-profit organization – Kelly VanderBeek Racing (KVR) – to provide a competitive ski racing program to young athletes. She also is an Athlete Ambassador with Right to Play – Canada.