Featured Image: Courtesy of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team | Skier: Maggie Voisin
One of the greatest competitors to ever touch a pair of skis is saying goodbye to the podium. Maggie Voisin has announced that she is stepping down from the Stifel U.S. Ski Team after a decade. It will not be just the Olympics that Voisin is absent from in the future, as she is, “[stepping] back from the competitive world of skiing,” according to the announcement on Instagram.
The Whitefish, Montana native will be leaving big shoes to fill. Her resume includes three Olympics, seven X Games medals, with two of those being gold medals in Slopestyle. She is the only American woman to win the field at X Games, earning the top spot in 2018 and 2020. While her time in the competition circuit has been incredible to watch, she is giving no signs of slowing down; pivoting, but not stopping.
Voisin became a staple in the world of freeskiing over ten years ago, and has stayed in the limelight ever since. She signed on with K2 Skis when she was just 15 years old, and after triumphantly powering through setbacks and injuries, she is ready to move her career into the next chapter. “There will never be words that can express what the last decade of my career has meant to me,” Voisin wrote on Friday, June 21st in an open letter on Instagram. “I am so proud of everything I have accomplished, for everything I’ve been able to push through, and for living out my childhood dream. I am so unbelievably grateful for all the ups and downs every moment has taught me, and I am beyond thankful for every single person this sport has also brought into my life.”
As viewers, we saw signs that this day was coming. She had pivoted into backcountry skiing around four years ago, with her Good Company project, “Swiftcurrent” being one of her first backcountry showings. Absorbing knowledge from some of the best riders and experts around, she is now filming heli lines in Alaska just a few years later.
This certainly is a testament to the dedication we’ve seen displayed by Voisin throughout her career. The backcountry is a different animal than park skiing, with many factors and variables that are impossible to control. Avalanche conditions, snowpack, terrain features and more are some of the dangers you can attempt to mitigate, but not contain. However, the underlying threads that connect park skiing and backcountry are a hunger for wisdom and the ability to push through adversity. As Voisin has proven over and over again, those are two traits that she is well adept in.
“Thank you to EVERYONE who has contributed to my career and this wild journey since I started this sport when I was ten years old. Community is everything, and I would not be where I am today without all of you. And, of course, thank you to my amazing sponsors who continue to support my passion for skiing and my new vision for the future!” – Maggie Voisin
The future remains open for this young legend, and to say she has options would be an understatement. She has shown herself to be a powerful and fast-learning backcountry skier, and even if she decides that isn’t the path for her, she also made waves during her first time commentating at the X Games this winter. From the big time booth to the remote stretches of Cooke City, there’s much to choose from. Progressing both the sport and the culture, it’s clear that Voisin will be around the world of freeskiing for years to come, and we’re all better because of it. Congratulations to her on a monumental career, and we look forward to see what’s next.
