For many of the greatest women freeskiers in the world, being the only woman in a room, team, or even an entire competition is not an uncommon experience.  Slopestyle and Big Air events have balanced gender representation at the highest levels of competition, but the same can’t be said of the pipeline to those events or the behind-the-scenes experiences.  Leah Stroud, head rookie team coach for the Stifel U.S. Ski Team Freeski Slopestyle Big Air squad, understands the importance of having connection with other women in an extremely male-dominated sport. She’s the only female coach in the Freeski World Cup Circuit and the Stifel U.S. Freeski Team. Pairing her personal experiences with her master’s degree in sports psychology helped her put together a camp so girls who are newer to the sport can see more representation.  Last weekend, Stroud hosted her second girls-only airbag water ramp skills camp. This summer’s camp took place over three days at Woodward Park City and the Utah Olympic Park. She brought together Stifel U.S. Ski Team Athletes, Olympians, X Games and Red Bull medalists and Park City Ski Snowboard Athletes to coach. Forty girls attended the camp, some traveling from out of state.  While the girls learned to do backflips, 360s and jump off water ramps, Stroud and the other coaches were watching them build confidence and relationships that would mean just as much outside of skiing. “Skiing’s this vessel that we’re using, but these girls are learning skills that are going to help them be better humans,” Stroud said. That readiness to learn was apparent within the first hour of the camp with Yardley W. Yardley, a 7 year old from Park City, who started skiing just before her second birthday. It was around that time she saw the Flying Aces, too, and she said she’s wanted to ski at the Olympics ever since then.  “I like skiing a lot and want to improve my skills,” Yardley said. She got to work right away, specifically with front flips.  The first day of the camp was held at Woodward. The girls got to know each other and the coaches while practicing tricks on the trampolines. Yardley worked with coaches for hours to master the flip. Fall after fall, she got up and tried again.  Camper and coach practice flips at Woodward Park City during Freeski Girls Camp. Credit: Photo courtesy of Sadie Texer/U.S. Ski Snowboard “I didn’t want to give up,” she said. Over the next two days of the camp, Yardley kept practicing front flips on the trampoline and landed 180s, then 360s, then a 540 off of the water ramp jump.  2026 Olympian Avery Krumme is one of the coaches who helped Yardley the most. Krumme said she wants to help inspire a younger generation of women in the sport and that this women-only camp was a special way to do that.  Krumme said growing up with brothers and skiing with boys helped her competitive drive. But going to a similar all-girls camp when she was younger is what made her the athlete she is today, she said.  “Skiing with all girls helped me make friends and be with people in a really positive environment,” Krumme said. “It’s building confidence with girls supporting each other.” Seeing the girls say “You got this, I believe in you!” as a group was her favorite part of the camp, she said. The camp’s aim is to build the girls up as people, Stroud said, whether or not they decide to stay in freeski or sports in general. “It’s really giving these girls confidence and a safe environment and a supportive environment to be able to create community and meet people and support each other,” Stroud said.  On the second day of the camp, Stroud had the girls participate in a discussion. She started by having everyone write something about confidence on a large paper. The coaches read off the responses and talked about them with the group. “Not-Ego” was one answer. They explained ego as “showing off” or “doing things for other people, not yourself.”  Another topic they discussed was self-talk. Find what works for you, one of the coaches said. Maybe hype yourself up or stoke self-competition, but when it comes to others, compliments are the key. Giving them to others builds you up, too, Stroud explained to the girls.  “You’re here for each other and yourselves,” she said.  At the end of the discussion, one camper chimed in: “Sometimes you just have to be confident and send it.” Camper practices flips off water ramps at the Utah Olympic Park at the Summer 2026 Freeski Girls Camp. Credit: Photo courtesy of Sadie Texer/U.S. Ski Snowboard “Be confident and send it” is just what Abi G. did. On the second day of the camp, 12-year-old Abi landed her first backflip off the water ramps.  She’d had her sights set on the trick since she was 6 years old, she said, and had been practicing on the trampoline since she was 8. Abi has been working with coach Drew Hooker for a year and goes to the water ramps on a regular basis. She’s usually the only girl on her team.  It took a few tries, and one bellyflop, but Abi made it.  Before each of Abi’s runs, she and Hooker go through affirmations.  “Usually, I tell her to say, ‘I’m confident, I’m powerful, I’m capable,’ and then to drop,” Hooker said.  The affirmations help Abi to be more confident and not look down on herself, something she said is difficult when she’s learning these tricks. “Some competitions, I’ve been the only girl up there. Only boy coaches, only boy athletes, only boy judges. That’s a little scary,” she said with a laugh. It’s nice for Abi to have other girls around like Hooker or one of her friends, she said.  “I know when Abby’s going to drop because she will not look at me, not look at me, not look at me, and then she’ll fist bump and then she’ll go,” Hooker said. “When she fist bumps, that means she’ll go. But if she doesn’t fist bump, she’s not going. So that’s kind of the deal. Secret code.” Abi added, “It’s really nice having coaches who are so good and have been in the Olympics … and have so much knowledge in skiing, and out of skiing.”  Outside of skiing, Hooker is working toward a master’s degree in meteorology at the University of Utah. Abi said everything she’s learned this weekend will continue to help her be more confident in herself when she’s not skiing. Stroud said she wanted this camp to “showcase what it means to be a woman in sport.” She said watching her idols ski as a young girl made the difference in what she felt was possible for her. Leah Stroud, head rookie team coach for the Stifel U.S. Ski Team Freeski Slopestyle Big Air squad, says the Freeski Girls Camp held in Park City isn’t just about skiing. Credit: Photo courtesy of Sadie Texer/U.S. Ski Snowboard “Representation matters,” Stroud said. “When girls see other girls coaching and leading and skiing and supporting each other, it changes what’s possible in their minds. … ‘I can do it all. I can go get degrees, and I can ski, and I can do other sports.’” Two time Olympian and Park City local Marin Hamill, was another coach at the camp. Hamill said when she was younger she attended a similar summer camp, only then, there were five girls, compared to the 40 attendees this year. When Hamill was a camper, she was coached by professional freeskier Ashley Battersby.  Now that Hamill is a coach herself, she said it’s cool to see herself in Battersby’s position, someone she looked up to as a kid.  “(I want) to try to be a girls role model,” she said.  She wanted to help “spread the love in (her) hometown,” and “share the love of sport” at the camp this weekend.  Hamill, who competed at the 2026 Winter Olympics, said she didn’t ski her best this year.  “It’s important for the world to see that you can’t see perfect every time,” she said.  As the girls learned what it meant to do things for themselves, not showing off for other people, Hamill’s mindset exemplified just that.  2026 Olympian Grace Henderson spoke of the specific difficulties with comparison and competition she’d had skiing with boys when she was younger. Around the boys, she said she “didn’t want to look stupid or they’d make fun of you.” With an all girls group, though, she said it’s different. “They progress faster because of the positive energy,” she said, “and not being afraid of what boys and other people think.”  There’s a positive element to the competition in an all girls camp, Henderson explained. When there’s just one girl in a group of boys, she doesn’t get to train with her real competition. At a camp like this, where girls train together, they can push each other to grow. Henderson said these camps give girls the opportunity to look around and say: “What that girl can do, I can do, too.” A camper practices jumps off airbag at the Utah Olympic Park during Freeski Girls Camp summer 2026. Credit: Photo courtesy of Sadie Texer/U.S. Ski Snowboard Henderson runs a similar all-girls summer camp in her home state of New Hampshire. At this weekend’s camp, Henderson coached some of the older girls who were practicing jumps on the airbag. The airbag ramp simulates a full-scale competition slope, jump and landing angle, only it looks like a giant inflatable bounce house. A few of the campers were going off the jump for the first time last weekend. At the top of the ramp the girls were excited, but there were still some nerves. One skier planned a “Superman flip” for her first run. She turned to her coaches and friends for one last round of encouragement and locked in. As she flew down the ramp and off the jump, her joyful scream echoed across the park. She returned to the top of the ramp smiling and said it was “incredible.” “We’re just using skiing as the vessel, but at the end of the day, it’s just creating dope humans,” Stroud said. “At the end of the day, it’s just that support and community and inspiration is the key no matter what you do in your life.” The post All-girls freeski skills camp inspires next generation through representation appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less