Callan Chythlook-Sifsof just graduated from high school, but it was no normal year for the 18-year-old Girdwood resident. She spent most of her time on a plane rather than a bus, traveling the world and competing as a snowboarder for the U.S. National Ski team. And it was quite a successful year at that, filled with top finishes in her specialized category of snowboarding—Border Cross.She took first at the Grand Prix for U.S. women in Tamarak, Idaho, and in her first World Cup in Furano, Japan in February placed third. At the World Cup Finals in Stoneham, Quebec she came in fourth. She completed her whirlwind season in Badgustein, Austria where she placed eighth overall in the Junior World Championships.
Callan, who is part Native Alaskan (Inuit and Yupik), got her start snowboarding in the most unlikely of places, the small village of Aleknegek near Dillingham.
“When I was little my brother and I were pretty much the only people who had snowboards in bush Alaska,” she said as she stood out in front of her home in Girdwood, “and we just messed around our house, and we’d go snowmachining, and hike places just for fun because there was nothing else to do.”
Her interest in snowboarding started after her uncle brought some snowboards up from the lower 48 back in the 80’s when the sport first started catching on. Callan picked up one of the little boards and never put it down.
Her mother and father, Gloria and James, moved the family to Girdwood in 1999 because they liked the small town feel. With Alyeska Resort at her doorsteps, Callan became an avid snowboarder.
“I just started snowboarding every day and got a season pass to the mountain and just recreationally snowboarded,” she said. “A couple of years afterwards I started competing in the local races, and I joined the Mighty Mites and the snowboard program. Then I qualified for the national competitions, and one thing just kept leading to the other.”
Last summer, a letter arrived that would change Callan’s life. It was from the U.S. National Ski Team. At first, Callan and her mother weren’t sure what the letter meant.
“There wasn’t an explanation, it was an email,” she said. “It was just the forms that you’re suppose to fill out, there was no ‘you made the U.S. Ski Team,’ they just sent us the forms. My mother and I were trying to figure out if we should sign these, we were a little confused, and then we finally got it sorted it out, and I was just amazed. I couldn’t believe it.”
Callan’s first season was hard physically, she said. But all and all she fared well, save for a minor injury during competition in Stoneham where she chipped her tailbone.
The past season, she only competed Border Cross, but Callan said she’s looking to expand her level of competition and enter other races like the Giant Slalom and Slalom. Presently, she is in Colorado where she’s begun her off-season training, and then it’s off to Mt. Hood, Oregon, followed by a brief stop at home, and then she heads to either Chile or New Zealand for more training.
Meanwhile, Callan’s accolades this past season have not gone unnoticed. Currently she is on the C Team, but she heard from her coach that it’s likely she will be added to the A Team next season. Looking into the future, Callan’s ultimate goal is to make the U.S. Olympic Team, and perhaps follow in the footsteps of another famous Girdwoodian Snowboarder, Rosey Fletcher, who won a Silver medal in the last winter Olympics, and though she would also like to go to college like her fellow high school graduates, Callan’s focus right now is snowboarding.
“It’s been such a good year, I can’t believe it,” she said. “Physically I feel good, my tailbone is healing up, and I’m feeling ready for the training, and all the stuff that’s going to happen. I’m very excited.”