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TURNER – Former Olympic skier Julie Parisien spoke at the invitation of Tripp Middle School athletic director and friend Mark Thibodeau, to the skiers and basketball players of Tripp Middle School in Turner. The winter sports awards event was held Wednesday, March 1, in the school’s gymnasium. Formerly of Auburn and a Lost Valley kid, the 1992 Olympian had quite a story to share with the students.
The Tripp coaches had many nice things to say about their athletes during the assembly. Statements such as, “This group loved a challenge,” “They played all 32 minutes. I don’t think I could have driven them into the ground,” and “They worked hard, then they laughed. They made a mistake, then they laughed. Then they’d do something else, and then they laughed.” The coaches’ point was that the girls had a great attitude. One coach whose team did not have a winning record gave the whole team an award because of how they handled defeat and represented their school.
After the various awards and kudos were given out to students by each of the coaches, Parisien gave a brief history of her skiing career and shared a set of qualities needed by anyone to succeed at a high level in their chosen sport or field of endeavor. She gave it the acronym M.A.P.S. – Motivation, Attitude, Persistence, and Strength. She began by sharing an anecdote about how early on she was in her bedroom and was looking at the many posters of great skiers on her wall when she had an epiphany: “I’m not any different than these people.” She became determined to become a top-notch skier.
Parisien now lives in Winthrop with her family and works as a nurse at Maine General in Augusta. The biography that follows is taken from the Maine Ski Museum website. Parisien was inducted into the museum’s Hall of Fame 2008. Parisien got her skiing start at Lost Valley at the age of two and soon was racing her brothers and sister down those slopes.
At an early age, she began putting posters of world class skiers on the walls of her room and saying to herself, “I can do that.”
Through grade school, Parisien skied after school at Lost Valley and weekends with the family at Sugarloaf. As a high school freshman she moved to Burke Mountain Academy (Vermont) to seriously pursue her goal of becoming a world class ski racer and it didn’t take long.
In her second year at Burke, March of 1989, Parisien finished fourth in Super G at the National Alpine Championships. The next season saw wins in Norams, Junior Olympics, a gold medal in Combined at the US Nationals and a Bronze Medal at the World Junior Alpine Championships. During the 1990-91 season, Parisien piled up more wins, 11 in all in FIS, Noram, and Europa Cup. The big breakthrough came in the World Cup finals at Waterville Valley when, at the age of 19, she won the Giant Slalom, the first U.S. World Cup win in four years.
Her success at every level of alpine competition earned Parisien a place on the 1992 Olympic team and entered the games as a U.S. favorite to win a medal.
As she was training for the races, a skier entered a training area and Parisien lost several teeth in a collision. That was followed by a broken wrist in later training, but she still competed. After the first run, she led the slalom, but skied tentatively in the second run and finished fourth. She finished fifth in GS, great results considering her injuries, but a disappointment for such a competitor. She finished the season by winning the World Cup final slalom earning her the number one ranking in the World to start the 1993 season.
Parisien opened the 1993-94 season by winning a World Cup Slalom, but a shortly after her brother J. P. was killed by a drunk driver and she suffered a knee injury a few weeks later. Despite the tragic loss and the injury she stayed with it and won a silver medal at the World Championships and her second National Combined title. After that season, Parisien left the U.S. Team to dominate the women’s pro tour for the next three years. At the beginning of the 1997-98 season she decided to try a comeback and worked her way onto the U.S. Team for the 98 Olympics where she finished 13th in GS.
Following her final retirement from the U.S. Team, this skier who held up a long tradition of outstanding skiers from Auburn and Maine finished school and nurses training, began a family and found ways to give back to her sport. She coached junior racers at Lost Valley and traveled the state motivating young school children to get involved in skiing and other outdoor winter sports for the WinterKids program. An outstanding competitive career and a devotion to the sport has earned Parisien a place in the Maine Ski Hall of Fame. Courtesy of the Maine Ski Museum.
CAPTION: Framed appropriately by the Tiger mascot, former Olympic skier Julie Parisien, formerly of Auburn, speaks to Tripp Middle School students at the school’s winter sports award assembly. Now a Winthrop resident, she shared her M.A.P.S. plan for success: Motivation, Attitude, Perseverance and Strength. (Photo by Bill Van Tassel)
