2023 - 2024 Far West Skier's Guide - 49

Genia Fuller-Crews, World Freestyle Champion and Honored Member
of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, was the Keynote Speaker
at the 90th Annual Far West Ski Association Convention in Boise. Her
outstanding presentation, including some fun stories and videos, was
enjoyed by all in attendance. photos by Steve Strickland / Strictly Photography
Assisted by Tom Bundgard (Left) and Michael Bouton (Right),
Keynote Speaker Genia Fuller-Crews auctioned autographed posters
donated by her " freestyle family " raising funds for the FWSA's Athletic
Scholarship Program for Alpine Junior Racers.
World Freestyle Champion Keynote Speaker -
A Convention Highlight!
by Jane Wyckoff
Past President, FWSA
The Far West Ski Association was honored
to welcome Genia Fuller-Crews, World
Freestyle Champion and Honored Member of
the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame to
its Annual Convention in Boise. Genia was
the Keynote Speaker, and recipient of the 2023
Snowsports Builder Award at the Awards
Banquet (for a snowsports biography of Genia
see pages 58-59 in the Convention Section).
Prior to Genia's Keynote Address, Randy
Lew, Past FWSA President, introduced
members of Genia's " freestyle family " in attendance,
and provided a brief background on
each member.
This highly accomplished
group of freestyle skiers included World Freestyle
Champions and Pioneers of Freestyle
Skiing, also inducted into the U.S. Ski and
Snowboard Hall of Fame. Attending the
event were: Rick Bonnell, Scott Brooksbank,
Daniel Fromer, Jim Garrison, Drew Wahlin,
and Bob Young.
Genia gave a heart-felt presentation
about her skiing background and freestyle
competitions, the challenges and joys of competition,
and her work today with the U.S. Ski
and Snowboard Hall of Fame as a member of
its Board of Directors. She explained it was
the " freestyle family " that mattered during their
competitions, in which men and women competed
together.
They traveled together and
took care of one another, because back then
there wasn't a support staff to help with travel
arrangements and to get you where you were
going to compete.
She spoke about being known as a " free
spirit " at a young age, and possessed a work
ethic that had been instilled early in her, that
if you want something, you need to work
harder.
Genia was passionate about freestyle
competition, and put all her efforts into
becoming a champion. Back then you
needed to be skilled in all the disciplines -
aerials, ballet, moguls, combined, which
evolved later into a sport trending for specialization.
Freestyle competition events
today, on skis or snowboards, are rooted in
what the freestyle pioneers of the 1960's and
1970's created.
Genia was the charismatic ambassador
in freestyle's formative years. She was an
outspoken advocate for equal pay for female
athletes and equality of recognition. One of
the interesting stories she told was from
1978 at a freestyle competition. Someone
had forgotten to bring up the women's
medals from the base, and it was decided to
go ahead with the medal ceremony without
them. Due to Genia's persuasion, and agreement
by all the competitors, the ceremony
did not take place until the women's medals
were retrieved.
Selections of two videos were shown
during her presentation. The first was the
" The Lady is a Champ " ABC program from
1976, which featured Billie Jean King, Chris
Evert, Genia Fuller-Crews and other sports
competitors, showing that women were also
incredible athletes. The second was her induction
into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall
of Fame, highlighting her wonderful journey
of fulfilling her dream.
`She continues on her quest to bring inclusion
to snowsports recognition. Genia
noted that when she was inducted into the
U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2016,
she was the only woman that year. In 2019
she created the " The Women in Snowsports Industry
Award " for the Hall of Fame, to recognize
outstanding achievements by women
in snowsports.
She is working now to create new recognitions
for the categories of Judges and Officials,
and the Technicians, which are a huge
part of the industry with tremendous responsibility
and skill in their fields, and should be
recognized.
At the conclusion, a live auction was
conducted of signed posters not only of her,
but other members of her freestyle family that
they donated. She also brought freestyle tshirts,
which were purchased and she personally
signed for each individual. Over
$1,600 was raised to support the FWSA Athletic
Scholarship Program, which generates
funds for scholarships awarded to Alpine Junior
Racers in the Far West region.
The Far West Ski Association is truly appreciative
of the wonderful work Genia is
doing for more inclusion in snowsports recognition,
and she now has a family of friends
in FWSA, who look forward to hearing of her
new ventures and successes, and hope to see
her once again at a future Convention. You
can view Genia's Keynote Speech on the
FWSA YouTube Channel at:
https://youtu.be/3pdSkJt54XU ss
Far West Skier's Guide 2O23 - 2O24
49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pdSkJt54XU
2023 - 2024 Far West Skier's Guide

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