Sophie Sunshine (Class II) began alpine skiing at the age of two and began racing at four. Now she competes in global skiing events almost every weekend. She was introduced to the sport because her brothers skied, and joined a race team at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, where she frequently travels to compete. She found a passion for the sport due to its specialist nature and her desire to compete at a high level. “I just really love the technique of it, because it’s such a technical thing, and I don’t think people realize that, you’re not just going down the mountain, there are so many mechanics involved,” Sunshine said.
She attended a ski academy for middle school, where she trained five days a week and raced on weekends. “I essentially lived in New Hampshire in sixth grade, and I really only went to school for two days a week,” Sunshine said. She was considering attending another ski academy for high school, but concerns about the quality of the education and potential burnout led Sunshine to reconsider. “I think a lot of people get burnt out, at ski academies especially, because they can’t detach themselves from skiing, and they start to hate it,” Sunshine said. The prestige of the ski team at Nobles was a major reason Sunshine decided to attend the school: the girls’ team hasn’t lost the ISL in twenty-four years. “People don’t really know about the team, but the culture is really good, and everyone motivates each other,” Sunshine said.
The reigning ISL individual champion skis on weekends in addition to her Nobles practices. “I train for Nobles one or two days a week, and race once. I also do racing and training [individually] on the weekends in New Hampshire, and also at Blue Hills or Wachusett,” she said. Maintaining a balance between skiing and academics is important to Sunshine, as she completes most of her homework during car rides to and from ski mountains. She describes herself as a naturally competitive person, so the drawbacks that result from her hectic schedule are ones she is willing to accept.
Sunshine’s training and race schedule continues year-round; she trains in New Zealand over the summer and has recently traveled to the United Arab Emirates, where she visited Ski Dubai Resort. The artificial mountain, situated within a mall, boasts state-of-the-art cooling and snowmaking systems that enable skiing, despite the typical desert climate outside. At Ski Dubai, she competed for the Filipino National team in an international race. “In Dubai, there were a lot of Filipino workers. A lot of them worked at the ski place, and it was fun to have them cheer me on and be able to represent them,” Sunshine said. Her main event is the Slalom, an aggressive and tactical event that relies heavily on body control and precise movements, over a 45-60 gate course, which can make a significant difference in the final time.
Meanwhile, the Nobles team competes in two events: slalom and giant slalom. The giant slalom is the longest event, where the gates are spaced farther apart, and competitors do not make contact with the gates on the course, whereas in slalom, they do. Both require incredible focus and determination. “Every little movement you make pays massive dividends, because there are fifty turns in a course, and cumulatively, it adds up,” Sunshine said. In skiing, small movements create differences between first and last place, which can also impact a skier’s career goals.
Sunshine has Olympic and NCAA aspirations for her skiing career. She competes in 11 races in December alone, and in March, she will participate in the World Junior Championships. “Hopefully, I can compete in the [Winter] Olympics [in 2026]. I am going to Norway to compete for a chance, but it is really difficult to qualify,” Sunshine said. She aspires to compete at the collegiate level as well; however, the recruiting process for skiing differs from that of most other sports. “It starts senior year because that is the only way people can gauge your skiing, and there is also a fickle points system that goes into the process,” Sunshine said. This points system evaluates the two best events of an applicant, assigns a value to each, and then provides the skier with an international ranking that college coaches can use as a metric of an athlete’s skiing ability.
As the winter season rapidly approaches, Sophie Sunshine gears up for another action-packed skiing season, both for the Nobles ski team and the Filipino national team, potentially culminating in a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
