By Martin Cleary
Sometimes life requires us to make difficult decisions.
Rising freestyle aerials skier Kylar Rathwell found herself entering that predicament about a year ago.
On one hand, the Ashton, ON, student-athlete was climbing the ladder in the high-flying ski discipline of aerials, after being named an RBC Training Ground Olympian in 2022.
But on the other hand, Rathwell, 18, was anxious to return to school, enrol in university to begin earning a BSc degree in nursing and help others.
After careful thought and consultation with her family and coaches, she has decided to retire from skiing to pursue a career in nursing, after being accepted into the University of Ottawa for 2024-25.
“It was a really tough decision,” Rathwell said in a phone interview earlier this week. “The whole process started one year ago, when I applied to multiple universities for athletics and academics.”
Rathwell, who graduated in 2023 from Carleton Place High School, was successful and committed to attend the University of Ottawa this September.
But when it came to working out a master plan to combine attending nursing classes and placements with training and competing as a freestyle aerials skier, she couldn’t make it work.
“With my schedules, it wasn’t possible to do both at the same time,” she added. “At that time, I wasn’t satisfied with how far I had gone in skiing. I had dreamed of competing against the best in the world and I definitely could. It was a really tough decision.
“In the end, I figured I wanted to start to go back to school.”
She talked a lot with her sister Regan, who is a high-performance swimmer and earned a Paris 2024 berth at Swimming Canada’s recent Olympic trials in Toronto.
“She has always been my best friend and biggest supporter. She was the first person I talked to,” Rathwell said.
“I talked to my coach and we tried to figure out a way (to do both). It was a hard decision. I’m not sure I could stop because I was coming off my best season.”
After spending the summer of 2023 training in Lac Beauport, PQ., Rathwell finished fifth in her first Canadian senior freestyle skiing championship in aerials. She also was 11th overall after four NorAm competitions in Lac Beauport and Lake Placid, N.Y., against up-and-coming national team athletes from other countries.
But Rathwell, 18, comes by her love of nursing honestly.
“My grandmother was a nurse and my father is a firefighter and first responder,” explained Rathwell, who was one of two recipients of the Brenda Hall Bursary Award in 2023 from the Carleton Place District Memorial Hospital for students pursuing a university degree in nursing or health sciences.
“I have always known I wanted to go into a health career. I was injured a few times and in hospital and the nurses took great care of me and were positive. I want to provide that kind of care.
“It’s a new chapter in my life. It’s sad to see the skiing go, but I look forward to what’s next.”
Entering the University of Ottawa to study nursing will be the third major chapter in Rathwell’s young life.
For 12 years, she was an artistic gymnast and stopped in her early teens, after reaching the provincial level of competition. But her athletic drive insisted she find another sport.
In January, 2020, Rathwell attended an RBC Training Ground testing session in Ottawa, where she went through a program of five different fitness tests. It took two years to complete the virtual and non-virtual testing of 4,000 athletes across Canada because of the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The RBC Training Ground is a nation-wide talent identification program dedicated to finding and funding Canada’s future Olympians.
After her sprint test, a Freestyle Canada representative approached Rathwell for a short conversation and asked her if she had heard of freestyle skiing. Rathwell said no.
Not expecting to be contacted again, Freestyle Canada reached out to Rathwell two weeks later and asked if she would like to try the freestyle discipline of aerials.
“I was excited. It was definitely a shock,” Rathwell admitted.
Once Rathwell was able to cross the Ontario-Quebec border because of COVID-19 restrictions, she made it to the backyard of a Canadian coach to work on the trampoline. The national team training centre at Lac Beauport was closed because of the pandemic.
That summer, she met Freestyle Canada officials and was warmly welcomed by national team skiers at the main training centre, which had reopened. She took her first basic jumps off the water ramp and fondly remembers her initial landing was “a belly flop.”
In the winter of 2021, she was introduced to downhill skiing at Camp Fortune with a coach, a ski pass and proper equipment so she could feel comfortable on her skis. Being a dedicated gymnast, she had never skied in her life.
Rathwell’s next step to becoming an aerials skier was to learn how to do the various movements on the trampoline and change her gymnastics manoeuvres into aerial elements. She trained at the Tumblers Gymnastics Centre.
As she was working her way to becoming a freestyle skier, Rathwell received another phone call from RBC Training Ground. She had been selected to attend the Canadian championships for the top 100 athletes. The best 30 athletes would become RBC Olympians and be fully funded in their sport for two years.
A month after doing her five tests at nationals, Rathwell received a call she had been granted RBC Olympian status and Freestyle Canada would receive $14,000 over two years to cover her freestyle aerials expenses.
She had five summer training camps in Quebec in 2022 and shared that experience with Top-30 RBC Olympians Elodie Caron, a former diver, and Sarah Faith, a former artistic gymnast. They were from the Montreal region and also were making the transition to freestyle aerials.
“It was a really exciting summer,” Rathwell said. “I never did anything like that before. It was really motivating. I got my first flip.”
The 2022-23 season also saw her land her first back flip on snow in January and earn her first competition medal, when she placed third in aerials at the Canadian junior championships.
“The first time I landed my flip on snow was really terrifying. But my coach was calming and reassuring. When I landed it, it made me very happy,” she added. “I’m an aerialist, now. I was truly an aerialist.”
When it came to the competitions, she had a string of fourth-place finishes in Quebec meets before reaching the podium for the first time to receive a national junior bronze medal.
“It was really amazing. I wasn’t sure I’d get it because it was close between me and my teammate,” she continued.
Last season, Rathwell spent the entire summer training at Lac Beauport and used that investment to have her best-ever on-snow season, which included her first medal at the Canadian senior championships and satisfying NorAm results.
It was a good season that showed potential for a better season in 2024-25.
But Rathwell decided to sign off on her career as an aerialist and flip over to nursing.
Read More in our 2024 High School Best Series, presented by Louis-Riel Sports-Études, as we tip our caps to top local student-athletes at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-High-School-Best-2024
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Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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