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HANNAH SCHMIDT
Sport: Ski Cross
Events: Women’s
Age: 31
Hometown: Dunrobin
Residence: Calgary
Local Club: Mont-Tremblant
Second Olympics
Instagram: @hannaheschmidt
VIEW HANNAH’S COMPETITION SCHEDULE HERE.
By Martin Cleary
Hannah Schmidt confidently stands in her individual start hut at the top of the ski cross course with three peers/rivals around her.
The gate drops, the skiers pop out like jack-in-the-box figures and all hell breaks loose on the snow for about a minute.
The Dunrobin athlete is dressed to the nines in a blur of colourful gear, zipping down the serpentine course at top speeds and protecting herself against the dangerous elements with skis by Elan, poles by Leki, boots by Lange and helmet and goggles by Sweet Protection.
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But what spectators don’t see is the most important piece of equipment for the 31-year-old Schmidt. Tucked inside her bra is an insulin pump, which regulates her Type 1 diabetes 24 hours a day.
For the past 19 years, she has dealt with maintaining a safe blood-sugar level, while training as an alpine skier with the Mont-Tremblant Ski Club and the Carleton University Ravens before shifting eight years ago to ski cross, where four athletes hurtle themselves down a twisting course with airborne bumps.
Diabetes was a private matter for Schmidt for many years. But she recently started to feel comfortable about talking about it as she wanted to pass along an important message for people with Type 1 diabetes.
Once a patient at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Schmidt recently returned for a visit with doctors, nurses and young children to provide some inspirational vibes.
“It has always been a part of my life,” Schmidt said in a phone interview Thursday from the Canadian Olympic team’s Livigno, Italy, high-altitude training site, where she prepares for her Feb. 20 race. “At the beginning, I didn’t want people to know.
“But I’ve opened up. You don’t need to change how you live your life to do sports or get that job that you thought was impossible (because of Type 1 diabetes).
“Don’t let it stop you from achieving. It’s not easy. It’s different every day. It’s a battle as your blood sugars go high, go low. It always is in the back of my mind as I deal with race stress and travel.”
Schmidt uses a MiniMed pump, a product of the Brampton-based company Medtronic, which monitors her blood sugars throughout the day and gives her a warning if something isn’t right. Medtronic also has welcomed her as a Breakthrough T1D Canada ambassador and became one of her sponsors this season.
Knowing the daily challenges of her diabetes, Schmidt has developed a rhythm to keep her manageable disease under control throughout her intense training, competition and even rehab from three major injuries and recoveries in the past seven years.
“Managing diabetes while being a high-performance athlete is not easy. I will say that right off the bat,” she wrote in an introductory letter as an ambassador on the company website.
“Being able to use the technology that there is nowadays makes it a lot easier. I am on the Medtronic pump and the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) that corresponds with Medtronic. Having the CGM while skiing has been amazing. I have been able to see how the stress/anxiety of racing impacts my blood sugars, etc.
“When I am training or competing, I typically aim to have my blood sugar at 7.0 mmol/l (millimoles per litre) so that I don’t feel like my blood sugar is going to drop. This allows me to not have to worry about going too low.”
Schmidt wants to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes and encourage individuals to chase and achieve their dreams. If an individual reaches that goal, it will feel even better because he or she did that while managing Type 1 diabetes.
Ever since Schmidt was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 12, she has lived by a go-to quote, which powers her every day: “Diabetes isn’t going to change what I want to achieve in my life. It might look a bit different and that’s OK.”
Schmidt was a strong skier as a junior and into university, but didn’t quite seem destined to crack the national team in alpine events. Once she dipped into ski cross racing on the heels of her younger brother Jared trying the new pursuit, it didn’t take long for Schmidt to both excel and encounter multiple challenges in the rough and tumble sport.
Read More: Ski cross the new family passion for top Nor-Am circuit siblings
At her first World Cup meet in January, 2019, at Blue Mountain, ON, Schmidt crashed and fractured her tibia plateau and needed a titanium rod inserted in her leg. She missed the entire 2019-20 season.
But she dedicated herself to a recovery program, returned to international competition, placed 10th at the 2021 world championships, had a personal-best fourth in her first Big Hill final in the 2021-22 season and notched her first World Cup medal (a silver) at Val Thorens, France, in December, 2022.
Schmidt’s career was riding some positive momentum as she moved from 16th overall on the final World Cup point standings in 2021 to seventh in 2022 to fifth in 2023.
Everything got even better in 2023-24 as she earned her first three World Cup wins, posted five medal podium finishes, led the women’s point standings at one point and finished fourth overall at the end of the season. The highlight came in December, when Schmidt and her brother Jared became the first siblings to a World Cup race on the same day at the same site (Arosa, Switzerland).
Read More: ‘It’s a dream’: Schmidt ski cross siblings share World Cup wins on same day
But during the World Cup qualifying heat in Bakuriani, Georgia, in February, 2024, Schmidt crashed and fractured the ankle and heel on her right foot.
Despite surgery and another nine-month rehab program, Schmidt rebounded to post one more win and a pair of third-place results in the first half of the 2024-25 season.
Two of those medals came back-to-back. After winning a January race at Reiteralm, Austria, she crashed in another race the next day, but was later awarded third place based on her previous qualifying time. She missed the podium ceremony when she was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Schladming.
When she returned to Calgary, Schmidt had surgery for a fractured and displaced tibia plateau on her right leg.
“It has been tough. I won’t lie,” the West Carleton Secondary School grad said about her 2025 recovery program. “I definitely had hard days.”
Schmidt used her victory trophy as motivation throughout her recovery period, but put the third-place trophy out of sight in her basement. In her recovery, she also took weekly and monthly videos to mark her progress, which she found encouraging and uplifting.
“Two years ago, I got back to the World Cup. I proved again to myself I can be there and be back today,” she said.
Schmidt has had nine World Cup races in her 2025-26 season, including six top-10 results and a best-showing of fifth, when she won the Small Hill final in Veysonnaz, Switzerland.
“I was proud to get that (fifth-place result),” Schmidt continued. “My confidence is back. I’m skiing with more push and intention. I want to put it all together on race day and get everything to cook.”
By racing for Canada at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing without any family or spectators at the site because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she felt shocked to achieve her Olympic goal in only her fourth year in the sport.
“I have achieved what I wanted. 2022 was a bonus year to go to the Games because I was relatively new. My main goal when I started was to go to the 2026 Olympics,” Schmidt recalled.
But Schmidt will have plenty of support – parents, brother and partner – at the site for her second Olympics.
“I’m coming back from my crash in January (2025),” she said. “A lot of it is mental to get to the race mindset. I’m happy to where that has got me to. I’m pushing hard and getting better.
“I’d love to be on the podium and I can do it. I don’t see a reason why I can’t be. I’m not putting any pressure on myself. If I don’t, I’ll still be very happy and excited with my result, whatever it will be. To call myself an Olympian is amazing and experiencing it with my brother is a big achievement.”
Read More: Ski-cross racer Jared Schmidt aims to have everything line up at second Olympics
HANNAH SCHMIDT OLYMPIC COMPETITION SCHEDULE:
Add Hannah’s schedule to your calendar on this page.
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