SAMMIE
GAUL
Australian Alpine Ski Racer
Supporters and Partners
Thank you to my amazing supporters and sponsors who have helped make my 2023-2024 season possible!
About Sammie
Sammie Gaul is a 22-year-old Australian national alpine ski team member from Pambula Beach, NSW and a resident of Canberra, ACT.
Sammie is predominantly a slalom skier, she has 33 FIS points and is currently the #2 ranked female slalom skier in Australia. She is currently part of the Kronplatz Racing Center, an Italian-run international ski team based in the Süd Tirol region of Italy and has been on ski teams based in Australia, Canada, and the United States in the past.
Sammie loves skiing and is passionate about the physical and mental challenges that come with the sport. Her long-term goals include becoming a contender on the FIS World Cup slalom circuit and representing Australia at the next Olympics in Milano-Cortina 2026.
She is currently studying for a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the Australian National University in Canberra focused on international business, economics, and management. Sammie was a council member on the inaugural U.S. Embassy Canberra Youth Advisory Council in 2022-2023. She has a keen interest in foreign policy, public policy and climate change policy, as well as improving opportunities for youth from regional areas.
She is also an experienced outdoor professional, being an APSI Level 3 certified ski instructor and having multiple Canadian Avalanche Association certifications.
She can speak conversationally in German and is working on improving her Italian through lessons at the Dante Alighieri Society in Canberra.
In her free time, she loves reading, bouldering, surfing and spending time with friends, family, and her adorable dog, Kiko.
Achievements
Alpine Skiing
- Named to the Australian National Alpine Ski Team (2023)
- Nationally ranked #2 in Slalom
- Season 2022-2023: FIS PB: 30.07 in Slalom
- Season 2022-2023: FIS PB: 56.36 in GS
- Selected for the World University Games 2021 and Junior World Championships 2022 (unable to attend due to COVID-19 cancellation, financial restrictions)
- Top-female first-year athlete on St. Lawrence University NCAA Division 1 Team (2020)
- FIS Australian National Championships GS 2nd Place (2017)
- Whistler Cup Dual Slalom Team Event 3rd Place (2017)
- U16 United States Eastern Championships Slalom 1st Place (2017)
- U16 Australian Overall Champion (2016)
- U16 Australian Overall Runner-Up (2015)
- Whistler Cup U14 Slalom 2nd Place (2014)
- U14 Australian Overall Champion (2014)
- U14 British Columbia Overall Champion (2014)
Academic
- Bachelor of Commerce Student at the Australian National University (ANU)
- One of the top-5 ranked universities in Australia
- ANU Sport Blue Award (2022)
- Awarded to an ANU student-athlete in recognition of their outstanding achievements at a national or international level, and for enhancing the reputation of University Sport. A University Blue is held in high esteem and is one of the utmost accolades a university athlete can receive.
- First Place: William O'Brien First-Year Research Prize (2020)
- Selected as the first place prize winner out of every first-year student at St. Lawrence University (700+ students) for a research paper entitled "Circadian Rhythm Misalignment on Night Shift Workers" completed for the first-year seminar course, The Neuroscience of Stress.
- Graduated with Highest Honours from the Green Mountain Valley School (2019)
- Gold Medal on the National German Exam (2018)
- Placed in the top percentile of approximately 20,000 American high-school students who took the National German Exam and was awarded a gold medal. This award was issued by the American Association of Teachers of German.
- British Columbia Legion Poetry Contest Winner (2014)
- My poem 'No Other Choice' was selected as the top poem in the province of British Columbia in the BC Legion Poetry Contest.
Other
- Selected and served on the inaugural Canberra Youth Advisory Council at the U.S. Embassy Australia (2022-2023)
- Achieved the APSI Level 3 Ski Instructor Qualification (2022)
- The board of examiners awarded me with a distinction mark and I was the 'Top of the Exam'.
- Elected to be on the Community Leadership Committee by the student body at GMVS (2018-2019)
- Won the Vermont State Lacrosse Championships on the GMVS Girls' Lacrosse Team (2017)
Latest News
Radio Interview on ABC Canberra with Adrienne Francis
Click on the hyperlink above to hear my story in a radio interview.
This was broadcasted on Canberra radio on June 16th, 2023.
My Story
2003
I was born in Sydney and lived there until I was 5. My dad taught me how to ski the week before my 2nd birthday in Thredbo, NSW. From then on I was hooked!
2006
My family moved to Rossland, British Columbia from Sydney, Australia when I was 5 years old. My parents moved here to start a powder skiing business, Big Red Cats. My dad, Kieren, was a ski guide and managed the operational side while my mum managed everything off the mountain.
I grew up at the base of Red Mountain, and while my parents ran the business and raised my family, I went to school and skied for fun with my friends in the Nancy Green Ski League (a ski racing program for kids aged 4-10 in Canada).
While my parents were growing their small business we would travel around North America in the fall and summers attending trade shows and Warren Miller films–I thought this was a normal thing for kids to do! Turns out this was a pretty unique experience for a kid being surrounded by all things skiing, though it definitely ignited a lot of stoke for the sport.
2006-2012
I participated in many different sports and especially was devoted to playing soccer and basketball, as well as competitive cross-country running.
During the winter time, I cross-country skied and did swim squad as well as alpine ski racing until I was 12. I skied "up" an age division when I was 10-12 years old. I was competing against girls up to 3 years older than me; this meant that I was constantly challenged instead of being consistently the best if I had stayed in my actual age group division in my region.
As a young athlete, I enjoyed the challenge of learning new sports, improving my skills, competing against others and forming great friendships. I think it formed the basis for me to be an adaptable athlete with an underdog mentality. I thrive off of challenges and being in a competitive environment.
2012-2016
My ski racing started to take off when I was around 13. In my U14 years, I was the British Columbia Overall Champion, and Australian National Overall Champion. In an international ski racing competition called "Whistler Cup" I placed 2nd in the slalom and 4th in the dual slalom.
By U16, I had been the Runner-up and Overall National Australian Champion. In my under year of U16 (the younger year of the age grouping), I was also already getting 1st place results in the province of BC.
After my first year of U16, my parents and I started to reevaluate: was it a good idea to stay in BC where I would be a big fish in a little pond?
We decided that I needed to go somewhere that I would not be the best and where I would have a fast training group and different coaching before FIS. Red Mountain Racers was an extremely small club, so I only had a couple of teammates around my age and had the same coaches since I was 12, so it felt like a natural time to make a change.
I was also living in both Australia and Canada at the time, so having greater stability for my education going into my final years of high school was important instead of continuing to go back and forth between school systems as I had been.
2016-2019
My second year of U16 was a game-changer. I got a financial need/athletic scholarship to the Green Mountain Valley School (GMVS) in Vermont, USA and this gave me the extra support and environmental change I needed to keep chasing my ski racing goals. I am so grateful to everyone at GMVS for being given this opportunity!
The first year was great, though not easy. Since I was new to the US system I started off starting last in every race. I DNFed a lot, but once I started finishing more races I gained some more confidence. Some highlights from that year were being 1st in the US U16 Eastern Championships, 10th in the US U16 National Championships, being named to the Vermont Team and winning a USSA race by over 4 seconds starting from bib 100. Coaches on the circuit started calling me "Send it Sammie" because I would either ski fast or crash spectacularly.
Going into FIS, I had good confidence and made some solid changes in my technique but during a pre-camp in Valle Nevado in Chile, I had a freak accident in the gym that resulted in a severe concussion.
A few months later, we thought this had recovered, in a soccer game after a very light hit, I sustained my second concussion.
Later on in the year, while I was inspecting a course, I face-planted and sustained my 3rd concussion within an 8-month timespan. This time my symptoms were especially bad. My season was over, and I was out for the next 9 months from skiing completely.
I had to do regular occupational and physical therapy to train my eyes to track properly again. For about 6 months after this concussion, I could not read without getting severe headaches. I could not get my heart rate past 130bpm or do anything strenuous, I was not allowed to drive a car and got very motion sick, I could not go in the sun without sunglasses. My balance and coordination were off, and I had to completely retrain that. It felt like getting back from square one.
I effectively missed my first two seasons of FIS and had no preparation in the off-season. I was warned that if I had another concussion in this small time frame I would have to medically retire. My career was close to ending before I had the opportunity to properly start it. This was detrimental to my confidence and ability to take risks. For the first time in my career, I was scared and holding back out of fear of another injury.
In the races that I did do in my second year of FIS, my results were still good enough to put me on an NCAA D1 team and I was 3 FIS points off of making the Australian National Team which both were unexpected given the severity of concussions.
2020-2021
That next season I started at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York where I was recruited to compete for their NCAA Division 1 team. I trained out of Lake Placid, New York and even across the border in Canada some days. I was ill at the start of the season with tonsil infections so bad I needed a tonsillectomy when the season started. Besides that, I had a positive experience, I loved the team environment NCAA had to offer but I couldn't help but feel like I had more to give in my ski racing and untapped potential that I hadn't reached yet due to my concussions. Although I made some big contributions to the team by being one of the top performers on the team and the top-first-year athlete on the women's team which was more enjoyable because I knew my results were helping the team. Performing in the team format as well as for myself was a different experience and I definitely became a better teammate as a result.
In March 2020 the season ended early and abruptly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I flew home to Australia immediately.
In May 2020, my Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer that the doctors had declared terminal upon diagnosis.
These two events were turning points for me and gave me the opportunity to reevaluate what I wanted from the sport and from my life. I realised that I desperately wanted to train and race more and see where I could end up. Aside from that, I just loved skiing and knew this is what I really wanted to spend my time doing. So I took the leap and moved to Europe the season after I worked for my family's business while my dad got his cancer treatments. By doing so, it meant that I could also be closer to the family for half the year while I studied at ANU. This was a personal priority for me as Dad faced some major challenges related to his cancer.
2021-Current
I made the leap in October 2021 and committed myself to a full-time program in Europe called Kronplatz Racing Center. This was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. Though in hindsight, doubling down on my goals after being through what I went through was scary, and on top of that it was my first time skiing in Europe and I didn't know anybody on my new team. Ultimately this was the absolute best choice for me and I worked hard to make it that way!
The last two seasons have been awesome. I have had great coaches, a training base that feels like home, and lovely teammates. I have made some great improvements. In the past two seasons, I dropped by FIS points by 43 in slalom and by 30 in GS. I have been on podiums numerous times in the past two seasons and have more importantly shown pace against some of the best Europa Cup and World Cup skiers in training and races. I am now nationally ranked 2nd in slalom which is the main discipline I focus on, and I am committed to continually improving my skiing in any way that I can.
I'm skiing better than ever, I have my confidence back and was recently named to the Australian National Team. I have a long way to improve to get to where I want to be but I'm on the right track now and loving the process!
Be A Part of My Story
While Snow Australia provides some non-monetary perks and services for which I am very grateful, we are not funded or on a salary. We have to source funding for ourselves. There are monetary prizes based on placings at World Cup, Europa Cup, and some FIS races; however, it is not nearly enough to sustain a professional ski racing program even with prize money earnings, unless you are consistently on podiums at the World Cup level. Funding for winter sports in Australia goes to the disciplines most likely to produce Olympic medals. Alpine ski racing is in a challenging position where it is one of the most popular and competitive winter sports in the world and Australia, yet it is also the most underfunded in Australia. This makes it challenging to get the highest levels in skiing due to the funding disadvantages we face against our counterparts.
Alpine ski racing is not a mainstream sport in Australia and we are considered the "underdogs" amongst the larger alpine skiing nations. Most of the European national teams partially or fully fund their athletes, and there are avenues to also be on police and military teams that pay a salary as skiing is so culturally ingrained in that part of the world.
Even at FIS races, I observe the Europeans I compete against in Armani race suits, with double the number of skis I have, multiple coaching staff members, physiotherapists and personal ski technicians. Of course, I don't pay attention to this because it is a factor outside of my control, paying attention to this will make me feel less than these athletes, even though that is certainly not the case. Most times I end up doing just as well or better than these athletes on the results sheet.
Though the unignorable takeaway from this is that I have to work harder and more strategically than my competitors, take complete ownership of my program, maximise my opportunities, and run my ski racing career like a small business. Nothing is handed to me on a silver platter, nothing is a given, and any opportunity and support I get, I fully take advantage of as a result.
By doing well in the sport it is possible to get more funding in Australia, but it is paradoxical that to do well in the sport to obtain that backing, you need ample support to get there!
One of the personal highlights of my career is when Australia came 3rd in the Dual Slalom Teams Event at Whistler Cup. Henry Heaydon, Tom Hoffman, Zoe Micheal and I performed a massive upside by tying Switzerland. I personally beat girls from the U.S., Norway, and Switzerland which was totally unexpected coming from a sport like Australia, which turned a lot of heads. The team effort and performance were especially remarkable and that is what made the moment so special.
I am so honoured to get to represent Australia internationally and I want to keep pulling off these upset performances as the underdog that nobody expects to perform well–and I want that for other Aussies too! I want to leave a legacy where up-and-coming alpine skiers from Australia are more supported and equally respected and I want to give back to the communities that I come from in turn.
Ski racing is an individual sport but requires a team to accomplish anything. I hope you can be a part of mine!
Ways You Can Support Me:
- Make a tax-deductible donation to me through the Australian Sports Foundation
Project URL
Donation URL
- https://asf.org.au/donate/support-sammie-gauls-ski-racing-dreams
- Buy my dad's memoir on Amazon Kindle for $24.99 AUD. Half of the proceeds of the book sales go to covering my ski racing expenses whilst the other half goes to the local oncology unit in Bega.
Download from Amazon today!
Australia:https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0C9G8DSVP/
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C9G8DSVP/
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9G8DSVP/
Sponsorship Opportunities
- I'm looking for a head sponsor to join my team!
- Helmet sponsor sticker placement
- High brand visibility in televised Europa Cups, and potential future World Cups, World University Games, and World Championships events*
- Appearance on all of my social media branding accounts and mentioned in my Instagram bio
- Access to professional speaking engagements and other duties
- Logos on outerwear and training bibs
- Access and use of my images and social media recognition through regular Instagram/Facebook posts and reels
- COST: $5000 - $20 000
*contingent on my selection to these events (help me get there!)
- I'm also looking for shoulder sponsors and am open to brand ambassador opportunities!
- Logos on outerwear and training bibs
- Appearance on all of my social media branding accounts and mentioned in my Instagram bio
- Access and use of my images and social media recognition through regular Instagram/Facebook posts and reels
- Access to professional speaking engagements and other duties
- COST: $1000-$5000 OR in exchange for product or services
- Need a speaker for your event? Want me to be on your podcast? Want me to talk to your athletes? I am available for public speaking and mentorship opportunities!
- I am open to public speaking engagements at Australian schools and teams.
- Particularly for Interschools ski teams looking for special insight and advice into how young athletes can take their ski racing to the next level and build resilience and character through the sport!
- I hold a valid NSW Working with Children Check and have experience working with kids and teenagers, through 3 years of ski instructing work at Thredbo Resort working with children of all ages (4-18 years old) and ability levels.
- COST: Negotiable
- Are you an Australian of New Zealand Snowsports School running training development for your employees? Are you looking for someone to run race-focused training clinics?
- My combined experiences as a professional alpine ski racer and a ski instructor make me the perfect person for the job!
- COST: APSI Level 3 Ski Instructor or Trainer Pay Rate
Please reach out with all enquiries to this email address: samantha.a.gaul@gmail.com
Contact Me
I am currently open to new collaborations and partnerships. Please reach out with your queries at my email attached and I will follow up with you quickly!
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