![\"Australian](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/12\/Bamford-slider-184726787.jpg\")
<\/a>Olympic hopeful Emily Bamford ’15 is on leave from Bates this year as she seeks a spot on the Australian Olympic team. (Photo: Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n
Their paths are, quite literally, polar opposites.<\/p>\n
An Alpine skier, Bamford<\/a> is from Melbourne, Australia, and she’s been a member of the Australian national ski team since she was 16.<\/p>\n Ellefson is a Nordic skier from Vail, Colo. Though he did earn All-America honors as a Bates skier, he graduated with little hope of achieving success as a professional skier, and he’s never been a member of the U.S. ski team.<\/p>\n Emily Bamford ’15 zooms past a gate in the giant slalom at the NCAA East Regional Meet in February 2013. (Photo: Cory Ransom)<\/p><\/div>\n Their paths and backgrounds differ. But,\u00a0say their Bates coaches, what they share besides Bates is a decent chance at earning berths on their respective Olympic teams, both of which will be chosen in January.<\/p>\n On leave from Bates this winter, Bamford is training with other Aussie skiers in Colorado, where her most recent effort was a 27th, the third Australian skier, in a slalom race.<\/p>\n “Emily is going to be ranked either the second or third skier from Australia,” says Rogan Connell, head coach of the Bates alpine program. “If she is second, she is guaranteed to make the Olympics.”<\/p>\n Emily Bamford ’15<\/p><\/div>\n And if she is ranked third, “she would need help,” Connell says, from complex selection criteria that can expand or limit the number of athletes a country can send to the Olympics.<\/p>\n Connell describes Bamford as a “talented athlete, hard worker and determined person.”<\/p>\n Though he’s lost a top skier for the year, Connell says it was a no-brainer when it came to offering his unconditional encouragement.<\/p>\n For one thing, he asks rhetorically, “How many opportunities does someone get to represent their country in the Olympics?” Second, he notes, a current Bates student earning an Olympic berth would spell gold for the Bates skiing program from a recruiting perspective.<\/p>\n If Bamford is something of an insider, Ellefson has been knocking at the door.<\/p>\n Never named to the U.S. Ski Team, he’s had to fund his training and equipment himself. He works as a property manager part-time, and gets support from 22 sponsors, big names like Fischer and L.L.Bean and hometown Vail supporters like Happy Valley Grill and Big Delicious Catering.<\/p>\n Olympic hopeful Sylvan Ellefson ’09. (Photo: Steve Fuller ’82)<\/p><\/div>\n He races under the name Team HomeGrown, an elite-level club begun in 2009 by Ellfeson and his ski buddies, part of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail.<\/p>\n However unconventional his route, Ellefson can ski, and he gets faster and faster each year.<\/p>\n Doing very well in Super Tour races in 2011-12 allowed him to jump to the elite World Cup circuit, and he raced in Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, Norway and Sweden.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nFollow the hopefuls on Twitter: Ellefson @sylvanellefson<\/a>, Bamford @embamford<\/a>.<\/h4>\n
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