Ski and Snowboard Club Vail 17-year-old reflects on competing at Olympics for Ireland
Pam Peterson/Courtesy photo
In a lot of ways, Anabelle Zurbay is just like any other 17-year-old. She shops with her mom and uses her phone frequently.
“Well, she’s a teenager,” her dad, Dale, stated. “So, conversations often have to happen in between all the usual phone stuff. But she’s really good about having regular conversations.”
She’s also really good at skiing. And that’s where she’s perhaps a little unique. This February, the Ski and Snowboard Club Vail 17-year-old competed at the Olympic Games for Ireland.
“It’s such a cool experience to have,” Zurbay said. “You definitely learn to control your nerves a bit more. And getting to be in the big leagues was fun.”
Zurbay said her main focuses were to savor the moment, embrace the Olympic aura, and of course, perform well. Standing at the start before her debut, she felt nervous.
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“Because I knew once I pushed out of the gate, I was an Olympian, so I was like, ‘just make it out of the first gate,'” she said. “I was just going to try and finish and ski as fast as I could.”
Zurbay has been pretty fast ever since she started skiing at the age of 2. She won her very first race four years later.
“Her older brother was already racing a lot by then, so she was following along a bit,” Dale Zurbay said. “But the real turning point was her second year at the U16 level.”
Zurbay went from failing to qualify for the Rocky/Central championships one year to competing at U16 nationals the next.
“That was the year we knew she could really race,” Dale Zurbay said before adding that what truly makes her daughter unique is who she is off the snow. “She is clearly a very good ski racer, and that is cool, but we are more proud of her as a person. She is kind and considerate, super driven about the things she’s passionate about, and stubborn — in a good way.”
Anabelle Zurbay’s maternal grandmother was born and raised in Ireland. She came to the U.S. for a semester of school, met her husband — Anabelle’s grandfather — and wound up staying. Anabelle Zurbay obtained her Irish citizenship a few years ago, her dad said. A member of SSCV’s FIS team, Zurbay met her Irish national team coaches for the first time at the Olympics.
“We had to learn what each other likes and doesn’t like. But then I was with them again at world juniors, which was fun,” she said. Zurbay placed 48th in both the GS and slalom in Cortina. Her parents said it was “nerve-wracking” watching their daughter compete on the world’s biggest stage.
“We’ve been to a lot of big ski races with her and her brother where podiums or qualifications were on the line, and those are stressful as a parent,” Dale Zurbay stated. “At the Olympics, she wasn’t expected to contend against World Cup racers, but there were still a lot of people watching her, and we just wanted her to put down four good runs. We were incredibly proud of her for doing that under some pretty heavy pressure.”
After flying back to Vail to train for five days, Zurbay jetted back to Europe for the FIS Junior World Championships in Narvik, Norway. Zurbay placed 22nd in the team combined, 45th in the giant slalom and was in 37th after the first slalom run before posting a DNF in the second.
“I was pretty satisfied,” Zurbay said of her world junior experience, where she teamed up with Eábha McKenna on the first-ever Irish team combined squad. “I was just happy to be there. The slalom didn’t go as planned, but that’s ski racing.”
Zurbay closed out the season last week on her home hill at the U.S. Alpine National Championships. The tech specialist was 22nd in the super-G on March 29 and 33rd in the GS two days later. The Friday after her last race, she had surgery on a torn ligament in her wrist — which she raced with throughout the entire winter.
“A lot of Advil and duct tape,” Zurbay explained. Looking ahead to next season, the young star said she doesn’t have any firm goals ironed out yet.
“Just trying to go day by day and finish the season and think about next season in a few weeks,” Zurbay said. As for her advice to younger skiers hoping to one day represent their country at the Olympics, Zurbay said to enjoy the ride.
“Have fun,” she stated. “Because if you’re not having fun, you can’t keep going. See where it takes you.”
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