Already in Italy, ready to watch are her parents, and younger brother Will Fraser, who says his sister began skiing when she was about two years old.
“She started off doing the Nancy Green program, which was sponsored by Husky, which I did as well, which kind of helps people learn ski racing between the ages of five or six until you’re about 16,” Will said.
“Then she went off to university and decided she wanted to get into freestyle skiing. So then she started joining local events, doing freestyle skiing, big air, and halfpipe, and then gradually worked her way up through the rankings and got into the World Cup for halfpipe skiing.”
Amy grew up in Medicine Hat, consistently taking the 40-minute car drive to the nearby Hidden Valley Ski Resort and graduated from Crescent Heights High School in 2012.
“We grew up skiing at Hidden Valley, and we did most of our ski racing out of there. She got into freestyle skiing after going to university in Calgary,” Will said.
Skiing wasn’t the only sport that kept Amy busy in her youth, according to her younger brother.
“Her main sports growing up were ski racing, dancing, and gymnastics. Definitely heavier on the gymnastics side. I think it definitely gave her a good footing,” Will said.
“She got used to doing aerials and being inverted, and especially with halfpipe, given that you’re at a pretty tangential trajectory out of the pipe. You have got to get pretty comfortable with being upside down. So that definitely gives her a good foundation for that halfpipe skiing.”
Will says that the extended family back in Canada has custom t-shirts and signage made up to cheer her on.
Amy has been competing in freestyle skiing for close to a decade.
“She’s definitely one of the most tenured in the sport, along with some of her teammates,” Will said.
Growing up, Will said the sport was something Amy seemed focused on doing.
“I think she had these aspirations of doing the surfing or freestyle skiing, and well, I don’t really know her to be much of a surfer. So I think this was a much more realistic path for her,” Will said.
“I think this was something she had hinted at when we were growing up, kind of the freestyle sports in general were much more out of the mainstream. But it always caught her interest growing up. So her pursuing this was definitely not a surprise.”
Amy will compete on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. MST during the first run of the qualifier, with the finals set for Saturday at 2:45 p.m. MST.
Her brother is hoping to see Amy have a podium finish, something she has experienced on the World Cup circuit.
“She’s podiumed quite a few times during her time in the World Cup circuit with a first-place finish at Mammoth in 2024,” Will said.
—
READ: Canadian freestyle skier Amy Fraser wins World Cup gold in halfpipe (Feb 2, 2024)
