Athlete Highlight: Katalin Mazansky

Meet 13-year old alpine athlete, Katalin Mazansky. Katalin is a part of the NYSEF-Belleayre program and attends The Dalton School in New York City. She began skiing at 3 ½ at Belleayre and has been motivated to continue in the sport because she “really enjoys skiing and always has fun doing it. While the commitment can be difficult with other activities, the love for the sport has always kept me motivated to try hard and stay focused,” she said. 

This season, Katalin made the U14 Eastern Championships based on her consistent results from U14 States in Holimont where she placed 7th in SG, 7th in GS and 3rd in SL. Regarding her season, Head Belleayre U14 Coach, Kevin Vanblarcum commented, “Kat is an athlete of unparalleled dedication. She hit all of her goals that we established at the beginning of the season not with ease, but rather with grit.” The training this season has been the perfect combination of focus, fun, and being with friends. In addition, Kat felt that “the training was a good mix of doing drills, free skiing, and spending time in the gates.” 

Athletes like Katalin are always balancing school work, their sport and extra activities in the winter season. Kat has mastered her time management and uses the trips to and from her home in NYC to Belleayre to get as much work done as possible.  “Kat is the very definition of a student-athlete and understands the commitment of school and sport. Although it was a huge bummer that Eastern Championships were cancelled, she will undoubtedly have plenty of opportunities to ski at that level in the future,” added Coach Vanblarcum.   

When Katalin is not skiing, she likes to cook, bake, play ping pong, basketball and read.