Meet U14 alpine athlete, Louis John Farone IV also known as  the “Godfather.” Louis got his nickname from Head U14 Coach, Kurt Mackie. “My full name sounded very Italian so the nickname stuck,” Louis said. Louis is a part of the Gore program and started skiing at 5 years old on a hill in front of his Saratoga home. This season, he had the opportunity to ski with his sister, Anna and is always challenging his group on the mountain– whether it be training gates or skiing on a powder day. “I learned that skiing the entire mountain and being a well rounded skier- is just as important as the race results,” Louis said. Gore has great terrain so there are always fun places to find and ski, he added.

Coach Mackie talked about Louis’ season saying, “this was his second year making the U14 Eastern Championships. Because he is home schooled, he does get a little more time on snow during the week and seemed to enjoy  attending some of the invite only camps this winter.” Louis loved being able to have more control over his schedule (from being home-schooled) and meeting athletes from other mountains at special invitational projects.

When discussing improvements this season, Coach Mackie said, “He loves to ski, and he will continue to improve his fundamentals which we are working on all the time.” When reminiscing on the season, Louis said, “it was a great year. We had snow early at Gore and between races and regional camps the year flew by which was hard when the ski season came to an abrupt end.”

Louis will continue to work on GS and Super G and refine his SL techniques as a U16 athlete in the 2020-2021 ski season. 

When Louis is not skiing, he is raising organic meat chickens, fly fishing or in the woods watching deer and other animals on his trail cameras.