Chester girl wins Gold Medal at Magic, heads to U14 State Championships

Ava Anderson, 12, of Chester, a member of the Stratton Winter Sports Club team and recent U14 Gold Medal winner at Magic Mountain, will be racing in the Vermont Alpine Racing Association‘s U14 State Championships at Okemo Mountain, competing against young women from throughout Vermont.

The U14 category is for those under the age of 14.

Ava has competed in seven Southern Vermont Council races this season, finishing in the Top 5 in five of them. In her last race — at Magic Mountain on Monday, Feb. 17 — she took home her first U14 Gold Medal, winning with more than 4 seconds ahead of her competition. These results have put Ava in 3rd overall out of the 74 women who compete in the Southern Vermont Council.

Ava has been skiing since age 2 at Stratton Mountain, where her father, Michael Anderson, is the assistant director of the Ski Patrol. At the age of 8, Ava began ski racing. The Stratton Winter Sports Club is a community of ski racers and coaches that has helped her foster these goals for the past five years.

At the U14 State Championships at Okemo Mountain in Ludlow, Ava will compete in the Super-G at noon Thursday, March 5, the Giant Slalom at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday March 7 and the Slalom at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 8.