Q&A: Burke Mountain Academy’s Willy Booker on alum Mikaela Shiffrin chasing history

Head of school Willy Booker high-fives an athlete at Burke Mountain Academy. (BMA)

Mikaela Shiffrin officially became the queen of ski racing on Jan. 24, winning a giant slalom race in Kronplatz, Italy, for her 83rd World Cup victory, surpassing Lindsey Vonn for the most career wins by a woman. Win No. 84 came in another GS race the next day. She then made it three straight, and 11 for the season, with a slalom victory in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, on Jan. 28.

The next day, Shiffrin came within six-hundredths of a second from a fourth-straight victory, one that would have pulled her level with Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark for the most career World Cup victories.

Win No. 86 has been on hold, however, as the World Cup took a break with the FIS World Ski Championships held Feb. 6-19 at Courchevel and Meribel in France.

At only 27 years old, it is only a matter of when Shiffrin will record win No. 86 and then No. 87 to stand alone on the podium of racing legends. How far she goes after that is anyone’s guess as she regains her form, winning double-digit races for the first time since 2018-19, when she won a record 17.

Shiffrin is a 2013 graduate of Burke Mountain Academy in East Burke, Vt., home of one of the country’s top racing programs. There are only 65 students in the school and it is expected that “over 90 percent will at least race in college or on nationals teams,” according to BMA head of school Willy Booker.

Shiffrin is one of seven Burke alums or members of its postgraduate “E-Team” to appear in a World Cup race this year. Shiffrin, Nina O’Brien (giant slalom, slalom), Ava Sunshine (slalom, giant slalom) and Gilford, N.H., native Zoe Zimmermann (slalom), who earned her first points in the World Cup in December in Sestriere, Italy, are on the women’s team. Patrick Kenney (giant slalom) of Hingham, Mass., has a spot on the U.S. men’s team. The school isn’t limited to Americans, either, as Britt Richardson (giant slalom) represents Canada, while Harry Laidlaw (giant slalom) of Australia also competed in the Winter Olympics last year.

We recently spoke with Booker about BMA’s superstar graduate and the school’s continued, strong relationship with Shiffrin.

New England Ski Journal: What has it been like watching Mikaela Shiffrin tick off wins one after another? 

Willy Booker: She’s won so many races, I hate to say it, but it almost becomes expected, and we’re trying to remind our students continually how extraordinary it is to win a single World Cup, let alone 85 or 86 or 87 or however many she’s on track for this year.

The relationship our students have with her, we just feel grateful. I think the biggest thing is not only what she’s done, what she’s continuing to do, but the way she carries herself. She’s done everything in her career with a great deal of humility, and she’s a wonderful example to every aspiring young athlete. We’ve been incredibly grateful for the example that she’s set, and our kids do feel a unique connection with her because she lived in the same buildings, skied on the same hill, and walked the same paths they get to walk every day.

NESJ: Was there any sort of buildup as she got closer to the record?

Booker: The season she is having is incredible. I don’t think anybody really anticipated her to get to those records so quickly. We’re also in the middle of our race season so our kids have been a little bit everywhere. Now that there’s a bit of a pause because of the World Championships before she’ll be back in pursuit of Ingemar Stenmark’s record, I’m sure we’ll be having watch parties over the next World Cup races.

NESJ: How does recruiting work for ski racing?

Booker: We don’t do much recruiting, it’s more of a passive process. We send out information about our school, we do get a lot of inbound inquiries, and then there’s an application and enrollment process. It is competitive. We have far more applicants than we have spots available each year.

It’s not like the other sports where you’re in a recruiting battle for an athlete. That just really doesn’t happen. There are a lot variables that go into why a kid would choose our school over another one, and a big part of it is the fit and the culture of each individual school. They’re all great and they’re all a little different and kids seem to find their way to the right spot.

NESJ: How does BMA stand out against those other schools?

Booker: I think the things that make our school unique is we do have a strong culture and values proposition here. We prioritize honesty and integrity, things that a lot schools would promote, but we also really place a huge emphasis on celebrating hard work. The kids who do end up coming to Burke tend to be ones who really thrive on high intensity, so that’s a unique differentiator. Even in the small market of ski academies we’re a little bit unique that every kid here is an alpine ski racer. We only do one sport and the kids who are here, they’re all in on kind of the same thing, so the entire community is striving around the same set of activities and goals regardless of the season.

NESJ: Just how competitive is it within each group?

Booker: It is unique. Ski racing is both an individual and a team sport. And that sounds kind of weird — you train as a team, you do all your physical strength and conditioning all summer and fall as a team, then when you go to compete, you compete as an individual. It is competitive, kids are fighting, you don’t always articulate it this way, but you are competing for spots on national teams, selections into race series, you’re competing for spots on college teams against your peers. But I think, more than anything, the kids here think of themselves as teammates first.

NESJ: While Mikaela already had a World Cup globe for slalom and world championship for slalom under her belt before graduating from Burke, how long does it typically take for someone to break through and make a World Cup start?

Booker: Mikaela is completely in her own stratosphere — that’s an atypical timeline. For the men, use high school graduation as your jump-off point. It’s more common to get your first World Cup starts in your early 20s, maybe 22 years old, so three or four years racing post-high school. For women, it’s typically a little bit faster. Britt Richardson, as an example, got her first World Cup starts in her first year after high school. She’s exceptional, but it’s not uncommon for women, so maybe two years post-high school for women, three to four for men.

NESJ: Is there anything else people should know about the school’s relationship with its most famous alum?

Booker: I think the biggest thing with Mikaela and her relationship with Burke is just that we’re trying to make the most out of her living example while she’s still ski racing. She will go down as the greatest ski racer of all time when she retires. Right now, she’s a living example — it’s not something that happened in history. You can see the way she is doing it right now, you can see the way she prepares … she’s very transparent about her mental approach to each and every race. So we’re trying to soak the most inspiration out of her that we can. The kids here, as they should be, are extremely proud of her.