Family Fitness Champions - One Household, Three Golds

Family shines on Colorado slopes!

When someone in a family wins a gold medal in just about any type of competition, it's natural for everyone in that household to be bursting with pride.

But what if the nearly impossible happens and two members of a family each wins a gold medal? How about three members of one family winning a gold medal?

As unlikely as that might seem, that's exactly what happened to the Havens of Davidsonville.

Ten-year old Jack Havens, 13-year old Taylor Havens and their mother Paige Havens are champions in their respective age groups of the National Standard Race (NASTAR) skiing national championships held last month at Steamboat, Colo.

"This is a great family event and it was great that we all placed," Paige Havens said. "We were just hoping to get to the podium but to comeback with three golds made it even greater."

NASTAR is a program in which recreational skiers of all ages and abilities can test their skills on courses set up at ski areas across the country. Times and scores are compared under a universal handicapping system. And, in the nationals, they had Olympic skiers serving as the pacesetters.

The Havens family, the champions of the Boys 9-10, Girls 13-14 and Women's 35-39 age groups and Chris Havens, the man of the house, who finished 15th in the Men's 45-49 division, competed for the Deep Creek Winter Sports Team that calls the Wisp Ski Resort home.

Jack showed his moxie by going on to finish third in the Race of Champions, the final event of the weekend that pitted the gold medal winners from all the age groups against each other in a handicapped event.

"I don't know if any other family has ever had three national champions," said Paige, who stopped skiing after "putting my face into a tree" while in college at Frostburg State until both of her children were able to get onto skis. "I know it's pretty unusual."

They have been skiing together for nearly as long as they have been a family. Paige, who was raised in Bowie, has been skiing since she was 4, and she and Chris got each of their children on skis for the first time at age 2.

Winning the championships in the slalom races wasn't easy for either Jack or Taylor, who have been racing for four years. Each had to overcome crashes that left Jack with a black eye and Taylor with a bruised leg.

Paige's victory might have been less dramatic with no falls or other incidents - she said she hasn't had any major falls since college - but she said running into a tree as she did back then is hard to get over.

"The thing is that as you get older your fears set in more and more," Paige Havens said. "The kids, on the other hand, tend to have less fear. It was a challenge for me to get over that fear but with the kids racing my husband and I got back into skiing and it has been real fun."

The Havens are skiing just about every weekend during the winter and they try to go out west to ski in the powder once every year. But this year's trip was special due to the family-wide success.

"Going up to get the medal was a real good feeling," said Jack, who is described as an aggressive skier whose love of speed and daring on the slopes belies his soft voice and quiet demeanor. He loves freestyle skiing and is already doing 360s.

Taylor, who admitted being a little bit embarrassed by her mom's excitement on the first-place podium, is more effusive talking about her moment on the podium calling it a thrill.

"You stand up there and feel as if you're better than everyone else, but you don't want to show it," said the eighth-grader who will attend South River High School next year.

She admitted she had no idea she could finish in first place because she had a tough time on the second day of the competition.

"It was kind of scary where there are some really big jumps," Taylor said. "And in the race at steamboat I fell kind of badly into a gate. I still have a bad bruise on my knee.

"I had a really good time on the first day and was in first place, but on the second day I was slow because I was afraid to fall. Some of the girls beat me that day but they didn't do well enough to beat me overall. But I was surprised when they called my name as the winner," she said.

Jack, who plays football for the Davidsonville Gators and has hopes of some day attending the Naval Academy, had the opposite experience.

"I fell on the first run, ran into a gate and somehow got a big black eye from it. I was in fourth place after the first day but I was able to ski faster on the second day and went from fourth to first," said Jack, who along with his mother got a bronze medal last year.

The fall didn't faze him. He wasn't scared; he says he never is. When the morning competition was over, he went to another area and spent the afternoon freestyling, which may be his first love.

"Jack is the most intense of all of us, though my husband is very competitive if you saw him today he'd be crying about all of us getting gold medals and him not getting one, but he was in a far more competitive age group," Paige said.

"Jack is all about speed; he puts the speed ahead of technique, but they come together after a while," Paige explained. "Taylor uses a combination of speed and technique and I'm all about technique but have been working on improving my speed. Chris also has a good mix of speed and technique but he's more into the speed."

Paige pointed out that her husband had been skiing since his college days but didn't start racing until the kids got into it. And now he is also into racing.

The Havens also do a lot of water skiing. Jack and Taylor also enjoy wakeboarding and Taylor plays volleyball.

By winning the NASTAR championships, the Havens qualified for the more advanced United States Ski Association competitions, but that is where the Olympians come from.

"One of the great things about the NASTAR nationals is that former Olympic skiers are there and everybody gets to talk with them and even ski with them," Paige Havens said. "They were able to take pictures with the Olympians and that meant a lot to the people there."

The Haven family has helped to make the people from states more conducive to skiing think highly of Maryland skiers and that was a point of pride. Seeing three members of one family win gold medals is impressive, even on the slopes of Steamboat, Colo.

Published April 15, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2007 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.