When alpine skier Abigail Murer was 6 years old, she accidentally slipped out of a ski lift and fell more than 30 feet.

Hidden Valley Ski Resort general manager Bill Brandes watched it happen from the top of the slope in Eureka. He immediately called 911 and a medevac service, in case Abigail needed to be airlifted to a hospital. Then he headed down the slope to assess her injuries.

He was shocked to find her not only uninjured, but that she had landed on her skis and cruised down hill several yards before falling.

"I couldn't believe it," Brandes said. "She was scared and worried that she'd upset us."

"It was her first big ski jump," her dad, Ken Murer, said, chuckling.

Her cat-like grace was a harbinger of medals to come.

Abigail, 15, of Wildwood, has since won 77 medals in regional and national competitions including the U.S. Junior Olympics, three years in a row.

For the third consecutive winter, she and her mother, Aimee Murer, are living in Vail, Colo., so she can train at Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, the premier junior training facility in the nation where Olympian Lindsey Vonn honed her Alpine skills.

Abigail said while eating lunch at the Hidden Valley lodge recently that she cannot remember the first time she skied; only that she has always wanted to go fast. She's been clocked at 62 mph, she said.

Her dad chimed in that she was a few months shy of age 3 when he and her mother began taking turns holding Abigail up on her tiny skis and coasting down slopes with her between their legs.

"We didn't do pizza wedges or any of that," Ken Murer said. "We would be going 20 or 30 mph and we'd tie the front of her skis together with surgical tubing and C-clamps to keep them together. By the time she was 3 1/2, we had taken those off."

Eyes and head • Always pointed downhill toward the next two to three gates.

Arms • The triceps must be strong for pushing out of the start gate. A fraction of a second difference at the gate can win or lose a race. Abigail does TRX curls to make them strong.

Upper body • Must be still. No swaying from side to side which could upset balance and increase aerodynamic drag. Abigail calls this "keeping the upper body quiet."

Core • It's crucial for maintaining balance because the terrain is changing constantly and rapidly. She does a lot of sit-ups, planks and rotating crunches holding a weighted ball to make her obliques strong.

Hips • They must be strong and flexible to hold the upper body erect while the legs are out to the side on turns. This is called angulation. The hip is often mere inches from the ground on turns.

Upper legs • The muscles here must be powerful to support the body's weight in the cantilevered position and while rounding the gates. The hamstrings are especially important for pushing through a turn.

Shins and knees • Kept parallel at all times. The knees are also pushed into a cantilevered position over the front of the feet. Tears in the knee's meniscus and ACL are the most common injuries.

Ankles • When first entering a cut around a gate, the skier is leaning downhill on the balls of her feet and her ankles are sharply flexed forward.

Feet • Must be perfectly flat inside the ski boot and always parallel. When cutting around a gate, as much as 90 percent of body weight is shifted to the foot on the outside of the turn. Too much weight on the foot closest to the gate could drive it into the outside foot. At the start of the turn, Abigail puts pressure on the front of the skis and shift it to the rear as she finishes the turn.

 

Abigail Murer, 15, of Chesterfield. Nationally ranked junior alpine skier

Teen spirit • USSA junior age groups are determined by the athlete's age on Jan. 1. Abigail turned 15 on Jan. 18, so she'll compete in the 14-year-old female category during 2012, which gives her an advantage among.

Time well spent • Abigail spends about 32 hours a week practicing on the slopes in Vail and 12 hours in the gym working on strength and conditioning.

G-force • The gravitational pull when Abigail is at the apex of a cut around a gate is more than three times her body weight, or 3 Gs.

In shape • Abigail does high-intensity bike workouts as well as squats and hamstring curls using TRX equipment to strengthen her upper legs.

Stair master • She also does plyometric exercises to increase her explosiveness including jumping up stairs on one leg.

Quick work • Her dad, Ken Murer, estimates that all the minute body adjustments Abigail makes while rounding a gate take place in two-tenths of a second.

In training • Last week, Abigail was one of five girls from the Vail facility selected to train with Austrian Skier Benni Raich, champion World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist with other European skiers in Pitztal, Austria.

Fine start • She competed in the USSA Junior Olympics when she was 12, the first year she was eligible to qualify. She placed 12th among 60 female racers.

 

Brett Borgard, J4 alpine racing coach at Ski & Snowboard Club Vail in Vail, Colo.

New team • In 1991, Borgard helped start the Hidden Valley Ski Team with David Coulter, Abigail's grandfather. Four months ago, Borgard began working at the club in Vail, which teaches students ranging from ages 7 to 21.

Size doesn't matter • Unlike most sports, alpine skiing doesn't require a specific body type. Borgard points out that U.S. Olympian Lindsey Vonn, who's ranked no. 1 in the world, is 5 feet, 10 inches and 165 pounds, while Anna Fenniger, an Austrian World Cup Champion ranked sixth in the world, is 5 feet, 5 inches and 140 pounds.

Short season • Becoming a highly competitive skier in Missouri is doable, but tough, said Borgard. Students must cram a lot of training into a shorter window of time and travel to ski camps out west and in Canada. "(Hidden Valley) doesn't have the resources that a lot of resorts have because we're usually only on snow from the first week of December to the first week of March."

Roll with it • You must have good cardio conditioning, strength and mental tenacity, Borgard said. "You're dealing with outdoor elements, equipment and they're different every day so you have to be adaptable."

Slow burn • Leg muscles fire longer in alpine skiing than in any other sport because all of the skier's weight is on one foot going through turns. "A lot of other sports, like basketball, are more quick-twitch, because players are on and off the foot very quickly."

Stay strong • Staying low, or tucked, during downhill skiing for a minute and a half is difficult and requires immense strength because it's an unnatural position for the body.

Tech talk • Gates are 13 meters apart in slalom and 38 meters apart in Super G. "Slalom requires being off and on the edge of the skis a lot quicker to make the turns. So it's a little more technical," Borgard said. "For Super G and downhill skiing, you have to know how to go fast and keep your speed going. If you make one little mistake, hit a jump too high or miss the line and go around the gate too wide, it's hard to regain speed."