Kelley Lewis, a former world-class ski racer, manages ELITEAM along with her husband, Doug. She is the force that keeps ELITEAM moving forward, and on time!
Born in Toronto, Canada, Kelley has spent most of her life skiing, ski racing, and working in the ski industry. She strapped on her first pair of skis at the age of 3 and was hooked from the very first day. She spent most of her younger years bombing down the mountains, enthusiastically chasing her three older siblings. This, she believes, fostered her love of downhill racing, which was later to become the focus of her life.
When Kelley turned 7, she signed herself up for the local ski racing program and spent the next eight years racing her way through the Ontario program. At 15, she enrolled at Burke Mountain Ski Academy and moved to Vermont to pursue a more serious ski racing career. After graduating from Burke in 1988, she enrolled as a post-graduate at the Green Mountain Valley School to continue her training. She dreamed of racing on the World Cup circuit and focused her training on the speed events, which were her passion, and her specialty.
In 1989, she made it onto the start list of her first World Cup Downhill in Lake Louise, but didn’t make it onto the results page, as an unfortunate crash in a training run landed her in the hospital with a chipped tibia. Two years and thousands of squats later, she made it back to Lake Louise, and finally realized her dream of racing in a World Cup Downhill as a “Crazy Canuck”!
Following Kelley’s World Cup adventure, she decided it was time for college and was recruited by the University of Vermont. After winning her first carnival race, however, Kelley crashed and broke her ankle while training GS with her teammates—an injury which left her with 2 plates and 14 screws in her right ankle, and which also ended her competitive racing career.
Kelley & Doug married in the Fall of ’92, in between Kelley’s classes at UVM! (They had met two years prior at a summer training camp in Portillo, Chile. Doug had just retired, but Kelley was still racing. They spent many hours tuning skis together!) After Kelley graduated magna cum laude in December ‘95, she and Doug bought an old farmhouse in Fayston, Vermont where they currently reside with Maddy Maddog, their golden retriever. Maddy not only sports a permanent mohawk, but is, of course, ELITEAM’s official mascot!
When Kelley is not running ELITEAM, she works in the TV Industry hosting various programs for RSN (Resort Sports Network). If you live in New England, you may also catch her in the occasional commercial. Kelley also works as a sports model and offers Women’s Ski Racing Clinics during the winter season. She says she loves living in the mountains where she can walk out her front door to go skiing, hiking, biking, xc skiing, running or snowshoeing on any given day.
Interests
Kelley loves staying active, healthy, and fit with almost any outdoor activity, particularly running, biking, and swimming. She calls herself an Ironwoman Wanna-Be, and spends her summers competing in sprint triathlons. She loves adventures both big and small, working on her old farmhouse, and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream...any flavor will do!
