Â鶹Éç¹ú²ú

When 15-year-old Sofia Aragon isn't flying through the air for her sport, the ski jumper is often flying in an airplane to access places to train.

The Sea to Sky Nordics alum is fundraising to continue training and pay for her trip to the World Junior Championships in Lake Placid, U.S., in February, 2025.

"My goal is to become one of the best athletes in my sport, and I need your help to turn the impossible into a reality," she says on her online campaign page on the platform.

"To excel, I need to be constantly pushing my limits. I am ready to work hard, but at the same time, I know that the road to success will be costly."

She is aiming to raise $3,000 with the campaign.

Aragon, a member of the seven-strong Canadian Provincial Team, has designed sets of waterproof playing cards that come in a tin case, as a reward for donations of $25 or more.

How it started

Aragon got her ski jumping start at about 10 years old in the Callahan Valley.

She said her parents were looking for activities to keep the family busy while they were in a trailer awaiting the completion of their house. They proposed cross-country skiing on Wednesdays, but Aragon recalls she was having none of it.

"I was a little 10-year-old who was downhill-obsessed, not cross-country obsessed. And I was like, 'I'm not doing that.' So, they found the jumpers program, and then I started doing it every Wednesday night," she said, recalling her early days at Whistler Olympic Park.

The rest is history.

How it is going

Because she cannot access a 60-metre jump (only 10, 20, 40 and 90 metres) she travels to train.

She also needs to train more often than she could locally; Aragon was based in Park City, Utah for the 2020 to 2023 seasons.

She also went to Slovenia in 2022, and to Poland in 2023.

When her parents are not able to accompany her on these trips, Aragon said she feels quite at home being independent. Her dad is from Mexico, and she started flying down to see relatives at a very young age, using the airport's child travel program.

"I got very independent, very quickly, literally, travelling by myself at eight," she said, with a laugh.

How it could go

Her ultimate dream, not surprisingly, is to compete in the Olympics one day.

But for this next season, her goal is to compete in the Junior Worlds, which is in Lake Placid, New York, one of the places she trains often.

Aragon is heading into Grade 11; she studies online to be able to travel and fit in her training.

How going off goes

When asked how she overcomes fear at the top of a jump, Aragon said she hasn't felt scared in a while because she trusts the process.

"Ski jumping is a relatively safe sport because not anyone can go try it. You have to have your coach send you up a hill, and if he or she doesn't think you are ready, then you can't go up. So it's very safe to know that if your coach thinks you're ready, you'll go up a hill. And if he or she doesn't think you're ready, then you won't," she said, noting her coach is . 

"If you are up there, you are a safe jumper for that hill."

One thing that can make her a little nervous, she added, is if there's a lot of headwind.

"We want headwind, but if there's a lot of headwind, it gets a little scary, because you're at the top of it, you are like, if I have a good jump, I'm going to go really far."

Aragon said she is buoyed by the support of people in Squamish, particularly from Sea to Sky Nordics and its president, Rick Smith.

"They were very helpful with this whole process," she said. "They've always been very supportive."

Support Aragon’s online campaign at  "!”