Podcast #6 – Erik Fisher’s Journey From Olympic Dreams to Inspiring the Next Generation

Doug Dvorak (00:01.848)
Good day, Mission Possible Podcast Nation. I’m your host, Doug Dvorak, and I’m extremely excited to bring you inspiring stories from incredible guests. These individuals are on a mission to create remarkable possibilities that not only enhance their own lives, but also making a lasting impression on the communities around them. Stay tuned for some truly amazing conversations. My guest today is a good friend, Erik Fisher.

former Olympic ski racer also known as Fish. Welcome Fish!

Fish (00:42.008)
Thank you. Thanks for having me, Doug.

Doug Dvorak (00:43.81)
My pleasure. It’s great to have you here as the director of the ski school and running all the great programs for the youth skiers here at Tamarack Resort. Fish, we’ve known each other for about, I think, 11 years. We were one of your sponsors, helped you go to Sochi. Born in Middleton, Idaho, you’re really your area of focus as a very accomplished professional ski racer and Olympian.

is those speed events, the downhill and the super G. You began skiing at three. Unpack that for me. Three years old.

Fish (01:22.827)
Yeah, and it’s funny because I don’t know if I know an Olympian that has started skiing past five or six years old. It’s one of those sports that you have to start really young. There’s a lot of feel involved and knowing what’s under your feet. And so you got to start young. If you don’t start young, it’s not going to happen.

Doug Dvorak (01:44.91)
So you’ve raced in Arizona, Utah before returning to Idaho as a teenager. You graduated from Eagle High School. You spent a post-graduate year at Roanoke Ski Academy in Salt Lake City, and then was named to the National Development Team in 2024. You were also a bronze medalist in the downhill in 2005 at the Junior World Championships in Italy. Tell me about that experience.

Fish (02:10.893)
Yeah, 2004, I made the US ski team after a postgraduate year after high school at Roanoke. I had an amazing career. I had a lot of ups and downs and battles and overcoming a lot of injuries. I had six knee surgeries in 10 years. And so it was a good career, though. I had a lot of fun. I traveled the world.

You can drop me in almost any country in the world and I’ll have friends there. I’ve probably been to 60 countries. So I’ve been extremely blessed being able to travel and see the world and have friends all over the world. So I feel very fortunate for my career.

Doug Dvorak (02:58.542)
So Fish, you made your World Cup debut in November 2005 in a downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta and finished 44th. Then to your earlier point, you had a series of ACL and knee injuries that kept you out for most of the 2008 season. Then you returned the following season to 2009 and had your best.

finishing results in italy then you had an eleventh at the famed i can’t even say it hanakam that’s like the place for for downhill take us through you you come off you know a great year you debut onto the world cup in twenty five and then injury you know how did you deal with those setbacks and then really

Fish (03:35.629)
Kids feel home and calm.

Doug Dvorak (03:55.092)
Embrace the the the next season in 2009 to have some really incredible downhill and World Cup finishes

Fish (04:03.085)
Yeah, I had a little bit of an unfortunate start. I was kind of known as the crazy American that would just go for it. I thought it all had to happen right now and there was no tomorrow. And so I would push a little bit too hard and hope my athleticism would pull through for me. But yeah, so in 2007, I had a crash.

in Lake Louise up in Canada and Ended up tearing my ACL for the first time And the good thing about doing it at the first race is you have all winter to heal and all summer to then prepare for the next winter So I guess that’s the positive you tear your ACL in the end of the winter You don’t have as much time to prepare for the next year. So coming back into the next season

I had a good recovery and I was able to get back to almost full strength and ready to rock and had a really good season that next year. And some athletes have a hard time after injury or setbacks. And so it’s kind of that double edged sword for me where it’s easy for me to just block those bad

out of my mind and keep moving forward. But there’s a negative to that too because you forget what caused the problem in the first place. So I was, I’m a little slower to learn from my mistakes because of that. But at the same time, it’s easy for me, you know, the saying it’s like riding a bike. You just jump on and go, you get back on the bull.

Doug Dvorak (05:42.71)
Right.

Fish (05:58.262)
And so that part is easy for me. It’s the part that was hard is the learning from my mistakes so they don’t happen again and understanding that there’s tomorrow to fight another day.

But I, you know, that’s part of living this life and being an athlete is everybody’s different. And the athletes that are the most successful, the people that are the most successful are the ones that can figure out themselves and keep pushing forward, learn from their mistakes and try it again.

Doug Dvorak (06:35.598)
So you had that severe ACL, the knee injury, then you had two great races, then you’re qualifying, trying to qualify, get healthy for the US ski team for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Then in late 2009, you can’t race because you broke your hand. So all these injuries, walk us through the mindset that you alluded to earlier of…

you know which is the essence of the mission possible podcast overcoming obstacles how did you deal with those setbacks

Fish (07:09.837)
You have to have a very short memory. In life and in sports, you lose a lot more than you win. So I was very good at remembering the one turn out of 30 that I did well. And I would focus on that and try and repeat that. And the other 29 turns, or maybe three or four turns that were really bad, those would go away.

I would focus on the one and try and be more of the in the positive mind frame. And so yeah, in 2009 at Kitspeel was my first year over there. It’s they call it the Super Bowl of ski racing. It’s the second most viewed sporting event in Europe all year just behind the Premier League Championship for soccer. So millions of people are watching.

It’s a crazy race. 99 % of people can’t even ski the hill without falling because it’s so icy and steep and bumpy. And we’re doing it in a minute and 45 seconds, going a couple miles, hitting speeds of over 90 miles an hour and jumps that you’re going over 200 feet. So it’s very intense and you have to learn how to

to block out the fear, focus on what you’re good at and go for it. I believe I still hold the record for the best finish at Kitspeel for the first year somebody has attended. I was 11th and I was bumped out by just a couple of hundreds by Herman Meyer, who was a legend of the skiing world. The Hermanator, yep, he’s a legend, one of the best ever.

Doug Dvorak (08:57.998)
Terminator.

Fish (09:04.021)
And so I was able to race with him the last few years of his career and he bumped me out of the winner’s circle actually at Kitspeel. So I had a really good first race there and that place is wild. It’s a town of 10,000 people and 100,000 people show up for this event. And they’re like soccer fans where they’re lighting off fireworks and smoke bombs and just going crazy. So it’s a good time.

Doug Dvorak (09:30.733)
At the front of this podcast you had indicated that you started skiing at three. Let’s start from the beginning. How did you first get into skiing and what made you pursue it at such a high level?

Fish (09:44.376)
We always, we have this saying in skiing, we don’t know why we’re ski racers, we just are. Because it’s a lot of work and you’re cold a lot of the time and you’re in these tiny little boots that smash your feet. But I think it’s just the love of the sport and being outside in the outdoors. And for me, it was a reason to be able to ski and the path to keep skiing.

There’s not very many careers or jobs that allow you to ski as much as I wanted to. So ski racing was that path. But I got started skiing because of my parents, which I’m sure is most of people. My dad always wanted to be a ski racer, but it’s not the cheapest sport to get into. And he would be more that ski bum level and not the racer.

because they just couldn’t afford it. Well, I was able to be blessed enough where my parents were able to figure out a way for me to keep skiing. And so I got into it at a young age, three years old, and I just kept getting better and better. And as I would move up one level and start skiing with a faster group than me, I would catch them and then surpass them.

that just kind of snowballed and kept happening for me. I didn’t have the best training venue growing up. I grew up skiing at Bogus Basin just outside of Boise. There’s only a couple Olympians that have ever come out of there. Me and Dane Spencer is another one who made the U.S. Ski Team 10 years before I did. But I just lived on my athleticism and

my ability to adapt and get into that new group that was better than me, learn from them, and then eventually surpass them. So as I was just leapfrogging my friends and my peers in the sport, I just kept getting better and better. And I never really had a moment where I thought that, I can actually do this. I kind of, I just, I have,

Fish (12:04.045)
pretty good confidence and I feel like I believe in my athleticism. And so I just, I knew that it was capable if I kept doing it. And so I ended up making the national team a year after I graduated from high school and was off to the races.

Doug Dvorak (12:22.015)
Isn’t it true that there were some football scouts from some pretty big universities that were looking at you because of your athleticism? Unpack that for me.

Fish (12:31.118)
Yeah, I still hold that against my parents. Like, why are you letting a 16, 17 year old kid make decisions for the rest of his life? You never know what can happen and maybe I would get hurt in playing football or something, but that is one, I wouldn’t call it a regret, but definitely a thought in the back of my mind that what would have happened if I would have kept playing football.

Doug Dvorak (12:34.167)
Ha

Fish (12:59.374)
because that was what I would say was kind of my gift was football. Skiing I had to really work at. I’m a little bit bigger for a skier. I was the biggest guy on the tour. In my prime I was 235, 240 pounds. Most down hillers are more in that 210, 215 range because you’re skiing a long time and

under a lot of g-forces and so the more weight you have the stronger you gotta be and at some level it contradicts itself so I think football would have been a good path for me but I love being outside I love the outdoors I do hold it over my parents head in a joking way but I

They allowed me to pick what I wanted to do and I had a good career, I’ve had a good life and so I can’t hold it over him too much.

Doug Dvorak (14:05.079)
So you had those three things, muscle, steel, and crowd appeal. So Fish, let’s talk about your Olympic experience. You represented the US in a couple of Olympics, which is an incredible achievement. What was it like to step onto the stage for the first time, and how did it feel to wear the US Olympic gear?

Fish (14:08.981)
Yeah.

Fish (14:26.347)
Yeah, you know, stepping into a starting gate, that’s normal for me. We race all year long and so it’s actually pretty easy for me and I would say a lot of athletes, we’re really good at tricking ourselves into thinking that things are a smaller deal than they actually are. And it’s something we practice a lot. But for me, what was unique is

actually wearing the red, white and blue and going to opening ceremonies and being able to see all these people that have put in as much or more work than you have to get there and the sacrifices and things that they’ve overcome and coming together as not only the 150 to 200 athletes from the US but all the other countries that have done the same and probably had to sacrifice even more than we have.

So that’s pretty special moment where the world can put everything else aside, come together and celebrate hard work. And because that’s really what it comes down to is gifted people working extremely hard to accomplish something that is very difficult.

Doug Dvorak (15:47.022)
Excellent. You I had the high honor and privilege to meet you back in 2014 and a group of us helped send you to Sochi. And I can remember watching, trying to get what channel you were on and seeing you compete at the downhill at Sochi. Competing at the Olympics is like no other experience. What was the most intense or surreal moment during your time at the Games?

Fish (16:11.181)
Definitely opening ceremonies. Competing is amazing and I’ve done that a lot, but opening ceremonies, I’ve only done that twice. Because I made it to Vancouver in 2010 and then Sochi in 2014. Opening ceremonies is a special moment. Walking on the stage, chasing the flag.

with all your teammates, that is really, really cool. Competing is amazing. It’s really hard to replicate the feeling that you get stepping into a downhill starting gate. I’ve spent my life trying to search that feeling and it’s pretty impossible. I have base jumped and speed flying and…

Doug Dvorak (17:05.111)
Yeah.

Fish (17:11.373)
You name it. I’ve done it. But there’s something about stepping into a starting gate of a downhill where you know you’re about to go 100 miles an hour and hit jumps that are over 300 feet long. It’s a pretty unique feeling.

Doug Dvorak (17:27.773)
And you’re an adrenaline junkie. You’ve shared stories of base jumping, think, in Twin Falls off that bridge with a parachute. You came to me back eight years ago and said, hey, Doug, I know you’re on the board of Tamarack Resort. I want to ski with a parachute. I said, what? Somehow we made it happen. But with the pressure of performing on the world’s biggest stage, how did you manage the mental and emotional challenges leading up to your events?

Fish (17:54.104)
Kind of like what I said before, and this is across all aspects of life. It’s very extreme as an athlete. We’re really good at shutting our minds off and tricking ourselves into thinking something is different than what it actually is. That comes into play when you’re training and working out, being able to control how you feel.

Doug Dvorak (18:25.685)
Fish, the nature of skiing at least at your level, and I love what you said, resiliency, amnesia, forget about, you you can’t really dwell on that, but the nature of skiing at your highest level going over 90 miles an hour on a downhill.

Fish (18:49.197)
Okay.

Doug Dvorak (19:11.245)
course, where the smallest mistake can lead to a major consequence, must require a lot of confidence. How do you bounce back from a bad race or performance?

Fish (19:22.231)
Short memory where you need to forget about things and long memory on the good little things that happen. That’s a unique skill that is special to sports. In all areas of your life it is applicable as well. Athletes are very good at tricking themselves into thinking that something is easier than it is. When you’re working out and your muscles are screaming at you to stop.

You have to be able to tell yourself to keep going. And there’s a 70-30 rule that people like to throw around where when you think you’re at your end, you actually have 30 % more. And so that comes into play across all areas of your life. We are very resilient people and we’ve come a long way. And you got to remember, you still have 30 % more even though you don’t think you do.

Doug Dvorak (20:05.803)
Wow.

Doug Dvorak (20:21.513)
Fish, can you share any strategies or techniques you’ve used to handle stress, whether it’s before a race or during the long recovery periods?

Fish (20:37.534)
I am, I’m not a great person to ask that question to because I actually go the opposite way. where I worked with a sports psychologist a lot where he was actually trying to amp me up and get me more excited. And, then I, then I was just naturally, there there’s a fine balance there where you have to be able to

get amped up and focused and in that zone to perform while also not letting it go too far. There is a lot of really good research out there now about different things you can do. And in the beginning when I was talking about you have to learn yourself. I think that’s the most important part is looking internally, learning yourself.

There’s not one way to do anything. You have to learn how you react and how you respond to things and then adjusting and finding somebody that can help you accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish and can learn how you respond. I was very different than a lot of my teammates. Most of my teammates, they were going the opposite where their heart rates were at

170 when they’re standing in the start gate not doing anything and I was at 90. So where maybe optimal is 125, 130. So you got to learn yourself and adjust based off of your specific needs.

Doug Dvorak (22:22.773)
Excellent. Fish, how does your training differ in the off season compared to competition season? And what’s a typical day like when you’re preparing for a big race?

Fish (22:32.226)
Yeah, so skiing people think that it’s a winter sport, but when it’s winter in North America, it’s summer in South America. And when it’s summer in North America, it’s winter down south. So we run down south in the summertime, skiing over 200 days a year. Spending a bunch of time in New Zealand and Chile and Argentina. Some amazing places to ski.

Portillo, Valley Nevada, Queenstown, Christ Church, New Zealand, those places are beautiful and we were very fortunate to be able to spend some time down there. So we were skiing all the time. We would definitely go into more of a training mode in the summer. There’s no World Cup or Olympic competitions that happen in the summertime. So it’s more about preparation, whether it’s our equipment or our bodies.

That’s our time to really advance those things. During competition is not the time to try and get stronger or work on equipment. You’re trying to dial things in, focus on the little things. When people are winning by hundreds of a second, that’s not the time to make big adjustments. You’re making little fine tune adjustments, trying to find those hundies to take you. You know, it could be

two tenths of a second could determine first to 10th place. So it doesn’t take much, but yeah, it’s going into the training mode in the summertime and trying to rebuild your body. If you have injuries, would six days a week, we’re training five, six hours a day. It’s a full-time job. know, people would think it.

is it’s fun, which it is. But it’s it’s a lot of work. I have a funny story. So when I was in high school and Boise, my mom got worried because I kept coming home from training where we call it dry land training because it’s off of snow, where we’re just working out. I would come home and I would say, I puked again. And my mom got worried about it. And so she

Fish (24:56.184)
talked to my trainer and was like, what’s going on with fish? He keeps coming home from training saying he’s puking. And he said, my coach said, well, it’s because when the other kids are about to puke, they stop. But when fish is about to puke, he just keeps going. And so I thought that was kind of unique to me. But then when I made the national team and we’re doing dry land with the national team, we go and work out.

Every single person is puking. So it goes to show you that yes, you have to be athletic and you have to have those genes and be blessed with that, but you also have to work extremely hard because every single person on the national team was also puking because they were working so hard. So it’s pretty funny that I thought I was unique in that way and really

That’s just what it takes to get to the top.

Doug Dvorak (25:56.098)
Yeah, great story. Fish, are there any specific drills or exercises you swear by to improve your techniques and endurance on the slopes?

Fish (26:05.505)
Yeah, I got a few drills and again it comes back to that, that you gotta learn what is gonna work for you. For me, I always struggled with letting my feet get too far in front of my body. When you’re skiing, you can use the tip to tail method where you’re going from the front of the ski to the back of the ski and it’s kinda like you

you’re juicing it and it is very fast but you have to get back to the front of the ski for the next turn. So for me that was always a really big focus is learning that fine line between juicing the ski too much to get all the energy out of it and still being able to get back to the front of the ski before the next turn. So

I mean, from the time I was 12 years old till I retired at 30, that was always a focus. And now when I’m working with kids, that’s still a focus with a lot of the kids that I work with. And then one of my teammates has a drill named after him called the Schlopy. And I personally think Erik Schlopy was one of the most technically sound skiers that the US has ever had. And he has a drill where his

inside hand is up in the air and his outside hand is on his hip and so you’re kind of forcing your body into the position that it should be in. So I would always warm up with that drill. I’m sure you can google it and find the Schlopy drill but that is a really good one.

Doug Dvorak (27:51.822)
Fish, injuries are an Unfortunate part of any athletes career, but ski racing seems particularly grueling How do you deal with injuries both physically and mentally when they arrives?

Fish (28:18.293)
So there used to be this event called the Snapple All-Star Games. And I thought it was really cool. somebody should bring it back. Because what they would do is they’d bring athletes from all these different sports, the best football players, the best baseball players, track guys, and skiers would show up too. And every single time a skier went to one of these, they won the whole event. Skiing is a very unique sport.

where you have to be really strong to support those G forces that you’re pulling through the turn. You have to be explosive as well. Your feet have to be quick. So you got to be strong and quick and explosive. But then the fourth is you also have to have endurance because we’re doing this for two and a half minutes. At about a minute, you start to go from

anaerobic to aerobic and so your your body is changing from those short sprints where you need the breath as well to start engaging so you need to have the endurance and the strength and quick feet and so it makes very versatile athletes so

The training for it is very unique and different. There’s some awesome videos about ski racers and their training. Big legs but also can ride a bike up a mountain.

So for me, my main weakness was my aerobic side. My lung capacity wasn’t great. I was one of the strongest and most explosive skiers, but I lacked more on the cardio side. So that was a big focus for me.

Fish (30:14.647)
But yeah, it’s just, you gotta pick a lot of heavy things up and put them down and pick them back up again. We had some fun, we call them pair picnics. It was one of our trainers. He’s actually went to Red Bull and did their training program for a while and now he’s back with the US ski team now. But we would do these training programs where every time we would do it,

you would end up throwing up because your lactic acid is through the roof and your body just can’t take it anymore. it’s, it was a wild time in my life doing that every day in and day in day out. I, I still have fun working out, but I, do it a whole lot less now and I don’t push it that much. but yeah, it was, I learned a lot about the human body and,

what it can actually do. And now I try to pass it on to the next generation.

Doug Dvorak (31:19.693)
Excellent. Fish skiing is such an individual sport, but it also takes a team to get to the top. Who are the key people in your support system and how do they or did they contribute to your success?

Fish (31:32.204)
Yeah, it takes a village for sure. Nobody does anything on their own. You have to have that support system. And for me, definitely number one was my mom. I probably wouldn’t have graduated from high school if it wasn’t for her. I missed almost 100 days of school my senior year just traveling, foreskiing. I lived in Utah for a couple of years.

We’re about an hour and half to two hours from the ski resort over a really dangerous pass and She would drive me over the hill four days a week four hours of driving Then sitting in the lodge while I would go out and train for a few hours That was at Sundance ski resort Robert Redford’s ski resort So definitely my mom I mean the sacrifices that she

put in for my career. She started a raft company on the Payette River, Idle, Whitewater and Limited, ended up selling that to help fund my career. My grandpa started, my great grandpa started GMB ReadyMix, which is a company in Boise. And he helps me a lot. So you have to have that support system. And then along the way, I mean, there’s countless coaches in my life that

have given me just little tidbits here and there that have helped push me to the next level. Trainers that have pushed me. I, doctors that have put my body back together after I destroy it. So it’s a very long list. And I think that’s one thing that people need to understand is nobody does anything by themselves, whether it’s business or sports.

You have to have that support system and have people to help push you over the edge.

Doug Dvorak (33:35.83)
And I’ve gotten to know your mom, Shelly, and your dad, Dave. In fact, your Dave is an avid fisherman and his friends with Phil and Gloria Bowman. And after one of his Alaska fish trips, he brought me back some incredibly smoked fish. They’re just incredible people. Fish, who are some of the athletes or mentors who inspired you earlier in your career? And what did you learn from them outside of your family?

Fish (33:59.182)
Yeah, there’s an athlete, skier, best downhiller America’s ever seen, Darren Rolves. He’s out of Tahoe. He’s a smaller guy. I think he’s about 180 pounds, which is 20, 30 pounds lighter than most of the field. But incredibly hardworking, extremely fit, and just a very unique individual.

Really good guy and passed on a lot of tips for me. I skied World Cup with him for three or four years at the end of his career. He went out his last year was the best year he had had went out on top as as Darren would we’d call him D money. He’s he’s awesome guy. He’s still involved in the ski world. He’s around Tahoe a lot. Palisades.

Still sponsored by Red Bull, super cool guy. And he taught me a lot and showed me what it takes to actually be at the next level.

Doug Dvorak (35:10.253)
So your Olympic career ends. How do you plan to continue impacting the sport and inspiring the next generation of skiers?

Fish (35:19.917)
So after 2014 Olympics, I was trying to come back for another year and my knee just, it couldn’t do it. After the six knee surgery, it had had enough and I knew it had. And I’m at that point where I can still ski. I’m probably skiing 70, 75 % on my one leg. And most of my daily life doesn’t affect me much.

But for me, was just, it was time to move on and do something different. So I took a couple of years away from the sport and there was one year actually that I didn’t go skiing one time. And I looked at myself in the mirror and I just said that this isn’t okay. This isn’t what I want. And so I forced myself to get back into the sport. I started coaching.

Doug Dvorak (36:03.863)
Really?

Fish (36:18.901)
And now I’m the program director for the local ski team in central Idaho at Tamarack Resort, Brundage Resort, and also Little Ski Hill in McCall, Idaho. And this year I’m also now the sports school director at Tamarack Resort and on the real estate team. So kind of have my hands in a lot of things and super involved in the community.

I always wanted to end up back in the McCall area from Boise. Grew up in the summertime coming up on the river to Valley County and knew I always wanted to be here and finally figured out a way to to make it happen. And so now I’m just putting my focus and energy and into the next generation of just ski lovers.

people that just love the outdoors and love skiing. And I’m trying to put somebody on the US Ski Team. It’s really hard, but that’s my ultimate goal. But at the end of the day, I have three rules that I tell my staff and my kids. When I say my kids, I mean my athletes. So number one is fun. That’s why we’re here.

Every single person on the national team, they love skiing. So that is absolute number one with whatever you’re doing. You got to figure out a way to love it. Otherwise there’s no way to put the energy into it. And number two is every day we’re working on something and we’re getting better. We’re not just going out here sliding around and not learning. We’re focusing in and we’re learning something every day. And number three,

It’s kind of a joke and it goes along with kind of my career as being that crazy American, but safety third. You can’t get better the next day if you’re injured. so that’s my three goals that I come to the Hill every day with and drive into my staff and the athletes. Have fun, get better every day, and stay safe doing it.

Doug Dvorak (38:37.761)
And I think anyone, even if they’re not skiers, can learn from that. Have fun, learn something every day, and be safe. Fish, outside of skiing, what are your passions and interests?

Fish (38:51.598)
Well these days I’ve been doing a lot of snowmobiling. It’s a fun thing where I’m still in the snow but learning something new. So having a lot of fun with that. I’m in the real estate world now so I’m really liking that. I’ve been around it a lot. My mom’s been a realtor for 20 years and so you know as in the ski world you got to figure out a way to make some money so.

That’s the path I’ve chosen. fits well with being here at Tamarack and I really enjoy it. It’s something that has changed a lot of lives for people. It’s one of the biggest financial decisions somebody makes in their life and there can be a lot of stress involved. So helping calm people’s nerves and help them make the right decision for themselves is super fun and rewarding.

kayaker and a kiteboarder in the summer. In the winter I’m busy doing ski stuff. In the summer and the shoulder seasons I travel a lot and kiteboarding is one of my new joys in life. I absolutely love it going to random countries and finding random beaches with nobody on it and launching a kite and playing in the ocean.

So I would say kiteboarding is probably the number one passion these days.

Doug Dvorak (40:24.301)
Fish, if you could go back and give advice to your younger self before the Olympics, or perhaps even before your first major race, what would you tell him?

Fish (40:35.722)
Man Probably that Tomorrow does exist would probably be my advice I I am just Hyper focused in in that the one moment and today right now. I’m gonna make it happen and Where life is more about building blocks it it doesn’t happen in a day and

I can be pretty patient with other people, but when it comes to myself, I am extremely impatient. And so I think just knowing that tomorrow exists, you have another opportunity tomorrow, put the one block down today, and tomorrow put the next block on top of it. And by the time you’re done, you have a really solid foundation and a building that you’re proud of.

So that would probably be my advice to myself.

Doug Dvorak (41:38.925)
and I gotta ask you, you know, I’ve loosely followed Lindsey Vonn’s career. I heard or read that she got a knee replacement and is trying to make it back on the tour. Is that true?

Fish (41:53.088)
It is, it’s pretty impressive. I need to call her and see how that knee is working out, because maybe I should do something similar. I don’t want to come back to World Cup downhill ski racing, but if I can live life without pain, that would be awesome. No, Lindsay, she’s an amazing athlete and what she’s done for the sport is incredible. And if nothing else comes from it, then it gets more eyeballs on the sport and helps more athletes.

Doug Dvorak (42:01.11)
Ha ha ha.

Fish (42:22.913)
That is awesome and I wish all the best for her.

Doug Dvorak (42:27.201)
Yeah, and I was particularly touched by Michaela Schiff when her dad passed away. Any observations on Michaela as a racer, a human being?

Fish (42:36.622)
She is a special talent for sure. It was funny because when I was about halfway through my career when we first heard about Michaela, I was on the team with her for a while. Super sweet, super nice, and just an amazing athlete. Very few people do you know by the time they’re 10 years old that they’re going to be on the World Cup.

basically never happens. But Michaela from the very beginning, we knew she was just going to be a very special talent. And I have to give it to the national body for skiing because they did a very good job of slow playing it with her and developing that foundation with her. And unlike myself, understanding that tomorrow does exist.

They did a good job of building her into what she is now. So it’s pretty cool.

Doug Dvorak (43:39.501)
Excellent. And so last question before we get into the rapid fire around fish. The title of this podcast is Mission Possible. What does Mission Possible mean to you?

Fish (43:53.07)
Just that it can happen. it doesn’t happen the way you want it to, but it can happen. It takes the village, like I said. It takes the building blocks. And just that a lot of things are possible in your life if you focus in, you work hard, and you can stay positive.

and happy and day after day after day keep working on it. So yeah, when you first told me about this and wanted me to come on, the title had me sold. So it’s a great cause what you’re doing and I hope you keep pushing forward with it. It’s awesome.

Doug Dvorak (44:44.621)
Thanks, Fish.

Fish, we’re gonna go now into the rapid fire round of questions. Six questions, one word or a short phrase response. Favorite ski destination. Most memorable race.

Fish (45:09.591)
Chamonix, France.

Doug Dvorak (45:15.105)
best piece of advice you’ve ever received.

Fish (45:20.277)
I’m not very fast right now. Live to see another day.

Doug Dvorak (45:22.369)
Ha ha ha.

Love it. Pre-race ritual or superstition.

Fish (45:29.973)
I never told anybody what I said and I won’t today, but I’d click my polls one way twice and the other way three times and I would say something.

Doug Dvorak (45:37.971)
Awesome. Okay. Most challenging aspect of skiing.

Fish (45:43.981)
balance.

Doug Dvorak (45:45.601)
Favorite recovery food or drink?

Fish (45:48.589)
sushi.

Doug Dvorak (45:49.962)
Excellent. My guest has been two time Olympian and current director of ski school and just an all around great human being that has a pure kind and radiant soul, Erik Fisher from McCall Idaho and Tamarack Resort. Fish, if people want to get a hold of you, how can they get a hold of you?

Fish (46:10.617)
I’m on Instagram, that’s probably the best way. Erik L. Fisher, E-R-I-K-L-F-I-S-H-E-R. Yeah, you can follow along. I don’t post often. I’ve got good stories though. I like to have fun with life. Don’t take myself too seriously. So yeah, let’s have some fun.

Doug Dvorak (46:29.197)
Cool. My guest has been former Olympian and professional skier, Erik Fisher. Thank you, Podcast Nation and Mission Possible community. It’s been a high honor and privilege. Check us out at missionpossible.biz. Carpe Diem.

Fish (46:47.159)
See ya.