Meet Kaitlyn Farrington – Idaho Cattle Rancher Turned Olympic Athlete
Kaitlyn grew up on a cattle ranch in Sun Valley and will be competing for a gold medal Wednesday February 12th, 2014 in the Sochi Olympics.
Kaitlyn Farrington grew up with a different definition of "Snow Day" than most kids. If there was snow on the ground she didn't go to school. Instead, she was on the slopes preparing to someday be an Olympic athlete.
“We’re big skiers,” said Gary Farrington, Kaitlyn’s dad. “I ski every day, and if it snows, everybody knows I don’t go to work, and I let Kaitlyn have the same privilege. She’d see some snow in the driveway and go, ‘Oh, cool, are we off today?’ We’d take advantage every chance we got.”
Kaitlyn and her sister, Jessalyn, grew up on a cattle ranch just outside of Bellevue, Idaho. Here family raised horses, cattle, and grew hay. Now, Kaitlyn lives in Salt Lake City and makes a living as a pro snowboarder.
“I just wanted to be on the mountains,” she said. “I started skiing when I was 3. ... During the winter, that is what we’d do, we’d go skiing. When I started snowboarding, I would just snowboard all day, every chance I’d get.”
“When I was about 17 is when I realized I could make snowboarding my career,” Farrington said.
Kaitlyn will compete at the Olympics in Sochi tomorrow, and will hopefully bring a Gold Medal back home with her to Idaho.
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