Balancing life, school, and professional skiing

I’m not your typical professional skier- there are many other facets to my life and balancing them all takes quite some effort. During the fall, I attend the University of Southern California (USC), in Los Angeles, where I am a Pre-Med student. I take a full amount of credits in order to fulfill my obligations as a student and to maximize my time while I’m at school. While I’m not doing school work, however, I am making sure to keep up with my training, spending most of my free time in the gym to get ready for the season. Beyond just being a student while at college, I am also actively involved in a fraternity. This adds a whole other set of commitments that I must balance with everything else going on. 

I am able to pursue both my education and skiing through taking an arduous semester of classes during the Fall and then taking school off for the next semester. After finals are done and the first semester is over, I head back to Breckenridge for the winter, where I can focus all of my attention back into skiing. I am immediately thrown from one environment into the next (for instance, the day after I drove back to Breckenridge from school in LA, I had an early morning park photo-shoot). During the winter I am training every day, spending most nights at the gym or working on tricks over. Just as well, I am constantly traveling all over for contests and shoots, living life nomadically. Every hour of my time in the winter is filled with my dedication to skiing- I am continually striving to make myself the best I can be.

It is hard at times, to shift my focus between school and skiing, but engaging in both allows me to live a more fulfilling life. I understand how important an education is to have, especially when my skiing may no longer facilitate a sustainable lifestyle. In this way I can not only explore what I am passionate about, but also be able to prepare myself for later on down the road.

– Cody Cirillo

Cody Cirillo is a member of the Breck Epic Team.