Editor’s Note: This is Part II in The Tahoe Weekly’s ongoing “Olympic Hopefuls” series leading up to the Olympics in February. Part I of the series may be found at http://yourtahoeguide.com/2013/12/local-athletes-eye-olympic-winter-games/
Local athletes continue to vie for a chance to compete in the XXII Olympic Winter Games that open on Feb. 7 in Sochi, Russia, with Olympic qualifiers been held around the world. With nearly two dozen local athletes training and competing for the chance to represent the United States and other nations in the Winter Games, The Weekly is profiling these athletes in our ongoing series “Olympic Hopefuls.”
In this issue, The Weekly talks to Joanna “PNut” Dzierzawski (hoping to represent Poland), along with U.S. competitors Travis Ganong, Sho Kashima and Nate Holland (who’s already clinched his spot on the team).
Olympic sport: Snowboarding Slopestyle
Hometown: Raised in Chicago, Ill., living in South Lake Tahoe
Resort team: Heavenly
South Lake Tahoe-based snowboarder Joanna Dzierzawski is excited to have the opportunity to support the culture of her ancestors by representing Poland in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Dzierzawski, or “PNut” as she is known amongst the folks where she rides at Heavenly Mountain Resort, was born in Chicago to Polish parents.
“My whole family is Polish,” she says. “I didn’t learn English until I was 5.” With Chicago containing more than 1 million Poles, it’s the largest concentration of Polish people outside of Poland, surrounding Dzierzawski with Polish culture, even though she was raised as an American.
Dzierzawski started skiing when she was just 3, venturing out with her family to a small ski hill in Wilmot, Wis., (built on the former grounds of a landfill). Skiing had been a part of her family’s life in their native Poland, and they are still active skiers in the Midwest today. Her father is in his 60s and still skis. And, her 91-year-old grandfather was the oldest competitor in a local Wisconsin ski race last year. Once a year, the family would treat themselves to a ski vacation into the mountains of Colorado.
Asked how she ended up snowboarding Dzierzawski says, “I looked up to my cousin, thought he was cool, so when he started snowboarding I wanted to try it. My Dad bought me a board and I learned from my cousin.” She says her cousin is probably jealous of what she has accomplished, but perhaps proud would be a more appropriate term.
After graduating from high school a semester early, PNut was trying to decide what to do before college, when a friend from Wisconsin suggested she come with him to visit Lake Tahoe. He had an uncle with a cabin in South Lake Tahoe.
“I was so excited to see this beautiful lake … I decided not to leave,” she said. “It was the most amazing decision to stay here.”
She started off her career riding at Sierra-at-Tahoe, and then moved to Heavenly. In addition to Heavenly Mountain Resort, she has attracted a long list of sponsors including Arnette, Bern, Phunkshun Wear, 686, Ride Snowboards, OneBallJay, Pow Gloves and Tahoe Trail Bar.
PNut is already a proud member of the Polish National Snowboarding team, through the SkiTest Krakow Klub. Whether she can participate in the slopestyle snowboard competition in the Winter Olympics in Sochi will be decided at two World Cup competitions in Colorado and Stoneham, Canada.
After training hard in Europe, she recently returned to the Sierra. I reached her via phone in mid-November on the chairlift at Mammoth, but with the conditions being less than stellar, she was set to leave for Colorado the next day. And, of course, she is doing what the rest of us are doing … praying for snow so that she can get back to ride the Sierra before the big events.
While Dzierzawski has been thrilled with the opportunity to ride in Tahoe, she is “super stoked,” to have received a Polish passport and citizenship, as well. She considers it an amazing opportunity to support both the heritage of her family and the Polish community of Chicago where she grew up. And, while competing in the Olympics will be a dream come true. She feels that the real benefit of being in Sochi would be to be a part of the incredible group of athletes that will assemble there.
