IF ULLR WAS A GIRL: Revolutionary contest brings skiers, snowboarders together
If Ullr was a girl, she would look like Grete. But also a bit like Sarah, Lynsey, Jess, and all the others girls who competed last week for the biggest cash purse in women’s skiing history – $25,000.
Grete Eliassen, 20, took home the check and Viking crown on Saturday. “It feels amazing,” Eliassen said after she was announced the winner. “I’m donating all of it. I have to do this for all the people not as lucky as I am.” As one of the top freestyle skiers in the business, Eliassen said she is fortunate to get paid to ski and couldn’t think of a better way to start giving back than with the Ullr check. She will donate the money to various causes like the Women’s Sports Foundation and StandStrongAgain.org, among others.
“This contest had the spirit we could all be proud of,” said Lynsey Dyer, who came in fifth. “Sure we’re all competitive, but this contest said something about the bigger picture. About the fact that we all love this sport, and that we deserve an equal portion of it, and that we’re all in it together.”
Last April, the Whistler/Blackcomb marketing department had an idea—to create the ultimate contest among skiers and snowboarders, park riders and big-mountain competitors and call it If Ullr Was A Girl. The Scandinavian god of justice and dueling, who was quite savvy on snow, was their muse. One girl, either a skier or a snowboarder, would be crowned the Ullr Girl.
More than 400 girls across North America posted their profiles on the site explaining why she should be the Ullr Girl, and online voting commenced. Whistler/Blackcomb paid for the travel/lodging of the top three girls with the most votes, and then invited others to round out the list of eight skiers and eight snowboarders to compete at the 10-day contest during the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival. The judges picked the Ullr Girl based on three events (rail jam, big-mountain, art/culture) plus online voting totals.
It wasn’t a caddy contest, the skiers said. Everyone helped each other out because most girls specialized in either park skiing or big-mountain, which made it an unusual contest. Burke, for example, said she noticed that Dyer looked extremely nervous when she came to the “park” event to find that it was all rails and boxes, and the only jump was over an 8-foot log stump.