At 19, she's a freestyle mogul

From Waterville Valley's venerable ski club -- the Black and Blue Trail Smashers -- to the Olympic heights of the Turin Games in three years, 19-year-old Hannah Kearney's rise in moguls skiing was so fast she didn't even have time to develop heroes, though two Americans, Donna Weinbrecht and Liz McIntyre, were showing the way in the discipline.

''I never really got inspired by anyone," Kearney said recently between appearances at Waterville Valley before leaving for Turin. ''I didn't really pay attention to the higher levels of the sport because I was so focused on what I was doing."

But judging by the turnout on the Waterville slopes that morning, kids on skis who brought signs, banners, and stuffed bears to send Kearney off to Turin, it's clear she's already inspiring other young skiers. ''I am so honored. This is much more than I could ever have expected for a send-off," Kearney told the young skiers, adding she hopes to return with a medal to share with them.

On Dec. 30, Kearney won the US Olympic Trials in Steamboat Springs, Colo., securing the first women's spot on the team, nearly three years after she won the world junior championship in Finland.

Before that, in addition to being a skier she was track star and standout soccer player for her high school in Hanover, N.H., where her mother, Jill, was the athletic director.

''My parents are really into sports," said Kearney. ''They're really into cross-country skiing and running, and they knew nothing about my sport of mogul skiing. But they encouraged me to try different sports and find what I liked. My brother and I were athletic kids, so they encouraged us to find what we were good at."

Like so many kids for whom Alpine ski racing was a turnoff, though skiing itself -- or snowboarding -- was fun, Kearney knew early on she did not want to race in any of the Alpine disciplines.

''It just never looked like any fun to me," said Kearney. ''But when I started skiing moguls, that really was fun, and something I was good at almost right away. And then when you add the jumps, it was a blast for me. It was easy to stay with and get better."

Get better she did, in several sports. In high school, she performed on state championship track and soccer teams, while during the winter she worked on moguls at Dartmouth Skiway. As a 15-year-old, she won gold in the world juniors dual event, and in 2003 she became US moguls champion.

In 2004, she reached four World Cup podiums, and two more in 2005. She also won the moguls gold medal at the world championships in 2005. But since earning her spot on the Olympic team, this season has included a lot of poor results. ''Just bad luck," she said. ''I fell a few times. I just go ahead to the next event."

When a moguls run goes smoothly, she said, it looks graceful, quick, and almost easy. But, Kearney added, ''It's a lot harder than it looks. Anything can go wrong, usually on the jumps. That's where I have most of my problems. If you can imagine jumping so many feet in the air, and then landing back in a mogul field, well, it's not that easy."

Where, prior to three years ago only aerial freestylers could do inverted aerials -- a flip so that at one point the skis are above the head -- now some form of the inverted jump has to be in the repertoire of all top-level moguls skiers. Kearney's special jumps are a back flip with a cross, and a helicopter with a cross.

Like most of the boarding disciplines, freestyle has progressed in complexity over the years, especially the jumps.

''The jumps I'm doing at this point aren't necessarily that complex, but the sport is really progressing and people now are doing flips with lots of twists, and there's no end in sight to where things are going," she said.

Though knee and back injuries are common among moguls racers, Kearney knocks on wood at her good fortune. ''So far, I've never had an injury," she said.

Kearney said she would rather win an Olympic medal than World Cup title, though she feels the latter is harder to achieve.

''I'm psyched to be going to the Olympics," she said. ''But you have to just take your races one at a time and do your best."