Alumna Katie Tsuyuki’s Quest for Korea: PyeongChang Olympics, February 2018

By Robert Carreau

October 31, 2017

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Alumna Katie Tsuyuki ’01 would love support from the Rosseau Lake College community in her quest to get to the qualifying events for the 2018 Winter Olympics.   
 
Katie Tsuyuki is a “Lifer” at Rosseau Lake College.  It is a title given to those students who attended RLC for their entire secondary school education.  Not only was Katie a student from 1996-2001; her brother David was also a student from 1993-1996.  As a family they cover almost a full decade of our 50-year school history.  Today Katie and her family are still very involved with the RLC community and are major ambassadors of the school.  
 
During Katie’s years attending Rosseau, she was one of our most prominent female athletes.  She spent 5 years on our field hockey team, 3 years on the swim team, 2 years kayaking, and 2 years snowboarding. While attending RLC, Katie participated in a solo trip, 2 biking trips, six canoe trips and the Fernie Ski trip.  Her achievements as a snowboarder in her final year allowed her to compete at the national level.  Not only an athlete, Katie was also an Honour Roll student and she participated in an exchange program with Westminster School in Australia.  Katie believes that both the extensive athletic program and the academic focus for success at RLC helped her perfect her time management skills.
 
“Being an athlete means that I have more than one job.  Having more than one job means I'd better be good at time management.  With more extracurricular activities offered at RLC than other schools, we were always busy and had to balance our academics with activities and be successful at both--a great skill to take into adulthood.”
 
When Katie left RLC in 2001, one of her main goals was to “perfect the art of snowboarding”.  Since that time, Katie has taken her simple goal to a whole new level.  “When she saw halfpipe introduced to the Olympic Games at Nagano 1998 she thought it was something she could do.”  Since then Katie is a three-time medalist at the Canadian Championships, and she recorded her best World Cup result in January 2010.  Katie made her Olympic debut at Sochi 2014, where she missed a spot in the final by one place, finishing as the top Canadian female halfpiper in 13th place overall.  
 
Katie attributes much of her success to the life skills she acquired as a student at RLC.  “Probably the most useful tools I learned from my time at Rosseau were independence and confidence to go out on my own.  I literally qualified for the Olympics as an independent, not as part of the national team.  I was comfortable with the commitment needed to accomplish a feat like becoming an Olympian and it was not easy without the help of a national team.  I had to be self-motivated to train, work, and learn.  There was no clear pathway for me, but I trusted in myself.  The drive to get the most out of myself and hit my potential may be the most important value I have taken from Rosseau.”
 
This year Katie believes she has learned the lessons she needed and is confident she will be successful in Pyeongchang.  “My years at Rosseau prepared me to reach for the Olympics.  The small school taught me to dream big and gave me what I needed to materialize these dreams.  I can say that I wouldn’t be as successful had I gone to another school.  Rosseau was the best decision my parents let me make as a teenager.”
 
For more information on how to help RLC alumna Katie Tsuyuki ’01 get to the Olympics please visit www.KatieTsuyuki.com.  Every bit matters, every cent counts!
 
profile by Kim Morton