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In 2007 season, Will Brandenburg was awarded U.S. Junior Alpine Skier of the Year award. He finished fifth in downhill in the World Junior Championships, with the best time out of all the US participants, and in the U.S. Alpine National Championships he went on to beat all juniors in the downhill and super G events. Based on the legacies of former recipients (who collectively clenched over 100 national titles, 20 World Championship medals, 10 Olympic medals, among other accomplishments), the future looked bright for the 20-year-old up-and-comer from Spokane, Washington.
But in the 2008 season, Brandenburg began to experience knee pain that by the end of the season had him dropping out of ski runs, relegated to watching his friends compete from the sidelines.
The knee injury has this Sean Connery fan shaken, but not stirred. In his blog he expresses his frustration but ultimately notes, “Yesterday I was in the training center getting my knee worked on and working hard to get the muscles around my knee to start working again. I was kind of down a little bit. There were Nor Am slaloms going on, and I sat there and all I wanted to do was race them. But fantasizing about racing wasn’t going to get my leg working again. So I opened my eyes and looked ahead.”
Keeping a forward-looking perspective is a theme that propigates throughout his blog. As he points out, the past is the past, and the worst mistake is to let what has happened poison “the now”. Though mentioned explicitly in reference to skiing, one gets the feeling that he applies this same positive worldview to his life in general.
Perhaps part of what makes Brandenburg so successful at dealing with adversity is practice. As a youngster, he was diagnosed with the reading disability dyslexia. Through a combination of help from educators and using sports to help diffuse his frustration, he worked his way through his problem. If his blog is any indication, he is now a proficient and thoughtful writer. It would not be surprising if he continues to overcome obstacles.
To help overcome the obstacles on the slopes, Brandenburg uses Slytech shin and arm guards.
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