Kris Mahler hasn’t had an easy road to becoming one of Canada’s top ski cross athletes. Growing up in Ontario, he started as an alpine racer, but the sport was already on his radar through those days.  He was coached by Bebe Zoricic, the father of the late Nick Zoricic, and they would train in alpine courses in the morning and ski cross sessions in the afternoon.  

While he took a season off snow in his final year of high school to move to Alberta to play collegiate volleyball, he quickly moved back to skiing, pursuing ski cross full time in the leadup to his first World Cup win in 2019-20 in Val Thorens, FRA.  

In his two podiums since then, he’s had a lot to work though, including bouncing back from a broken neck injury suffered in a crash in poor conditions at the annual night race in Arosa, Switzerland. After missing the 2023-24 season to recover, he’s back on snow and ready to rock in 2024-25.