Catholic skier uses her Olympic experience to serve others

(OSV News) -- In a few days, top athletes from around the world will gather in Northern Italy for the Winter Olympic Games.

Twenty years ago, cross-country skier Rebecca Dussault was about to do the same. But instead of heading to Milan Cortina -- as this year's Olympians will for the Feb. 6-22 games -- she traveled to Turin, Italy, to compete for the United States in the 2006 Olympics.

Though Dussault didn't return with a medal, skiing in the hometown of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, her patron saint, was still a dream come true for her and her family.

Today, the devout Catholic homesteading mother and grandmother is using what she learned as an Olympian to help young people and women find success in sport, live a healthy lifestyle and stay connected to God.

"The physical experience of the Olympics is short, but the spiritual blessing is what goes on," she told OSV News.

Dussault first started skiing while growing up in Colorado. Her mother encouraged her to play a variety of sports, including soccer, gymnastics, softball and swimming. But she ultimately fell in love with cross-country skiing. Dussault remembers one evening when her parish priest took a group moonlight skiing and then celebrated Mass for them in the wilderness.

"I said, 'OK, I know what my sport is,'" said Dussault. "It was a beautiful moment bringing sport and God together in my life in a profound and memorable way."

As she got older, Dussault competed at a high level, including the world championships for juniors. But after winning a national championship, she decided to retire at age 19, largely due to challenges to her faith life.

"I had a completely different worldview and faith orientation than that of my competitors, and certainly than that of my coaches, and it became so lopsided that it took my joy from me," she said.

Dussault also married her childhood sweetheart, Sharbel, at 19. Their families had become friends while attending the same parish, and in her teen years they were homeschooled together, too.

Dussault credits her mother-in-law with igniting her faith life.

"She really had and has a deep interior life and that's what she continually conveyed to us -- the love and the mercy of Jesus Christ and the beauty and the depth and the heights of the Catholic faith," she said. "She showed us the universal Church with such passion and consistently that we just couldn't not fall in love with the faith."

After giving birth to her son Tabor at age 21, Dussault began to dip her toes back into the skiing world. She entered a local competition and kept pace with an Olympian the whole race.

After her unexpected success, she and her husband took a few months of prayerful discernment, and then decided to launch Dussault's ski career again.

For the next two and a half years, Dussault, her husband and her young son traveled around the world, allowing her to train and compete in the hope of making the Olympic team. "It was eat, breathe, ski, which was fun for that amount of time," she said.

After years working to perfect her craft, Dussault said it felt incredible to compete on the world's biggest stage, especially with her 4-year-old son cheering her on from the sidelines.

"It was our (family) dream that was being realized, not just mine," she said.

Dussault used the occasion to spread devotion to then-Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. She even engraved his name on her Olympic ring. She fondly remembers the friends she made during the Olympics, especially with the owners of the 300-year-old stone home where they stayed. Last year, they traveled with their whole family to Italy to see their friends again.

These days, Dussault is still skiing, often past chickens and cows on her 55-acre homestead in Sandpoint, Idaho. She has eight born children -- Tabor, 24; Simeon, 19; Anselm, 15; Emiliana, 12; Remi, 9; Nellie, 6; Narek, 2; and Gretta, 9 months. She also has two grandkids from her son Tabor and his wife, Hattie: Regis, 3, and Skadia, 5 months.

In addition to raising her kids and running her home farm, she offers wellness coaching for women.

"I weave together the pillars of faith and fitness and food, and help them to make sustainable life changes so they can really firstly love themselves and the beautiful able-bodied person that God made them to be, but (also so they) can use that strength and stamina to serve," she said.

Dussault also coaches local sports, including soccer, mountain biking and cross-country skiing. As much as Dussault loves sports, she encourages those she coaches and their parents to put faith first.

"There is like a 10th of a percent chance that your son or daughter is going to become an Olympian -- but they are called to be a saint," she said.

All the joys of sports are nothing unless the athlete can point to glory to God, she said. "If you can do sport in right conscience and be building the kingdom of God, then you've really latched on to some greatness."