LAS VEGAS – Olympian and three-time World Cup winner Julie Parisien, who learned to ski at Lost Valley in Auburn, was inducted Wednesday into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.

Joining Parisien in this year’s class was Olympics moguls champion Jonny Moseley and World Cup aerials champion Trace Worthington.

The induction ceremonies were held during a breakfast at the SIA.07 SnowSports Trade Show, the largest skiing and snowboard show in North America, to help showcase the Hall of Fame to the industry. A public recognition ceremony will be held in the fall at the Hall’s home in Ishpeming, Mich.

Parisien, 35, retired after the 1999 season and is expecting her fourth child in April.

“It’s amazing to be remembered,” she said. “One day you go from being first in the world (she led the world slalom rankings heading into the 1993 season) to being a suburban mom, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and barely getting a shower in.

“There’s no better feeling in the world than when you’re arcing a big, fat GS turn. I miss the big GS turns – the sun over the Alps as you’re going up in the chairlift for the first run – I miss being outside every day in winter.” But, in the end, as important as her skiing was, as successful as she was, she always remembered the words of her late and much loved brother, J.P., who was killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver in December 1992. He told her, “It’s just skiing,” so she shouldn’t get too high, nor get too low.

“I’m proud of what I’ve done, and everything I learned in skiing I draw on every day,” said Parisien, whose three children are 5, 4 and 2.

Parisien, whose husband is in his last year of medical school, competed in three Olympics and was ranked as the No. 1 woman on the pro tour for two seasons. She won the silver medal in the slalom at the 1993 world championships.

She hasn’t skied in five years, Parisien said, and she put in a lighthearted bid for new equipment from Rossignol, her longtime ski company. She also took time to specifically thank Jeff Byrne, senior vice president of the Olympic Regional Development Authority in Lake Placid, N.Y., who was her first coach at Sugarloaf.


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