I was born in Chile and lived in Santiago (capital ) a city that is right next to the magnificent Andes mountains, it takes 45 minutes to get there.
So I call myself an Andes’s girl.
My father took the whole family to the mountains when we were very young and taught us how to ski. I was 4 years old.
For me, the mountains were a magic place I and I always felt very good when I was there, in a spiritual and physical way.
I skied every weekend and winter holidays and started to participate in ski races which I liked very much. For me to ski was to be in heaven and my mother always worried because I did get home very late after the lifts where closed… I just stayed in the top of the mountains as late as I could, waiting to see the sunset, it was a superb spectacle.
When I turned 18 I became a member of the Chilean ski team but (and this will show how machist I is our country) the Chilean Ski Federation send only the boys to the Olympic Games because they didn’t have enough money to send the women’s team.
I guess since then I promise myself I will work hard for this not to happen again if I had the opportunity to enter the Chilean Ski Federation.
At 19 years old I passed the ski instructor’s diploma and decided I was going to live in the mountains since I loved to be there all the time, working as a ski instructor.
For a long time worked in Chile during our winter and in USA during the north hemisphere season, that was a tremendous experience. I did this for many years until I got married and had children, as a family we went to live to Tahiti for 6 years, unfortunately my husband died and I decided to go to live to Andorra, me teaching ski and my boys learning how to ski. Once again the mountains were my refuge and my place to live.
When I came back to Chile I worked in La Parva Ski School and I decided that I was going to be the ski school director and worked hard and well to become one.
Also during that time I founded a ski club for kids ,I started with a little group of them but as years passed by this club was very successful and ended up with 120 racers and 17 coaches. We won the Chilean ski championship and my racers are now en the Chilean ski team, this is how I started to be a leader in the Chilean ski environment.
On the other hand my boys went to 3 Olympic Games and I realized that the Federation needed to be improved in many ways if we wanted the Chilean ski level to increase and be able to compete with the big nations.
So I decided to be elected in the Chilean Federation’s board and I worked for 4 years as a Director, but again I needed to be the president if I really wanted to do something worthy. I was elected president, and for the other 4 years I really felt that my way of thinking about this subject was taking care of. Took me a lot of effort to be recognize by this only man environment, but little by little my leadership was very well respected and I could really give all my knowledge and energy in order to improve The Federation ‘s role .
For me it was an incredible experience as a woman, because I was able to put in my behavior the feminine touch of love and tender relationship between the racers and the Federation, but my work was very professional and pragmatic.
Last week my period ended and another list was elected, but my reputation was already settle and I’m sure I will stay in the ski environment for a while, that’s why I’m here even though I’m not the Chilean Ski Federation’s president any more.
I still live in the mountains!!!!
Patricia Anguita