Four-time Olympian Emma Carrick-Anderson never set out to turn her son into a champion.
“We have always focused on looking after the person first,” she says. “We've always believed in trying to make good humans before you make good athletes.”
Zak Carrick-Smith is both of those things and now the holder of two Youth Olympic gold medals and a silver in alpine skiing, making him one of the most successful athletes in any sport at Gangwon 2024.
“It has been unbelievable,” says Zak, hours before boarding a plane home to Europe. “I tried not to put too much pressure on myself. They were all very different races, at times I’d have to use my head and back off but then others, just really send it.”
Born in Tignes, Zak and his two brothers were in ski school by the age of five but not to the exclusion of enjoyment of sport and various forms of physical activity.
They have a particular love of surfing and wakeboarding, spending as much time running, cycling and swimming as they do on the snow. Zak is good at pretty much anything he tries, showing his skills on the basketball court in the Olympic Village in Korea.
“All we wanted was for our kids to enjoy skiing because it has always been our passion,” says Emma, whose husband Phil is a former English ski champion.
“We just had a lot of fun and they gradually got better and better. We tried to keep the focus on enjoying the sport rather than competing. Now I’m sitting next to somebody with three medals.”
Emma coaches Zak in a collaboration with Jo Ryding, a leading coach and sister to Dave, the best British skier of all time.
“I wanted somebody to come in who was going to be supportive to the athletes and completely there for them,” she says. “It has worked amazingly, Jo has been brilliant.
“It allows Phil to be committed to looking after the other two who are at home training and the whole thing has really gelled and worked beautifully.”
In the hours before his Youth Olympic debut, Zak watched Ryding lead the way as three British skiers finished in the top 30 in the World Cup slalom at Kitzbuhel.
He is entering the fray in a golden era for GB in the sport and next on his agenda is a step up to Europa Cup racing next season. They are not ruling out a tilt at the 2026 Olympics in Milano-Cortina.
“Everyone who’s in sport at this level dreams of going to the Olympics,” says Emma. “We talk about staying on our timeline a lot, because it’s easy to leap ahead.
“On the men’s side, you take a while to develop physically and you just have to keep turning up every day and enjoying what you do, trying not to put too much pressure on yourself.”
She continues: “I think for me, the Games has really proved that what we’re doing as a family is working. There are times when you go through doubt, it can be intense and easy to look at what others are doing.
“You ask yourself, ‘are we good enough? Are we actually good enough?’ I think this proves we are, we have what it takes. I’m immensely proud of my family."
Sportsbeat 2024