Andre Horton

Andre Horton will be viewing the Winter Olympics in Japan this year via the television set.
The next time these games come around, however Horton’s goal is to have a different vantage point. He’s like to be on the other side of the camera, being watched instead of watching.
The year will be 2002, and the place will be Park City, Utah, just outside of Salt Lake City. By that time Horton will be 22 years old, which is still young for most world class alpine skiers. But by that time he will have had four years of training and preparation which, if anything like the last two years, could make him quite a handful on the slopes.
Horton is currently one of the top-ranked junior downhill skiers in the country. This year, he hopes to improve on that by becoming the top young prospect in the United States. And he’s doing everything possible to accomplish that goal.

That includes pushing himself harder than ever before, both on the mountain and in the training room.  He sees 1998 as his break-through year, and he’s taking full advantage of every opportunity to succeed.
“During the past year I realized a lot about myself, and began to believe that I could be successful in this sport,” said Horton.  ”I’m very goal oriented.  If I decide to accomplish something, I’m going to do it.
“Why go through all the work if it doesn’t lead to anywhere.  I made a decision to go for it and since then I’ve upped the intensity of my workouts. Why go 75% and get nowhere when you can get 110% and make it.  I’ve stopped wasting time and it’s starting to pay off already.”

Not even finished with high school yet? Horton lives a different life than most 18 year-olds.  He has a focus that most youngsters won’t realize until they’re well into their 20s. During his freshman and sophomore year he took 12 classes a quarter, just to get ahead.  Now that he’s a senior, he’s far enough ahead that he can afford to take just one or two classes a quarter while embarking on the most important ski season of his brief career.
That’s preparation. And it’s been a part of his life as long as he can remember,  As a youngster, his mother would get the kids up early each morning. Of course, the little ones wanted to get to the ski slopes right away, but mom always had a few chores for them to take care of first. Only until they finished their work would they load the car and head to a ski lodge.
To this day Horton, the middle child of three, has his priorities straight. Work first, play later.
Andre Horton the competive skier didn’t surface until he was nine or ten years old, though he’d been shushing around since he could walk, first in the Nordic discipline before graduating to downhill at the age of five. Within a year of his first race he was challenging for an age-group state championship. The kid had talent, and others recognized it as well.
By the time he reached his teens he was among the top young skiers in Alaska, winning his share of trophies and titles along the way.  But as he continued to improve, so did expectations for him to succeed at even higher levels of competition. By the time he was in his mid-teens, he was considered one of the best down-hill competitors in the Northwest.  And it was time for him to decide how much of his life he wanted to dedicate to the sport he enjoyed so much? And what price would be pay to be the best?

His decision was simple. He loved skiing and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. But he also knew that he wasn’t quite ready for prime-time yet. So he went to work to become the best he could be.
His father trained at Lindsay Knight’s Gold Gym in Anchorage and first introduced young Andre Horton to Gordon Stewart, a trainer at the facility. One of the first things most people notice when Gordon comes barreling down the mountain is his size. Much bigger than most down-hillers, this youngster stands six feet tall and weighs 220 pounds. (Your average World Cup competitors weighs around 180 pounds.)  Genetics had much to do about his size, but he’s also become a fixture at Gold’s when he’s not skiing or dry land training. And the benefits have been amazing.
“It’s interesting to really see the effects of weight training on my skiing,” Horton says.  ”After a summer in the gym, you feel totally different when you first put the skis back on. With the added strength and polymeric work I’ve done, I’ve found that I can make faster and sharper turns and it’s really helped build my anaerobic base.”
He gives much of the credit for his vastly improved condition to Stewart, who has been instrumental in creating his training routine.
“Gordon has been the one person who has pushed me harder than anyone,” Horton says.  ” I think he believes in me more than I do sometimes. He’s had a plan right from the beginning or competing on the mountain.  I’m stronger and faster than I’ve ever been. He helped me get there.

Stewart also was responsible for demonstrating how important nutrition can be for an athlete.
“Before I met Gordon I was eating cheeseburgers and all kinds of other junk,” Horton admits.  ”The very first thing we did was change my diet.  Gordon set me up on the Parrillo diet and I couldn’t believe how good it made me feel and how much better my workouts were.   I also started using the supplements and bars. When you’re up on the mountain you don’t have a chance to get to food, and they don’t have much but fries and chili at the lodge, so Parrillo bars are a must.
“The CapTri brings a big calorie boost, which is essential when you’re training. I’ve seen studies where skiers have burned up to 900 calories an hour in certain situations. I admit that I didn’t know or care about nutrition before I teamed up with Gordon. You have to eat right if you hope to perform at the highest level in the gym and skiing. People who eat wrong, however, don’t ever know it until they eat right and begin to feel the difference. It’s amazing.

What’s equally amazing is the progress Horton’s made in just a few short years. He’s gained over 20 pounds of muscle while losing body fat in the process. And even at Gold’s where quite a few strongmen take their turns throwing iron, you won’t find many who will challenge the strength of this youngest legs.
“I feel like Andre is probably the hardest working athlete that I’ve ever worked with,” says Stewart, himself a former champion bodybuilding. “He can do things in the weight room that I never accomplished, and he’s still so young, who knows how powerful he can become. He’s an incredible athlete in the gym and in the ski slopes and I firmly believe he has the talent to do whatever he puts his mind to.”
Even when Horton isn’t in the gym or on the snow, he still has skiing on his mind.  As part of the Spyder (an acronym for Sports Program for the Youth Development, Education and Recreation) ski team, he trains year-round on dry land using whatever methods possible to prepare him for the upcoming season.”

“Coach(Lex) Patton works us pretty hard during the preseason-running, biking, hiking, incline skiing or skating-all the things necessary to build endurance and a good aerobic base to take into the season.”
Which is finally here. All the hard work and effort during the past eight months is now ready to be tested. And Horton is excited about his chances.
“My goal is the make the U.S. team, he says. “I need to do really well this year and win some races.In this sport, you have to win, nobody knows who got second. They only remember who won the gold.
“That’s why this training season is so important. The difference between first and second is sometimes less than a tenth of a second. To close the gap you have to eliminate mistakes. That’s the only way  to make it onto the U.S. team. They want the goods. That’s why you have to do more than the others. You have to push yourself past limits and go all out.”
If Andre Horton can have the kind of year he anticipates, who knows?  In four years when you’re sitting in front of your digital television hanging on the wall, maybe you’ll see the kid named Horton flying down a Utah mountainside. Just remember how he got to that point. Hard work, a solid nutrition program and the tenacity to do whatever necessary to become the best skier possible.