Who was Sarah Holm, and why was this race named after her? Sarah Holm began skiing at Cascade Mountain at age 6. She also worked in the office at Cascade from age 16-18 and her positive outlook on life delighted both her team mates and coworkers. She was born with a spinal cord tumor in India. When adopted and brought to America she needed braces on her legs to walk. However, she found that in ski boots, she didn’t need her braces and could ski just like everyone else. She remained on the team until age 16, when she underwent surgery to remove more tumors on her spinal cord and became paralyzed from the waist down. But this did not deter Sarah from her skiing dream.

She received a Make-A-Wish trip to Breckenridge, CO to learn to ski on a monoski, and did so well, that she was asked to join the US Paralympic Development Team as part of NSCD (National Sports Center for the Disabled). After coming home from her magical trip to Breckenridge, Sarah was the first to ski at Cascade Mountain on a monoski and shared with the lift operators how to properly load and unload someone with disabilities. Sarah had to live and train in Winter Park, CO from Nov. to April each year and needed funds for racing equipment, training, and living expenses. She was the recipient of a large donation from Cascade Mountain and proudly displayed their logo on her monoski.

Sarah competed at International races in Austria, Canada and Alaska, with the goal of competing at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. A shoulder injury in a Canadian downhill race prevented her from competing in those Olympics, but she continued to motivate other disabled people by obtaining a degree in Recreational Management at MATC in 2016. She died in a car accident two weeks after graduation. Her love of life and fighting spirit is commemorated by two yearly scholarships in her name at MATC and the memorial information at the side of the ski trail named after her called "Sarah’s Smile" at Cascade Mountain.