Anytime someone asked a young Charlie Roberts what he wanted to be when he grew up, his answer was unequivocally “professional skier,” the moguls athletes told SPIN from Vancouver while en route to Sun Peaks after competing in the Japan World Cup.
“Growing up in Sun Peaks that’s my first thing I would always say,” he recalled looking back on his younger self.
That dream has come true for Roberts, who now skis for Team Germany in freestyle mogul skiing. It wasn’t until last summer that he relocated to Europe, moving into a small apartment just outside of Munich.
Roberts, who has a German passport, reached out to Team Germany by email last summer, just to see if the team was interested in meeting with him to discuss a potential placement.
“They responded right away, saying ‘we’d love to meet you,’ and we just happened to be going to Sweden at the same time and to the same place,” he explained. “So then we had a meeting with the coach and they all said that they’d be happy to have me.”
This meeting laid the groundwork for Roberts to be able to attend the World Cup in Japan last month, where he scored in the top 30, something he explained would be unlikely if he’d remained in Canada.
With more athletes in Canada competing in the sport, Roberts has been able to take advantage of the small team size in Germany which allows him to compete in these events.
“To score my first World Cup points is a pretty big achievement,” he said, adding his competition includes some of the best athletes in the world.
“Most of the field had just gotten back from Livigno, [Italy], so it was pretty surreal to be competing with all those guys after just watching them on TV at the Olympics.”
His performance at that competition qualified him for the upcoming World Cup in Azerbaijan March 14-15, offering yet another chance to represent Sun Peaks on the world stage, he added.
As the season winds down, Roberts is keeping his eyes on the future, training and planning for the 2030 Olympics, where he said he’d like to compete for Team Germany.
“The goal would be to ski the whole World Cup Tour and try to keep getting good results,” he said.
While making it to the Olympics is one goal in his sights, Roberts’ main motivation is making his younger self proud.
“I just know that he’s super stoked to see it,” he said, adding if he could, he’d tell that version of himself to ”keep going for it and keep pushing through. It all seems to work out.”
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