The Show Must Go On: Anna Segal
When the Aussie native and former slopestyle Olympian was invited to join the WME crew in Iceland to shoot for this year’s film, she ditched her day job and hopped on a plane.
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
If there’s one thing that professional freeskier Anna Segal is always game for, it’s adventure.
Anna Segal: I got the call to join WME three weeks before [the segment was set to shoot]. K2 sent me a message asking me if I was free in May. Even though I had a full-time job at the time, I said yes. I wanted to hear what the opportunity was first, then figure things out from there. When K2 asked if I wanted to go to Iceland with WME, I thought, oh my gosh, you can’t ask for a better text message! I immediately said yes. Iceland has always been on my radar, I just never expected I would have the opportunity to ski there. Of course, a huge part of it was getting the chance to film with WME.
It’s funny, in Australia when I tell people I’m a professional skier, they go on and say, ‘Oh, you compete in the Olympics?’ I tell them I used to do that, but now I shoot videos and photos. And they say, ‘Oh, with Warren Miller?’ Everyone knows Warren Miller movies. I used to have to tell them no, I’ve never filmed with WME before, but hopefully someday. Now it’s pretty cool to say, ‘Yeah, I film with Warren Miller!’ That’s the pinnacle.
When I was 19 I decided I wanted to give freeskiing a try. I was watching Rachael Burks and Kristi Leskinen religiously in all the ski films, and I just wanted to do what they were doing. And I was always playing around in the rail park and on the jumps. So I got into slopestyle. After placing fourth in slopestyle in the Olympics, I decided to retire. Slopestyle got more rigid when it became an Olympic sport. Back when I first started, there was a bit more freedom and creativity involved.
With filming and big mountain skiing, there’s more potential for creativity. In the past I remember always looking at the mountains and wanting to ski tour and ski pow, so I thought it was a good time to hang up the competition thing and learn something new.
Read more: The Show Must Go On – Mike Wiegele
Originally published in the November 2018 issue of SKI Magazine.