Gangwon 2024 flagbearer Charlie Beatty, future face of Canadian freestyle skiing: "It's like therapy for me"

Charlie Beatty has a heavier load to carry than most 16-year-olds. The youngest ever athlete selected for Canada’s freestyle skiing team, he has also come into the spotlight after being named the country’s flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony of the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games.

The teen slopestyle and Big Air specialist is being hailed as the next big star of freestyle skiing with a handful of impressive results to back up that statement.

Up on the mountain, however, all those accolades come second.

“I have this joy when I'm skiing out there on the hill that I just can't really explain. It's like therapy for me,” Beatty told Olympics.com. “It's just mental clarity that I get, and it makes me super calm and I can't really pinpoint it, but I get this bliss. I have so much joy and I'm able to express myself.”

Beatty has made many sacrifices to pursue his passion for freestyle skiing, from stepping away from a family tradition of playing elite ice hockey to undergoing rehabilitation for two severe injuries before he was 10 years old.

About to embark on his quest for a Youth Olympic title, the teen star has no doubts it was all worth it.

Charlie Beatty: From hockey skates to ski boots

Beatty still remembers the phone call from his future coach when he got invited to join the Canadian freestyle team in 2022, at age 14.

“I was right on my front deck and my coach, Gab, he called me and was like, ‘Yeah, we want you on the team’,” Beatty said. “And I remember going to my mom and she had tears, and it was super cool. It was awesome. It was a good full-circle moment.”

While Beatty is now becoming a recognised name in the world of freestyle skiing, growing up, he seemed destined to become an athlete in a different sport.

His father, uncle and grandfather were all competitive ice hockey players. The youngest Beatty also showed promise. He started playing the sport at the age of two and acknowledges that he might have pursued that route – if skiing had not kept calling to him.

Skiing came into Beatty's life by chance when the family moved to Horseshoe Valley, a ski resort in Ontario. Living a few steps away from the slopes, he first snapped into skis as a two-year-old. By five, he was competing.

Racing, however, could only keep his attention for so long. With a freestyle snowboarder for an older brother, Beatty’s gaze almost inevitably turned to the snow parks.

“The more I started skiing and freestyle skiing when I was younger, the more I fell in love with it,” Beatty said. “The reason why I love the park and Big Air like slopestyle is just the freedom I get with the creativity I get to use through my head, and I get to throw my personality into my skiing.

“It allows me to be myself and paint my picture on the ski hill. That's why I love doing it.”

As Beatty mastered more freestyle tricks, he was faced with a difficult choice: ice hockey or skiing.

“I was more of a hockey player growing up, from my younger years until I was about 12 years old and then hockey got to a higher level. I was playing pretty high-level hockey, and then skiing got really big for me as well. Trying to balance both of those was really hard,” Beatty said.

“I chose skiing because I felt like I had more of a positive mindset with doing that and I had more of a positive communication with people throughout my ski team. I really miss hockey and the people that were in it, but I had this connection with skiing that I can't really step away from.”

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Beatty: Busted knees, a "better mindset", and a new love for the sport

Giving up hockey was not the only sacrifice Beatty made along his journey to become one of the world’s best youth freestyle skiers.

Even before turning 10, he has had to overcome two severe injuries. The first was when he tore the ACL in his right knee.

“I was eight years old doing a switch 540 on a jump on my local hill, just a regular day with my ski team, and came up short and severed it fully,” Beatty recalled. “It was pretty traumatic.”

He was bed-ridden for several weeks after that – a testing time for anyone, but even more so for the energetic kid like Beatty.

“While I had my cast on, just lying in bed for six weeks, it was really hard for me, being a little ADHD eight-year-old, trying to jump off the walls and stuff,” he said. “The first few weeks in the wheelchair were really hard for me to stay composed, and I definitely had some rough days here and there.”

Beatty returned to sports in the summer, keeping himself busy with swimming and cycling.

After six months of rehabilitation, he jubilantly returned to skiing only to get injured at his first competition back.

“I was nine, the year later, I fell under a rail and broke my tibia on my left knee,” Beatty said. “Doing both knees at that young of an age was super crazy for me. To even think, like, wow, is this even worth it? Why am I doing this sort of thing?”

Looking back at those injuries, Beatty credits them for making him a stronger skier today and giving him a mental edge in the park.

“Having a couple of big injuries from a young age has taught me a lot about perseverance and coming back to the sport stronger and with a better mindset,” he said. “It's definitely tough. It's not easy, especially when you're that young. It's hard to even comprehend what's going on even, but to know that I've done it and returned back from doing that, I have a lot of confidence in my perseverance.”

Charlie Beatty: From the community and for the community

Ever since the phone call from Team Canada in 2022, Beatty has been on an upward trajectory.

He has trained with the senior team, won the gold medal in slopestyle at the 2023 FIS Park and Pipe Junior World Championships and booked himself a spot on the senior World Cup.

“Being selected to Team Canada at such a young age was super crazy for me,” Beatty said. “Getting the call that I was going to be able to join the team a couple of years back, I can't even explain the feelings I had, the amount of happiness and joy that I had. And the team has been super good with me, and I have a lot of really good relationships through that.”

Beatty says he owes a big chunk of his success to the home community that has supported him from his earliest days on snow. His hometown has organised fundraisers to help him travel and supported him at competitions.

And the Beatty family has given back to the community in turn.

Charlie Beatty’s brother started a cancer fundraiser in school, which evolved into a full-scale fundraiser called Shred Cancer. The event was held three times in the early 2010s, raising more than $23,000 for the local hospital.

“[My brother has] been a huge inspiration on my life,” the Canadian skier said. “To see how he started off from a little grade seven project that he did in his classroom, that his teacher handed out, and made it such a big thing and brought the community together to support cancer, that's been such a huge inspiration for me to see that.”

The younger Beatty is also taking an active role in his community. When not competing himself, he volunteers to MC at local ski competitions.

“It means a lot for me to do that, remembering when I was a little kid, being out there and getting hyped up by all the guys in the crowd on the mic. It made me feel pretty cool, so to come back around and be doing that for the young guys out there is super cool. I know they love it and I love doing it.”

Carrying the flag for Canada at Gangwon 2024 and freestyle skiing

Beatty also does public speaking at schools to talk about his life as an athlete and encourage more kids to take up freestyle skiing.

And there might be a few new questions when he next walks into the classroom, namely about his experience of carrying the Canadian flag at the Gangwon 2024 Opening Ceremony.

“Carrying the flag in was such a big honour for me. I kind of had the feeling of carrying my country on my back,” Beatty said. “It's a kind of blackout in the moment. You can't believe you're really doing it, but to be doing that has been such a dream for me since I was a little kid.”

While the flagbearer duties, just like the title of the youngest-ever athlete to be selected for Canada’s freestyle skiing team, comes with extra pressure, the freedom-loving teen is relishing every moment.

“It’s pretty cool to be honest,” Beatty said of being singled out as the one to watch. “There's quite a few kids like me that are really coming up on the stage and the talent level now is insane, but to be in the thick of it with everyone coming up into the freestyle skiing world through Canada is super cool. And it's something that I've dreamed of since I was a kid.”