After skiing since he was four years old, Diamond Bar High School junior William Liang decided to take his pastime to a more competitive level. Influenced by his father, who also skis, Liang began skiing competitively at 13.

Since then, he has been skiing with the Mt. Alpine racing team in the general category of alpine skiing, while also competing in the giant slalom and super-G (super giant slalom). Super-G requires a single run, while giant slalom requires two runs and combines both times for a  score.

During the season, Liang travels over two hours every weekend to Stone Summit, his main mountain for training.

There, he and his team work on physical training, as well as setting up courses and repeating runs to work on their speed. The skiers are judged solely on speed during their run.

Every course is set up differently, even if it is held on the same hill. The skiers are only allowed to view the course a single time an hour before the race.

After his two years of competitive skiing, Liang is currently in the top 30 in the USSA national league in the Far West League, along with being in the top 20 as a Junior Olympic qualifier.

“It’s the feeling of knowing you had a good run and all the training and focus had paid off,” Liang said.

Because of the time-consuming nature of the sport, Liang finds difficulty juggling his school life along with skiing.

Along with his academic life, Liang also runs on DBHS’ track and field and cross country teams.

He looks to take skiing into consideration when applying to college, and plans to continue competing with a team if the school offers it.