Student-Athlete of the Week: Olivia Sroka

Whether she's gliding down the snowy slopes of Winter Park or mastering the balance beams, Olivia Sroka does so with ease. The multi-talented athlete has reached impressive heights in both skiing and gymnastics throughout her life.

Sroka, who plans on graduating from Silver Creek High School in December, began skiing at just four years old. While skiing for Winter Park, she soon specialized in the freestyle mogul where she placed 24th in nationals last year for the junior North American (NorAm) team. Her top-25 finish was her best since joining NorAm four years ago. She said her expected early graduation will allow her to move up to Winter Park and ski full time.

But until ski season ramps up later in the fall, Sroka's focus is with the Niwot gymnastics team, which finished third in last season's 4A state meet. In Niwot's second meet of the new fall season on Sept. 8, Sroka finished third in both floor and balance beam. She has also added vault to her list of responsibilities.

Typically, the timing works out well for Sroka to balance both gymnastics and skiing. That is until COVID-19 mixed things up. Niwot head coach Marisa Purcell said Sroka would sometimes be out of state for a ski race, but that didn't stop her from making gymnastics the next day.

"This last year with high school gymnastics moving to March due to COVID, having to balance both of those (sports was difficult)," Purcell said. "Her mom drove her literally to and from Utah multiple times all night long (and) got here in time for a meet... It was just crazy and in the midst of that keeping good grades."

Sroka's dedication was a large reason why her teammates voted her Niwot's only senior captain. "She always gives 100% no matter what hurts or what doubt she has or any of those things," Pursell said.

When Sroka can do both sports, she often uses her gymnastics skills to help her on the slopes. As a freestyle mogul skier, she said that jumping into tricks has a close parallel to gymnastics.

"A lot of the tricks and stuff that I do for skiing I know how to do because of gymnastics, which has been awesome," she said. "The jumping has always been a little bit easier because I've had that gymnastics background and I've learned how to have good air awareness. It's kind of one less thing I had to learn when I picked up mogul skiing. It's been really cool to be able to do a back full on floor and then be able to complete that in skiing as well."

Not many of those tricks can be mastered, however, without a strong work ethic. Sroka said she would visit Winter Park (about a two-hour drive from Niwot depending on traffic) six days a week when classes were online last year. With classes back in person, Sroka expects to start her ski season later and only go on weekends.

The soon-to-be graduate hopes to attend college on the East Coast near a ski resort.