Kristian Manietta
Role: Athletic Director
Favourite Subject(s): Physical Education
Hometown: Sydney, Australia
A WORD FROM KRISTIAN:
“I grew up as an active kid in Sydney, Australia and have always had a thirst for sport, being active and fit.
I was deeply involved in Rugby League until the age of 17, and also had a love of skateboarding and surfing. I then found snowboarding, and a two week trip to Whistler led to many years of back to back winters. During those years, I became a professional snowboarder where I learned a hard – but ultimately fantastic – lesson that our inner voice plays in our successes and failures. My self-belief and confidence got me to some pretty big highs in snowboarding; on the flipside, through some unfortunate injuries, my belief and confidence were lost due a destructive inner narrative, and ultimately ended my snowboarding career.
Years later on reflection, that taught me an invaluable lesson that I wouldn’t change for the world and one I share with my athletes around the world and with the kids here at Summit. That realization was: Our inner narrative is very powerful. It can be self-fulfilling in the direction we aim it, though the true power comes in the knowledge that we can ‘simply’ change the script to I CAN.
We then action that new script with discipline, dedication and focus to create outstanding results. An ‘I CAN’ attitude allows us to push back against self imposed comfort zones and see what’s possible. Not just in sports, but in life.
That lesson – coupled with my lifelong desire to learn, to question why, to apply, to make mistakes and fail – led me to training methods that worked. To create training systems that allow us to accelerate performances, not destroy health, and have ultimately helped hundreds of athletes from all walks of life achieve outstanding success. The experiences, the friendships and seeing the formation of self-belief in our athletes and kids is priceless.
In the time I have called Whistler my home, I have helped rebuild the Whistler Triathlon Club, co-started the weekly community trail run group We Run Whistler, challenged myself with running trail ultras up to 100 milers, and fell in love with everything the Sea to Sky has to offer. I coach kids in the MAP during winter and endurance athletes around the world via Endurance Specific. I own and run XTERRA Whistler and Run Comfy Numb Trail Running Race while working for Ironman events as part of the swim team. I love doing hard challenges and I’m trying (very) hard to keep up with my son on the mountain biking front!
My purpose as the Athletic Director at Summit is to support the kids to break through their boundaries, to suspend disbelief, develop grit and resilience through healthy pathways, and live the best life-affirming narrative of ‘I can’, ‘I will’.”
