Wendy Fisher’s public life has taken her from the most widely regarded athletic stage in the world (1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France) to features in Matchstick Production films, from an award-winning Salomon Freeski TV feature to a spot in Warren Miller’s latest, “Here, There, & Everywhere”. But these days, Fisher’s stage more closely resembles a literal DJ stand. “Oh my gosh, it’s so much fun,” Fisher says of her work as DJ Red. And fun, she says, is really the guiding force for how she’s chosen to live her life.
Wendy Fisher as DJ Red.
Fisher, age 45, began racing at six years old on the Squaw Valley ski team. Her affinity for the sport led her to Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont, a boarding high school for elite skiers looking to combine academic work with serious Olympic-level training. Fisher made the U.S. Ski Team when she was 15 years old, and her skill and tenacity took her all the way to the Super Combined and Giant Slalom competitions at the 1992 Olympics. But by 1994, Fisher had had enough of the competition environment. “I traveled to find the love of skiing again. I remembered being six, seven, eight years old freeskiing with my brothers and how awesome that was”. So Fisher headed west with the promise of a couch to sleep on in Crested Butte and has since made her life there.
Fisher seems to have found her place in the Crested Butte community. “I think I said this in [“Here, There, & Everywhere”], ‘Crested Butte is small, but we live large’”. As a DJ, mom of two boys, and Crested Butte Mountain Ambassador, Fisher not only gets to share her passions with her husband and two sons, but also with visitors as well. “When I see a pitch with trees and rocks, I see opportunity. I see an opportunity for fun and challenge, and I thrive on that,” explains Fisher. “I get lots of joy from skiing challenging chutes, I like feeling butterflies in my stomach, and I like conquering my fear”.
That challenge-as-opportunity value is something she not only hopes her students take away from clinics, but something she also hopes to instill in her boys. “I want them to learn that nothing is just handed to them. I want them to fight for what they want. Work hard for your sport, work hard for your job, but you can have fun too”, says Fisher. If anyone has made a success out of a work-hard-play-hard philosophy, it’s Wendy Fisher.
Wendy Fisher and her extended family. Crested Butte, Colorado. Photo Credit: Dave Kozlowski.
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Alexa Hohenberg. Photo courtesy of Alexa Hohenberg.