Finnigan Donley
Great expectations seem reasonable for 18-year-old Finnigan Donley of Anchorage. He’s one of America’s most promising young alpine skiers, having crushed the competition regionally and nationally at every age level since he became a teenager.
Yet as he begins his debut season with the U.S. Ski Team, Donley’s ambitions are modest.
Get on skis. Enter a race.
That’s right. Because of a persistent knee injury, Donley’s first year on the national team could unfold without a whole lot of skiing.
After ending last season by winning every race at the Under-18 national championships, Donley is beginning this season with daily physical therapy sessions and no prospect of being snow for at least a couple of months.
“I think I can be free-skiing possibly in January, and hopefully race by February,” he said. “I’m always pretty optimistic.”
Three years ago, Donley tore the MCL and patellar tendon in his left knee when he crashed through a safety fence and into a tree during giant slalom training in Colorado. He was off snow for 2.5 months and returned to racing with a full knee brace, but by the end of the season the brace was gone and Donley, already the star of the Alyeska Ski Club, was the winner of all four races at the Western Regional Under-16 championships.
His MCL healed but the patellar tendon — which connects the kneecap to the shinbone — remains a problem, exacerbated by overuse and a recent growth spurt.
At a U.S. Ski Team training camp last month in Chile, the pain was so excruciating that Donley made the decision to hit pause on his season.
“It was a tough decision for me, because I was happy with my skiing,” he said. “But I’d get off the hill and not be able to walk, and taking Advil was not sustainable.”
He’s choosing physical therapy over surgery, and he’s choosing good thoughts over gloom. Being a member of the U.S. Ski Team helps on both fronts.
Anchorage’s Finnigan Donley on his way to gold in the Super-G. Photo by Rob Peak.
After graduating from high school last spring — he spent his freshman and sophomore years at West High and his final two years at a ski academy in Sun Valley, Idaho — Donley moved to Park City, Utah, where the national team is headquartered. He spends five days a week training and rehabbing at the ski team’s Center of Excellence there.
“I show up there in the morning and work with a sports psychologist and then I work on my upper body. In the afternoon I have physical therapy,” he said. “I spend all my days at the Center of Excellence. I’ve gotten to catch up on my upper-body and core strength.”
As for the lower body, it’s a work in progress.
“It’s annoying because I can walk around and move it around great, but it’s all about activation (of the muscles),” Donley said. “The most important muscle in downhill skiing is your quad, and I can’t do a squat. The rehab plan progresses month by month. I did some lunges today. It’s a slow process.”
He said he’s willing to sit out much of his first season with national team because he believes there’ll be a long-term payoff — a belief bolstered by time spent with his new team.
“What I’m learning from my older teammates is if you deal with now, even if you lose a couple of months or even a year, you’ll gain that back at the end of your career,” he said.
Donley, who was named U.S. Skiing and Snowboarding’s Rookie of the Year last season, is the youngest of eight men named to the national team’s development squad. He said he isn’t concerned about losing ground to others during his long rehab; he’s spent too much time on ski hills for that to happen.
“I trust the amount of miles I’ve had on skis,” he said. “I grew up skiing at Alyeska every day, and from the age of about 8 to 15 I skied about as much as anyone could. So I know I’ve got the time on snow, and if I’m 100 percent, it’ll be a game-changer.”