On Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, Hirohisa Kato (’27), a talented skier from St. Mary’s competed in the 74th annual National High School Ski Championships
in Hokkaido—the highest competition a high school student can participate in Japan.
Amongst many skiing events, Hirohisa participated in the slalom completion, where the skiers had to navigate through wavy courses marked by poles, aiming to complete the course as quickly as possible without missing any of the flags. Hirohisa had two runs on different courses, his first attempt being 1:07:26 and his second attempt resulted in 1:05:70, with a combined time of 2:12:96 resulting in 75th place in the nation.
Despite the cold weather of -7°C, and his dissatisfaction about the snow conditions, which were not powdery enough in his preference, Hirohisa displayed his resilience and strong mindset during the competition. He wasn’t nervous but rather thrilled and excited to have the experience to compete at such a high level.
Hirohisa stated, “I was thankful for returning to Tokyo safely without harm, as some of the skiers I saw broke their bones.” He further mentioned how proud he was to represent the school and said the trip gave him valuable lessons about the history of Hokkaido. Overall, he enjoyed the experience and looks forward to more competitions in the future.
The full results are here: Skiing Competition Result
