Slovakian-born Zikova wants to lead CU to another NCAA ski title

When Lucie Zikova began searching for a school by looking across the Atlantic, she had no idea what an NCAA Championship was.

She did know two things. One, she wanted to study outside her home country, the Czech Republic. Two, she wanted to ski. So, after a childhood of winters spent in a ski town, she sent e-mails to American coaches to ask if she could race for them.

One reply caught her eye. It was from countryman and Colorado coach Richard Rokos, and it was in Czech.

"When I got an e-mail from Richard it was in Czech, which was really funny," she said. "So basically then I knew where I wanted to go."

Zikova is entering her third season at CU, and she certainly knows what an NCAA Championship is now. It's that thing she won last year in the slalom to help the Buffs also win the national team title. She

and her team begin their title defense today when they open the season at the Montana State Invitational at Big Sky Resort.

Zikova comes into the season as a three-time, first-team All-American after two slalom selections and one giant slalom selection. She is one of the best collegiate skiers in the nation, something she couldn't envision when she first came to Boulder from her hometown of Prague.

"I had no expectations. I didn't know who was skiing here for the schools," said Zikova, who was born in Slovakia. "I didn't know any people here to help me relate to this competition."

Even if she wasn't familiar with the competition, or the country where she would be studying, she did know skiing. She had spent a lifetime skiing because her mother was a kindergarten teacher in a Czech ski town. She was there in the winter and in Prague in the offseason. Her father would come to the ski town on weekends so the family could be together, and they would all return to Prague when skiing was finished.

That's when she would play tennis. The year-round sporting life instilled a competitive desire in Zikova, which helped make her such a solid ski racer. She excelled in her first year at CU by never finishing outside the top five in the slalom. She earned first-team All-American honors with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

Last year she never finished outside the top two in the slalom. In fact, she won every meet except the Buffs' own regular-season meet, when she finished second. Plus she picked up two firsts in the G.S. during the season.

She made up for her second-place finish in Colorado when the Buffs hosted another meet in the state. This time it was the NCAA Championships in Steamboat Springs, when she won one of the Buffs' four individual titles on the way to the program's 17th team title.

"Lucie was a dominant force on the women's side last season," Rokos said. "She is currently ranked as one of the top female skiers in the nation as well as top-75 in the world. She has proven her abilities on the hill and she is confident in her skiing."

Kit Richmond also returns to defend an individual title this season after winning the men's 20K freestyle championship last season. They will help CU contend for a national title, but the Buffs will have to make up for the loss of Jana Rehemma, who won two women's Nordic titles as a senior last season.

Expectations are high after last season for both the Buffs and Zikova. She doesn't expect that to matter, though. She was all big, big smiles at the NCAA championships and goes by the nickname "Ziki." She has never been too concerned about pressure.

Even if she now does know how important NCAA titles are.

"I try not to think about it and put pressure on myself. I ski for fun, and that always works," she said. "If you ski for fun, you always ski fast."