Jeffrey Frisch
Written by Elisa Mogillo
The athlete chosen for this poster assignment was Jeffery Frisch, Jeffery Frisch is an Italian-Canadian downhill and super-G skier born in Brixen, Italy, located in the Italian dolomites. His love for skiing comes from his parents as they were both ski instructors and he started skiing and competing at the age of four (Candianathletesnow.ca). His father was Italian and his mother was Canadian; Frisch always knew he wanted to compete for his mother’s native country and that is why he skied for Canada.
Frisch was set to compete with Canada in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics however a few days before they began he tore his ACL and was unable to compete (sportsnet.ca). After he recovered from his knee injury he was unable to compete with team Canada however he was still determined to ski. He got together with four other skiers and they decided to start their own team and compete independently. This was a big challenge for him as they had limited sponsors and they had to coach themselves. He won many competitions this way such as the Canadian Championship for Super G and Downhill skiing multiple times, 3rd place in the Europa Cup Super G and 11th place in the World Cup Downhill (Canadianathletesnow.ca). He talks about the experience in many interviews and on his personal blog. He discusses how proud he was for winning competitions as it was much more difficult to compete this way and it was rewarding to watch his own hard work and money that he put into the sport pay off (Jeffery.Frisch.blogpost.com).
This Italian-Canadian athlete had a huge impact on Canadian Sports and he is ranked 4th best in his sport. His career had many challenges and the things that he overcame show his passion for the sport. Rather than giving up after his injury he put in a lot of effort to train himself to compete again as well as payed a lot of money to compete with limited sponsors. This shows how determined he was to ski as he could have stopped competing and moved on, but he persevered and ended up being very successful. Frisch is also a very important Italian-Canadian athlete because although he was born and raised in Italy he chose to ski for Canada, in many interviews he shares how he knew he always wanted to ski for Canada and even when he was competing independently he was always competing for Canada. Even though Frisch was born in Italy he is a very proud Canadian and has always been loyal to Canada (sportsnet.ca).
Although lots of research was found on his competitions more research could be done to learn about his experience competing independently, what was involved in this and how he was able to be so successful this way. Also more research on his move to Canada and his transition to skiing for Canada after being born and raised in Italy and starting his skiing in Italy. Not many archives talk about his move to Canada or the start of his professional skiing career, most archives focus on his career after he became successful. Research on the beginning of his career could be done to learn about his experience with moving to Canada, this information would be interesting as this was when he became an Italian-Canadian and no longer just an Italian athlete.
Frisch is an especially important athlete to look at when talking about Italian-Canadian athletes because he chose Canada to be his home country and to compete for them, many Italian-Canadian athletes were born in Canada of Italian parents however Frisch was born in Italy and made the decision to compete for Canada instead of Italy. He won many tittles for Canada and overcame many struggles that a lot of athletes don’t normally have to face. He was able to financially support his career and train himself which is something that not many professional athletes would have to do. His career and successes are a great example to young Italian-Canadian athletes and skiers today.
December 2020
Bibliography
Canadian Press. “Frisch Finds a Different Way to Race for Canada.” 28 November 2014, www.sportsnet.ca/more/frisch-finds-a-different-way-to-race-for-canada/.
Frisch, Jeffrey. “Matthias.” 1 January 1970, jeffrey-frisch.blogspot.com/.
“Jeffrey Frisch.” canadianathletesnow.ca/athletes/jeffrey-frisch/.
“Jeffrey Frisch.” www.immunotec.com/rsvp/sports_nutrition/JeffreyFrisch.
The Canadian Press. “Heavy Snow Wipes out Lake Louise World Cup Men’s Downhill Training Again.” 28 Nov. 2014, www.tsn.ca/heavy-snow-wipes-out-lake-louise-world-cup-men-s-downhill-training-again-1.146578.
How to cite this page:
MLA STYLE: Author. “Title.” Title of container, Other contributors, Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors.
Mongillo, Elisa. ”Jeffrey Frisch.” In Archival Research of Italian-Canadian Immigration and Culture, supvr. T. Russo, issue 4: Italian-Canadians as Athletes and Community Builders: Contributions in the Sports Industry, Brock University, December 2020, St. Catherines (Sports in Italian-Canadian Communities – Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (italianheritage.ca)). Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (ICNS), Sandra Parmegiani and Nivashinee Ponambalum.