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Coming off a season in which he made 11 World Cup starts, U.S. Ski Team member Cody Marshall had his goals set on making the 2010 U.S. Olympic team.
In the late evening of July 15, however, his life took a dramatic turn, one much sharper than any of the slalom turns he had successfully maneuvered over two dozen years on the slopes. Out with teammates on a typical mid-week, offseason night, Cody accidentally fell backwards almost 30 feet from an escalator railing he was apparently sliding on at a Park City shopping mall, fracturing his skull. The escalator was out of order and had been chained off, according to the police.
Evacuated to University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, Cody endured six hours of surgery and two more weeks in an induced coma to treat life-threatening brain seizures, internal bleeding, swelling, pneumonia and other invasive infections.
Cody's sister, Chelsea, also a member of the U.S. Ski Team and living in Park City, Utah, at the time, was awakened at 2 a.m. by a team manager and rushed to the hospital, where she was met by several teammates and U.S. men's coach Sasha Rearick.
"I didn't really know the extent of what had happened until I got down to the hospital and talked to the doctors," she said in an interview."They didn't sound very promising at first. I was the only family member there, but Sasha was there, and he was a big comfort."
In the immediate aftermath of the accident, it became very clear how close-knit Cody's support network of family, team, hometown and the Alpine skiing community could become when faced with the possibility of his death.
Cody survived the fall. Four months later, as he celebrates Thanksgiving with his family in Vermont and approaches his return to the ski slopes, he is still coming to terms with the life-altering event.
"Accepting what happened is something I'm going to have to continue to deal with," he said. "I think I've done a pretty good job so far."
Rather than dwell on the event that created what he calls "this mess," he chooses to focus on the support network that continues to give him inspiration as he strives to re-kindle his career.
The support began with those closest to him.
For the first four weeks, Chelsea stayed by her brother's side, sleeping in a small hospital cot. She was joined by their parents, Don and Barb, older brother Jesse -- the first U.S. Ski Team member in the family -- younger brother Tucker and close family friend Draven Gagnon, who flew to Utah to be by Cody's side. Chelsea would only leave her brother once daily for a three-hour workout session with the team at the Center of Excellence, the U.S. Ski Team's training facility in Park City.
The support network grew to a global level, thanks in large part to a blog, "Think Cody," created and maintained by Gagnon and other family members. Alpine rivals, such as Canada's Michael Janyk, France's Julien Lizeroux and Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, used the blog - as well as their own Twitter pages - to offer prayers and wishes of recovery. Spurred on, members of his home community, Pittsfield, Vt., mobilized to organize a pre-game tribute to Cody at Vermont Day at a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in July.
Chelsea feels the blog served the dual purpose of letting people know of Cody's progress and relieving some of the external pressure on the family.
"The blog was a huge help, she said. "There were so many people trying to find out how Cody was doing."
Teaming up to help
Cody survived the accident and, four months later, as he celebrates Thanksgiving at home in Pittsfield with his parents and sister, he knows he has a lot to be thankful for.
He recalled in an interview how teammates - not only his closest friends, TJ Lanning, Jeremy Transue and Will Brandenburg, but every U.S. Ski Team member - took time off from their regular training routines to provide support, in any way they could. Occasionally, they would wait hours to see him, only to be turned away by hospital staff worried about an excess of stimuli.
"People were coming in every day to keep me going," says Cody. "They helped me with my therapy, walking, all the things I had to do. That was huge, to get that moral support. It really helped me stay motivated, helped me stay positive."
One specific memory from his seven-week, post-trauma recovery period at the hospital stands out. (It's one that his doctors may not want to know about.).
"I don't remember almost half of my stay. But TJ Lanning took me on one of my first walks, when I got up and walked out of the hospital. While I was walking, I pretended to rest on his shoulder, and while I was doing that, I ripped my feeding tube out. I did that a lot, because I really hated that thing. I really did."
The image of a teammates supporting one another left an impression on Chelsea, as well.
"That was really cool to see," she said., "I don't think I'll ever forget that. TJ was just there, being really supportive and helping Cody."
Losses and gains
Cody lost 30 pounds during his hospital stay, and has only gained back about ten. He's working out ten hours a week - not much less than he would during an offseason week under normal circumstances - at the Center of Excellence, in order to rebuild muscle mass as he aims for a return to competitive skiing. While taking care of the physical side, he is well aware of the mental taxation caused by the sudden loss of a livelihood that has occupied him for so many years.
"I think the mental aspect is the biggest part of it. It's a huge thing to deal with," he said.. "It flips your life around really fast. It's just a lot of things to deal with all of a sudden."
Classified as an injured active skier, Cody cannot count on his usual corporate sponsorships this season, either. In essence, he lost his job in the accident. While the U.S. Ski Team has provided him with access to its top-notch training facilities and physiotherapists, he has to rely on family for most of his living expenses. To help allay the costs of living, the Pittsfield community organized a fundraiser on Cody's behalf in October.
Back on skis
Last week, two days after celebrating his 27th birthday, Cody was cleared by his doctors to ski. Over Thanksgiving weekend, he hopes to hit the slopes for the first time in seven months at the same hill, Killington, where he first learned how to ski. That he intends on enjoying a leisurely day on the hill with his family adds extra meaning to the occasion.
"Skiing is a huge passion of mine. It's not like I'm going to be too crazy with it at first. I'm going to be safe, pretty controlled with it. We'll see how it goes the first day."
Cody's teammates hope the first day of skiing leads to many more. Whether he is able to regain his spot on the U.S. Ski Team and fulfill his Olympic dream in 2014 remains to be seen. However, they hold on to the inspiration that they say Cody provided.
"When he got hurt, we were all super scared for his life," says Ted Ligety. For him now to be recovered to the point he is, is pretty miraculous."
Jimmy Cochran, like Cody a slalom specialist, adds, "I look at it in two ways. I'm going to miss his presence as a training partner but, on the other hand, it's kind of motivating. This great sport, this great life that we lead is just so tenuous."
Cody has always had the skis. He knows now that he also has the support.
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