Skiing helps Travis Mayer move past tragic accident

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- The sport has taken Travis Mayer to places most people only imagine. It carried him to heights few ever reach. It was there for him in his grandest moments, and it was a loyal friend in times of anguish.

Mayer was the world's top-ranked men's moguls skier last year and was enjoying a fairy tale existence when a sunny afternoon turned into his darkest day. He was driving through the Town of Wales outside Buffalo when he ran a stop sign, leading to a collision that killed a mother of two.

The accident left two families devastated.

It also left Mayer wondering whether competitive skiing was trivial.

"After you have something like that happen in your life, there's a period where you reassess your priorities," Mayer said, in his first public comments on the subject.

"Immediately after the accident, skiing and trying to go to another Olympics didn't seem so important. There were some other things that needed to be dealt with before I came around to an interest of continuing to pursue that."

Mayer believes he didn't go back to the sport as much as the sport came back to him. Now, Mayer's career in moguls skiing is nearing the end. The Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, will be his final event. On Feb. 22, Mayer, an Orchard Park native, will turn 24. Winning the gold is much less important than it was before the accident.

"I'm done," Mayer said. "The sport is a big part of my life and something I've been passionate about forever. I don't want to degrade its importance. It's really something special, but it's always important to look at what's next. You get to a point in life where it's hard to wake up in the morning when you've had more memories than you do dreams."

Four years ago, he was trying to find his way with the U.S. Freestyle team. He was a developmental-team skier before his career took off just before the 2002 Winter Games.

At the time, Mayer figured he would soak up the Olympic experience while keeping his eye on 2006. Who knew this long shot would lay down a near-flawless run and win the silver medal in Salt Lake City?

On June 21, 2005, he was heading to his parents' home in East Aurora and drove through a stop sign. He was traveling 30 mph when his vehicle struck one driven by Diane L. Hamblin, a 44-year-old mother of two from Arcade. The two cars ended up in a field. Mayer's vehicle severed a telephone pole.

Hamblin later died.

Her husband and high school sweetheart, Robert Hamblin, said he remembered watching the 2002 Olympics with his wife and cheering for Mayer. He views Mayer differently now. He didn't want the skier portrayed as a victim and hoped Mayer understood the effect it had on the Hamblin family. He said he told Mayer as much during a telephone conversation months after the crash. He said Mayer apologized several times, but it helped little.

"It's something you can't get over," Hamblin said. "I was with this gal for 25 years. He can live his life. It destroys you mentally, physically and financially. I go to work that way every day, and I see (the scene) twice a day. It doesn't get any easier."

For months, Mayer was inconsolable. He was charged with a traffic violation for failing to yield at a stop sign. Investigators found no evidence of alcohol or speeding. Authorities said it was an accident.

Mayer has struggled to come to terms with the accident.

"There are a lot of details I'm not going to talk about," he said. "I want to respect the privacy of everybody involved as much as possible. It's horrible that people have to go through something like that in this world. If at all possible, I would like to not make them read about it all the time."

Over the summer, Mayer wondered whether he would ski again. He considered leaving the sport and finishing up his degree at Cornell University, where he is majoring in applied economics. Over time, he resumed training and found his quest to return to the Winter Games was a healthy release from his emotions.

"Going forward after the accident, skiing has probably been the biggest blessing next to my family and my loved ones," he said. "It was the biggest attribute that I've had in my life. Most people when they have something horrible happen in their lives, they look for something. Some people have a really solid faith. Some people drink too much. I had skiing."

The other three skiers on that 2002 team - Jonny Moseley, Jeremy Bloom and Evan Dybvig - drew more attention. Moseley had his signature Dinner Roll trick. Bloom abandoned a football scholarship for a chance to win a medal and Dybvig was overcoming several knee injuries. All three finished behind Mayer.

Now, four years after he burst onto the scene, he's widely respected for his character and competitiveness.

"You don't get a finer kid than Travis Mayer," said Bloom's father, Larry.

Mayer bruised his left knee last weekend at the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup in Lake Placid when he gained too much speed before hitting the ramp for his second jump in a qualifying run and landed too far down the hill.

He secured a spot in the Olympics with second- and fourth-place finishes during the World Cup season and is ranked third on the U.S. team behind Bloom and Toby Dawson. Mayer isn't concerned with how they perform. Instead, he's spending his final weeks in competitive moguls skiing fantasizing about the perfect run.

"He has an uncanny sense for the snow, a touch for the snow," U.S. moguls coach Don St. Pierre said. "The way he makes it down a course rates up there with artistic, and his finesse is just a powerful factor in his skiing."

Mayer knows it's time for life after skiing. He's a fifth-generation member of Mayer Bros., the West Seneca cider company founded in 1852 and might go into the family business. He is also considering law school.

For the past eight years, he has lived and trained in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The sport has taken him around the world, but he hasn't had a normal summer since he was 15. He believes the sport has pushed the limits of safety and he fears serious injury. He already has accomplished more than he ever imagined.

And he has a different perspective.

"I'd like to ski well in the Olympics," he said. "What that means, I don't really care any more. I mean, I'd like to win, but ultimately I've finally assimilated the age-old adage in sports: It's really the ultimate performance you're after. If I can put down the best run I'm capable of doing at the Olympics, it's irrelevant where I finish.

"I don't really have any interest in being famous. I just want to ski. I just want to enjoy the amount of time I have."