First-time U.S. Olympian Keely Cashman, who was born in Sonora, grew up in Strawberry, did her first skiing at Dodge Ridge, and attended Pinecrest School off Old Strawberry Road, is once again proving she belongs with the world’s elite, prompting an NBC announcer to describe her as “a beautiful skier to watch” as she reached freeway speeds in Friday’s women’s super grand slalom broadcast live from China.
Because China is on the other side of the planet, events that take place at the 2022 Winter Olympics air live one day before on calendars here in California. Keely’s Friday run in the women’s super-G aired live in primetime Thursday evening for Tuolumne County viewers.
“We were watching at home in Strawberry and I talked to Keely a little after the race,” her father, John Cashman, said Friday in a phone interview. “She thought she skied well. She thought maybe she could have skied a little faster and tightened up her line a little. But first run, first time on the mountain in competition, she was happy with it.”
Keely finished her super-G run in 1 minute, 15.99 seconds, just 2.49 seconds off the fastest time down the mountain in her first event at the Beijing Olympics. Keely finished 27th out of 42 finishers. Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami won the women’s super-G gold with a time of 1:13.51.
“It’s a game of hundredths of seconds and it can be really tight,” John Cashman said. “It doesn’t take much to lose a second here or there. Slim margins for error. They’re going 60, 70 miles per hour. Things are happening quickly.”
As she swept down the women’s super-G course, named the Rock, with more than 590 yards of vertical drop on a length of more than 21 football fields, an NBC announcer praised Keely for her mental toughness coming back from injuries she sustained while training in Germany in January 2021.
U.S. veteran Mikaela Shiffrin, a three-time Olympic medalist and winner of more world championships than any other American skier, was elated just to finish Friday’s super-G, in 1:14.30, good enough for ninth overall, after she was unable to finish her first two Olympics events earlier this week.
“Shiffrin was extremely happy just to get down the mountain and get some confidence,” John Cashman said. “That’s kind of where Keely has been coming from this past year, coming back from injury. Everybody at her level is really talented, really fit, and really strong. So the mental part is a big deal. For sure it’s huge.”
Keely’s father said that when he spoke to her after her super-G run, she emphasized she wants to relay to everyone here in Tuolumne County she is extremely grateful for all the well wishes and support everyone has been sending her “from Strawberry and Pinecrest, the whole community and the whole county, she really appreciates it.”
Excitement builds around hometown
William Harman, 72, said he’s been in Strawberry since 2017 and has never met Keely, but he’s going to be rooting for her like a lot of other people in this small town of fewer than 100 residents.
“I heard she made the U.S. team about two weeks ago,” Harman said Wednesday outside the Strawberry Store, where he works. “She used to train at Dodge. Couple days ago I saw two gentlemen stop their truck down across the bridge and put that sign up for Keely. I hope she wins a gold medal.”
The sign is about 8 feet wide attached to two trees off of Highway 108 on the west side of the South Fork Stanislaus River, where Cashman used to go fly fishing when she wasn’t skiing. It has five Olympic rings and says, “Home of Olympian Keely Cashman.”
Aaron Buche, 49, the new Strawberry Store owner, has been in the town about four months and heard about Keely making the Olympics earlier this week from locals at Strawberry Inn across Highway 108.
“It sure is exciting,” Buche said. “It’s a reminder that greatness can come from anywhere, large or small.”
Rachel Brannon, a realtor based in Mi-Wuk Village for 10 years and more than 20 years in Tuolumne County, said she heard about Keely making the Olympics at Alicia’s Sugar Shack in Sugar Pine.
“They’re really promoting her, because she stops in there when she’s here,” Brannon said in Strawberry. “It’s wonderful we have an Olympian, especially in winter sports, because it shows how much the rest of the locals love the outdoors. And what we’re capable of.”
Students and teachers at Pinecrest Expedition Academy, where Keely attended school when it was Pinecrest School, made a video for their local hero on Wednesday morning and posed for photos again Wednesday afternoon. Some wore red-white-blue gear, some had red-and-blue makeup, and everyone wanted to make noise. Their chants included “Go Keely! Shake and bake!”
Mindy Lancaster, who has two sons at Pinecrest Expedition Academy, 6-year-old Theodore and 10-year-old Wesley, said it’s great to see everyone getting behind a local athlete now preparing to compete at the top level of international competition.
“She’s local, she grew up here,” Lancaster said. “We want to celebrate the hard work she’s put into what she’s doing.”
Teacher Nicole Brenner and parent Kristy Miller, a realtor in Twain Harte, said it was a no-brainer getting behind Keely, because she want to the same school, some of the families with current students are related to her, and she came out to the school last year and taught the kids archery.
Keely was the talk of the town in the Pinecrest Post Office, too.
“My husband grew up here and he’s known Keely all his life,” Pam Northcutt, a Pinecrest resident for eight years, said Wednesday inside the Pinecrest Post Office. “His daughter used to ski with Keely.”
Over at Pinecrest Resort, general manager Laurie Cashman is Keely’s aunt, and she has an Olympic flag outside the main resort building and a red-white-and-blue sign that says “GO KEELY 2022” on one of the windows.
“We’re so proud,” Laurie Cashman said Wednesday. “Our whole family, the whole mountain community. My mom lives in Strawberry, she’s 89, the matriarch of the family, and everyone has supported Keely. She’s a special girl. We’re all so proud. We can’t wait for tomorrow night.”
Laurie Cashman said Keely’s other grandmother lives in Cold Springs, and she has a couple aunts and uncles over that way, too. Keely’s mom is from Cold Springs and Keely’s dad is from Strawberry, Laurie Cashman said.
“All our kids went to school with Keely,” Laurie Cashman said. “So everyone’s pulling for her. And at Palisades in Tahoe, where Keely’s been training, on TV they’ve been showing some of the young girl skiers with shirts that say ‘Go Keely!’”
Alicia Hartle at Alicia’s Sugar Shack in Sugar Pine said she’s known Keely “since she was born.” Hartle always knew Keely would be a strong skier because she took skiing seriously and she was disciplined, Hartle said.
Hartle said for a young person growing up on the Highway 108 corridor and skiing a lot, Keely had to be disciplined and deny herself a lot of things other youngsters could indulge in because she took the sport so seriously.
“She’s a Cashman, she’s small town, but outgoing,” Hartle said. “She’s a lovely, well-versed young lady, and you just knew years ago she was going to do big things in skiing. She’s the epitome of a serious athlete. And she comes from an amazing, super-tight, supportive family. We’re all really excited and proud of Keely. It’s like a dream come true for all of us in the mountain community and Dodge Ridge.”
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