The cousin of Alpine Meadows Freestyle Team founder Clay Beck, K.C. Oakley stuck with the family tradition. She joined the Alpine Meadows team at 13 and made the three-hour commute to Tahoe from Piedmont, CA every weekend all winter. At 17, she narrowed her focus to just moguls and began competing in NorAm events. At the end of the 2011 season, she captured her first two NorAm wins, the overall NorAm title and a silver medal at U.S. Championships, earning her invite to the U.S. Ski Team. Since then, Oakley has earned the title of World Cup winner and has over 20 top-10 World Cup finishes to her name.

Read more about K.C. in her #WhatMakesAChamp story.

OFF THE SNOW

Oakley spends all the time she can back in California, at the beach with friends and family. She recently received her MBA (Master's in Business Administration) from Westminster College in Salt Lake City. The rest of her efforts go towards her foundation, Jill's Legacy. The foundation honors her best friend, Jill Costello, who passed away in June 2010 from lung cancer as a healthy, young and non-smoking student-athlete. “In her honor, in order to help others who face this deathly diagnosis, we spread awareness that anyone can get lung cancer and raise funds for young scientific researchers so that we can help increase the 15.5% survival rate,” she says.