By Ryan Sederquist
Kyleena Lathram's ski career changed in the blink of an eye. Literally.
Fresh off a pre-season ski camp in Chile three years ago, Lathram — then a senior at Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy — was busy tutoring students when she started to feel dizzy and nauseous.
"Within a blink, all the vision in my left eye had gone away," she said. "It was very fast."
Lathram shuttled between Denver and Vail hospitals searching for answers. She'd contracted COVID in Chile and has some autoimmune disease history, but no one could connect any dots or come up with concrete conclusions.
"To this day, we still don't really know why. The running theory is that there was a blood clot that went to my eye," Lathram, now a junior at Saint Michael's, said in a phone call last month. The only thing anyone could postulate with some degree of certainty: the chances of her vision returning were slim to none.
"I just needed to learn to live with it," Lathram stated. "I decided I wasn't going to let it stop me."
While Alpine skiing is full of injury-laden, long and winding roads, Lathram's journey to her first NCAA start — which she expects to make this winter — has been particularly long and winding. In addition to the eye issue, a nasty laceration across her quad and dislocations to both shoulders have wiped away her first two collegiate seasons.
"Kyleena's road to recovery has been a hard one," said Purple Knights head coach Gus MacLeod. "It seems as she gets over one hurdle she has another one to jump over."
Keeping the dream alive
Lathram made the most of her final prep campaigns. She navigated the 2022 Colorado High School Cycling League mountain bike season with limited depth perception through the fall, then skied well enough with Ski and Snowboard Club Vail that winter to garner some NCAA looks. Even as some teammates, coaches and teachers told her to rethink her ski ambitions, Lathram pressed forward.
"I mean, the sport I gave everything to — I started skiing when I was 2 years old — it's something I gave my whole life to and my dream was to ski DI in college," she said. "The process to get here, especially with the vision loss, was not easy."
When she arrived in Colchester, Vermont, in 2023, things only got harder. During the first run of a January training day, Lathram leaned in on a turn and hit an icy bump.
"My left ski popped off and I just kind of tumbled down with it," she recalled. "I stood up and was really only worried I'd hit my head. I didn't feel any pain. I was pretty much fine, and so I clicked back into my left ski."
Having crashed just a short distance from the base of the hill, Lathram cruised down quickly and hopped on the chair lift. As she settled in for the 15-minute ride, she realized her new Saint Michael's ski team pants were ripped.
"I started to peel it back and that's when I saw blood squirting out," she said.
She pressed her fingers an inch into the incision to slow the blood, which eventually froze to the outside of her gloves. Once she arrived at the top, ski patrol immediately rushed her back to the bottom and to a hospital. The five-inch incision cut right across the muscle from inside to outside, just missing the femoral artery.
"It didn't even nick it," Lathram said. "If it had, I wouldn't be here today telling the story."
The injury wiped out her first year entirely. Even without weekly Carnivals to train for and race in, however, just being a regular student was arduous. When she wasn't walking with crutches to class, Lathram was essentially on bed rest. Twice a day, she visited the athletic trainers, who shoved gauze into her wound. The healing process was stalled by stitches periodically ripping through the skin. Three different times, the cut had to be restitched. After it reopened a fourth time, doctors said it didn't make sense to patch it up again.
"They essentially sent me home how I came into the ER the first day — completely open," Lathram said. "That itself took a little over six months to be fully flush with the skin. I have a pretty gnarly scar."
Since she'd focused most of the off-season rehabbing her leg, Lathram was surprised to realize she couldn't really raise her left arm during a gym workout last fall. An X-ray revealed the shoulder was partially dislocated. An MRI done later at Vail-Summit Orthopedics revealed extensive damage, but the doctors said if it wasn't dislocating too much, Lathram might be able to salvage a season.
"But I got to the point where I was dislocating almost daily," Lathram said, adding that it popped out doing tasks as simple as putting her hair in a pony tail.
"So we got to the point where I was like, if I can't block a gate, raise my arm or push out of a start without dislocating my shoulder, then I can't race and I can't ski to my full potential," she said. Lathram underwent surgery, hoping to be back by December.
"But after it was all fixed, I started dislocating again," she continued. "I had torn everything again; (I had) dented my socket from all the dislocations."
Over Christmas, doctors performed a second surgery, breaking part of her shoulder, moving bones and re-screwing it in. Lathram spent six weeks in a sling. During the rehab process for the left shoulder, she dislocated her right shoulder. She had surgery for that last May. Now, she's getting back to normal — finally.
"Both of my legs are at equal strength, which is all I could have ever hoped for cutting through the muscle," she said. "I feel really good and I'm excited to go into the season. We have a really strong team and everyone really cares for each other, so I'm excited for that mindset and helpfulness on the hill from all of them."
Even though she's been sidelined for half her career, MacLeod said Lathram has been "an impactful team member" all the while.
"She was instrumental in starting and heading up our Alpine Knight news alumni letter, she is always willing to take our prospective Alpine skiing student-athletes for tours," he explained before adding that he's been impressed by her dedication coming into the 2025-2026 season.
"She has been working hard in the gym and with our amazing St. Mike's athletic trainers. I think getting her skis back underneath her and trusting herself to go fast again will take a little bit," MacLeod continued. "This year, we will take it day-by-day to see when she feels comfortable and able to trust herself. I am hoping for an injury-free season, and then she will be able to push harder next year and get back to where she can be."
The Purple Knights open the season Jan. 16 on Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. Lathram can't wait to contribute to her team in a non-cheerleader capacity.
"Honestly, I just want to ski again," she said. "I'm looking forward to getting back on the hill, but specifically pushing out of the start gate for the first time, especially at NCAA races."
As for how that long and winding road has changed her, Lathram said she now possesses a "more positive outlook on life" in general.
"I'm just grateful to be here and alive and doing the things I love," she said. "And I'm grateful for my body moving and I love that I can get up every day and work out and study what I'm studying in school and be a part of [the] Saint Michael's ski team. There's so many good things, and I think it's helped me not overlook the little things in life."
