Longmont Police Officer Allison Lockhart grew up skiing on Stratton Mountain in Vermont, and switched to snowboarding when she was 12 years old. Now, the athlete enjoys both winter sports — she took up skiing again last year.
“It’s fun to be able to do both, depending on the day and the conditions,” Lockhart said. “I love being outside and staying active.”
Her love of flying down Colorado mountains led her to take home a gold medal on Friday in the 48th Annual Vail Peace Officers Ski and Snowboard Race. She not only won first place in the women’s snowboarding division, but first overall across all women’s divisions.
“It’s a great event and Vail PD does an excellent job with organizing it for us,” Lockhart said. “The event itself is short as everyone just takes two timed runs, but then everyone gets to ski Vail for the rest of the day. It’s a lot of fun.”
Longmont Police Officer Sonia Bragulla won fourth place in the women’s snowboarding division.
“It was Sonia’s first time this year and she did amazing,” Lockhart said. “Better than I did my first year competing, since last year I fell right out of the gate, but she stayed on her feet and got fourth.”
For the second year in a row, Team Longmont — Lockhart, Bragulla, Police Detective Sergeant Brian Dean and Fire Lieutenant Kyle McAllister — won first place in the open.
“Brian and Kyle are great skiers, so I knew they would do well,” Lockhart said. “We lost one of our teammates from last year who helped us win, so having Kyle take her place worked out well for us.”
Every participant has a chance to win an award, whether it’s a top spot or a prize for best crash or slowest time, “which make for some good laughs,” Lockhart explained.
“They also have an awards ceremony that has a ton of great raffle prizes,” the gold-medal winner said.
Police officer schedules often allow for them to hit Colorado’s slopes on days when they’re less crowded — a huge job perk, Lockhart explained.
“It helps to give me something to stay active during the winter,” she said. “Being able to live in Colorado with some of the best skiing around has been incredible.”
