BZ's Return to Civilian Life
American Downhiller Tommy Biesemeyer Talks About Life Post-Ski Racing
Tommy Biesemeyer, or BZ, competed at skiing’s highest level. The speed skier’s CV includes:
US National Champion
Two-time Top 10 World Cup Finisher
Seven Top 15 World Cup Finishes
Olympic Team
Two World Championship Teams
Best finish in World Champs was 13th
Top 30 ranking six different years
Biesemeyer was fast. He was an American Downhiller. But, he retired in 2020 at 32 years old.
“I was in a dark place right before retiring. I felt like the sport got away from me and my goals weren’t tangible anymore,” says BZ. “Initially, I exited the sport feeling beat down because of lack of performance over the previous year.”
Then, his phone rang; it was the US Ski Team inviting BZ to race US Nationals in Aspen. He still had FIS points.
“I went out there and won the Downhill. I won US Nationals after retiring. It made me question retirement,.” he says.
In the end, though, Tommy Biesemeyer decided to leave the sport as US National Downhill Title Winner. He had other work to do…
“BZ” Biesemeyer is still fast. While skiing professionally, he took chances as an Olympic athlete and on the World Cup. He stood in The Streif’s start gate overhanging above Kitzbuhel. He greased it.
“The Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, Austria, hits differently. It is gnarly, terrifying and motivating,” says Biesemeyer. “It pushes you to your emotional and physical limits. I loved the crowd, the drunken scene and the elegance. If executed to perfection, it is a place where you can be remembered forever in just under two minutes. It seemed so simple.”
He was unapologetically a hard-charging ski racer who had ambitious goals and an innate belief that he could win. Injuries held him back. No excuse; just facts.
He dreamt of winning in Kitzbuhel—like all World Cup speed skiers. The reality: injuries, PT, return-to-sport, start gates, travel and striving for—and earning—coveted top 10 finishes.
“After a 12-year career with the US Ski Team, I was 32 years old, and the injuries became too much to manage,” says BZ. Throughout his professional career, Tommy:
Tore the ACL in both knees
Tore his patella tendon, lateral and medial meniscus, MCL twice
Dislocated his shoulder
Broke his jaw
Herniated disks in his back
Tore his Achilles tendon
Fended off staph infection
Managed multiple broken fingers
“Injury seemed to haunt my progression early on, but it never stripped my spirit,” says Biesemeyer. “Although the reality of coming back from injury came with residual pain that increasingly affected my ability to take the necessary risk of skiing World Cup Downhill and Super G. That was my reason to transition ‘back to civilian life.’”
Returning to civilian life fascinates me to my core. Whether it’s operators from Seal Team VI, Axl Rose and Slash from GnR or US Ski Team Speed Skiers, transitioning away from the craft you’ve devoted your life to—and excelled at—to step into real life seems to be challenging.
I’ll never know. However, I have had the honor of connecting with a few tier-one team guys about the topic over beers and pulls of whiskey straight from the bottle.
“I love my family, but I am very aware that I’ll never be as cool as I was when I was down range,” a retired Army Ranger told me once during a sales meeting in Portland, Oregon. “I trained my whole life for those moments. Selection was everything. Deployment was my opportunity to do what I had trained to do. While my daughters mean the world to me, returning to civilian life was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
To clarify: I am not trying to militarize rock’n’roll or ski racing. Guns N’ Roses and Wengen’s downhill track are not deployments and time spent “down range.” The former are entertaining and sport, the later is honorable and selfless. With that said, though, all three share attributes that make a “return to civilian life” challenging, albeit in different ways.
“I exited believing I could compete with the best in the world, but it was no longer a reality,” remembers BZ. “When you retire from professional ski racing, there is a sliding scale of emotion that depends on your accomplishments. As an Olympian and top-10 World Cup finisher, it differs from an Olympic Gold medalist and World Cup winner, but the emotion usually parallels itself. It is hard.”
“You have lost your identity, but the grit to work towards your goals still burns deep with no tangible goal to channel the energy. I was fortunate to recognize this early on and push myself to learn new skills with new goals,” says Tommy Biesemeyer.
When BZ finished racing, he moved back to upstate New York from Park City to learn his family’s business. After spending five months working construction, there was one day when he was driving a dump truck to the lumberyard for the third time. While idling in “park” on the lumberyard’s scale, Biesemeyer decided to finish his undergraduate degree.
“At 32 years old, I was sitting in front of the classroom, working in group projects and commuting to UVM’s School of Business to earn my finance degree. It was an unexpected turn,” he says.
When he decided to return to school, BZ had three years until completion. He spent a lot of nights working with 18 and 19-year-old students to complete presentations before the deadline. It was humbling.
“Halfway through my first year, I received a call from the former Executive Director of the World Cup Dreams Foundation (WCDF) inquiring if I was interested in leading the organization. As a former beneficiary of WCDF, I was honored to pay it forward, and the job was manageable with my school workload. I took it. I needed the job,” BZ says.
“Skiing is expensive,” says Tommy Biesemeyer, WCDF’s Executive Director, retired American Downhiller and current “civilian.”
For the next three years, he bootstrapped. A timeline over the next 36 months looked like:
A college degree accompanied with high honors
Accepting the Executive Director role at WCDF
Building a sustainable pipeline of giving from U16 through the US Ski Team’s B Team “for athletes who illustrate potential and financial need to ensure no athlete is lost to cost of sport”
Growing the Northwood Ski Team from 24 to 38 student-athletes.
Growing WCDF’s donor base to a level that now raises over $1 million annually
Allocating $750,000 across 118 athletes in 2024.
Biesemeyer says, “I found myself setting goals and aiming high.”
For more information about World Cup Dreams Foundation, please visit: www.worldcupdreams.org.
Team,
This is Part I of Fall Line’s storytelling this week driven by Tommy “BZ” Biesemeyer.
CLICK HERE to read Part II. It’s about a party.
Thanks for engaging with this week’s doubled-up correspondence. Tommy’s stories are too good and warrant different posts, IMO.