Laurenne Ross is officially retired from ski racing, but no one should be surprised to find her on the slopes of Mount Bachelor over the next year.

The longtime World Cup skier and two-time Olympian from Bend — who announced her retirement last week before winning the downhill at the U.S. Championships in Aspen, Colorado, on April 10 — plans to take a year off before jumping into her next career, possibly in sustainable architecture.

During that year, she plans to give back to the Central Oregon ski community that gave so much to her.

“I’ll get up and coach some kids at MBSEF (Mount Bachelor Sports Education Foundation), and spend time with kids who are getting into ski racing, or who are just wanting to free ski,” Ross said. “I feel like that’s really important, and really had a big impact on me as a skier.”

Ross, 32, ended her 13-year racing career in style, claiming her third national title with her parents and longtime boyfriend Tommy Ford, also a World Cup skier, in attendance.

Ross said it was “wonderful” to win her last race.

“It was a pretty sweet day — bittersweet,” Ross said.

On Tuesday at the U.S. Championships, Ross took a sort of victory lap in the super-G, rather than actually racing, according to usskiandsbowboard.org. Dressed in a black Spyder onesie with a blue tutu and a rainbow unicorn horn, Ross made her way down the course, stopping to hug and high-five coaches. At the bottom, she was greeted by Ford and her father, Rob Ross.

Ross was born in Edmonton, Alberta, but grew up in Klamath Falls and raced for the Bend-based MBSEF as a youth. She moved to Bend about 10 years ago, and recently earned her bachelor’s degree in art from the University of Oregon.

Ross overcame several major knee injuries throughout her career, as well as a shattered pelvis, shoulder dislocations, a hip tear, bulging discs and severe ankle sprains.

She raced the downhill at both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics, her top finish 11th at the Sochi Games. She also made two World Cup podiums and was fifth in the downhill at the World Championships in 2017.

Ross made a grueling comeback from a devastating right knee injury in March 2017 to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where she finished 15th in both the downhill and super-G.

But in February 2019, she crashed during a downhill training run at the World Championships in Sweden and injured her left knee.

“When I crashed there and injured myself, I was pretty certain I was going to be done,” Ross recalled. “I did want to give myself some time to make that decision final and as time went by, I warmed up to the idea of continuing to ski race.”

Six months later, she decided to fully commit to racing again. She had a strong offseason of preparation, but then she reinjured the left knee during giant slalom training in November 2020.

“It healed really well, and about six weeks later I was back on snow and able to start racing again by mid-January,” Ross said. “It was a tough year. I had very few days on my speed skis training downhill and super-G. It was kind of tough to step back into World Cup racing without having that training.

“As the season went on, I was happy to be there and happy to be skiing, but I always had something in the back of my mind that was nagging at me and questioning whether I was doing the right thing.”

Near the end of the World Cup season her skiing had improved, but then she crashed again in Italy. She injured her shoulder and could not race the next day.

“I just sort of realized that I didn’t want to do that anymore,” she said. “I wasn’t willing to take that risk anymore. So I took about a month to think about things.”

Ross said the constant injuries and subsequent recoveries were starting to wear on her.

“It was just a long four years of injury after injury, and this slew of recoveries,” she said. “It was just starting to get old, and I am getting older and having aches and pains, and I want to be able to ski the rest of my life and enjoy the outdoors. That was a big part of my decision, for sure.”

After her year off, Ross said she plans to get into sustainable design, possibly attending graduate school in architecture. She also plans to do more backcountry skiing and touring. She wants to ski for the rest of her life, but her racing days are done.

“I’m pretty excited to not have to fear for my safety all the time,” Ross said, “and not have that intensity brought to every single run of every day, and kind of let go of that and just enjoy skiing.”