Former Olympian Devastated By Injury Finds New Thrill In Creative Career
DENVER (CBS4) -- A former Olympian is opening up about how injury and age led to the end of her career and the beginning of something new and wonderful.
"It's really coming out of that struggle and staying positive and trying to create good from bad that really defines you," said Keri Herman.
It was just over a year ago that Herman's day-to-day life was very different.
"A year ago I was competing in slope style with the US Team and traveling around the world for competitions," Herman said.
"My femur, from impact, disintegrated and I had to get it replaced," Herman said. 'I knew it was coming it was inevitable but finally the day came where my leg gave out."
Herman, 36, sustained so many micro fractures in competition; she ended up with a cadaver femur.
"Competing in slopestyle we're hitting 100 foot jumps. Handrails that have 40-foot gaps to landings and sometimes the conditions are not great. Over the years, my leg just had so much impact that it never had time to heal."
She had already been losing support from sponsors who said she was too old. The injury on top of that forced her to retire.
"It was really sad. I went from being busy all the time to no one returning my phone calls, to sponsors dropping me without word. No response to... to anything and I felt so alone and lost."
Herman said there were days when she didn't want to get out of bed.
"I wasn't done skiing. I'm not done skiing. I wanna ski forever. Just losing the support was really hard for me," Herman said.
Since she wasn't skiing, she started working on sketches for women's outerwear. It was something she had always wanted to do.
Longtime friend and pro-skier David Lesh asked her if she wanted to work on a few designs for his company, Virtika.
"Now I'm heading the women's line here at Virtika. Everything is my design."
Herman is just starting to find her groove again. The jackets she's designed are flying off the shelves of the Denver warehouse and she's working on creating even more pieces.
"You have no idea how much it means to me it's so exciting and it's almost the same thrill as landing a new trick!"
She has been skiing on the cadaver femur for just over a year and can still throw competition worthy tricks. She believes people cut her short before her time was up.
"It sucks that it's an injury or age that just stops short on something I've worked so hard for the last 15 years of my life," she said.
It's what's motivating her to succeed in this next chapter of her life. The next time she retires, it will be on her own terms.
"I see so many of my friends just be lost when they're done competing and just to be able to show them a different path or inspire other people to just keep going, I just want that to be a major part of this."