Three Olympic medals, flag bearer for the Swiss delegation at Milan-Cortina, record holder for the most World Cup victories in skicross: Swiss athlete Fanny Smith, originally from the canton of Vaud, is a legend in her sport. She is also dyslexic and dysgraphic, and has spoken openly about it for years. Her idea: to show young people that a difficult time at school is not the end of the world.
“In my whole life, nothing has ever been easy or guaranteed” (Fanny Smith, the day after her Olympic silver medal in 2026).
“Try harder, Fanny!”
Her mother, a kindergarten teacher, noticed the problem as soon as she started learning to read. Her parents tried every method, without much success. Every subject was a struggle for her, even math as soon as she had to read the instructions.
Her worst punishment? Reading aloud in front of the class. To go faster, she would recognize the beginning of a word and make up the end. Then came the mockery from her classmates, and sometimes from teachers who told her to try harder. When all she was doing was trying.
At the time, she couldn't see a future for herself. Without a diploma, she thought, no job would ever be open to her.
The turning point: a course made for her
At 12, Fanny competed in her first skicross race. The jumps, the speed, the daredevil aspect: she knew immediately that this would be her sport. On skis, she dared to do what others didn't. Her parents supported her, with one simple rule: do what makes her happy, but give it your all.
At 16, she left school to dedicate herself to skicross. Looking back, she sees her dyslexia as a strength: the determination she developed to learn to read and write, she transferred to the snow (Read more here).
“My dyslexia made me a fighter” (Fanny Smith)
Skicross, a mirror of a dyslexic person's life
In skicross, you don't race alone against the clock: four skiers set off together on a course of jumps, bumps, and banked turns. Every element of this sport echoes the daily life of a dyslexic person.
The start, side by side. No solo race: you set off under the gaze of others, shoulder to shoulder. Like reading aloud in front of the class. Dyslexia taught Fanny to move forward despite the remarks and the gaze of others. In skicross, this indifference to the noise around you is an asset.
Read the course, then improvise. Every track is different. You study the route in advance, but during the race, you have to choose your line in a fraction of a second and react to the unexpected. As a child, Fanny would guess the end of words to keep up the pace. This habit of constantly anticipating and adapting is something many dyslexic people develop. On a skicross course, that is exactly what is needed.
The obstacles do not disappear. A jump or a bump does not fade away: you learn to absorb them, again and again. Dyslexia does not go away either. Even today, reading a text in public makes her uncomfortable and writing an email takes her forever. She simply learned to overcome the obstacle rather than avoid it.
Fall and get back up. Skicross is a contact sport with lots of falls. In 2011, a serious knee injury made her doctor doubt her return. Two years later, she won the World Cup.
Only the finish line matters. Here, there is no style mark: skiers are ranked in the order in which they cross the line. Fanny applies the same logic to writing, with a rule inherited from her father: “it is better to send an email with spelling mistakes than not to send an email at all”. She does her best, then she moves on.
On the snow and ice, she is not alone
Other winter sports champions have found on the slopes or the ice rink the space that school did not offer them. American Alex Hackel, a freestyle skier who won silver at the 2021 X Games, says he was judged on his school results for a long time. He learned very early on not to listen to those who doubted him, and sees his dyslexia as a real asset on skis:
“Dyslexia taught me to think and adapt in the heat of the action” (Alex Hackel)
Closer to us, French athlete Julia Simon, a three-time Olympic biathlon champion at Milan-Cortina, recently spoke about her dyslexia, diagnosed late, and her years of speech therapy. At school, despite hard work, nothing came:
“I couldn't learn to read or write, I had trouble remembering” (Julia Simon)
It was sport that allowed her to say, as a child, that she was strong in other ways.
American Meryl Davis, a 2014 Olympic figure skating champion, believes that her dyslexia made her more inventive when facing problems.
Four disciplines, four courses, one common thread: a different way of thinking, which became an advantage as soon as she found her field.
Winter is coming: everyone has their own line
The first snows whiten the peaks, and the skicross World Cup will resume in a few weeks. For many dyslexic children, this season has a different color: the first term is well underway, with the first grades and sometimes the first doubts.
Just like on a skicross course, there is no single right path. At LILI FOR LIFE, we want to help everyone find their own. This is the purpose of the LILI lamp and screen, designed to make reading more comfortable for people with dyslexia (Read here).
This winter, may everyone choose their own line, on the slopes as well as on the page.
