Minneapolis snowboarder Iris Pflum’s early-morning factory shifts pay off with trip to first Olympics

Once a supposed bastion of amateurism, the Olympics have become a party for millionaire athletes, a Davos for those with developed deltoids.

Which makes Iris Pflum’s story even sweeter.

Pflum, 22, is a snowboarder who grew up in Minneapolis. She will compete in the women’s parallel giant slalom at the Milan Cortina Games on Sunday, Feb. 8, in Valtellina, Italy.

She said she is not financially supported by U.S. Ski and Snowboard, meaning she has to raise about $40,000 a year for expenses.

She has worked in a factory, and for the past few summers has worked at Hazelwood Food & Drink in St. Louis Park.

“That’s a big part of my story, that I’m doing it all on my own,” Pflum said from Slovenia last week. “I work in the summer full-time and that’s why I’m here. I think it does show that I’ve put everything I’ve got into getting to where I am today.

“Getting the Olympics out of this is a dream come true. I think back to getting 4 a.m. wakeup calls to go into the factory. My family is overjoyed that it all led to this.”

Buck Hill is where ski star Lindsey Vonn developed while working with legendary coach Erich Sailer.

Pflum began winning races in North America, then began working with her current coach, Justin Reiter. “He was like, the next step is to go over to Europe and to train and do World Cups … and then, eventually, go to the Olympics," Pflum said. “I said, `So … I could go to the Olympics?’ And he said, `Oh yeah, definitely.’ And was like, `All right, well, we’re talking about it so calm.’"

She went on the World Cup circuit when she was 17, but didn’t qualify for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“It just wasn’t my time yet,” she said. “I was right on the bubble, one or two spots away from making it. Looking back, I think that was a blessing in disguise that I wasn’t going to that one because I was just too young and not fully confident in my abilities.

“But I’ve known, over the last four years, that this was the goal, so I’ve trained as hard as I can. And I think in the last year it was clear that I would likely make the team.”

When asked whether staying healthy has been a challenge, given the risky nature of her sport, she didn’t even reference physical injuries. “When you’re traveling with a lot of people on a plane all over the place, you can get sick, but for the most part I’ve stayed pretty healthy,” she said.

Her work schedule and travels kept her from attending a traditional college, so she’s getting an engineering degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University while studying online.