Michaela West has been skiing for more than 66 years. She grew up in Eastern Wisconsin and learned to race, with bamboo gates, at Hidden Valley between Manitowoc and Green Bay. She has always had a passion for racing but stepped away from it while an undergraduate at UW-Madison after deciding to pursue a career as a doctor. She moved to MN in 1980 to train as a surgeon at the University of Minnesota and taught racing with Edina-Skijammers during the 1990s. During that time all three of her children raced with Team Gilboa. She left MN in 2001 and moved around the country (Chicago, San Francisco) as an academic surgeon. Her love of skiing was rekindled when she moved back to Minnesota in 2017. She resumed teaching with Skijammers and became PISA Certified. Very belatedly she discovered Masters Racing in 2023. She joined the Board of Directors in 2025 to assist with sponsorship and outreach. After missing the 2024-25 season due to an ACL tear, she is determined to race as much as possible this winter.