Nadler took the opposite approach and skied the second run with even more aggression to take the giant slalom title by over a second, which is a large margin in alpine skiing.

“Just with the momentum that Becca had been building, she would’ve had to have been held back with a crowbar to be kept from winning,” Mitchell said. “She skied a very, very aggressive line, skied with a lot of purpose.”

Nadler followed up her giant slalom performance with a third place finish in the slalom, her highest finish ever in the event.

“I think it’s a confidence thing,” Mitchell said. “She’s in a place when she says to herself ‘Every time I’m racing, I can win.’ You put yourself in that place enough times, you start to believe it. In slalom that’s huge because the rhythm is so much quicker.... You’re not looking for huge, huge improvements, just a couple of hundredths [of a second] each turn. One little, tiny tweak—that can pay dividends in a huge way.”

Nadler’s confidence has allowed her to take tighter turns on the slalom course and more aggressive lines on the giant slalom. And with two podium finishes in a weekend and Harvard’s first ever EISA win, the sophomore standout certainly has reason to believe.

“The higher my confidence is, the more fun I’m having, the better it is,” Nadler said. “I feel like it’s never perfect, but I’m really happy with how I’m advancing.”

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmclin@fas.harvard.edu.