Maggie did Whitefish and U.S. proud
Whitefish’s hometown hero Maggie Voisin soared to a fourth-place finish Friday in women’s slopestyle at the PyeongChang Winter Games. While her sights were set on gold, Voisin has nothing to hang her head about.
The 19-year-old phenom showed amazing poise and fortitude in the face of Olympic-sized pressure. Down to her last run, Voisin stuck the landing on the course’s final massive jump, the same one on which she’d fallen during her first two trips down the park. Voisin’s impressive run — which scored an 81.2 — was momentarily good enough to secure a spot on the podium until Great Britain’s Isabel Atkin bumped her one spot lower.
Voisin showed nothing but class after the event, praising her competitors and almost immediately looking to the future.
“I am so incredibly honored to have been amongst all the talented ladies yesterday,” she posted on Instagram. “I hung on the best I could and was able to walk away with fourth here in PyeongChang! A huge cheers to the future because it’s going to be a fun one!”
There’s no doubt that Voisin will return to the Flathead with a hero’s welcome. And at only 19, she could have at least a few more Olympics in her future.
BNSF invests in our future
In a state as big as Montana, infrastructure is a huge component of doing business.
In some cases, that means public investment in highways, bridges and airports, but in other cases it means private investment in such things as power lines. For BNSF Railway, it means spending millions of dollars every year on maintaining and upgrading rail lines and other equipment. That investment is crucial not just for safety, but also for the economic well-being of many Montana farmers, miners and businesses.
In 2018, the company has pledged to spend $135 million in Montana as part of its $3.3 billion capital spending plan nationwide. BNSF is a crucial component of our local economy, providing high-paying jobs to a large number of railroad employees based in Whitefish.
Everyone should be glad that the railroad sees a strong future in Montana because Montana’s future depends on it.