Van Ert was born in flat Iowa and grew up in Snowbird , Utah , in the Rocky Mountains . She started skiing at the age of two and was accepted into the US ski team's junior squad at the age of 14. At the age of 17, she suffered two serious injuries, which is why she was sidelined for two years. After her comeback van Ert reached second place in the downhill classification of the Nor-Am Cup in the 1984/85 season . She won her only points in the Alpine Ski World Cup on March 15, 1986 with twelfth place in the downhill from Vail . At the Winter Universiade 1987 in Štrbské Pleso , the University of Utah student won the silver medal in the downhill.
Van Ert celebrated her first successes in snowboarding when she won the US Championships in Vail in 1993 . On November 24, 1994, she made her debut in the Snowboard World Cup . She started in the parallel slalom in Zell am See and finished the competition in ninth place. Just a week and a half later, she reached the podium for the first time - in Pitztal she was third in the giant slalom. In total, she was able to place in the top three 29 times in her career up to 2004, eight of which won a World Cup. In the 1996/97 season she reached second place in the overall World Cup.
In 1996 van Ert entered the world championships in giant slalom and parallel slalom in Lienz and was able to win the bronze medal in each case. She won her only world title in 1997 in San Candido in the giant slalom. In her other World Cup participations in 1999 in Berchtesgaden and 2001 in Madonna di Campiglio , she was able to place in the top ten with a few exceptions and in 1999 won the bronze medal in the giant slalom again. Furthermore, van Ert competed in two Olympic Winter Games. In the giant slalom of Nagano at the 1998 Winter Olympics , she finished twelfth. In 2002 she reached 17th place in Vancouver . At the end of the 2003/04 season, at the age of 40, she competed in her last snowboard world cup race.
United States
