Vicksburg’s Indian Lake resident Kim Hayward has had an amazing 2026 season on the water. Hayward, a slalom water-skier, has stocked her medal display with a first-place finish in the state, a first-place finish in the regionals, and a fourth-place finish in the 2026 Goode Waterski National Championships. This was the 84th year of the tournament which was held in Minnesota on August 10. Amazingly, Hayward didn’t start participating in slalom tournaments until she was 57 years old. She’s 63.
At left: Hayward with her gold medal at the 2026 regionals. On the right: Hayward practicing at sunrise on Indian Lake.
Hayward follows a well-established set of family footprints. Her grandmother Maxine started running at the age of 58 and continued till the age of 75. Her mother Tina was also a runner who won the Masters Division of the Boston Marathon in 1983. She was a four-time champion at the Detroit Marathon, and was named Michigan Runner of the Year in 1987.
Being from an athletic family is a plus, but it in no way lessens the volume of work required to achieve championship levels. Hayward starts each week with a goal of skiing seven days. That’s a difficult goal to achieve on its own, but when you add in an active career of being a realtor, coordinating boats, drivers, spotters and weather unpredictability it becomes even more challenging. Indian Lake has had a permitted slalom course on the lake for more than 35 years, and a core group of what Hayward calls, “9 hardcore skiers and 4 or 5 occasional skiers,” help keep her training on track. And the Indian Lake course is not the only one she practices on. At the time of the interview Hayward says, “I’ve skied five different lakes in the last seven days.” Practice begins early, at sunrise, to avoid additional lake traffic.
Slalom water skiing is a complicated process. The regular slalom course is 23 meters wide. The skier must round 6 alternating buoys. Each time a skier clears all the buoys the boat goes faster, until a maximum speed is reached. After that the rope is shortened incrementally, eventually becoming shorter than the distance to the buoys which forces the skier to stretch and reach to clear the buoys. Competitors can choose to run the course again until they miss or fall. Hayward explains, “Even though the boat is running at 32 miles an hour in my category I’m traveling across the wake at speeds reaching 48 miles per hour.”
Hayward says that she has her share of sprains and breaks and admits that as one ages, “you wonder at what point you’ll be unable to recover.” There appears to be no concern at this point however, as she plans to keep up the training schedule to include regular visits to Ski Swiss Waterski Resort in Florida for additional professional instruction.
The simplest way to describe Kim Hayward: a force to be reckoned with.
