Earlier this month, the National Nordic Foundation (NNF), in partnership with the Women Ski Coach’s Association (WSCA) and the Olympic Women’s Cross-Country Book Project, announced the Trail to Gold Fellowship. The Fellowship aims to correct for a historical gender imbalance in U.S. coaching at the club, collegiate, and international level by providing fellows with funding to complete a two-week internship with the U.S. Ski Team on the World Cup this winter. The Trail to Gold Fellowship was sparked by an idea from the U.S. Olympic Women’s Cross-Country Book Project to dedicate profits from Trail to Gold; the journey of 53 Women Skiers to forward the movement for gender equity within Nordic ski coaching.

Applications are open until August 31st, interested women coaches are encouraged to apply here. Trail to Gold: the journey of 53 Women Skiers is available here.

Moving from idea to action for the women involved in the Trail to Gold book turned out to be expedited thanks to an existing template for not only what they wanted their Fellowship to look like, but what they wanted that Fellowship to accomplish. That case study; U.S. Ski Team Development coach Kristen Bourne.

The story of how Bourne joined the U.S. Ski Team coaching staff is a parable for how success in the sport of nordic skiing should come. In which an extraordinarily talented young coach was paired with supportive institutional structures, relationships, and yes, a little luck here and there, to find her way through the U.S. ski coaching system. It’s also remarkable that Bourne’s whole narrative fits the space of a short story rather than a novel. After a decorated junior and college skiing career at Northern Michigan University (NMU), Kristen Bourne did a stint post-grad skiing that culminated in one last Senior Nationals in Houghton, Michigan in 2020. In an instance where metaphorical resonance became something literal, as Bourne was walking away from her athletic career, College of St. Scholastica (CSS) Head Coach Maria Stuber pulled up in the parking lot and – Midwesterner to Midwesterner – let out a big ol’ “OH Hey there!” which quickly led to a discussion about Bourne coaching, and then, a position as Assistant coach for St. Scholastica.

From there, it’s been an ongoing whirlwind. Stuber is the founder and leader of the Women Ski Coaches’ Association, founded in 2019 to “develop, retain, and advance women in ski coaching leadership.” Stuber and Bourne worked through existing NCAA coaching development programs, which saw Bourne win the Women Sport’s Foundation Tara VanDerveer Fellowship in 2021, a first for a nordic skiing coach. Bourne’s Fellowship partially helped fund her position at St. Scholastica, but also came with an additional stipend to utilize for professional development in other organizations.

Stuber reached out to U.S. Ski Team coaches Matt Whitcomb and Chris Grover to see if there would be any opportunity to work with U.S. Ski & Snowboard. That turned into a two-week internship on the World Cup that saw Bourne wax teching and coaching at last year’s Davos and Dresden World Cups. In turn, Bourne received additional offers to work with U.S. athletes making World Cup starts later in the season, all of which culminated in her hiring as a U.S. Ski Team Development Coach earlier this year. To sum it all up, as Bourne did a couple of times when I interviewed her, it’s been a “whirlwind.” Which, to keep to her own metaphor, is a wind that has turned up inspiration among coaches, athletes, and administrators across U.S. Skiing to bring the type of program that put Kristen Bourne in contact with the U.S. Ski Team into the fold of the nordic community. And now, with the Trail to Gold Fellowship, that’s become a reality.

The energy that’s been infused into making that opportunity a reality is still overflowing at the source. When I caught up with Bourne about the experiences that have made up her journey, she was at the end of a long day working with members of the U.S. Ski Team as they prepared for racing in Torsby, Sweden and at Toppidrettsveka in Trondheim, Norway. She brought the same thoughtfulness to our conversation about what formed her approach to coaching as had just gone into that night’s technique session (which happened to include guests Maja Dahlqvist and Frida Karlsson). We not only talked about her journey, but about her influences, mentors, and outlook as a women coach who, just through her own story, has been a leader in the movement to correct for the historic gender inequity in U.S. ski coaching.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity).

Ben Theyerl (BT): Can you start off by giving us a summary of your personal background? What was your journey to your current position with the US Ski Team?

Kristen Bourne (KB): I’m originally from the Twin Cities [in Minnesota]. I ended up going to Northern Michigan University (NMU) and skied for them for five years. Then, about three weeks after graduation, I packed up my bags and moved to Norway, where I lived for a year and a half [ski racing]. There’s a funny story about that ending – I lost my permit in a friend’s car. I ended up coming back to race US Nationals in 2020, where I met Maria Stuber [Head Coach at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN]. At the time, I was thinking of calling it quits, and my dad had put out some emails to coaches to really try and pull me towards it. Maria had just started the Women’s Ski Coach Association (WSCA), and my dad had also gone out and signed myself and my sister up for a membership – so between emails and that he was really pulling.

We were literally in the parking lot when she pulled up and was like ‘I’ve heard about you, you’re going to get an email from me.’ That turned into ‘Do you want to coach with me?’ and she helped set me up with a summer internship coaching with Pepa Miloucheva at the Craftsbury Green Racing Project. Summer of 2020, I started coaching at Craftsbury, and then I was one of Maria’s assistant coaches at St. Scholastica (CSS) for two years.

When I got to CSS, Maria and I applied for a grant with the Women’s Sports Foundation – the Tara Vanderveer Advancement for Women in Coaching Fund Fellowship. We didn’t get it the first year (2020), and then we applied again, and we got it the second year (2021). That Fellowship partially funded my position at CSS, and then there was an extra $2,500 for professional development outside of that position – which was very broad. Maria nudged me to reach out to the U.S. Ski Team and see if they’d need any help for anything really, and as soon as we did Matt Whitcomb was like yes – ‘we actually could use more help for some World Cups.’ Which was unexpected but made me go, ‘woah.’ So, I went to Davos and Dresden last year.

Over there, I ended up wax teching for Caitlin Patterson, and learning a whole lot from the U.S. staff. Then I was back in the U.S. for the collegiate season and made one more trip back to the World Cup with Bill Harmeyer as his wax tach. That was actually a really cool moment, as he reached out because I had already had World Cup experience. So that little internship directly translated into another opportunity very quickly. Then two months later, Kate Johnson announced she was leaving her position as the U.S. D-Team coach, and I applied and now here I am. It’s a lot, but it’s been a whirlwind.

BT: And now you’re back in Scandinavia at the moment…

KB: Yeah, it’s super full circle now because this is my first time back in Scandinavia since I left and lost my permit. The camp we’re at right now was one of the first ones of a few I had when I was living over in Norway, so it’s definitely a cool thing to be back as a coach this time.

BT: That’s a really great story in itself. If I can dig a little deeper into your background, what was your earliest inclination that you might want to coach? Was this something you thought about when you were younger? Or was it really just when you were stuck trying to negotiate the next step after being a ski racer?

KB: I think I always paid attention to people who were like, ‘you should try coaching.’ But I was kind of stubborn in saying that I was going to do something different after skiing. I guess I kept pushing off that idea in my head, but sporadically when I would help out coaching when I was an athlete, I always really loved it. But I guess, it’s one of those things I guess you don’t think of as a career path when you’re an athlete, right?

As I was ending my ski career and figuring out what I wanted to do I was there with a Bachelor’s in Exercise Science, and I was wanting to do a Master’s in the same, which all just leads me back to skiing. It’s what I love. There was a slow roll towards acceptance that ‘oh man, I think coaching is what I want to do, and then Maria definitely solidified how much I love doing this job.’

BT: You’ve touched on Maria, which we’ll talk about a little bit more, but I was wondering if now that you are coaching, do you look back on any of the coaches you had as an athlete and go ‘oh, like that was why they did that?’ Like is there an inspiration that’s shaped your coaching from your athlete days?

KB: Oh yeah. I had a track and field coach in high school, Bev Docherty. I look back and can’t believe she was coaching me in high school based on her accomplishments – (Docherty has a long list of running accomplishments, including having run in the first 6 U.S. Olympic marathon trials open to women). I look back on her style and who she was and how she coached, and she wasn’t super energetic, super loud, or outspoken. She would lean in during the middle of a race though and you could still hear her clearly even when the crowds were cheering all around. I always look back on that because it was so different than anyone I’ve ever been coached by and she was also one of two women coaches that I ever had. I think that I look back to that and try to emulate just how steady she was as a coach. I don’t know if she knows that: she’s been there throughout my racing career and now as I’m going through my own coaching journey, I really do try to emulate her.

BT: You’ve touched on Maria Stuber a few times. How was that relationship formative when you were starting out coaching, especially given that it was right around when she was taking over at St. Scholastica and starting the Women Ski Coaches Association (WSCA)?

KB: I mean, do you want to write the book on it? She would shrug this off and say it’s not true, but she is one of the biggest reasons that I’m in this job [as U.S. Ski Team Development Coach] right now. She’s pushed me and knows exactly where and when to push is how I would best describe it. And I think that goes both for coaching and also for which opportunities to pursue. She’s 100% my biggest mentor and I will always look up to her.

I think the WSCA and her passion for it is also a big aspect of that. She said ‘this is a change that needs to be made and we as coaches can make it if someone is willing to organize it’ and I’m a testament – as are other women coaches – that she is right on that.

BT: Can you describe how the World Cup Fellowship came together, and what you actually did when you were there last year?

KB: I think the most important part of setting that experience up – because it was really a creation of equal parts myself and Chris Grover and Matt Whitcomb – was that it was a fully immersive experience both on the coaching side and [technician] side, not one or the other. I went over and met up with them right after Lillehammer, which was when the team was on its way to Davos. That gave me three and a half days where I was getting an intensive overview of everything from the wax truck to how [the U.S. techs] do glide-outs, wax application on race day, and the whole process of going from setting up at a World Cup to having our athletes be on the start line.

Then Saturday came, which was sprints in Davos, and I was fully part of it all. Waxing on the World Cup. Sunday for the Distance race, meanwhile, I worked more one-on-one with Caitlin Patterson. It was a whirlwind, but I never felt like I was overwhelmed, because the coaching staff really from the moment I was there was like ‘we want you to be part of everything, and we also know that you’re doing this for the first time and are here to make our team stronger.’

That first weekend was a real introduction into the inside process of what goes on with the process of preparing athletes for a World Cup race. When I wasn’t in the wax truck, I was at team meetings where we would watch sprint footage from previous years on that Davos course and discuss tactics. It’s cool to see how the veterans on the team really are thorough about explaining their tactical ideas and are able to make specific suggestions to their newer teammates. You really get a sense of how the ‘team’ aspect of the U.S. Ski Team operates, and it’s pretty special. I would sit in on meetings with Matt and Chris whenever I was allowed, and also got to be part of the team Christmas celebration.

That was all just in one week. And then we packed up and drove the van to Dresden. Which you know, like I’m driving the whole women’s team from Davos to Dresden and hitting the autobahn and frankly, that was the most nerve-racking part of the entire trip. But we did make it.

In Dresden, I turned over to more of a coaching role. That’s where I got to go out on course for the first time, with poles and radio – the whole nine yards of what you think of when you’re watching the World Cup and see coaches running alongside their athletes on the course. Everyday was really intense, and exhausting, and most of all fun, just taking in everything and not really processing it until later.

BT: Was there a moment of realization where you were like ‘holy crap, I’m on the World Cup?’

KB: I think I tried to process that as much as I could before I got there. Like the moment was really when I had my plane tickets in hand and was like, ‘woah, I’m really gonna go to the World Cup and wax skis.’ But you get there, it was way less intimidating than it looks like on TV. Your years of going to ski races as an athlete of coach kick in and you realize that it’s exactly the same feel and atmosphere – just with the fastest skiers on the planet. Living in Norway and being able to watch World Cups – at Holmenkollen especially – really prepared me for all the extra people, and I think mitigated that feeling you could have when Klæbo or Johaug just skis past you.

But also, I shouldn’t play it down too much. Like yeah, there were moments throughout the two weeks where I did just look up and go, ‘this is the World Cup!’

BT: A big part of the Trail to Gold Fellowship that is based off your experience is that there is a value in having World Cup experience cross-pollinate with the coaching back in the U.S. What did you bring back from the World Cup that you felt like you applied to your coaching on the NCAA circuit at St. Scholastica, and now with the D-Team?

KB: There were a few things immediately. Like at Scholastica we adopted the glide-out system I learned on the World Cup to our team. More importantly, the mentalities and being willing to talk with other wax techs and understand that waxing theory is really – and that’s a weird thing to call it – less science. You’re not driving towards a single answer, but rather using your knowledge and experience to make a better call than you would if you didn’t. I had a big realization for both teching and coaching that you’re not learning the answer in how to ski coach, but instead that you’re trying to develop a sense of confidence in your experience so that you give that to athletes. There isn’t a one size fits all in coaching.

BT: I really like that idea as a young coach myself. You’re not building towards an answer, but rather you’re building experience to bear so you can make a difference in the really tough situations, you know?

KB: Yeah, I really think that’s a good way of putting it. It’s kind of that moment you realize that there’s not one way to do the job of being a coach, and that’s what makes it a really challenging and exciting profession.

BT: What about how that attitude played into your role now with the U.S. Ski Team? What are you excited about looking ahead to this winter?

KB: For [the D-Team], our athletes are well on their way to hopefully getting World Cup starts soon. And so that’s where I can act as a resource with my experience of what they can expect as they look to make those first starts. I’ll also be full-time on the World Cup this winter, which is exciting. I’m not anyone’s primary coach but will be doing a lot of what I did last winter, so in that respect, the World Cup experience I got will be about as good of preparation as I could get.

BT: I had one last question pertaining specifically to the Trail to Gold Fellowship. What do you think the role of gender representation on the top-level of skiing is in helping the sport develop?

KB: I think it has an immediate impact. I think it’s as simple as the fact that the more women that young kids see out on the course the more, they are going to believe that they belong there. I hope that immediate impact spreads to those coaches that are doing this fellowship this year as well. They can walk away with tangible World Cup experience, and also realize that they are part of pushing the movement for gender equity in coaching forward and inspiring girls that are out there at the races.

I think back to being around wax rooms, at local races, or watching the World Cup on TV growing, and I really do think that if I would have seen more female representation it might have made me realize that coaching could be a viable career for me because I’d seen people like me in that position. Doing this fellowship works to inspire both the women who are coaching and the women who will be coaching one day.

BT: That’s a really eloquent way to put that.

Applications for the Trail to Gold Fellowship are open until August 31st.

To buy Trail to Gold, the Journey of 53 Women Skiers, click here. Proceeds are dedicated to funding the Trail to Gold Fellowship.

To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed to development, progress, and growth for these athletes last season. In this installment, we talk with Will Koch following his nomination to the U.S. Ski Team on its D-Team. 

Koch grew up in Vermont and is now a member of the University of Colorado Ski Team, where he will be entering his junior year this coming fall. Son of Olympic Silver-Medalist, Bill Koch, Will began his racing career in the New England program named after his father (the Bill Koch League) and attended high school at Stratton Mountain School. 

During the 2019/20 ski season, Koch qualified to compete at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland where he earned a bronze medal in the 10 k classic. In 2022, racing at World Juniors in Lygna, Norway Koch finished 13th in the 10 k classic, 15th in the skate sprint, and anchored the 4×5 k relay team, helping to secure bronze for Team USA.

Ella Hall/Faster Skier: Can you give us a little introduction, where are you from? When did you start skiing? What was your relationship with skiing growing up?

Will Koch: I’m from Peru, Vermont, which is a tiny little town in Southern Vermont, just like 80 people as a population. And I’ve been living there since I was two years old. I got into skiing when I was super young, because my dad was a professional ski racer, Bill Koch. So I actually started skiing before I was even able to walk – nine months old on a beach in Hawaii was my first time on skis. Since then, I’ve just been pretty much training.

I grew up in a really vibrant ski community: starting as a youth, then Stratton Mountain School for my high school years, and now I’m at University of Colorado at Boulder. And this is my first year on the [U.S. Ski Team]. So that’s super exciting. 

FS: As the daughter of a three-time Olympian I can maybe relate to the potential challenges of being the child of a successful ski racer… so acknowledging that, can you talk a little bit about your dad’s role in your skiing career? 

WK:  I definitely get that question quite a bit about like, you know, is it stressful or pressure to have your dad being like, Olympian and everything. Honestly, I think that my dad does a really good job of not having expectations for me, which is really nice. My dad totally recognizes that skiing is awesome and everything, but that there’s a lot more to life than skiing at the same time. He’s very much left the coaching to my actual coaches, but at the same time, he’s always there to give advice when I want it.

He’s obviously like, been there, done that with everything that I’m given going through in terms of skiing, so I think it’s really inspiring to have a person like that always around when I need it, but it’s really awesome that it doesn’t feel like a burden. It’s really an opportunity.

FS: How was the transition from high school at Stratton Mountain School (SMS) to college skiing at the University of Colorado (CU)? Both in terms of training but also general life changes? What drew you to CU?

WK: One of the biggest reasons that I wanted to go out west for college was that I loved the mountains out west. And I also really liked the people out there. I think they’re super open and fun. I also think that being at a PAC 12 conference school comes with certain advantages as far the resources available in the athletic departments. On top of that, I think CU had a really top level nordic team compared to certain schools that I was looking at. So those were all factors that made me want to go out there, and I definitely never regretted that choice once I was up there. I’ve been loving it for my two years, it’s a lot of fun. [There’s] a really good mix on the ski team, I think,  of having fun, but also being serious about training. 

I’d say, as far as training, transitioning from high school to college one difference was the altitude. When I first went up to altitude in Boulder, and was training up there, I really thought that I could just keep doing exactly the same volume and workouts that I was doing in Stratton. But I put myself in a little bit of a hole when I first got out there, and then learned from that and realized that it’s a little more taxing on the body. But once I dialed it back, training wise, I was able to get some real fitness benefits from the altitude. Now that I’ve been out there for two years, I was able to have a really good fitness year this past season and [make] kind of a breakthrough in my skiing. I think part of that is being in altitude and building fitness with a really strong team. 

In general, I found that the college schedule allowed me to have more flexibility in terms of when I trained and it’s easier to do two sessions a day in college compared to high school, just because you spend a little bit less time in the classroom. You have a little more flexibility in how you structure your day.

FS: By my count you’ve been on five different international racing trips, including the Youth Olympic Games (YOG). What were some of the highlights from those experiences, particularly in terms of how they supported your development and goals? 

WK: Yeah, of all the international trips I’ve been on, definitely the Youth Olympics stands out as the coolest one and the most memorable. YOG is pretty different from World Juniors, in terms of it’s a fair amount less intense, I would say and more about having fun. And yet, even though it’s less intense, it’s the same level of competition, either way, you’re up against the best people in the world.

I think that’s what I really loved about the Youth Olympics, it was fun to win the medal there and everything, but it was also mainly just a really cool experience. That was my first time meeting people from a lot of different countriesI still have my friends from Kazakhstan and Australia from the Youth Olympics, which I love. And, of course, that was also before COVID was really a thing, that was also a time when we were able to do a little bit more socializing on international trips. 

I think that those [international] trips are really crucial in development, just to really see  that next level of competition that you’re going to be up against, and to really see that every second counts. In the Youth Olympics race where I got my bronze, it was two seconds between me and second place, and I was about five seconds from being back in eighth place. It was just ridiculous how tight it was. That just kind of goes to show how you really need to be thinking about getting those small gains where you can, and that the rest of the competition in the world is out there doing the same thing.

FS: So you’ve just been named to the U.S. Ski Team D-Team, can you reflect on how that feels and maybe what is most exciting to you about this opportunity?

WK: It’s definitely pretty validating to be named after being kind of on the edge for a few years now. It’s exciting. At the same time, though, it’s also basically almost the same training group that I’ve been training with for years, now that me, Walker [Hall] and Michael [Earnhart] are all on there.

Being at my first US Ski Team camp (in Bend), I was kind of looking around, and I was like, Hey, this is really not that different from NTG, three years ago, when we all first made that. So it’s really cool to see how we all progress together. I’d say, making the team, it’s nice and everything, but it’s also really just one more step in development that we’re all taking together, which is really fun. 

FS: What are some of your goals for the upcoming ski season?

WK: I would love to make a debut on the World Cup if that worked out. It’s obviously a really competitive scene right now for Team USA to make it there, and getting picked is by no means guaranteed. I think that’d be a really good next level experience to have. I’d also like to get on the podium at NCAA’s. 

FS: Sounds like you made it out to Bend for the annual spring U.S. Ski Team camp there, and now are you back with SMS. What does the rest of your summer/fall look like?

WK: For the rest of the summer, I will be in Stratton training with the SMS T2 team. It’s pretty exciting, because we should have a lot of really fast guys on the US Ski Team coming out here to join our training group, which I think will be awesome, having grown up in Vermont, to get to show a bunch of people how we do it over here. I’ll be here until mid-August and then go back to Colorado and start school and training with the CU Ski Team.

Prior to the vote for President on May 26th in Milan, Italy, Croatia’s representative Vedran Pavlek insisted that the procedure be changed to allow a yes, no, or abstaining vote. Denied by FIS Legal Counsel, the delegates of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Croatia and Scandinavia walked out. In all, only 70 of the 117 available votes were cast—just over the 63 minimum needed to reelect Eliasch. 

The vote for FIS council followed, and Dexter Paine, who has served on the council since 2014, found himself in third lowest position—an abrupt turn of events for US skiing’s representative.

“It was a real surprise,” Dexter Paine said on a call with FasterSkier. “A year ago, I was elected with the second largest number of votes. I think it was more of a protest vote against Johan [Eliasch], because, ultimately, he was the only name on the President’s ballot.” 

“One of the things that I find disappointing,” Paine said, “is that I wish people were more direct and more open on the council and within that community, rather than being political.”

Austria’s representative, Christian Scherer, seemed to sum up the underhanded attitude in an interview with Kleine Zeitung, saying, “We don’t want to say whether we voted for [Paine] or not. What I can say is that we always had excellent connections with the United States.”

Paine explained that he received close to the same number of votes (74) as Eliasch and said, “I assume all the countries that walked out voted against me.” 

President Johan Eliasch said that Paine’s presence on the council “will be missed,” adding, “He’s really been one of the people before I came in that was very strongly driving change for the better. His contribution has been invaluable over the years.”

Paine had long advocated for modernization efforts within FIS—a position that led him to wholeheartedly endorse Eliasch’s progressive platform. Together, they rode a victorious crest during last year’s FIS elections. 

Their decisive electoral wins in 2021 were interpreted as a mandate for change, and the two men pushed for Eliasch’s positions, key among them, the centralization of media rights that would help fund an overhaul of how FIS presents its sports and funds its athletes. 

Just one year in, the representatives of large ski nations have seemed to sour on their enthusiasm for disrupting the status quo, with those that walked out of the Congress and voted out Paine decrying the election as undemocratic. 

“An election is called that because one has a choice,” said Urs Lehmann, the head of Swiss Ski. “But that didn’t exist, that goes against our understanding of the law.” The Swiss, according to Lehmann, are considering legal action to invalidate the election.

FIS statutes stipulated that candidates who wished to run for President needed to register by March 31st. When none did, Eliasch, who was voted in last year in a competitive election, was left as the lone candidate.

“Anyone could have run against [Eliasch] 60 days ago,” said Paine. “So, if the folks who objected to the ballot were so focused on a democratic process, they should have run someone 60 days ago. Clearly, they didn’t think that they could run someone and have them win.”

Lehmann insisted that the discord with Eliasch only began to occur after March 31, when, according to Tages Anzeiger, Eliasch presented “his sometimes hair-raising plans” to National Ski Associations. “The whole thing has only escalated in the last few weeks,” said Lehmann, adding, “the time for a serious candidacy was simply too short.” 

Paine sees Lehmann’s motivations differently. “I think Urs Lehmann, who’s the head of Swiss Ski, desperately would like to be the President of this organization,” said Paine. “He lost last year and he could have filed his name and run this year, if he chose to.” Better that, Paine thought, than to “create a disruptive event at the Congress.”

The discontent directed at Eliasch and Paine over the electoral process seems disingenuous. The former FIS President, the late Gian Franco Kasper, ran unopposed throughout the course of his 23 year Presidency—and had much more to do with a plan to centralize media rights under FIS.

“I’ve been a pretty vocal advocate for centralization of media rights,” Paine said. “Every successful sports organization out there, Formula One [F1], NFL, Premier League, all have centralized rights.” 

Paine’s position has been backed by U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, who wrote that she is “pro-centralization.” The rights, she said “are valuable, and centralization can offer a significant revenue increase for countries across the board. This is a proven strategy across many successful sports globally, and by building the right structure, all of the national governing bodies under FIS can benefit.”

Under the current long-standing structure, National Ski Associations (NSAs) presumed ownership of the media rights to FIS events hosted in their countries. Nearly all nations sold the totality of these rights to Infront Sports and Media who in turn brokered deals with broadcasters around the world to air these events.

Eliasch and Paine advocated a different approach—a proposal called the FIS Concorde Agreement, in which FIS would own or distribute the rights previously controlled by the NSAs and sell them, much as Infront has done. 

The potential windfall of income to FIS by retaking control of the media rights would be substantial. “The estimate is that Infront makes somewhere between 40 and 50 million euros on their ski contracts,” said Paine. “If you could instead allocate that increased income to increase prize money for athletes, increase distributions for our members, I think those would all be really good things. We can also do things like give digital rights to athletes.” 

Currently, an athlete is unable to post videos of themselves racing due to copyright infringement. Paine suggested that if FIS owned the distribution rights, an athlete such as Jessie Diggins would have been able to post footage of her Tour de Ski win. 

“Today, athletes don’t have that opportunity,” Paine said, “but if we were to control those rights, we could do that to really help our athletes, not just to generate more revenue, but increase our appeal globally.”

According to Hannah Kearney, an athlete representative on the FIS council, “This is something that would benefit athletes, so I believe they support the centralization.” However, Kearney wrote that “athletes from different countries definitely have unique perspectives on the issue which makes it hard to make a broad claim about how all athletes feel.” 

The proceeds would also fund the improvement of viewers’ experience. “I think cross country is a great product,” said Eliasch, “but we can make the television production more attractive, so what you see on television is more exciting. That applies across the board. I mean, we’re talking about using drone technology, telemetrics packages, more cameras, stuff like Formula One does. We need a series like ‘Drive to Survive’ like F1.”

Netflix’s Drive to Survive takes viewers inside the inner workings of F1 and has helped boost interest in the motorsport. The show has been touted by Eliasch as an example of what would be possible if FIS had centralized rights. Asked if he could envision a similar series on cross country skiing, he said, “Yeah, definitely.”

While Eliasch has promoted the model of F1, Paine has looked to biathlon, which he said was “a perfect example—they’ve been wildly successful. The new biathlon leadership has done a great job with their television contracts, with sponsorship, and really grown revenues and distributions very nicely for athlete prize money.”

“It is the model we should be looking at,” Paine said chuckling. “I’ll be really direct about that.”

The basic concept is that FIS, by reinvesting the profits from the rights, would be able to improve both the media product and the competitive field by supporting coaches and athletes from underfunded nations. The more attractive media product and broader competition would draw in more viewers, and in turn, more profits. 

In theory, the Concorde Agreement would raise all National Ski Associations, through a profit sharing initiative between FIS and the event hosts, and by distributing proceeds to all NSAs.

Clearly, that is not the view of the big players in the ski world, who have viewed the rapid moves by Eliasch to remove Infront as a threat to their bottom line.  

Paine explained that the largest TV revenue contracts go to Austria and Switzerland, with Germany and Norway likely close behind. “So I think their very simple calculus is,” Paine said, “they have the most downside—not what is best for the athletes and the sport.” 

“If you’re Austria, you make €25 or €30 million a year from your TV contract,” said Paine. “That’s how you fund your athletes, and you don’t want to end up with €15 million. Now, Johan [Eliasch] would say that €25 [million] will, in fact, be €30, or €35 [million]—under a new contract [with] centralized rights. But he needs to make sure that people get comfortable with that and understand the math which seems compelling.”

The FIS President recognized the hesitancy of large ski nations, saying, “For the dominant alpine nations, this is a big change. But it is essential if we want to move forward, because today we don’t have a digital media platform. We don’t have any content. The app and the website are [both] done by the same company—which control FIS’s media and broadcast rights.” 

For FIS, the problem of Infront as a middleman goes beyond recapturing profits and platforms—the Swiss based media company has made deals that run counter to the interests of both FIS and the NSAs.

“They’ve been very clever,” Eliasch said of Infront. “They have done the centralization of FIS’s media and broadcast rights—what FIS should have done twenty years ago.”

“Historically,” said Eliasch of the existing business model, “the FIS World Cup rights have been sold outright, mostly at below fair market value with very onerous terms contributing to a loss of viewership.” 

“A good example is Scandinavia,” continued Eliasch. “FIS World Cup rights were sold to a marketing agency who in turn sold them to a web based streaming platform for more than double what they paid.”

Eliasch noted that while “this model proves exceptionally profitable for the marketing agency, the strategy behind the sale is problematic to our future. The streaming channel is a specialty channel with small viewership compared to mainstream broadcasters. Consequently, less people are able to access the product and viewership is down a staggering 40% in Norway and Sweden which is disastrous for our sport.” 

The streaming service that Eliasch was referring to is NENT, now rebranded as Viaplay, whose purchase of the rights has taken skiing events off public TV, to various degrees, in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and put them behind a paywall—an unpopular move that has suppressed viewership in a key market for cross country skiing. 

In all, the sport has lost 27% of its total audience this season, with Norway losing close to half in just two years. With Scandinavia hemorrhaging viewers, the Viaplay deal could have hardly come at a worse time: the sport is poised to lose a further third of its audience in Russia should it remain banned. All things being equal, this possibility would see cross country skiing’s viewership crater to just a third of what it was a decade ago. 

While the windfall to Infront from brokering the rights to Viaplay is purportedly worth more than €10 million a year and extends until the 2024/25 season, the sponsorship value lost in the past year—more than €22 million—suggests that the deal only made sense to the third party selling the rights.

“Future deals will be based on previous audience metrics,” said Eliasch. “Any decline in viewership is a decline in value.”

For Ski Associations there was little recourse to prevent the Viaplay deal, explained Eliasch. “The current agency rights agreements are so restrictive they prevent an NSA the ability to approve or reject distribution channels, which today is a ‘standard’ right of the IP rights holder.” 

The FIS President felt that the Viaplay deal demonstrated what happens “if you do an agreement with a complete buyout.”

By buyout, Eliasch was referring to the policy of selling the totality of the media rights, rather than, say, granting a “license for a live showing and then you [get] the rights back.”

Eliasch felt a more typical approach would be a commission based contract that grants a “license for a live showing and then you [get] the rights back.”

“That’s how it [normally] works,” said Eliasch, adding, “If you have a middleman involved, he gets a 15% commission. You get a minimum guarantee, you have controls over the distribution channels. That’s kind of how the business works today. An outright sale to an agent is not how the business is done.”

When asked how Infront had gained so much influence over FIS, Eliasch replied:

“I can’t…I can’t begin to explain that. I can only say these agreements make the Versailles Treaty look like a good treaty. But again,” added Eliasch, “we can only blame ourselves. And that is what we have to change.”

“We must evolve,” he said. “It is essential if we want to move forward. We’re not in control of our own destiny.”

Eliasch has been clear in his vision for the future of FIS, saying, “We are an FIS for all members, not just for the chosen few—we are for all disciplines, all over the world. I want to strengthen our commercial activities. I want to make sure we’re fit for purpose. I want us to expand our reach, and make us more attractive to young people.”

Paine remained steadfast in his views despite running afoul of entrenched interests at FIS, saying, “I wouldn’t do anything differently in terms of the positions we advocate for, or what we think is best for the athletes in the sport. I’m very much a person that does what I say I’m going to do.” 

The election loss was bittersweet for Paine, as he felt that much of his agenda set out in the last couple of years had been accomplished: “We were very focused on electing women to the council,” said Paine, “So we had put through the statute change that required three women [to be elected] and actually four women were elected, which I think is great for the organization.”

He listed other goals attained at this spring’s Congress such as the culmination of a ten year effort to officially change the name of FIS to include Snowboard, as well as the (likely) integration of Para sports under the FIS umbrella at the end of June. 

“On the alpine side, we doubled the number of World Cup races we have in the US, including a block in March, which is terrific. We were able to get through many of the things we’ve worked really hard on, that I think will have a really positive impact on athletes,” said Paine, adding, “So that’s exciting.”

Paine’s presence on the council will be missed by many. “I sincerely appreciate Dexter’s sense of humor and his willingness to stand up for what he believes is right,” Kearney wrote. “Dexter was an energetic, outspoken, and thoughtful Council member. He advocated for the athletes and was a wonderful mentor to me.” 

U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt wrote that “Dexter has been an incredible advocate for modernization and making the FIS more democratic throughout his time on the FIS council.” She added that his work to get smaller nations and women represented on the council “will help bring a global and more inclusive perspective to the FIS.”

While the US continues to have a vote on the council through athlete representative Hannah Kearney, her role is somewhat different from that of Paine’s. Selected by the fourteen athlete representatives, she wrote that her role is to “represent the interest of the athletes, whereas elected council members balance the interests of all stakeholders across the FIS family.” 

“I am really sad that we (the US) don’t have an elected voice,” Paine said. “Forget whether it’s me or someone else, I just think it is important to have a voice.” 

“The good news is,” said Paine, “Johan continues to call a lot. So, I think we continue to have the ear of the presidency.”

Goldschmidt noted that the US is still well represented in FIS committees and that the “[U.S. Ski & Snowboard] has some great relationships with other countries and members of FIS,” including, “new elects Deidra Dionne from Canada, Magdalena Kast of Argentina, and Fiona Stevens of New Zealand.”

“While we’re disappointed that Dexter was not reelected,” wrote Goldschmidt, she pointed out that Paine still retains influence at FIS. After his electoral loss, he was voted in as an Ex Officio Honorary Member, a title that lacks voting rights but will, according Goldschmidt, allow Paine to “participate in council meetings and encourage U.S. Ski & Snowboard-backed changes.”

“Hopefully,” Paine reflected on his eight year career on the FIS council, “it ultimately has been a real benefit to the athletes at FIS.”

The first woman cross-country skier to receive this honor was Martha Rockwell, who was inducted in 1986. Thirty-four years later, Rockwell’s teammate and a trailblazer in the sport, Alison Owen-Bradley was admitted to the Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2020.  

The list of Owen-Bradley’s accomplishments is lengthy. A brief glance at her race results highlights her prowess as an athlete, beginning around 1970 when she competed at World Championships in Czechoslovakia at the age of sixteen. Speaking to this formative experience, Owen-Bradley said, “I was so involved in sport and loved the sports that are now pretty common for girls, but there wasn’t really a place for it [yet], and so we made our own places. I got to go to the national team camp with the U.S. Ski Team and then Europe and see these women racing, and really fit, and loving their sports and it was like, yeah I want this life…

“It heightened my world view of what was possible for a young girl from Washington to pursue.” 

Owen-Bradley went on to represent the United States at two Olympics (Sapporo 1972 and Lake Placid 1980). In 1978 in Telemark, WI she won the first-ever women’s World Cup cross-country race (although FIS categorizes this race as a “test” event). At the conclusion of the 1978/79 race season, Owen-Bradley finished seventh in the FIS World Cup standings, the highest ranking for a U.S. woman for the next 33 years. The following season, she finished second in the Holmenkollen 10k in Oslo, Norway. “We had tremendous results [in that era] that I think sometimes aren’t known, or they’re overlooked,” reflected Owen-Bradley. 

But numbers on a page are only half of the story. Owen-Bradley’s contribution to skiing, particularly to women’s skiing, goes far beyond her race results. Growing up in Wenatchee, WA as a member of an active family, Owen-Bradley started nordic skiing after her father saw an ad in the paper for the local cross-country ski team. “He said, ‘Hey, let’s go try that because we love running and hiking and [other outdoor sports],’ so we started that and it was all new,” explained Owen-Bradley. Not long after, Owen-Bradley became the first girl to compete at Junior Nationals. She relayed the story of how at the pre-race meeting the organizers wouldn’t let her compete, stating that “this is a race for boys.”

A team leader from the Pacific Northwest (PNSA) delegation responded, “show me that rule.” Since that rule couldn’t be found in writing, Owen-Bradley was allowed to compete. “I raced and then, the next year, and from then on, they had a place for girls,” she explained. “It was a fun time because women weren’t racing marathons, they weren’t really allowed or incorporated into the endurance sports world, and it was just fun to watch it [explode] like popcorn, it was happening everywhere,” she said, speaking to the rise of women competing in sports. “It was really fun to be there [at Junior Nationals] as the first girl, I think I was like 13 or 14 or something and almost everything you’re doing is new in your life, so that was just one more new thing.”

Owen-Bradley’s coach at the time was Herb Thomas, and it was he who presented Owen-Bradley her medal at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Thomas came from Middlebury to start the ski program in Wenatchee which she joined. “He let me do it. You know, he encouraged me. He broke open the door for me to do it,” said Owen-Bradley. In the years that followed, there were other men who played an integral role in Owen-Bradley’s success.

“At the beginning, for me, not having a lot of opportunity in sport, I can say that the opportunities I did have came from men,” she explained. “There were no women breaking trail for me, you know, I didn’t have them as coaches, I didn’t have women cheering me on.” 

In particular, Owen-Bradley singled out Marty Hall in her acceptance speech, saying he was perhaps the most important person to thank in regards to her success. She shared an example of how when they traveled to Europe to compete, the first U.S. women’s national team coach was given the runaround by the European coaches with wrong addresses, no translator, and the more. It soon became clear that something needed to change and so Hall headed to Europe to take over. “He really made a place for us,” Owen-Bradley explained, “They didn’t hire him in the first place, because he was a bit strong and maybe not sensitive and everything, but he was strong in the coaches meetings. He read the rule books, he knew what was going on, legally, and he made them speak English.”

At a time when women’s racing was just being established this was more important than ever. “He kept a place for us,” said Owen-Bradley, “that we had a possibility to get good and we weren’t on the sidelines, we were right in the middle of it all, he knew what was going on and he made a place for us on the world stage.”

For his part, Hall corroborated this story and added, “my athletes meant everything to me. I would fight to the death for them.” When asked about Owen-Bradley specifically, Hall described her as “a woman before her time.” He said that she “had all the components.”

“Some of the things that she got pushed into or taken to go way beyond when she should have been ready, but it didn’t bother her,” he reflected. “She didn’t crack, never had any problems doing what she was supposed to do.” Hall shared that it is great to coach an athlete like this. “She understands movement real well, she was good at anything she did as an athlete,” he said. 

When asked about important elements in the progress of women’s skiing, Owen-Bradley responded, “I really appreciate the men who said ‘no, come on women do this. It’s really fun. There’s no reason women can’t do this stuff.’” She emphasized the important role these men played saying,  “I really appreciate the men in my life, who opened the door, kept them open, kept the naysayers away- and then as things have evolved and grown, obviously, naturally, women are taking more of a role in allowance in helping other girls and women do that.” She went on to say, “and that’s awesome. That’s, you know, the natural progression, and I love to see that. And that’s why, with US NOW, the Olympic women’s group, taking initiative, giving awards, leading the way for other women and showing that we are a leader in sport and with each other. So that’s the natural evolution of it that I see.”

In her acceptance speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony, Owen-Bradley reflected on how much progress there has been in women’s skiing since she first began saying, “where are we going to be in another 50 years?…[it’s] so exciting to think of the barriers we break.” Particularly in light of the recent Olympic results from the U.S. women’s team, Owen- Bradley said, “even now, it makes me so teary eyed, to think about that in in one lifetime, my lifetime, to go from girls not having sports, not having a place, to being a shining star on the world stage of a sport that that was there was no place for girls. It’s so fulfilling.” She gave a shout-out to Kikkan Randall as well, saying, “and the icing on the cake of that was Kikkan doing the absolute best coverage, covering her teammates… She brought so much understanding and furthered everyone’s knowledge.” 

Having witnessed the sport achieve these major milestones, Owen-Bradley pondered the future of cross-country skiing, “You know, it just feels like my life journey of being in sport, and being in cross-country especially, where will we be in the next year? That’s for this generation to lead now. And where are we going and what’s next for the women, but also the men, of our nordic community and sports community?”

She continued by saying:

“It’s not an easy road ever, but you know, that’s why we’re in it because we challenge ourselves and if we didn’t want challenge, we wouldn’t be in sport. And what you do is you come up against your weaknesses and you figure out how to get through them or you don’t get better… I mean, that’s the cool thing about sport is you test yourself and then you get better.” 

When asked what it means to both her and to the cross-country sport community, to receive recognition for her achievements and to be the second female cross-country skier inducted to the Hall of Fame, Owen-Bradley replied, “Well, it is interesting that I’m getting the recognition now.” She explained that they give the award for different categories and said, “maybe part of the recognition comes from, you know, a lifetime involvement in skiing. I think maybe I cross over a little bit, you know, my life has been very influenced by and I participate in a lot of ways in cross-country skiing.” She continued by saying, “I think it’s important because it shows where we’ve been, and hopefully, where we’re going. So, it’s fun to get the award.” Owen-Bradley acknowledged that her “life has moved on.”

Though skiing still occupies much of her time, “I’m focused on a lot of things,” she explained, “ I didn’t wait for [the award] to happen to make my life good or anything. I’m doing a lot of really great things that I enjoy.” 

These days, Owen-Bradley can be found near Boise, Idaho on a small farm she calls her “sanctuary”. Still quite active, she is an engaged participant in a program called, Starting Strength. “It’s a weightlifting program that I have found a lot of benefits for myself,” she explained. Additionally, Owen-Bradley is very involved with her family; she has three grandkids and a daughter who coaches skiing in Bozeman, Montana. “It’s really fun to have that continuity,” she said, referring to generations of skiing families. “I think it really helps to have grown up in it, and [to have] parents that know about it and can pass it on and build it generation to generation.” 

Speaking more broadly to the growth of a cross-country ski community and culture in the U.S., Owen-Bradley emphasized the importance of recognizing the contributions of those who have encouraged and shaped this growth. “There’s a lot of people that have [put] their life-force energy on building the ski culture in our country, and that’s why I like to see more awards given.” She explained that she is working on nominating another woman for the Hall of Fame to “shine the light that the women’s lives have been growing the sport and yet [we] only have two women in the Hall of Fame after sixty years.” Given the numerous different categories that you can be nominated for, Owen-Bradley has a list of ideas and possibilities.

“There’s a lot of women that deserve a lot of credit for where the women’s program is now. Men too, but I’m focused on the women.” 

To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed to development, progress, and growth for these athletes last season. In this installment, we talk to Sammy Smith about her participation and success in numerous sports, the charity she and her siblings founded during COVID, and her nomination to the U.S. Ski Team D-Team. 

At Junior World Championships in Lygna Norway this past February, Smith finished 5th in the skate sprint and 11th in the 15k skate. She also finished 10th in the skate sprint at Senior Nationals in Soldier Hollow in January 2022 racing amongst the senior women’s field. 

Not only is Smith a successful cross-country skier, but she has also achieved impressive results in running, soccer and freestyle skiing. During her freshman year of high school Smith won the 1,600 and 3,200 meter events at the Class 5A Idaho state meet, leading her to be a finalist for the USA TODAY High School Sports Awards. 

Ella Hall/FasterSkier: You’re sixteen, does that mean you’re a junior in high school?

Sammy Smith: I actually just finished my Sophomore year of high school (our school got out last week), so I will be a junior in the fall.

FS: And do you live part of the year in Boise and spend the winters in Sun Valley?

SS: Yes, I live in Boise for the fall, spring, and summer. Although during the summer I am often gone a lot, and we frequently go up to Sun Valley. I go to Boise High School for the fall and spring, then I move to Sun Valley for skiing for the winters and while I’m there, I go to the (Sun Valley) Community School.

FS: From what I’ve gathered you’re involved in quite a lot of sports, can you tell me which sports you competed in this year?

SS: Currently I cross-country ski, play soccer, run track and cross-country, and freestyle ski. This year, I competed in all of the above, except freestyle skiing. Unfortunately, I sustained an injury in the late fall that prohibited me from jumping so I was unable to compete in freestyle. My track season was also cut short because of an injury but I’m healthy now.

Soccer and nordic are definitely my two primary sports. For soccer, I am actually in the US U17 Women’s Youth National Team training pool. I was selected as an alternate for the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) tournament this spring. That meant I only participated in the pre-camp, then returned home prior to the tournament kicking off. I aspire to compete for the full US Women’s National Team (WNT) one day, and hopefully will have the opportunity to represent my country in two different sports.

FS: How and when did you start nordic skiing?

SS: I initially got involved in nordic skiing because of my older sister. When I was five, my parents had signed my sister up for SVSEF’s devo program, and naturally I wanted to do everything she was doing, so I began to pick up the sport as well.

FS: I read that you and your siblings started a charity during the pandemic, can you tell me a little about that?

SS: My siblings and I founded GO BIG, a 501 (c3) certified charity, during the spring of 2020. GO BIG stands for Giving Opportunity By Inspiring Gratitude. Through the charity we aim to make a positive impact on less privileged youth in our area. We have been so fortunate to grow up the way we have, we want to help those who haven’t. We work to provide these kids with mentorship, as well as resources to help them – like books and other educational tools, and sporting equipment. 

Our goal is to inspire a sense of gratitude in these youth because science has shown that those who experience a sense of gratitude are more likely to feel good about themselves and pass that feeling along to others, thus helping spread good through the community and beyond.

FS: You had some pretty exciting results at World Juniors in Lygna Norway this winter, can you talk a bit about the contributing factors/support system that helped you achieve those results?

SS: I owe a huge thank you to my coaches in Sun Valley, especially Rick Kapala, because he and I made a really thorough and thoughtful training plan going into the Championships. I think having such a detailed plan allowed me to come in more prepared, and in better form than I could have imagined. 

I was fortunate enough to have Paul Smith as my wax tech who worked a lot with me on ski selection, and taught me what to look for in a pair of skis throughout the season, and how to decide between them when it seems like the glide is comparable. 

Going into World Juniors, I had a lot of new skis from Salomon, and I didn’t really know a lot about them, but fortunately Paul was incredibly helpful. I relied on him heavily to help me test and decide how to organize my fleet before I left. And once we were in Norway, he made sure I was testing the appropriate skis, and helped me choose which pair I was racing on each day. I’m incredibly grateful for Paul’s help, and the support from Salomon. 

In addition, the U.S. Ski Team support system was unlike anything I had ever been part of before. Our pre-camp was designed perfectly to help us peak for our races, and once we arrived in Lygna, we had access to even more resources. It truly was a trip designed to help young skiers have the best races of their lives.

FS: What excites you most about being named to the U.S. Ski Team?

SS: I’m most excited about the incredible opportunities that come with being named to the U.S. Ski Team. Being able to train with the best skiers in the country, and some of the best in the world, is an unparalleled opportunity for growth and development. I think when you are put in an environment where you are surrounded by people who share a common passion and common goals, naturally you improve. I can already feel the great sense of community and support from the more experienced skiers and it makes me so excited to train and race alongside them in the future. 

I also think the U.S. Ski Team has invaluable resources and tools to help all the athletes become the best version of themselves, and I love to compete and am always looking to improve, so that’s really exciting to me.

FS: What are some of your goals for the upcoming season?

SS:  I was really fortunate to have some great results at last year’s World Juniors, and I want to continue to build off of that for next season. So, my primary goal for the season is to finish top three at World Juniors.

FS: ​​Will you be able to join any upcoming USST camps this summer/fall or will you be primarily focused on your other sports until winter rolls around?

SS: It is certainly a priority of mine to get to some of the upcoming camps, but it’s always a balance, so right now I’m trying to figure out scheduling for both soccer and skiing.

Perhaps highlighting this transition and the sharing of responsibilities the two are in the process of navigating, FasterSkier connected with Thomas in mid-May while he was in his second week of supporting the SMS T2 athletes who had joined the U.S. Ski Team for their spring training camp in Bend, OR, and with O’Brien who was back in Stratton, having recently wrapped up with his participation in U.S. Ski & Snowboard spring congress sessions. 

A 2006 graduate of SMS himself, O’Brien raced collegiately for Dartmouth College, then spent four years training and racing professionally with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project. His move from Craftsbury back to Stratton was timed with his retirement following the 2014 Sochi Olympic Quad. Given his age and the proximity to his racing career at that time, many of the athletes on the T2 team were among what he called his “peer group”, having overlapped with many of them during either high school, college, on the race course, or all of the above. Jessie Diggins and Sophie Caldwell Hamilton were quickly becoming rising World Cup stars on the women’s team, while Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton headlined the men’s roster, and a young Julia Kern and Katharine Ogden were spending a PG year training with the T2 team.

Eager to stay connected with the sport after retirement, O’Brien seized the opportunity to take over in Stratton, stepping in as his predecessor Gus Kaeding departed.

“Ski coaching is the one thing that I’ve always known that I wanted to do, it was just kind of a natural progression for me. I knew that I was done with my athletic career – I didn’t really want to ski race anymore – but I knew that I still wanted to ski, I still wanted to be involved and to give back to the sport. I felt like, to some extent, when you spend basically your entire life skiing, you get pretty good at understanding the sport. But we never know as much as we think we do, and we always need to be students of the sport and have an open mind and learn.”

As he began his coaching career, he quickly realized that writing training plans and facilitating training was only a small subset of the responsibilities of an elite club coach.  

“Good coaching is being comfortable wearing a bunch of different hats. And I mean, I joke, but the actual coaching is such a small part of it. The nitty gritty of pulling an athlete on the side of the trail and looking at video and all of that is important, but you’re there as a friend, a drill sergeant at times, and as someone that is just really trying to be supportive.

“And that’s all-encompassing. So for me, it has been a pretty fun experience to see people figure stuff out and be there to support them when they needed a little extra help and to do it in a pretty collaborative, dynamic way.”

He described his experience transitioning to coaching primarily as a mindset shift from the inevitable self-centric focus required of professional athletes toward selflessness; but the work required and pace of life remained equally taxing. 

“When you coach at a club level – all coaching is a demanding job. I do think that you have to – I don’t want to use the word ‘sacrifice’, but when you transition from being an athlete yourself to being a coach, your job as an athlete is to be a little selfish. You’re trying to maximize your athletic performance. You need to have balance… but at the end of the day, you need to make sure that you’re training well and with purpose, you’re recovering well, you have goals and you’re going about achieving them. It shouldn’t be simply looked at as like what you have to give up to do that, but to be the most professional athletes and succeed against people who are trying to do the exact same thing, you just have to do a really, really good job with it. And coaching is the same thing. You have to be willing to approach everything that you do with the same degree of drive and focus that you would as an athlete…

“Basically, I just threw myself into it with the same approach that I had as an athlete which is, I’m just going to work, and work, and work, and learn all along the way. And then give it my best push and know that if I get to the point where that balance starts becoming harder and harder, or I can’t really do the job that I want, to be supportive of the athletes [to the level I want to be], that’s when you’ve got to know that you either double down and keep pushing or make a transition.”

While O’Brien is no less dedicated to the SMS T2 program or its athletes, a new endeavor has begun which will make achieving the balance he described significantly harder: he’s about to become a father. His wife, two-time Olympian and long-time U.S. Ski Team member Ida Sargent, is due in mid-August.

Since retirement, Sargent has been working for her high school alma mater, Burke Mountain Academy, in Northern Vermont, and is currently the Academic Director for the school while also teaching STEM classes. O’Brien has been splitting his time between Burke and Stratton, which lies roughly 150 miles southeast in the opposite corner of the state. His usual coaching schedule pulled him around the country for weeks at a time to support athletes at U.S. Nationals and SuperTour events, and sometimes around the globe for World Cup, U23s, and other international camps and races. 

While he acknowledged that there are many examples of coaches at all levels who have successfully juggled a demanding work and travel schedule with raising a family, what felt like the best fit given his and Ida’s vision and priorities for their own growing family was for O’Brien to decrease his level of responsibility with the T2 program, allowing greater flexibility and more time at home. 

“I just felt like there’s part of me that was like, ‘I’m not seeing a pathway that I feel like I can still commit [to coaching] at the level that I want and know that you need to in order to to do the best job with your job, while simultaneously trying to start a family.’ I felt like it was my time to reevaluate and maybe step back or be completely done with ski coaching, because I certainly didn’t want Ida to have to put her growing career on hold to be the [primary] caregiver…

“Eight years is a long time to do something and I am very proud of what the team has accomplished in that time… it’s really cool having spent this time seeing athletes grow, not just not just athletically and within their their ski careers, but as individuals from high schoolers to finishing up college to full blown ‘this is my job.’”

While his role will be smaller, O’Brien is certainly not stepping away from the T2 team altogether. “Starting a family does not necessarily mean that it means the end of being involved in the sport,” he said. “It just means trying to figure out what the right relationship is with it.” 

The exact balance and distribution of responsibilities remains a work in progress as Thomas moves into the head coach role and the new season of training begins, and both O’Brien and Thomas are excited to collaborate and support one another throughout the year. 

Explaining his philosophy as “under-commit so I can open perform”, O’Brien anticipates taking on many of the behind the scenes tasks that support the team, from collaboratively blocking out the season calendar, to managing travel logistics for camps and SuperTour races. As he put it, the little details of deciding “which flights to take to get from Canmore to Sun Valley” and where to stay are often made easier with several years of trial and error under your belt. 

While Thomas will spend more time with ski boots on the ground, both in Stratton during the summer and at races and camps throughout the year, O’Brien anticipates he’ll still be plugging in a fair amount too. Though his stay might be shortened to the period immediately surrounding races, he plans, at minimum, to be in Houghton, MI for U.S. Nationals in January, and also the SuperTour finals in Craftsbury in late March.

He’s also excited to reconnect with the team in Stratton early in the summer before Ida gets close to her due date, but also to take off a few of his usual coaching hats while doing so. 

“I think it’ll be really fun for me to actually be able to flow in and out get to see people, connect with them, but also not be like ‘Okay, now I don’t have to worry about making sure that the van’s filled up with gas, or water jugs have been filled, or that I’ve ordered all the lactate strips in advance so that we don’t run out.’”

As Thomas gets his feet under him in Stratton, he explained that he feels “very fortunate that Pat will still be involved.”

“As much as I can have him in the mix, the better,” Thomas said. “His knowledge with skis and wax is just unreal, so tapping into that resource is huge for me, for sure.” 

***

Prior to joining the UVM program, Thomas spent five years as the assistant coach at the University of Vermont, working alongside head coach Patrick Weaver. During his own collegiate racing career, Thomas spent four years racing for the University of New Hampshire, where he served as team captain during his senior year in ‘12-13. Departing briefly from the cross-country ski world, he spent a year teaching high school science to underprivileged youth in the Oakland area of California, before returning to the Northeast to begin his coaching career as the assistant coach at Williams College in Massachusetts. 

“Working at UVM was unreal – a great experience,” Thomas said emphatically. “I really loved working with Patrick Weaver and the athletes there and it seems like almost a seamless transition, in many ways. Four of the skiers on the T2 team I actually coached at UVM. So knowing a lot of athletes here already – what they’re working on with technique, and racing, and goals and all that – has been very seamless, and that’s been great.”

The UVM graduates who now ski for SMS T2 include Alayna Sonnesyn (‘18), Bill Harmeyer (‘20), Lina Sutro (‘21), and Ben Ogden (‘22). 

Given the caliber of these athletes and the success of the UVM team as a whole during his tenure, Thomas credits his time with the program to the acceleration of his development as a coach, preparing him to take his next steps forward with SMS T2.

“Patrick Weaver definitely gave me a lot of opportunities and ownership over different facets of coaching that team and I think that’s been instrumental in me being here now with T2. I was able to go to World Cup Finals with Ben Ogden in Quebec his first year in school [in 2019], and I was just able to do trips like that on my own with athletes. That was huge for my development as a coach and for my experience of waxing, ski testing, and [other responsibilities at that level of racing]. So working at UVM was a lot of fun – I’m gonna miss it for sure – but it set me up very well for this transition.” 

A theme of both Thomas and O’Brien’s comments on the difference between collegiate and elite club coaching is small in terms of the training and technique coaching itself, but vastly different in terms of the opportunities elite club coaches have to support their athletes. 

“I think the big differences are what we can and can’t do throughout the year from collegiate [racing] to the elite team,” Thomas explained. “Like, I wouldn’t be here [in Bend] and been doing an on-snow training camp if I were at a college team. And obviously the racing schedule is super different.

“The college schedule is pretty efficient, whereas the SuperTour calendar is quite a bit more spread out. And then, in addition to that, you have an athlete’s like Jesse Diggins, and Ben Ogden, and Julia Kern that are going to be on the World Cup, as well as athletes that are trying to make it to the World Cup. And at UVM, we had crazy talented athletes – Ben Ogden is one of them – so working with with high caliber athletes is nothing entirely new, but dealing with athletes where some are on the World Cup and some of them on the SuperTour is an interesting dynamic that you don’t often get with the college teams.”

In terms of what Thomas adds to the program as he steps in as head coach, he described his coaching philosophy and the environment he seeks to create within the training group, which keeps athletes motivated and happy through the arduous and long-term development process.

“[Cross-country] skiing is such a hard sport – it’s so much time that that we’re putting in, and so many sacrifices that we’re making, that I wholeheartedly believe in making that time that we’re together training and working hard fun and enjoyable,” Thomas said. “I think that’s a big part of what we do –  and it has to be a big part of what we do –  because like I said, it’s a hard sport. So I think making things light and having fun with all that is super important. And that’s definitely something I bring to the table in that regard.”

But Thomas will add more than just fun to the T2 program. While he may be, as phrased by his new colleague, “almost too humble”, O’Brien was quick to highlight Thomas’s preparedness to prescribe training, coach technique, and otherwise lead an elite team stacked with some of the nation’s best athletes. 

“If you have been at a D1 college program where you’re dealing with 15-20 athletes and that dynamic environment where student athletes are constantly balancing all these different commitments and time constraints… And really, what you learn there as an athlete and what you learn there as a coach is that working with a club – it just isn’t that different.”

O’Brien added that the shift to an elite club from college may, in fact, be easier than going in the other direction. When athletes no longer have to miss key workouts to take an exam or rush off to class halfway through a team meeting, barriers to consistent communication and training are removed, and consequently a coach has a greater capacity to build relationships with the athletes as they stack together the bricks of the training program. 

“You get an opportunity to really work one-on-one with the athletes and to really be there to facilitate and support their training and their racing. In that sense, I think coming from a college background – especially given his ties with many of the current athletes that are on the team – you’re just working with the same people and you’re doing the same stuff.

“I mean, there’s no magic formula,” O’Brien continued. “Someone can claim that they can write the best training plan in the world. And that’s all fine and dandy – there are definitely people who do an amazing job with it and they really enjoy that aspect of that aspect of the sport. But at the end of the day, it’s just really just working with people. You don’t need to make it more complicated than it is. The best athlete is not a robot. The best athlete is someone that is self aware, that can think critically, learn from mistakes, recognize when things go well, and the coach is there to support them along the way.”

Thomas identified building upon his relationships and experience with his former athletes, who account for half of the team’s eight athletes, as something he’s looking forward to in joining T2. 

“I am very appreciative of the continuity and being able to work with some athletes I’ve worked with in the past,” said Thomas. “I love all of them –  they’re incredible people, incredibly hard workers. So to be able to continue working with them is just awesome. With that, too, it’s like – I have been working with Ben for the last four years, I worked with Lina Sutro for four years, I worked with Alayna for a little bit. It’s just a matter of knowing how they operate and how they train and knowing what they’ve been working on too. It’s easy for me in training, [even] this morning, to see some of them and be like, ‘okay, like this is something we’ve been working on for the last however many years’ or maybe, ‘a couple years ago, this was something we’re working on’. So let’s continue this, let’s continue these cues that we’re working on, and have that continuity there. 

“It’s been awesome to be able to continue that work with them. It’s nice to see the progress – to see what they were doing in college a few years ago, and then to see where they are now, and then also to be able to help them through the transition to professional skiing.”

Simultaneously, these UVM-T2 athletes are excited to be working with their former UVM coach again. In an email to FasterSkier, Alayna Sonnesyn reflected on her time as a professional skier guided by O’Brien, while crediting Thomas’s contributions at UVM for her reaching the professional level in the first place. 

“Stepping into the professional ski world four years ago and onto the SMS T2 team was super intimidating to me,” wrote Sonnesyn. “The team has been home to some of the fastest skiers in the world and I was clueless when it came to racing at that high of a level. Pat O’Brien helped steer me in the right direction as I made this adjustment and took huge jumps in my skiing ability. He taught me when to train for fun and when it was time to buckle down and get serious. When Pat says it’s go time, you go! He helped develop me from a reasonable distance skier to a strong and powerful distance AND sprinter, a trait I never thought I would be capable of. Pat’s knowledge of the sport and ski waxing, as well as the mental and emotional obstacles that come along with it, is unparalleled. He was a coach that believed in me as a junior skier and saw potential. The only thing that can make a good ski race even better is when Pat gives you a proud hug at the finish line. Although I will miss these hugs and his direct coaching, I know that he will use these skills to care for his growing family and I am excited to see where life takes him next.

“Back when Pat was just seeing the potential in my college skiing, I was working with Perry Thomas when he was the assistant coach at UVM. I feel like my athletic career has come full circle as I get to transition back to a coach who helped put me in a place where I first believed skiing professionally was an option. Although I only had the pleasure of working with Perry for one year at UVM, it was a very special season! I instantly trusted him with my skis and could feel his enthusiasm for the sport radiate on the ski trails. I’ve witnessed just how hard Perry has worked over the years and how well-prepared he is to take over the position as head coach of the SMS team. Just in the first month of working with Perry again, I already know the team is heading down a path to continue its mission; local inspiration, international excellence.”

Likewise, Lina Sutro shared she is looking forward to the transition, applauding Thomas’s dedication to his athletes.

“I am truly so excited to be working with Perry again,” she wrote. “He is one of the most hard working and committed coaches I have worked with. He has a strong work ethic that I am excited for the Stratton community to experience. Pat and Perry both give so much back to the ski community and their athletes, I am excited to see the two of them work together.”

As for the broader questions of “what’s new?” and “what lies ahead for the SMS T2 team this summer?” Following Katharine Ogden’s retirement in March, Lauren Jortberg will join the team as the fifth athlete on the women’s side – five and five is what the team identifies as the sweet spot for numbers. Jortberg joins Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, Alayna Sonnesyn, and Lina Sutro. The men’s team is light this season, as Ian Torchia moved on this spring also, leaving behind a three-man roster of Bill Harmeyer, Will Koch (who also competes for University of Colorado), and Ben Ogden. 

After Bend camp, the team will part ways with many attending “a big event in the Midwest” which happened over Memorial Day Weekend. The SMS T2 team will finally reconvene as a whole in Stratton in early June. Though regional and international camps are planned, particularly for athletes named to the national team, Thomas anticipates ample quality training based in Vermont and the surrounding region.

“We’ll be in the Stratton area for the majority of this summer,” he explained. “I think one of the cool things that we’re doing is: Sverre, and Pat and I have started working on doing a summer [training] program, so we have some awesome athletes joining our crew this summer.”

This list includes University of Utah and U.S. Ski Team skiers Sydney Palmer-Leger, Novie McCabe, and former SMS junior athletes Adam Witowski and Zander Martin, who now ski for Michigan Tech and Bates College, respectively. JC Schoonmaker and Gus Schumacher also plan to join the T2 team for some training in Vermont throughout the summer. 

“So a really stacked crew, for sure,” said Thomas. “It’s gonna be a really exciting summer to say the least.”

Part 1 of this story details Eliška’s experience coaching through pregnancy and the birth of her son. Keep reading to learn about the challenges she, like many women, experienced during the postpartum recovery process, and what it took to navigate year one of life on the road with baby Viggo.

Expectation versus reality. 

When preparing to interview Eliška Albrigtsen about her experience pairing NCAA coaching with new motherhood, I expected the challenges she faced during her transition to primarily be focused on the balancing act of managing a demanding job with frequent travel and a new baby. Maybe a few relatable stories of airport meltdowns, sleepless nights in hotels while on the road with the team, and inopportune timing of diaper blowouts. Or any number of other ways societal systems in the US seem to be structured in opposition to new moms in the workplace.  

But Eliška’s passion for her job and dedication to her athletes were abundantly clear throughout the conversation; coaching is where she thrived. Her grit and energy allowed her to problem solve bringing baby Viggo on the road with the team – perhaps paired with the added fortune of a husband whose skill set includes waxing and ski testing and a well placed mother-in-law eager to help care for her grandson. And the team embraced its new member without hesitation.

In reality, the biggest challenges Eliška faced in returning to coaching postpartum were connected to the physiological impacts pregnancy and delivery had on her body. In short, it was a discussion on the shortcomings of our healthcare system and the myriad of ways the current standard of postpartum care falls short of what many women require to restore their body to full function.

Her story highlights a few key takeaways for programs looking to support women coaches surrounding pregnancy; in particular, there’s much more to the return to coaching than navigating who will care for your child while you’re out training with athletes and traveling to races. Respecting the timeline of a slow return, and perhaps offsetting the costs of postpartum physical therapy, may be an essential component of an improved and holistic support system.  

Postpartum Recovery

A theme of Eliška’s narrative of her perinatal experience was the ways in which her “athlete mindset” served and hindered her ability to roll with the punches. 

While women like Kikkan Randall, Marit Bjørgen, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen paved the way for women looking to begin their family before retiring from professional skiing in many ways, Eliška said that the ease with which they outwardly seemed to rebound beyond their previous levels of fitness was, in some ways, a disservice to women like herself who did not experience as smooth a return. In her mind, she had expected a comparable experience given her athleticism and good health, but quickly learned that women might be better served using caution when extrapolating from outliers. 

“You see these professional skiers having babies and then coming back and winning gold medals at [the] Olympics,” she said. “And you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s gonna be me.’ But no one really sees the giant support team they have behind them.

“They have professional doctors, physical therapists, and strength and conditioning [specialists] to go through their pregnancy with them, monitoring everything, having them at the birth, and then jumping right into the recovery. As a coach, you don’t get that. You probably have the same amount of on-ski hours as professional skiers – not the same quality of course, but you can’t do your job without being there. So I think that’s how most of our ski community sees pregnancy – so easy and you are an even better athlete afterwards, because all these women did it…

“For me, it was the opposite. It was hell. I can’t wear the clothes that I wore when I was pregnant because I have extreme PTSD from that… it was such a, not just physically but painfully, impacting experience.” 

Though expectation and reality could not have been more different, her drive to recover from the injuries sustained from pregnancy and birth, and the creativity required to adapt during the recovery process, mirrored her general approach as an athlete more broadly. 

“I think the athlete mindset in me was, ‘Okay, I had this baby. Now I put myself through physical therapy, and I’m gonna recover’… Just like after having a shoulder dislocation or having a torn iliopsoas, all those pretty crazy injuries – I knew that eventually you get better, and you get back to yourself.”

What Eliška identified as the biggest physical challenge she faced after the birth of her son was the repair of a condition called diastasis recti (DR), which is a separation and consequential loss of function and strength of the rectus abdominis muscles. 

During pregnancy, as a woman’s belly expands to accommodate the growing baby, the muscles of the abdomen are forced to stretch. The deeper muscle layers, known as the transverse abdominis, are structured like a corset wrapping around the belly, giving them a greater capacity to expand. However, the rectus abdominis muscles, better known as the “six pack” muscles, run vertically while connected by fascia, and have significantly less ability to adapt to the expansion. 

Instead, the outward pressure and growth of the belly causes the rectus abdominis muscles to separate, thinning and weakening the fascia as it stretches, or in extreme cases, tearing it.

“When I was the most pregnant, my six pack was under my armpits.” 

This connective tissue cannot simply snap back to its original state after delivery. As fascia lacks the blood flow of muscle tissue, it is slow to heal, leaving many women with a gap between muscles known as a diastasis. All women experience some amount of ab separation during pregnancy, but if the gap of two or more finger widths between the muscles persists postpartum, she is diagnosed with DR. 

Because of the combination of her stature, a short torso, and the size of her baby, Eliška found herself with an extreme separation. 

“Basically, you could stick your whole fist into my stomach. That was the biggest problem for me because I basically lost my core. And my core was a big part of me as an athlete – not just as a skier, but as an athlete. So that was really hard.” 

As she hopes for a second child down the road, any surgical repair options were contraindicated, and instead, Eliška dedicated herself to a physical therapy regimen. She felt lucky to have access to a Fairbanks-based Osteopathic medicine expert, Dr. Todd Capistrant, who specializes in the Fascial Distortion Model and was therefore primed to help Eliška improve her diastasis. 

“I saw him basically on a weekly basis.”

She also met regularly with a pelvic floor physical therapist, both to work on the diastasis, and to restore appropriate function to the muscles of her pelvic floor. Her PT identified that her pelvic floor was hypertonic, meaning the muscles carried tension chronically, rather than contracting and relaxing in functional patterns. Like holding a flexed arm hang and then being asked to knock out a set of chin-ups, this chronic low-level tension leads to fatigue in the pelvic floor muscles, preventing them from outputting the strength and tension required to support the organs sitting inside the pelvic girdle and interact appropriately with surrounding musculature when recruited during activity.

With the guidance of the PT and a set of progressive exercises to relax and engage her muscles appropriately, Eliška saw progress, but it took time for her muscles to function in coordination subconsciously.

“It took me probably around eight months to incorporate the mental [and neuromuscular] connections back. I was able to [engage the muscles] when I wanted to, but all the muscles of the pelvic floor, everything that’s sitting in the pelvis, they were not working with the rest of my body.”

She expressed feeling lucky to have access to high level care in Fairbanks, including her therapist who could incorporate a variety of techniques to help her recover, including deep tissue massage, cupping, electrical muscle stimulation, and biofeedback.

“I think biofeedback for athletes just works the best. Because we’re such strong willed people. Like, if we see it happening, we can really focus on making it happen more.” 

An unexpected benefit of time and resources being placed into learning how to strengthen and reintegrate her deeper core musculature trickled down to her athletes. She recognized that several of her athletes, who had complained of back pain surrounding core workouts, were not sufficiently engaging their transverse abdominis muscles, instead relying too heavily on the outer rectus abdominis or other smaller core muscles. Teaching the techniques she learned through PT helped improve the form of her athletes, relieving the back pain they had experienced previously. 

“It definitely deepened my understanding of how the core should work, and how we use it when we ski.”

As she navigated her own challenges, she became aware through talking with friends of how common these experiences are amongst mothers. Describing herself as “someone who says everything”, she felt it was important to both be open regarding the challenges she’s faced, and the resources and options available for women to make progress toward recovery, rather than accept the conditions as permanent. 

Most women only receive one postpartum checkup, approximately six weeks after delivery. As my own pelvic floor PT described it, these visits typically only check to see that the tissues have healed and that there are no visible pelvic organ prolapses, but most midwives and OB/GYN practitioners do not have the depth of knowledge to assess muscle function, hence the need for an evaluation from a pelvic floor PT. However, quality pelvic floor physical therapy is not universally available, and as it is not always covered by insurance, making it cost-prohibitive for many women to continue care long enough to make sufficient progress.  

“I think the most tragic experience post-pregnancy that I had was the realization that women are left being damaged from bringing life to the world.”

As she discussed her own experience with the women in her community, in turn, many of them shared that they continued to suffer from the impacts of ab separation or pelvic floor dysfunction from pregnancies, including friends who were more than ten years postpartum. Some of these women had given up activities they had enjoyed previously, like running, because they felt as though they were “spilling their guts” out of their bellies due to a lack of core function. 

“How is this okay for women to live this way? That was just mind blowing to me.”

Imparting the knowledge she gained in the process, and advocating for women to find their own ways to make it work, she offered up suggestions.

“I was just like, ‘Hey, if you can’t go to physical therapy, this is how you tape your belly, so at least you can start hiking fast.”

At roughly 13 months postpartum at the time of the call, Eliška recognized the improvements she’s made, while still acknowledging she has not fully recovered. 

“It’s [been] more than a year, and I feel functional. I still have pains and I would not go and enter a race, because my brain can push much harder than my body can, so I know I would hurt myself. But I’m so much better than most of my friends that, you know, [had to] just give it up…”

As she worked with athletes through the fall and winter, Eliška found ways to adapt her ski technique to avoid putting unnecessary strain on the musculature she was working to rehab, and work instead with the muscles that already had the necessary strength. In particular, she needed to change her doublepole technique.

By returning to the older style of doublepoling, which involved less of a crunch through the abdomen than modern technique, instead increasing the bend at the waist and relying more heavily on the arm and shoulder muscles. 

“I don’t have the strength there anymore [to crunch]. My muscles are two three packs, they’re not connected. So I go into doublepole and I tighten my  lower belly, but then I pull my butt up kind of like into downward dog instead, and work with my arms again.”

Another lingering problem she has experienced is a result of the endocrinological changes experienced surrounding pregnancy. To allow the body to grow during pregnancy and a widening of the hips for delivery, the body releases an aptly-named hormone called relaxin, which acts on cartilage and other soft tissues to allow expansion and increased joint mobility to occur. The production of relaxin typically declines after delivery, but remains higher than normal for the duration of breastfeeding.

While beneficial for pregnancy, it also puts perinatal women at a higher risk of joint instability and consequently injury. 

Eliška shared that she seems to produce an above average amount of relaxin, which has continued to affect her postpartum as a nursing mom. She experienced joint pain, particularly in her pubic symphysis joint at the front of the pelvis, with unexpected movements – like slipping on ice or mud. “And it’s always slippery here. Like 10 months out of the year.”

“On skis, I don’t have a problem. Because everything’s gliding and I already have the natural anticipation of gliding. But walking and slipping – I try to catch myself and my muscles, my joints, my tendons are just too loose.” 

Reflecting on her journey through the first year postpartum, the lack of care available to most women remained at the forefront of her mind. The impact of these types of conditions, which linger if left untreated, affects more than just the level of activity a woman can enjoy. As those who have experienced it (waves hand) can attest, the emotional toll affects quality of life more broadly. 

“I would absolutely fight for every woman to be able to have a year of free PT [after pregnancy]. You just need your life back.”

Life on the Road

There’s a commonly used phrase when it comes to raising children: “It takes a village.” This resonated as Eliška shared insights into what support was necessary to allow baby Viggo to travel with the team through the competition season.

While children under two-years-old are typically able to fly for free on their parents’ laps, the travel of the person who would care for Viggo while Eliška was working is not. Fortunately, her husband Tobias was already incorporated as a volunteer assistant coach, and had both the skillset and the NCAA certifications to play a variety of roles during travel, which also got him on the payroll to offset travel costs.

“I’m lucky that my husband’s quite good tester and waxer as well. And traveling with a full team this year, six [women] and six [men], I knew that we will need more than two coaches to wax.”

And, conveniently, Tobias’ mother is based in Boulder, CO. “She was able to actually drive to all the races and babysit when we were ski waxing and racing.”

For US Nationals, UAF collaborated with other Alaskan clubs to wax, but it was still useful to have an extra driver to bring athletes back and forth to the venue. Consequently, they paid out of pocket for the flight, but Tobias was able to get a per-diem salary as a driver. “So we got at least the food covered,” she laughed.

For other RMISA and SuperTour races where UAF was only waxing for their own athletes, Tobias could have his travel expenses fully covered in exchange for his work. It’s perhaps a model that’s hard to replicate for other mom-coaches, but still demonstrates that with some creativity and determination, bringing the family along for the ride is possible. 

“We call it the primary. He’s the primary on the baby when we have training days, where me and my assistant go with athletes and train. And then when we were testing and race waxing, grandma was the primary. And oh my God, bless her heart — she paid for all of her gas and her accommodation and food. She would just come to the house where we were staying when we had to leave and just babysat for us… So that’s the way that we made it work, but it’s a very, I think, exceptional situation.”

Was traveling back and forth from Fairbanks to Colorado and Utah challenging with a toddler? Yes. But Eliška knew it was something they would need to navigate as a family regardless of her career. 

“I know living in Alaska, he’s gonna fly anywhere he goes. That’s just what it is. So that was just like one thing that we were like, ‘Yeah, there’s no way around it.’ We did have to travel with more things. Because you have to have the car seat, we have to have the crib, we had to have a bunch of diapers with us.”

The system worked for the first year, but it will need to be modified for next season. The full RMISA calendar has not yet been set, however, the regional championships will be held in Anchorage, which will make at least one competition easier to travel to. 

From there, it will be running the calculus on what makes sense financially. She laughed that Viggo is already a squirmy baby to keep on their laps on the plane and will need his own seat next year, but she is also not sure whether he will still be nursing, which may make it easier for her to leave him behind with Tobias.

In terms of the impact to the team, better worded as the lack thereof, Eliška felt Viggo’s presence on the road improved the atmosphere. Rather than lamenting their littlest teammate, they found humor and joy in his presence. 

“When you’re stressed before the race, and you’re having breakfast and you’re barely putting the oatmeal into your mouth [because of nerves], and the baby in front of you is just like throwing the food and laughing… I think that it helped with the team atmosphere, for sure.”

In addition to helping distribute the weight of ski, wax, and baby gear when navigating through the airport, the athletes also served as an extra set of eyes in the team house. 

“The team, in general, was super helpful as well. When we would be waxing in the garage, they were playing with Viggo, and he believes they’re all his brothers and sisters, I’m pretty sure.”

Reflections on the Experience Thus Far

Praising the community in Fairbanks, Eliška was grateful for the help and support she received through her perinatal journey, which allowed her to not only continue as head coach, but help the team to new heights this season. Rather than holding her back, becoming a mother enhanced her ability to lead the Nanooks program. 

“I also feel like my season was so much more successful this year because I really wanted to go home to my baby. So I was really trying to work smarter and more efficiently, and I think the athletes probably had that push too.”

While some might fault a woman who shares that her priorities have shifted since having a child, Eliška explained the number of ways this desire to optimize practice time served her team. 

“I was always driven for success – I love being successful. But now it’s more like, ‘Yes, I will be successful so then I can spend more time with my child.’”  

As to whether there was anything she would have done differently, Eliška’s answer was more focused on reducing barriers to mom-coaches as a group surrounding pregnancy. 

“I think the side that no one ever talks about is: how fit coaches should actually be able to do their job well.”

Because her insurance cycle was aligned with the school calendar, her deductible reset in July. Having maximized her out of pocket expenses with prenatal care and delivery, this meant the physical therapy treatments she needed were essentially free for the first four months. However, after the plan turned over for the new year, each pelvic floor PT visit cost $60–70, and she was looking to go twice per week to continue to make steady progress. This adds up quickly, particularly for a family relying on one salary, which happens to be a ski coaching salary. 

While nationwide free postpartum PT for all women would be the ideal, Eliška proposed that these costs should, at minimum, be offset by the school or program.

“That is something I would definitely fight for women coaches. Talk to your boss, or whoever, and tell them, ‘If you want me to come back to the same level of coaching, you need to pay for occupational therapy for me to recover.”

On April 27th, Gus Schumacher and Jessie Diggins headed to Washington, D.C. with six other winter Olympians and Paralympians as members of the Protect Our Winters (POW) athlete alliance to advocate for progressive changes in climate policy. While Diggins has been partnered with POW for several years, Schumacher only recently came on board, making the trip his first experience lobbying for climate activism; it was also his first trip to the nation’s capital.  

While in D.C., the POW team met with members of the conservative climate caucus, led by Utah Congressman John Curtis, to advocate for the support of the following five “asks” in climate package negotiations:

• Funding programs that focus on reducing emissions, like the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and Climate Pollution Reduction Grants/
• Investment in electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.
• Upgrade the grid to power a renewable energy future by funding projects that upgrade transmission lines and intertie incentives.
• Assist communities in worker transitions with programs like energy community reinvestment financing.
• Stop drilling in the Arctic, specifically stopping the Willow Project from moving forward in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. 

Following a dinner with the Republican caucus where athletes shared the ways in which their sports and home communities have been affected by climate change, the group spent the day lobbying in congressional offices, discussing the importance of the asks with senators, congresspeople, and members of their staff. 

Not knowing what to expect from his first lobbying experience, Schumacher noted he was happy to hear the agreement among the Republican and Democratic politicians with whom they spoke surrounding the need to reduce emissions and address the “big problem” of climate change head on.

“To a degree, everyone agrees we should reduce emissions and it’s figuring out how to do it where everyone is in a different place,” Schumacher said in a call. “So I learned a bit about how [different politicians are] approaching it, and how people generally care [about the issues], but I think it’s just hard for a lot of people to agree on a methodology.”

The conversation most engaging for Schumacher personally took place with Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski. In addition to discussing topics that were close to home, the conversation felt significant in that Murkowski is “on the fence” when it comes to supporting each of the asks. 

Alaska’s economic dependence on oil is juxtaposed with the grave reality that the Arctic is warming at a faster rate than other parts of the world. Murkowski had just returned from a visit to the small city of Kotzebue in rural Northwest Alaska, roughly 30 miles above the Arctic circle. Despite its size and location, the city has adopted infrastructure, specifically wind and solar, that allows it to depend heavily on renewable energy sources when possible. 

“They have one solar panel that works on both sides, so [it also captures energy as] the sun reflects off the snow, plus they have a couple of windmills. They were running 80% renewable that week, which is really big for those communities… So that was really cool that she’s at least interested in those kinds of advancements. She also mentioned electrifying our ferry system using hydropower in the area, which seems pretty sweet if you can make it work.”

At the same time, Murkowski recognizes Alaska’s dependence on oil, and therefore was unwilling to support the ask to stop drilling in the Arctic.

“That’s a huge source of income for Alaska and is going to positively impact in the short term Alaskans and rural Alaskan,” said of the complicated issue. “[Because of the impacts of climate change on the Arctic], rural Alaskans need carbon to not be emitted anymore, but they also need to be able to pay for the gas currently to heat their homes and for food that they can’t get from subsistence hunting. So you’re kind of falling on your own sword a little bit, and that’s something that I can appreciate as being a political problem. It’s hard to deal with because you can’t just like immediately switch to renewables – or in the contiguous United States – and then have all these people that don’t have any source of income.”

Settled back in Alaska at the time of the call, Schumacher remained energized by the experience and expressed interest in continuing to participate in climate advocacy in the future.

“The advocacy really was cool because it makes it feel like [my voice has] more power than just voting, which is cool. And it’s exciting to realize that by skiing, I’ve gotten myself to that position. And yeah, I’m really proud of it and excited and hopeful to do some more and hopefully those asks can change and get stronger and stronger.”

Schumacher also enjoyed the opportunity to engage with the other members of POW’s athlete alliance and to learn more about the various experiences that led them to engage with climate advocacy. 

“It was cool to hear everyone’s story and hear that they care about climate change, but come at it from a different way. Like [Olympic halfpipe skier] David Wise in Nevada where, obviously, it looks a lot different [than Alaska], but he has a creek that dries up near his house and he’s a farmer… so that was [interesting] to hear about. The POW organizers were really dialed and made it easy for us. Just getting involved with the whole scene of lobbying was eye opening. Definitely like nothing I could have learned from middle school history. I sort of knew how it all worked, but being able to actually go inside of those offices and just see the whole lobbying system was really neat.”

Schumacher’s interest in these topics extends beyond his partnership with POW into his academic studies. In choosing to major in civil engineering, Schumacher was interested in furthering technological innovation to support a more sustainable future. 

“Especially civil engineering, which deals with large scale infrastructure – the more that can be dialed in and efficient, I think that’s a big source of moving towards the future of how we function as a society.”

While there is plenty of action needed to make significant progress in fighting climate change, Schumacher expressed that he left the experience feeling optimistic. 

“Some people, I’m sure, will say that it’s naive. They’re politicians and they want to make you happy and, obviously, we come in with a big sign that says ‘we care about climate’, so know what to say to make us happy… but the Democratic members were leaning far forward on climate protection, which I was a little surprised with… And then the Republican senators that were plainly like, ‘Yeah, we need to reduce emissions and we didn’t need to do it quickly…’ And I think maybe they want to do it more in a natural gas route, which seems like a step to the side. But to at least have people saying, ‘yeah, we need to do this quickly,’ hopefully, that can be converted to action.”

He continued that he believed that the representatives with whom POW spoke genuinely listened to what they had to say, and expressed belief that the more individuals and groups who lean on those politicians to make those changes, the more likely they will be to take action.

“The message here would be to call your representatives and because I think they do listen to that. These offices aren’t that big, so if they get a ton of calls about updating the electric grid and developing renewable energy, I think that’s going to have some weight.”

Recognizing that it can be challenging to stay informed when a new bill is on the table, which may be an impactful time to call, Schumacher recommended following the news tab on the Protect Our Winters website or through their social media platforms. 

Schumacher concluded by emphasizing the collective power that individuals in the “Outdoor State”, which includes the cross-country ski community, have in advocating for change. According to POW, outdoor recreation unifies 50 million people across the US, resulting in an nearly $670 billion dollar industry.

“That’s bigger than pharmaceuticals and oil and gas combined, which I don’t think people necessarily realize. And I think part of it is that’s a group that has a lot of little voices, generally, but it’s a powerful group and it’s bipartisan – POW itself is represented by roughly 40% Democrat, 30% Republican and 30% Independent. So it’s something that everyone cares about, and I think that’s a confidence boost.”

With a cohort of some of the best U23 skiers in the country, the program is setting a trend for young American skiers pursuing international-level and college skiing simultaneously.

After the first day of this year’s NCAA Championships, held at Soldier Hollow, Utah, the team scoring was close. The familiar schools were all there, the University of Utah (UU) at the front, with the University of Colorado (CU), Denver University (DU), and the University of Vermont (UVM) all close behind.

How close? Well, all within 100 points in the NCAA team scoring system – which doesn’t mean much. 

Team NCAA scoring is hard to comprehend. It is best described as archaic and arcane; a cumulative score between alpine and nordic across genders, and disciplines, over two days of racing (with no sprint race to be found).

You can understand it in archaic terms then – the four big programs that have historically dominated NCAA skiing all went into the final day with a notion that they might just add another title (UU, CU, DU, and UVM account for 63 out of the 69 titles awarded in NCAA history).

Then, the 15 k women’s skate mass start went off.

What happened within the first kilometer was anything but arcane. Three skiers, all clad in the white and red of the University of Utah pulled away as if they were out for a team interval session.

The sight of that trio, together, has become an international force over the past couple of seasons. Sophia Laukli, Novie McCabe, and Sydney Palmer-Leger earned a Junior Worlds relay medal for the US together in March 2020. They’ve since climbed into top tens on the World Cup together, also done a lengthy FasterSkier interview together as well.

Coming into this particular NCAA race, Laukli and McCabe had just come home from representing the United States at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, while Palmer-Leger came in looking for a third NCAA championship title in only her second year on the circuit.

The only question then, was which UU skier would take the race. As Sophia Laukli broke away from McCabe and came across the line to do just that, she checked yet another of the boxes for accomplishments all three had now achieved. Before McCabe and Palmer-Leger had NCAA Championships, then McCabe, Palmer-Leger, and Laukli did. It only added emphasis to the dominance of UU in NCAA skiing beyond that one race.

The UU nordic women had contributed roughly half of the points required to win UU’s third straight NCAA Team Championship, despite making up just a quarter of the team.

“I can’t take credit for building that, I’m just keeping it going” said UU Head Nordic Coach Miles Havlick in a call about the UU women’s dominant performance. “They’re a special group, unlike anything the NCAA has seen as long as I’ve been involved with it.”

Havlick has seen a lot. As an athlete for UU in the early part of the 2010s, he put together an NCAA career that was remarkable in the heights it reached – Havlick won two NCAA Championships in 2012 and 2013 – as it was in its pound-for-pound consistency over four years.

After a post-grad stint professionally racing for Sun Valley SEF and a couple seasons developing his coaching in the US, in Norway, and in Australia, he returned to the NCAA circuit, and to UU, in 2018. Havlick first stepped in as Assistant Coach before taking over the position of Head Nordic Coach in 2019, working with veteran ski director Fredrik Landstedt to bring the UU program to new heights.

Havlick may be quick to dismiss his influence in building the UU program, but there are implicit hints talking to him that his coaching is perfectly contoured to athletes wading through top-level racing while managing their development as a person.

“I like to think I use my racing experience, especially having raced a lot of these specific races…college is a challenging time where you’re developing, living on your own for the first time, and adjusting…and that’s without also managing an international racing career. Hopefully, I can relate and provide some wisdom to our skiers on how to do that.”

The particular knack for balancing skiers making their way onto the World Cup and wanting to pursue collegiate skiing became particularly important this season. Before the NCAA season had even started, the UU team was spread far-and-wide racing the World Cup.

“Sydney, Novie, and Sophia all were racing the first period of the World Cup. It was awesome they got that opportunity, and they all made the most out of it. It’s so easy to forget how young they are, and they were able to take whatever results they had with a grain of salt and just focus on skiing and learning as much as they can wherever they are.”

As rising juniors and seniors, Palmer-Leger and McCabe, and Laukli will be back at UU next year, and with their World Cup results this year, are all but sure to also be continuing to race internationally as well.

That, along with an equally talented core of male skiers, including NCAA All-American Sam Hendry and US Olympian Luke Jager, positions UU to continue its run of NCAA titles in the coming years. Something that Havlick says the UU team doesn’t take for granted. “I’m sure we have a huge target on our backs. It [would be] easy to coast and get stagnant. As long as we keep an attitude towards improvement and working hard, and on my end continuing to be smarter in my decision-making, I think we can stay as the top college program for years to come.”

That improvement in decision-making will include all the facets of coaching familiar to nordic coaches – waxing, training, team atmosphere – but at UU, it will also be precedent setting.

Along with UVM’s Ben Ogden, the NCAA titles of McCabe and Laukli this year marked the first time in NCAA history that American-born athletes won every race. The collegiate race circuit, long a gauge of where young US skiing stood in relation to international talents, saw that gauge blown wide-open in 2022. The bar for US skiers is now being set by other US skiers, with McCabe, Laukli, and UVM’s Ogden all making breakthroughs at the World Cup and Olympic level. With their success, the relationship between the collegiate circuit and national team is set to evolve too.

Positioned in Salt Lake City, just 90 minutes from the headquarters of US Ski and Snowboard in Park City, with four athletes who have already worn the US suit on the World Cup, the US Ski Team athletes at UU and Havlick are cognizant that they will determine what that evolution looks like:

“The strength of the American Juniors on the world stage was shown in the last few years, and now we’re starting to see that push through to the college age, especially here. I’m hopeful that we can continue to build on the relationship we have here with the national team, and that the trend we’ve seen, where the national team is realizing the benefits of college skiing, continue. That helps skiers in the US, and the US skiers who do go represent us [on the international stage].

“I’m not sure what she would say, but I think Rosie Brennan was a big influence, a good example.”

As a young athlete, Brennan pushed against the wishes of US Ski and Snowboard to compete for the US national team while skiing for Dartmouth with teammates like Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell. After completing her degree in 2011, she became a persistent domestic skier for Alaska Pacific University (APU), bouncing on-and-off of the national team while pursuing graduate-level education. Then, in 2020, a decade into her post-undergrad career, Brennan won a World Cup, and since has been one of the top skiers in the world.

One year, two generations: In 2021, Rosie Brennan (left) finished 7th in the Tour de Ski’s Alpe Cermis hill climb. In 2022, Novie McCabe (right) matched that result by taking 7th in the same race. (Photos: NordicFocus)

That success saw US Ski Team Head Coach Matt Whitcomb reflect to FasterSkier Reporter Nat Herz that US skiing’s previous stance towards collegiate skiing “[was] not realistic, because you’re not taking the American culture into consideration.”

(Read more about the shift in perception on NCAA skiing’s role in athlete development here.)

Building upon Brennan’s example, the international and domestic performances of athletes exploring the NCAA-World Cup duality demonstrates that American skiing culture is now pliable as to where its top skiers turn for development in their skiing, and in their lives.

What that balance of collegiate and international skiing looks like will be set by the phenomenally talented skiers who are currently at the top of the collegiate ranks, with support and collaboration from both their NCAA and US Ski Team coaches.

At the University of Utah, that influence is a central feature of the program, rather than an exception. McCabe, Laukli, Palmer-Leger, Jager, and their coach Havlick have already broken the precedents of US skiing and are looking ahead to next season with expectation and a simple approach, as Havlick says “We’re proud of this year, for sure. We’ll let those results be though as we start training…I just want to keep one thing – the culture of hard work and process.”

On April 13th, Rosie Brennan wrote in an Instagram post, “The world is constantly changing and I’m trying to move with it.” The post announced the launch of an online auction for a limited edition NFT, in partnership with the organizations Parity Now and VereNFT. The NFT, titled “Perseverance Trail”, was designed by artist Kerri Schiff and features a mountainous ski trail with a variety of images of Brennan racing in her Team USA suit.

If you just read that introduction and thought, “Wait – what does any of that mean?”, you’re not alone. It’s a very new realm and can very quickly make you feel as though you’ve been transported into the Matrix.

For starters, NFT stands for “non-fungible token”. An NFT is a unique and non-interchangeable digital asset, typically a piece of digital art or music, that is stored on a blockchain and can be sold or traded via an online marketplace. A blockchain is more or less a virtual ledger for transactions in that marketplace, made across a secure network. To learn more, you’re better off heading to Forbes, or reading this helpful and entertaining article on The Verge.

When it comes to Brennan’s Perseverance Trail NFT specifically, the highest bidder on the auction is purchasing a unique piece of digital art, along with the exclusivity of that token.

“For our physical reality,” Brennan explained in a call,  “you’re purchasing that [digital] image and you are then the only one who then owns that. So I can’t reproduce it or sell it, or make it a poster. It is just that singular item.” 

For those who bid at different levels, regardless of whether they eventually own the NFT, Brennan has offered a tiered list of rewards: $100 gets you a signed athlete card, $500 for a signed World Cup bib, $1000 for a 30 minute Zoom session, and $2000 for a three-month personalized training plan. 

It’s an altogether different and very new avenue that an athlete might incorporate to support a career, and Brennan admitted to still being in the learning process. That said, she explained some of the factors that were intriguing about the proposition.

“Maybe the more interesting part about NFTs is that, because there is only one of them and it’s tracked, it has a digital footprint. So, if somebody buys it, I get some of the proceeds from [the sale] and the artist gets some and then Parity Now gets some. But every time it’s resold after that, I continue to get some of the proceeds. So that’s kind of different from a physical piece of art. When an artist sells a piece of art, that’s the only time they gain profit from it. If that [buyer] then resells it, the artist doesn’t get any benefit from that.”

Another unique aspect is that the value of the NFT may increase with time. “As we see in art, most artists don’t become famous until they’re dead.” Brennan laughed as she expressed that thankfully, athletes don’t need to wait quite as long, however, it remains unknown what they will accomplish during their career until it is finished, or what they may achieve in other spaces  afterward.

Ultimately, the NFT marketplace remains a nascent and still-developing platform for investment and trade, and it’s unclear how profitable this type of auction could be in the long term. Nevertheless, Brennan applauded Parity Now for offering women these non-traditional opportunities.

“It’s obviously very [new]… and so who knows what that really means, but I’m impressed that this organization is kind of pushing the boundaries in these areas and looking at different ways to create, not only like money for athletes, but just also awareness and marketing and hype.”

Taking a step back to how this came about, we’ll rewind to the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, when Brennan found herself frequently riding the bus to and from the athlete village with American bobsledder Lauren Gibbs, who she described as “super outgoing and very friendly” and seemed to, coincidentally, be on a very similar schedule to the cross country ski team. After earning an Olympic silver medal in 2018 and a World Championship gold in 2020, Gibbs retired and became a spokesperson for Parity Now, an organization which advocates for equal pay, media representation, and opportunities for professional women athletes. Parity’s community of athletes includes more than 165 Olympians and Paralympians across more than 40 sports, all working together to “[propel] professional women athletes forward.”

When initially approached about the NFT opportunity, Brennan put the idea on hold. However, after seeing other women athletes on the marketplace and learning more about the process, she decided to give it a go.

From there, Brennan worked through a lengthy questionnaire to identify the aspects of her career and self that were most meaningful, to guide the artist in creating the design. Brennan also provided a wide variety of images of herself skiing to ensure the sport would be well-represented. She was then allowed to provide feedback throughout the process, until landing on a finalized piece of digital art

“It was cool to see an artistic interpretation of the values that I felt [were] meaningful in my ski career,” she said.

With athletes from all sports competing in the NFT marketplace, Brennan said she “really wanted to highlight what makes cross-country, in my opinion, different from other sports. And for me, one of those things is the fact that we’re doing all the events and all the techniques.” 

In the image, both skate and classic techniques are featured, along with a couple of fast tucks, in and out of the tracks. Brennan also wanted to feature the variation in terrain, in contrast to a more controlled environment like a running track, along with the natural beauty and challenge of a cross-country ski trail.

“I wanted that natural environment highlighted, which is the part I really like about mine — I think [the artist] did a great job making some really cool-looking mountains… And then to me, [Perseverance Trail] is such a great metaphor for life. Particularly my own [journey] in cross-country skiing that has just been so up and down, and maybe required a little more perseverance than others. And just using that analogy – that no two trails are the same. I don’t think anyone’s path in sports is the same either.

“And then, this fine balance of being present in the moment on a trail, but also having that adaptability and flexibility to deal with what the trail brings on any given day. Changing elements, changing snow, changing weather, and skis – all these [variables] that cross-country requires, and that are such an important aspect of life, really.”  

As for working with Parity Now more broadly, Brennan does aspire to partner with the group beyond this NFT project. She explained that she has already benefited from some of the webinars Parity offers to women athletes to equip them with the variety of business skills they might need to successfully support their career and ensure they’re well set up for life after sport. Brennan also explained that Parity can help connect athletes with other companies for work in social media and advertising campaigns, which she’d like to participate in down the road.

“It’s just neat to see different groups trying to tackle women’s equality from different angles,” she concluded. “And I think this business angle is actually a very important one. Lauren’s a real go-getter, and so I’m sure that there’s more good things to come from it.”

Parity Now cites research that estimates that, of the $66 billion global sports sponsorship market, only 0.4% goes to women. “You read that right,” Parity Now said. “For every dollar spent on sports sponsorship, women receive just half a cent.” 

As fans of cross-country skiing in the US, it might be easy to lose sight of this pervasive inequality faced by women in sport. We see Jessie Diggins’ face on magazine covers before the Olympics, equal opportunity for prize money on the World Cup, and a whole team of women ready to pop a Top-10 or podium on any given weekend. In fact, the results achieved by American women over the last decade-and-a-half have made it easy to forget that the U.S. Ski Team had dropped funding for the women’s program prior to 2006 — though we now have two books, World Class and Trail to Gold, to remind us of this journey.

Speaking to her experience in becoming one of the top women in the US program, Brennan said, “I feel very lucky to be an American woman skier. I think we have had a lot of really great opportunities. To be honest, I think in the last decade or so we’ve honestly overshadowed the boys and, if anything, they usually get the raw end of the deal. So that’s maybe been a unique perspective that we’ve had as women cross-country skiers, and something I definitely try not to take for granted. And it is interesting traveling on the World Cup, you do notice cultural differences and how countries treat men and women differently. And not all is good and not all as bad, it’s definitely different.

“From an international perspective, like on the World Cup, navigating that is challenging — figuring out what actually is equality and what that means to different people and different cultures, and how we implement that into the bigger scope of the world is definitely challenging.”

Brennan added that she felt Americans are “a little more progressive on that end”, which makes her proud to represent the U.S. Ski Team. She did point out that there is one very obvious source of inequality present at most levels of the sport: how far men and women race.

“That’s maybe the most glaring aspect in which men and women are not equal [in cross country skiing]. I’m definitely a proponent for equal distance and it sounds like, honestly, everyone’s moving in that direction. I actually think that change is coming faster than we all anticipated.”

Brennan serves as an elected athlete representative on the U.S. Ski & Snowboard cross-country sport committee and shared that equal distance will be a “big topic” at the upcoming annual congress. She also indicated that this is the case at the International Ski Federation level. “It’ll be interesting to see how that unfolds in the next month or so. But I definitely think it’s coming.”

Circling back to the NFT and what all of this means in the broader context of her career, Brennan concluded with both uncertainty and optimism. 

“I don’t know if it will become such a big thing that people are wanting to gamble on a young athlete in hopes that they make it big and their NFT becomes worth millions or something,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t know if that’s what the future holds or not. But I definitely think it’s a cool way to bring awareness and promote women’s sports and take part in an interesting project.”

A look at what’s ahead for the Birkebeiner, and its former home at the Telemark Lodge.

When I reached out to American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (ABSF) Executive Director Ben Popp before Christmas to set-up an interview discussing the Birkie’s plans for the now-defunct Telemark Lodge property, he was already putting plans into action. An interview would have to wait until after the holidays, because that weekend ,the Birkie was hosting a SuperTour race which would serve as a test event for its start-line venue in a bid, along with the Loppet Foundation in Minneapolis, to host an FIS World Cup in 2024.

Bringing a World Cup to Cable, Wisconsin is ambitious, but then again, when Popp is involved with the Birkie, energy and momentum are not the barriers. It’s not a question of “if”, but “how big” the end project will be. Since starting with the Birkie in 2013, he has overseen the expansion of what was already America’s largest race into a year-round docket of endurance programs.

For Popp, that expansion has been done with a forward-looking vision that is deeply rooted in his own history. A son of Wisconsin’s Northwoods, he witnessed first-hand the outsized dreams of Birkie founder Tony Wise, who at the opening of the Telemark Lodge in 1971 invited US Olympic Gold Medalist in Alpine Skiing Billy Kidd, and found his reaction to be simply, “[Telemark] is the only place where the Lodge is bigger than the ski hill!”

For the original Telemark, that turned out to be both an intrepid mantra, and its ultimate failing. Which leads me back to why I initially reached out to Popp – discussing the Birkie’s purchase of the now-closed Lodge and its demolition last year, and the new plans to build a dedicated Nordic Center on the former site.

Our conversation, though, turned into something much more akin to sharing a round of Leinie’s at Seeley’s famous Sawmill Saloon. Which is to say, Wisconsin skier to Wisconsin skier, cheesehead to cheesehead, Ben to Ben, we covered a lot of ground. The result is a conversation that covers the idiosyncrasies of a very specific place in the skiing landscape – Wisconsin – but by doing so gestures towards contemporaneous issues in the development of our sport in the US from a multitude of perspectives, all wrapped up into one professional – Ben Popp.

The excerpts below touch on, among other things: how the Birkie views plans for new infrastructure as supporting their mission; how skiing organizations are planning a sustainable future for the sport; and how Wisconsin skiing can develop the next generation of elite skiers from its ranks.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

FasterSkier (Ben Theyerl): The Birkie Foundation (the Birkie) now owns the former site of the Telemark Lodge, can you bring us up to speed on what’s happened since you bought the old Lodge last year, and what the plans are for the future there?

(Historical context on Telemark Lodge.)

Ben Popp (BP): In February 2021, we closed on the property. As part of that agreement, we had to commit to raising the money to remove the building. That turned out to be a challenge, because generally people don’t like to give money to tear things down – that’s not very exciting.

To make up the costs, we decided to sell 250-acres on the far-western edge of the Telemark Property that didn’t have any trails on it, and to try and conserve it into perpetuity. Landmark Conservancy bought that property; it’s now the Telemark Forest Preserve.

That brings us to now. The building is down. We just applied for a $7.5 million dollar grant with the federal government to build a Nordic Center (details here) which will be LEED Platinum certified. We’re also working on a huge solar-array with Dairyland Cooperative, which would help us offset [the carbon emissions] from our snow-making operation [at the Birkie start venue and Telemark].  

That’s the the nuts-and-bolts that got us to where we are now, which is the idea that Telemark is vital to: one, the economic activity of this region, and two, for the Birkie to carry out our mission of having amazing experiences while getting people outside, we need a medium, and this is the place for it.

FS: As a follow-up, what’s the timeline looking like for the Nordic Center?

BP: The timeline is tricky. We’ll hear back on the grant in June, which with the current construction market would make breaking-ground this year very hard. We have said though, that now is the time to start planning, so that’s what we are doing.

What we’ve already started implementing is additional snowmaking, so that we could successfully host the Super Tour in December (2021). What’s interesting about that is we’ve still only invested $400,000 into it, which, yes, is a lot of money, but in the world of snowmaking is nothing. [For example,] Battle Creek (in the Twin Cities) is going to be about $5.6 million dollars. I give a lot of kudos to our crew for [what they were able to do for the SuperTour], having 3.75 kilometers of trail open before December 10th, but the reality is that was such a heavy lift, and we’re going to have to invest another $1 million into our snowmaking system to make it sustainable and reliable.

FS: The Birkie has a lot of other projects outside of Telemark. How do you see Telemark intersecting with those? 

BP: That’s one of the highest priorities for us. If we look at our mission: one, putting on great events; two, being stewards of the [Birkie] trail; and three, providing opportunities for people to be active outside. Getting Telemark ready for events is critical to part one and three. You could argue that this isn’t directly related to how you improve the Birkie Trail, [part 2 of our mission]. But by way of getting more people involved, it gives us the capacity to put resources into the Trail.  

FS: There also seems to be more of a faith in the Birkie Foundation to get Telemark right than past attempts at reviving the property. How have you built trust in the local community and gotten them involved in what the Birkie is doing?

BP: I think there’s two parts to it. 

One, doing what you say we are going to do. [In the past,] people saying “we’re going to rebuild Telemark!” and then never having it happen just made it worse and worse. For us, starting back in 2013-14 when we said we’re going to raise $750,000 and buy an area for a new Birkie start line and build a bridge over highway 63 at OO, we got reactions of “no way, no way” and then…we did it! I think little steps like that start to prove to the community that you’re worthy of trust.

Two, it’s being really involved in the community and being open to other nonprofits. That allows us to openly invest in the community. We donate over $50,000 to the [Hayward] schools and their initiatives. Instead of us looking at simply how we leverage the assets around the community, we look at how we can partner with them so it’s good for both parties. That example is very local in Cable/Hayward, but we also help with initiatives around Wisconsin/Minnesota that need help get projects off the ground.

Like as an example I was just brainstorming with Claire Wilson (Executive Director of the Loppet Foundation in Minneapolis, MN) – how cool would it be to do some kind of exchange program where we’re going to send kids from the Northwoods to go down and experience living in Minneapolis and skiing at Theodore Wirth, and vice versa, they send kids up here and we can house them at Telemark and they get to spend a week in the woods [and make them say] “wait, where’s the stoplights?!” Those would be opportunities that would be awesome.

FS: You’ve also started Team Birkie (a pro-racing development team that launched this summer) that’s already had success getting skiers to the World Cup.

BP: Yeah, we want to bring in the elite athletes to train [in Cable], that’s what Tony Wise (Telemark, and Birkiebeiner founder) used to do. I mean the U.S. Ski Team – Marty Hall and Bill Koch – they were here! They designed our trails! We need to figure out how we get our elite athletes, our role models, to stay in the Midwest and train so that they can inspire our kids here. The next Jessie Diggins can, but shouldn’t have to go out and live elsewhere, which is how it currently stands with Midwestern skiers. But they can’t spend time here if we don’t have roller-ski loops, snowmaking, and the things that they need to get better at their profession. 

[Your dad] (Ted Theyerl, former Wisconsin Nordic Ski League President) has a great way of putting it. Trying to teach skiing without reliable snow is like trying to teach basketball if the gym is there only once every other week.

FS: That part is something I look at with a lot of potential based on my experience at Telemark. I intersected with the brief period [around 2010] when CXC (Central Cross Country Skiing) was trying to use Telemark Lodge as a training center. I remember going into what used to be the nightclub at the Lodge, which they were using as our dining hall, and sitting down and Jessie Diggins was at the table, and it made us juniors go “Holy crap!” That’s so inspiring.

BP: You’re right that’s inspiring!

FS: In a similar way, I wanted to get your personal perspective on what Telemark has meant to you, and the community in the Northwoods, and how that drives your plans and the Birkie Foundation’s plans?

BP: I mean I grew up in northern Wisconsin and I remember as a kid going over to Telemark and being like, “Woah, where am I? This is incredible!” Telemark was just an incredible economic and cultural driver.

I think personally my motivation is that this project is going to create a ton of opportunity, and essentially extend the reach of the Birkie Foundation and what we do. I often use a statistic when we are out on the road. If you draw a circle 50 miles around Cable/Hayward, 90% of our revenue comes from outside of that circle. But we spend over 80% of our revenue within that 50-mile Hayward/Cable circle. The bigger the Birkie gets then, the more gets spent here in our community.

FS: And now, to me, the additions of the Super Tour and the World Cup build on that spirit of Tony Wise saying we can dream big, and we can do it in Cable, Wisconsin. I was wondering if you find inspiration in that spirit? What is your “wish list” as an Executive Director for the next 10 years for the Birkie Foundation?

BP: Tony is an inspiration, no doubt about it. The World Cup is a great example. Is hosting in 2024 going to be a ton of work? It is going to be a ton of work. But to do it as a part of the 50th anniversary of the Birke, bringing it full circle to Tony having the first World Cup here back in 1978, and his creation of the Worldloppet, well it will: one, shine a light on the sport that we love; and two, on the Midwest, where many times even from a ski standpoint people think you just fly over it.

Then we go, “How do we get to doing it?” Well, we’ll take it step-by-step.

Tony was really vested in making sure Telemark and the Birkie benefitted his community and had a primary focus on getting people outside and being active. While [Telemark] isn’t going to be a lodge with 200 rooms, it is going to be cut from the same cloth of getting people outside, skiing in the Nordic community, and being connected to the world at-large. 

That [last part] was especially important to Tony – he was a tank commander in World War II for goodness sakes, and learned to love Scandinavia and Austria along the way – so for us there must be that worldly component of the Birkiebeiner. Being a WorldLoppet and us trying to bring a World Cup here in 2024.

That gives us comfort knowing that where we’re going, well, with the historical vision Tony had, it’s one and the same.

FS: Final question: The Birkie and you have been a leader in sustainability in the sport over the past couple of years, how do you see clubs, organizations, and the sports headed towards a more sustainable future? Especially the shift to going fluoro-free in waxing so it’s sustainable for the environment, but still equitable so that the best skiers are rising to the top?

BP: That’s a great question. For the Birkie, the sustainability piece is at the forefront for everything we’re doing. It’s tough because we balance the environmental, actual sustainability of the sport – skiers getting into skiing and staying in skiing – and the financial. If we go 100% and do everything possible on the environmental front, which would be the ideal, then we’re not going to be able to be financially sustainable and therefore the sport isn’t here in the Northwoods in 5 years. It’s about how you marry those three things in an optimal amount.

At the Birkie, we want to remain at the forefront for years to come.

FS: What’s your dream in that respect?

BP: My ultimate dream often comes when I think about the World Cup.

How amazing would that be to line up Jessie Diggins next to Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, next to your dad, my mom, a kid from Minneapolis who didn’t know what skiing was two years ago, a kid from the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation, and on and on. 

I like to think that Klæbo may be just as inspired by a kid out on skis for her first time as I might be sitting at home watching him on the start-line. When we all get to sit at the same table, we all get to inspire each other, and that’s what I’m working towards at the end of the day.

I had the privilege of overlapping with Ogden for two years as teammates on the Dartmouth Women’s Ski Team, during which time I was undergoing my own personal, though distinctly less significant, reckoning with ski racing. Thus, when Ogden announced her retirement at the end of last month, I asked to be the one to write this piece, hoping to do justice to the story of a career that is as important in its low moments as it is at its heights. Ogden herself wrote an eloquently expressed reflection of her career on the SMS T2 blog which can – and should – be read here. 

Ogden began skiing at the tender age of two, after her family moved from Seattle to Vermont. Shortly thereafter her brother Ben was born and as Ogden explained it, “I was now living in Vermont, no longer an only child, and so I spent a lot of time with my dad, while my mom was having, you know, the baby. And my dad, once we moved back to Vermont, kind of re-engaged with the Nordic ski community and started coaching the local ski program.” Ogden’s father, John, has long been an active member in the Eastern ski community, most recently through his work with the timing company, Bullitt Timing, which he runs with a colleague. “Pretty much since I can remember, my dad has been coaching for [West River Sports] my childhood club, and bringing me to practices and he would also go to the local races and bring me along,” said Ogden. 

These early memories of ski racing instilled a strong sense of ski community within Ogden and given the high level of participation in Nordic skiing among her elementary school peers, Ogden explained that this was a big reason why she stuck with ski racing. “And, of course, my dad coaching the team,” she added, “Definitely he encouraged us to do it.” Racing with her best friends throughout elementary school and middle school, while participating in events like the Bill Koch Festival, played a big part in growing Ogden’s love for the sport. 

Entering high school, Ogden attended Stratton Mountain School in southern Vermont, the well-known private school which, according to its website, “provides a unique environment that offers each student the opportunity to pursue excellence in competitive winter sports and college preparatory academics.” Around the same time, Ogden was earning her first international starts, as she participated in the U18 Scandinavian Cup trips in 2013 and 2014. “That was kind of a cool progression up to World Juniors,” shared Ogden, “I think it’s very important, and honestly sometimes underrated in my opinion, to build up your international experience in that way.”

For at least one, if not both of the years, Ogden had also qualified for World Juniors but she explained that her coaches encouraged her to choose the U18 trip instead. “Sometimes there are really young kids who got to World Juniors and I think that it’s a bit of a missed opportunity, because those U18 team trips are still a really high level of competition,” Ogden said, “And a good way to be like with people your own age, which really improves the experience.” 

After having built some international racing experience, Ogden attended her first FIS World Junior Ski Championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2015. “At that point, I had made a lot of good friends in the ski world,” shared Ogden, “I knew Julia Kern and Hailey Swirbul really well, so that was a blessing for me to have people that I knew and cared about and relied on in that type of situation being there for support. [It] makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable and it takes a little bit of the pressure off to just be able to treat it as a fun trip.” 

This approach seemed to pay off as Ogden placed 11th and 6th in the individual races, besting some familiar names such as this year’s Tour de Ski winner, Natalia Neprayeava. “[It] was fun to go to a crazy country that I wouldn’t normally go to and be able to experience that, while also getting to focus on some higher level racing,” explained Ogden. Her second World Juniors appearance came in Rasnov, Romania the following year where she placed 13th in both individual races. 

In June of 2016, Ogden graduated from Stratton, and having applied to college but deferred her acceptance to Middlebury College – her father’s alma mater – she embarked on a gap year. Remaining at SMS, she began training more with the pro team (SMS T2) and focusing a little more seriously on ski racing. “That was definitely an interesting experience for me, it was a pretty mentally difficult year,” said Ogden, “it felt like a convergence of a lot of things in my life that were difficult for me to emotionally handle.” 

For one, the 2017 World Junior Championships would be held at Soldier Hollow in the US, an exciting prospect that simultaneously created pressure to perform for the American young athletes who would be in attendance. “There was a lot of hype about it being in the US, which was cool, don’t get me wrong, but I felt that – not by anyone else’s fault other than mine – but that I was putting a lot of pressure on myself because of that.”

Self-aware and reflective, Ogden was open about the difficulty of this time, “Because I’d had previous success at the other two World Juniors that I went to, it kind of felt like it was a lot of pressure on me for those races. On top of that, I didn’t have school to focus on anymore, so I was really not doing much other than skiing, which is not something I would recommend to anyone, even if you’re a professional skier.” Ogden stressed the importance of having something else to balance your attention, “whether it’s a job or school, or even just working on your self-marketing or whatever – something that takes some brain power that is not just directly related to training.” 

In addition to these pressures, Ogden’s father, who earlier had been diagnosed with cancer, was in worsening condition. “So that was also kind of weighing on me,” explained Ogden, “all of those things culminated into me not having a good time.” She shared that she has struggled with anxiety since she was young, but in 2017 it morphed into something that became unmanageable at times. (Read Ogden’s January 2020 narrative on her experience with severe anxiety here.)

“I couldn’t functionally live with it anymore,” said Ogden, “So at that point, I was really struggling to eat because the manifestation of my anxiety disorder was that it really caused me to have a lot of gastrointestinal distress and a really upset stomach, so it was difficult for me to fuel myself enough to train and I didn’t have a lot of energy, partly from not eating and partly from just being stressed all the time.” 

In Ogden’s own words it was “against all odds” that she made it through the week of racing at World Juniors in Soldier Hollow. However, to simply say she completed the races is a massive understatement. In the skiathlon event, Ogden became the first American to podium in an individual race at World Juniors, earning a bronze medal. Days later, Ogden helped propel the US relay team to a historic bronze medal performance in the 4 x 3.3 k event, setting a precedent for the many successful US junior performances in the ensuing years. 

Reflecting on this achievement, Ogden shared, “Because I haven’t really had a ton of podium results since then, on an international scale, that is something that my ski career often gets boiled down to. It’s really bittersweet for me because it was a really incredible achievement, especially the relay day, when I was able to work with three of my best friends to accomplish something pretty cool. I still have a lot of pride and such about that experience, but on the other hand, it’s really hard for me to remember that without remembering how awful I was feeling, and how that was really honestly one of the hardest parts of my life to date.”

Returning home to Vermont in early February, Ogden started just one other ski race that season, “I think I did one random Eastern Cup ski race that I ended up actually dropping out of,” she explained. “[After] that race I didn’t put on my skis or anything… I did not go for a ski or a run or do anything for the rest of that year, basically up until May.” At this point, Ogden thought her ski racing career might be over. However, the idea of collegiate skiing started to bring her back around. 

Rewind to early December 2016, before World Juniors, and Ogden and the SMS team were in Silver Star, BC for the season-opening Nor-Am events. “My dad was on that trip, because he was helping SMS with some waxing and logistics, and we talked about how I wasn’t very happy, how I wasn’t feeling well, and I was struggling to want to ski and ski race,” said Ogden. While she had accepted a spot at Middlebury, she explained that “no part of me really thought I would go to college.” Examining this feeling, she reflected, “I think part of SMS is that, it’s an interesting environment where sort of everyone’s expected to got to college, but on the other hand, the people who are having a lot of success in their respective sport are almost really expected not to go to college.”

Referring to the infamous US Ski Team “pipeline” and expectations for members of the national team at that time, Ogden said, “I honestly didn’t think a ton about going to college. From pretty early in my high school experience I was like, ‘I’m not gonna do that, I’m gonna be like Liz [Stephen] and Kikkan [Randall] and Andy [Newell],’ and I have so much respect for their ability to focus on skiing that much,” she added, “Like Jessie [Diggins], those people who are really emotionally and mentally healthy and ready enough to be able to accomplish what they did in the ski racing world, without distractions, it’s amazing to me.” 

As the race season was about to get underway, Ogden was reexamining her priorities. Among the many skiers and teams present for these Nor-Am races was the Dartmouth Women’s Ski Team (DWST), who were wrapping up their annual Thanksgiving camp at Silver Star. “I was kind of watching the Dartmouth team from afar,” said Ogden, “they were always smiling, and they were nor-pining (alpine skiing on nordic skis), and they were going on long skis together. And something about seeing that, I was like, ‘That seems like something I want.’” 

Recognizing this, though still not ready to fully commit, Ogden met with long-time Dartmouth coach Cami Thompson-Graves. Like many of the US Ski Team athletes, both alpine and nordic, who chose to attend Dartmouth, Ogden was drawn to the flexibility of the Dartmouth “D-plan”, and thought that perhaps she would take classes in the spring but continue ski racing full time in the winter. Breaking some rules with Middlebury, to whom she had already committed attendance, Ogden applied to Dartmouth that winter. When her acceptance letter arrived in the spring following World Juniors, she talked to Thompson-Graves again. “I was like, ‘I don’t really know what’s going to be the case by the time September comes around. I want to try to ski, but I’m going to ski for Dartmouth, I’m not going to ski for SMS or the national team.’” 

With this new plan in place, Ogden started to re-engage with training and the ski world. “That summer, I was back to training with Stratton some. I also worked at a preschool that summer, which I loved. I generally went on a bit of an upward trend,” she said. When fall rolled around, she showed up in Hanover unsure of what to expect. “When I got to Dartmouth, it was honestly life changing,” she said, “The team was incredible, full of inspiring and interesting and passionate women, people who were passionate about ski racing, yeah, but also a million other things, which was not something I’d really been exposed to. Stratton Mountain School is incredible in a ton of ways, and was instrumental in facilitating my ski career and getting me to where I got to, but that being said, there’s not a lot of diversity of opportunity there. Because it really is, as advertised, very focused on skiing and ski success.” 

Ogden explained that arriving at Dartmouth opened her eyes to the many possibilities that existed beyond the realm of ski racing. “When I got to Dartmouth, it was kind of the first time I’d been able to be like, holy cow, there’s so much else out there that I could be passionate about, not just skiing.” She detailed how the team of women her freshman year displayed the many ways in which one could be both an amazing ski racer and also completely invested in an opposite pursuit. “Lydia [Blanchet] for example, to be so excited about skiing and so talented as a ski racer, but then also sometimes, she would prioritize whitewater kayaking. Or, Taryn [Hunt-Smith] who was casually one of the best skiers on the team but also getting citations in every class and being pre-med… I think that was really eye opening to me.” 

With these role models and examples, Ogden allowed herself to pursue other things outside of skiing. She also devoted herself wholeheartedly to the team and racing collegiately and didn’t compete in any international races for those first two years of school. “My freshman year that was kind of on purpose,” she explained, “I just needed a break, and I just wanted to focus on college skiing.” In November of the following year, as she was warming up to the idea of returning to international racing, Ogden broke her hand. “I was like, man, I don’t need to do that, I’ll just ease into the season and get my hand healed. But in the process of not going to the U23 [Championships], I also got booted off the national team, because I didn’t do any international racing for two years at this point.” 

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Ogden. “I think in the moment I was sad about it, I had been on the development team for three years at that point, and I was a little bummed to lose that,” she shard, “But also, I wasn’t as sad about it as I expected to be and that next season, when I wasn’t on the national team, it was like a huge sigh of relief, if anything, because I felt a lot less pressure to perform.” 

However, the lack of international racing didn’t stop Ogden from achieving outstanding results. In 2018, as a freshman named to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) team for Dartmouth, she took the win in both events at the championships by astonishing margins. In addition she earned seven collegiate victories that season, landed on the podium ten times, and never finished lower than fourth place. The next year, recovering from a broken hand, Ogden finished on the podium in every collegiate race she entered, save for one fourth place finish at NCAAs. 

Moving into her junior year of college, Ogden found herself back on the international stage for the Tour de Ski (2019/2020) as well as for the Scandinavian Ski Tour. “It was kind of a perfect system for a college student because it was a ton of World Cup racing, but really condensed, into just two weeks of missed school,” she explained. In this way, Ogden was able to accrue eight and six World Cup starts from each event series respectively, making for fourteen international appearances after several seasons away. “That year, I got pretty inspired to pursue that a little bit more fully. So throughout the winter, I started making the decision that I wanted to ski more for the national team and for Stratton again, instead of Dartmouth, the next year, after my three years of skiing for Dartmouth, so that I could take the winter term off from school and try to do a few more World Cups because I was feeling really excited about that, and had some success, especially in the Tour de Ski.” 

Ogden finished in the top-thirty in her first attempt at the challenging multi-stage event, ending up 28th overall. “I was feeling confident in my ski racing, and excited and passionate about it again, so I wanted to pursue it,” explained Ogden. 

If you’ve been following the timeline of this story, you will know what happens next. Enter COVID-19. 

At the end of the 2019/2020 season, the World Cup finals scheduled to take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota were canceled and everyone headed home. For Ogden, the timing of the global pandemic happened to work in her favor. The following race season, 2020/2021 was virtually non-existent for the eastern collegiate circuit and with college classes moved online, Ogden was able to keep up with her studies no matter where in the world she was. “When COVID hit, no one was skiing for Dartmouth, it turned out, so I got really lucky on that one, and I was able to take some online terms and continue training with Stratton. So, it was really a year where I was skiing professionally, even though I was still in college.” Ogden reflected that she got “weirdly lucky” with the COVID, “because otherwise, I think I probably would have graduated late if I hadn’t been able to take those remote terms.” 

As it was, Ogden graduated from Dartmouth in June of 2021, having completed school in just four years, and the 2020/2021 race season became the first season that she was fully on the World Cup circuit. Ogden wasn’t guaranteed a full season of World Cup racing to begin with but she had starts for Period I, and if she raced well there she could stay for Period II, and so on. Racing in Davos before Christmas break, Ogden finished 22nd in the 10 k skate, securing her ticket to later season races. “That worked out great for me, partly because of COVID, it meant that some of the World Cups were a bit poorly attended, so it was pretty easy to score points and keep on racing, whereas in a normally year it’s a little tougher to score points in Period One,” she explained. 

Although, there were other, less desirable outcomes from COVID. “I really enjoyed being on the road longer in the fact that I was able to get to know the team really well and feel like I was really a part of it, and feel really accepted in that environment and that group, but parts of it were also, really, really hard for me,” she said. 

For one, as a COVID precaution, the US Ski Team implemented “bubbles” and athletes stayed with the same roommate all season, limiting interactions even among teammates. “One thing that was really tough was, because of the COVID travel restrictions, it was very claustrophobic because we weren’t really supposed to leave to go home at all, or leave the bubble,” Ogden explained. “And even if we could, like if we wanted to, for me it was hard because I was really worried about my parents.” At this point, Ogden’s father, John, was undergoing another round of chemotherapy for cancer, putting him in a high-risk category if he were to catch COVID. “So I didn’t want to travel home and get him sick, but I was feeling very stuck. I couldn’t leave, and I’m definitely a homebody, so being on the road for that long was really tough for me.” 

These feelings were building, particularly as Christmas break approached, “right before Christmas, I was definitely overwhelmingly homesick, where I was just like, I don’t even know what to do,” said Ogden. “I was feeling stuck, I couldn’t go home, the coaches didn’t want me to go home, and I didn’t really want to put my parents in any sort of danger because I was worried about that.” Thankfully, around this time, John became eligible for a vaccine which took some of the worry off his daughter’s plate. “[That] was one of the most exciting things, I was just thrilled about that because I had to worry a bit less about him, but also because it meant I could feel okay about going home.” 

Ogden stayed in Europe to race the Tour de Ski, her second showing at the event. She finished 23rd overall, having posted two top-twenty finishes over the course of the Tour and several more top-thirties. After completing the Tour, Ogden returned home to Vermont for two weeks before the World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. 

At the 2021 World Championships, Ogden was joined by her brother Ben, who made an impressive championship debut, qualifying 11th in the sprint and ultimately finishing in 17th. Regarding having her brother around, Ogden shared, “Having Ben on the World Cup was great. He’s an entertaining kid. It has also been really fun to watch him finding success and navigating the World Cup in his own unique way. I am really proud of the way that he approaches training and racing, he doesn’t let anyone tell him what he can and can’t do, and makes sure he prioritizes school and jobs and his teammates, even when it appears on the surface to be the detriment of a perfect training/racing plan.”

Ogden finished out the 2021/2022 World Cup season with the rest of her teammates in Engadin, Switzerland before returning home. “I was pretty excited to go home at the end of the season, but a little bit less desperate at that point.” In spite of this, Ogden had realized that being on the road for such a long time was a significant challenge and said it was “hard for me to rationalize doing it again.” Surrounded by older teammates who had been navigating this challenge for many seasons, Ogden asked for advice. “They [told me] this year has been really different than every other year, because of COVID, and you can’t judge the experience based on a COVID year.” Hearing this, Ogden decided to give it another year. 

At the same time, she was wrapping up her time at Dartmouth. Given her gap year experience, Ogden was nervous about losing the balance and distraction that school provided from skiing. “I actually, that winter, started applying to grad schools with remote programs for social work,” explained Ogden, “I wanted to have something to do the next year and also, because I was kind of thinking maybe this [skiing] wouldn’t last that much longer for me, because I just really was not enjoying myself that much.” Ogden also pointed out that, perhaps an oft-underrated part of professional skiing is the challenge of earning money from it. “It’s pretty tough to do,” said Ogden, “and involves either being very fast, or extremely good at Instagram marketing… so [that] made it a little bit less sustainable for me, on top of the homesickness and not really enjoying the traveling too much.” 

Recognizing this, Ogden started graduate school online in September (2021) through the Columbia School of Social Work. Having committed to these studies, Ogden would soon have to make another decision, given that part of the program requires a practical, internship component. “At the end of the winter, I had to decide if I would not be ski racing next winter so that I could do my practical, and I had pushed that off for a year, so that I could just do the online classes and some ski racing.” With this knowledge, Ogden entered the 2021/2022 season with an open mind, asking herself the questions, “is this sustainable? Is it something I want to do for longer? In which case I will apply for  a leave of absence from school? Or is it something that I’m not really that excited about anymore and I will instead start the process of getting myself placed for that internship?”

An added boon to keep racing this season was the fact that it was an Olympic year. In the end, Ogden was not named to the 2022 Olympic team but she was quick to make it clear that this did not factor into her decision to retire at the end of the season. “I wanted to put my best foot forward, to see if I could qualify for the Olympics. Which obviously, I didn’t. But I would like to clarify that was not why I wanted to stop… I was thinking about it before that.”

That being said, Ogden shared candidly that it was difficult not to make the team. “[I] can’t understate the fact that it was really hard emotionally to not qualify, to put that much effort and training and goals and everything into trying, and then fall short. That was definitely hard, emotionally.” But putting on a positive spin, Ogden noted, “I got really lucky, because when I was home, instead of going to the Olympics, I was in Vermont and I love it in Vermont.” 

Taking a bit of a mid-season break, Ogden lifted a little pressure off herself for training and skied for enjoyment, rather than in pursuit of a goal. She also did some volunteer coaching for the local ski club, Ford Sayre Nordic. “I really loved doing that, and it got me really excited about that aspect of the ski world,” explained Ogden. “During that month of the Olympics, I was kind of sad from not qualifying but also kind of happy because I got to do this stuff where I was hanging out with kids and going skiing with different people, and skiing for fun and going to the eastern SuperTours… I sort of forgot how much it’s like a blast. The eastern ski community is pretty cool.” 

Through these various outlets, Ogden was coming to a realization. “Showing up to a race where I knew so many people there and a community where I felt really valued for myself and not for how I ended up doing in the races, or that type of thing – it was just really amazing to see people and re-engage with that community in a way that reminded me that I’m a part of it because of who I am, and not because of any results I had.” The weeks that she spent in New England showed Ogden a path to fulfillment and engagement with the ski community outside of competitive racing, “I think over those few weeks, when I was home and racing in the east and really enjoying that, I started being ready to be done with skiing, in part because I was like, I’m really happy right now,” she explained. 

For someone whose life and identity has been so integrally tied to ski racing, making the decision to step away can be a frightening prospect. “Part of me was scared of losing the ski community,” reflected Ogden, “It’s been such a huge part of my life that I was really scared of not having it anymore, and part of that experience reminded me that I’m not going to lose it. It’s not ever going to be something that goes away, I’m going to be a part of this community and with these people forever. I think it hadn’t really occurred to me that that was the case. I’d never been a part of the ski community as anything other than an athlete.” 

With this decision “figured out,” Ogden was ready to return to the World Cup season to get some closure and to go race for fun. She rejoined the US team abroad in Lahti, Finland and was able to race the legendary Holmenkollen 30 k event where she finished 37th, before a positive COVID test took her out of contention. “So I didn’t end up actually doing my last World Cups,” laughed Ogden, “But I still had a great time being quarantined with Hailey [Swirbul] (who also tested positive). We were kind of suffering, but once we were feeling a little better we got to explore Oslo. And Hailey is one of my best friends and a really important part of my ski career, so it was kind of fun, honestly, [to have] a little impromptu vacation with just Hailey at the end of the season.” 

Wanting to close out her career with her SMS T2 teammates, Ogden traveled to Whistler, BC for the combined Canadian Nationals/Super Tour Finals event once she was no longer contagious. Unfortunately, an untimely ear infection meant that she spent most of the week watching Netflix and taking antibiotics. “By the end of the week, [I] was finally able to rally for some races, where I truly had no expectations. I had literally not trained in the past month and still kind of had an ear infection and a cough from COVID, so not thriving, but it was pretty fun. It was nice to be able to celebrate the end of my career with my Stratton teammates who’ve been there, especially Julia [Kern] and Jessie [Diggins], since day one. So I was lucky to be able to do that, even though they were not the most enjoyable races of my life, per se,” she concluded. 

Asked to reflect on her career highlights, Ogden mentioned the World Junior performances in Soldier Hollow, but added quickly, “I don’t like that to be my career highlight because I was not happy then. But I would say the 2019/2020 Tour de Ski was one of the real highs of my career. That was something that was a hard thing to do and I was really excited that I’d accomplished it.” 

She also noted her first World Cup starts during the 2016 Canadian Ski Tour when she was a senior in high school were a high point. “I think it was an eight-stage tour, and the first World Cup I’d ever done, and that was really gratifying and exciting. Putting on my World Cup bib for the first time was a moment that I will not forget. I got to give my dad a hug on the side of the course when I was warming up, and he was crying. Very cute,” smiled Ogden. 

Her collegiate races were another notable experience for Ogden, “Almost all the races I did for Dartmouth were really up there,” she said, “but going to NCAA my freshman year was a pretty incredible experience. I had never really had the experience of racing on a team until college. I absolutely loved being able to go into races and know that my result was going towards something bigger and that I was working with a bunch of people to accomplish a goal.” 

Offering advice to the next generation, Ogden said “my advice to younger skiers would be to make sure you’re thinking about what makes skiing fun and making sure you prioritize that the whole time. And also, not trying to be just a skier — trying to focus on everything that makes you a complete person, because if you focus on being 100% skier, sometimes it can make this game a little harder.” 

Though she is stepping away from competitive racing, Ogden fully intends to remain involved in the ski community. She applied to be on the NENSA board and says, “I’m going to really throw myself into this community, but in a way that’s a little bit more sustainable for me and feels more fulfilling and exciting.” She is continuing to work her way towards a master’s degree in social work, in the specific track of clinical social work with a focus on working with children and families. The current plan is to start her internship for the program in September and eventually graduate in the spring of 2024. “After that I hope to get a job, but as to what job, I’m not sure!” Ogden said, “Hopefully by that point I will have more clarity on that.”

“So after the World Cup, Olympics, and NCAAs, is that it for you this season?”

“Well…I think I’m going to race the Rikert Grand Prix this weekend.” (He won).

I couldn’t have stumbled upon a more apt soundbite to describe Ben Ogden, and he offered it up ten seconds into our interview.

Skiing for the US Ski Team and University of Vermont (UVM), Ogden is primed to write the next chapter in American men’s skiing – a Vermonter who can’t help but love Vermont skiing, a racer who races for the sake of racing. He’s also an author that you get a sense doesn’t want to quite yet claim that he is holding the pen.

For now, then, that pen falls to me:

“If young potential was representing a country, it would have been draped in an American flag.”

I wrote that after the first day of World Cup racing this season in Ruka last November. Ogden, alongside US teammates JC Schoonmaker and Luke Jager – all 21 or 22 years old – had sprinted their way to top 10 qualifiers in the classic sprint. (Schoonmaker eventually made the semi-finals).

It was a line that proved to be a thesis for the US Men’s Ski Team during the 2021-22 season. Each result from Ogden and his teammates – neatly introduced to the world when they won the team relay at the World Junior Ski Championships in 2019 – backing up the argument that the youngest US men were ready to mix-it-up with their European counterparts at the sport’s highest level.

For Ogden, that included a slew of World Cup results in Periods I and II, an Olympics highlighted by a semi-finals appearance in the classic sprint in February, and an NCAA Championship sweep in March.

The juxtaposition in those latter two highlights is cause for pause, so again:

In the same year that Ben Ogden raced the Olympics, someway and somehow, he won an NCAA Championship.

That confluence of talent and time has happened exactly twice before Ogden, and once after. The first before came a half-century ago, when fellow Vermonter Stan Dunklee represented the USA at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics before winning NCAAs a couple weeks later. The second before came a mere two hours prior to Ogden, when Novie McCabe (University of Utah) won the this year’s women’s 5 k Classic NCAA Championship. Likewise, the one time after came when Sophia Laukli (University of Utah) won this year’s 15 k Freestyle NCAA Championship.

In other words, those who race in the stars-and-stripes were able to will those stars to align in a way that’s never been seen before. Once there was a lone skier able to accomplish the Olympics-NCAA double, and now, after a week in Utah in 2022, there are four.

That represents a paradigm shift in American skiing: a generation of skiers reaching the top of the sport younger than ever before, without allowing themselves stray too far from the American skiing community in which they grew up and remain an integral part in sustaining.

In an interview with FasterSkier, Ogden provided insights into the underlying attitudes that are driving that success among his cohort of top American skiers, with one theme pervading throughout: skiing fast means “skiing” –the places, people, and feelings of joy for which that word comes to connate.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

On goal-setting for the Olympics and college skiing through the pandemic:

FasterSkier/Ben Theyerl (FS): There’s been a lot of different levels you were competing on this year – Olympics, World Cup, NCAAs, and now citizen racing – what were you looking at in terms of goal setting coming into this season?

Ben Ogden (BO): Yeah, I knew this year was going to be a big year for goals for me. If I’m honest, a lot of that was because the last two years drove home that you can’t take anything for granted in terms of opportunities.

In a way that pushed me to say ‘you need to try and have your cake and eat it too,’ which meant going to the Olympics and going to NCAAs. That felt weird to shoot for because I knew there were things that were completely out of my control which could keep that from happening. For instance, if I ended up getting COVID while in Beijing, or if I was contact traced, I wasn’t going to be home in time to race the Carnivals I needed [in order to qualify for NCAAs].

I really wanted to do both because this is the only time I could. But I didn’t dare fixate on it too much. It just felt like it would be such a horrendous disappointment if something happened, and I couldn’t. So, in the first half of the season, I really tried to keep my priorities on the World Cup.

I had smaller goals there too, [like advancing] to a semi-final in a Classic Sprint, or qualifying in a Skate [sprint],

Like I said though, ‘having your cake and eating it too’ was the big goal, and it’s just unbelievable that it could happen not only for all three of us – JC (Schoonmaker), Luke (Jager) and I – and also Novie (McCabe) and Sophia (Laukli) on the women’s side. We were all thinking the same way.

It was [our] only chance to do the Olympics and NCAAs and it happened.

FS: That is a pretty sweet moment where the stars aligned…

BO: It’s totally crazy. I mean, like I said, the big thing I went into this season with was the idea that this was my only chance to do [the Olympics and NCAAs].

It made me lucky too. I came into NCAAs with this confidence I took from the rest of the season which was an insane mental advantage. Having results on the World Cup and at the Olympics represented steady progress on other goals that made me ready to complete [the NCAA] one.

FS: When did those goals that you accomplished this season get set? You took your first NCAA title at the 10 k Classic in Bozeman (in 2020), and then COVID hit before you could go for the 20 k, and everything got weirder from there. How did that affect your long-term goal making?

BO: Bozeman was such a weird experience. What I took from that was actually more of a shift towards my approach to NCAAs this year. I sort of felt like I checked off the NCAA win from my list of goals at Bozeman, so my goals were more team-oriented [for UVM]. That meant trying to get everybody psyched, make a connection with the Alpine skiers, and see if we could get them fired up to lift UVM to a great team finish.

FS: You certainly did your part on that front. You became the 14th male skier to sweep NCAAs*. You’re also the first male American-born athlete to do so**. Any reflections on what that means to you?

BO: I’m really proud to put my name on that list, obviously. There are some really talented skiers who have done [a sweep] in the past. Like I said, I was really obsessed with the team scoring, so I was focused on doing everything I possibly could there and didn’t realize I was the first [male] American ever.

But that feels really good.

FS: This is me being a reporter here, but to me that speaks a lot to you and the group of guys you’re with on the US team who are really pushing American skiing forward. Like that checks off a big box with an American doing that at NCAAs.

BO: Totally, it’s another thing to be really proud of between all of us.

On following his sister Katharine’s NCAA Success:

FS: I should add that while you were the first American man to complete an NCAAs sweep, you weren’t the first Ogden. I have to ask, was Katharine having done this a couple of years ago (KO swept NCAAs at Steamboat Springs in 2018, she also won the 15 k Classic in 2019) on your mind going into this year?

BO: Oh yeah. It’s kind of funny, actually. I remember last year, I tried to petition the NCAA to race at Nationals because I couldn’t race some Carnivals due to COVID restrictions. When my petition wasn’t accepted, I remember thinking to myself, ‘Well, there goes my only opportunity to tie Katharine.’ But that was more of a funny thought than a driving force for me. I told someone else that was asking me that it didn’t matter if I tied her number of wins. But to do it was pretty cool…

I should be clear though, my wins certainly weren’t in as commanding a fashion as hers. I remember going to Stowe when I was a freshman [in 2019] and while we were warming up for the 20 k I turned my head and was like, ‘Oh, there goes Katharine’ and there was no one else in sight. It was like, ‘My gosh, this is insane.’ That’s not even talking about Steamboat (in 2018) which was pretty darn cool. She not only swept, but helped carry Dartmouth to one of their overall better finishes.

So yeah, all that makes it feel really good to match her in wins and take UVM to a 2nd place, which is pretty exciting for us.

On UVM and college skiing this year, and their place in his development as a skier:

FS: On that UVM front, your team was really back to dominating the EISA this year. How did that come together? And how has that program helped you develop as a skier the past few years?

BO: When I was a freshman, we had a bunch of older guys on the team that were getting UVM great results. When they graduated, we were still very good in the EISA, but we weren’t quite as dominant. It took some time to get back.[For example,] Jacob Nystadt, our Swede, is a sophomore this year, and it was the first year he could figure out the rhythm and training that works for the college circuit (after the EISA raced an abbreviated season last season).

We have such a talented team and push each other hard in every interval. Everyone helps out with the motivation, and we’re all on a very high level where we know it’s not just about training hard, but training smart as well.

One of our strengths is that we all have a different upbringing and bring something unique to the table. Our NCAA Championship team this year was a Norwegian, a Swede, and an American, and beyond that there’s even more geographic diversity from across the country and the world. That all comes together to build and balance training, and then we can put it all together on the racecourse.

FS: How does (Patrick) Weaver (UVM Head Coach) contribute to that? How do you and him work to balance the NCAA skiing along with the World Cup side of things on the US Team?

BO: Patrick has been a huge part of my development as a skier. I feel like I’ve gotten so much stronger in my four years at UVM, and that’s all due to him. I think our philosophies towards skiing line up remarkably well, which comes from him having a similar experience – being an Olympian, being on the World Cup, skiing professionally for many years, but still wanting to, and having, skied in college. At every turn, he’s had advice for me that comes from the perspective of someone who really wants me to succeed in skiing on all levels. He’s not just interested in seeing me do well at NCAAs or at Carnivals, but instead supports me no matter what I want to do.

This year there were a few moments where it looked like it might be questionable whether I could race World Cups and make it home to compete in some Carnivals. But when it came down to it, Weaver left the decision up to me, which really made a difference. If you have a coach trying to force you to do something that you don’t want to do, it’s not conducive to happiness in your skiing. And Weaver stresses that; happiness is the driving factor towards speed. You can train like a madman, be in the best shape ever, but if your head isn’t in the right place, and you’re not doing what you think is important, then you might as well not be training at all.

Weaver’s understanding of that was a huge part of my ability to achieve my goals this year. College skiing is where I’m happiest, he knows that, and his understanding of why that is a big part of our ability to achieve our goals as a team this season.

FS: Within that season, was there a moment where you got nervous about whether the NCAA Championships were going to be possible? Like when you went to the [first race of the year] at Colby, and they cancel the second day (due to cold weather), did it make you go, ‘Crap, I need to find another Carnival now?’

BO: Oh yeah. That was a case in which Patrick and I were talking and like, ‘Oh gosh, this could be the end right here.’ We changed my plans to book a flight home from [the Olympics] on February 17th so that if I needed, I could race just the second day of the Middlebury Carnival on February 19th. It would have been insane, but I would have done it just to get the points I needed.

Patrick talked to the EISA and thankfully all the coaches were like, ‘No, that’s totally fine. Three races (all of which Ogden won) and the Olympics are plenty to qualify [for NCAAs].”

On the fun of racing the NCAA Championship Mass Start:

FS: Did you end up watching the NCAA 20 k footage at all?

BO: Yeah, actually, I did.

FS: I was curious what your race plan was going into that mass start?

BO: Haha, well you know, and I think you can tell by watching that race, I’m not exactly known for my detailed race plans. In that race in particular I knew that I was going to have to be careful – the alpiners (from UVM) and all my friends I grew up skiing with in Vermont were out there, and with them cheering from lap one there was a good chance I just got revved up and went for it then.

I figured my best chance at winning would be to wait until the last lap and try to make it happen there, but then, you know, I was riding a high from winning a couple days earlier and the dream of winning off the front kept popping to my head. If you watch the race closely, you saw my move on lap four (of six), which was the definition of wishful thinking.

I went up that hill, came around to take a feed on lap five and I was like, ‘Oh God, what have I done?’

But I ended up finishing the race and got away with it.

It’s funny because so many people after the race were like, ‘Oh man, you’re built different, you’re toying with the field out there’ and I was like, ‘Oh that’s not at all how it felt.’

FS: You can count me in that lot. I was watching you bounce back and forth at the front going, ‘Man, he’s like the leader of the peloton, he’s got it under control!’

BO: (laughs) Well on Cabin Hill, it didn’t feel like that. We went up the Hollow and I looked around at who was with me and thought I was maybe playing for a podium. I was able to tuck into the pack to stay up in front, and then Bernie (Flaschberger, from Denver University) went forward on one of the sprint hills. I thought he was going to drop us, but I tried to ski up and was surprised that I could stay with him. That’s when I began to think maybe I can do this, and so I went for it. Again, it was the extra confidence for sure.

FS: I think for us, who watch you on the World Cup all the time, it was a different side of your racing to watch. To see some of the maneuvering was pretty cool.

BO: I tell you man, it’s a real treat to race at the front of a mass start. I did quite a few mass starts on the World Cup this year, but there I’m starting in bib 70, the accordion in the field is so aggressive, and it is just so hard to move up.

On the US Ski Team’s success this season, and what comes next:

FS: I know you’re racing the Rikert Grand Prix this weekend, but with your season being pretty much over I was wondering if you’d be willing to share some early reflections on a pretty amazing season for you and your teammates on a lot of different fronts?

BO: Yeah, I’m really happy with what I’ve done this year.

FS: Do you have an early favorite moment at all?

BO: Again, it’s early still, but I would be surprised if there’s a lot of moments in my ski career that rival that 20 k at NCAAs as far as how cool of a race it was. There were so many people that I knew out there cheering, and then after it was just instant happiness with everyone out there. Good race, bad race, whatever, everyone was ready to relax, cheer on the women’s race, and just enjoy the most perfect day in the Utah sun. Can’t ask for anything more than that.

I shouldn’t discount the moments on the World Cup that were a lot of fun either. Reaching the semi-final at Davos was really exciting, and then the semi-final at the Olympics after was a crazy, cool race. Those are the moments that motivate me for World Cup racing in the future because I wasn’t on the top, but I got a real taste of what it’s like to be in the mix.

The big takeaway from this year for me is that the best skiing happens when you’re having fun, and I couldn’t be luckier with the group that I have [at UVM] and that I’m with on the World Cup. JC, Luke, and Gus – they really are my best friends, skiing or not, which is incredible. With being on [those] teams, you’re somewhat placed in those groups randomly, right? They don’t choose the World Cup team based on personality. And yet, if you have a good group, it makes the World Cup experience 1000 times better. I’m sure that there will be seasons and races in the future where we’re not quite feeling like the kings of the world every other weekend. That’s when I’ll come back to memories from this season and remind myself of what’s important.

FS: It’s pretty darn cool to watch you guys. My coach Tracey Cote at Colby used to say when she started in college skiing back in the late 1990s she would watch the World Cup and the Carnival skiers and they didn’t look anything alike, and maybe five years ago, she said we’d gotten to where Carnival skiers were starting to look like those skiers on the World Cup. I think with you, it’s the next step – the Carnival skiers are on the World Cup. Do you guys have a notion that you’re pushing the sport forward, especially on the men’s side, in the US?

BO: A little bit, but I think that’s more something people say to us than what we’re focused on. 

I think for us it’s demonstrating that racing in College is fun and we all understand that the World Cup can be too. Sometimes, people just take themselves way too seriously on the World Cup, and I think that only serves to detract from their ability, and at the end of the day, their happiness too.

I guess it feels like we’re pushing the limits a little bit by doing that, and with our results, but really one of the things that makes us all so cohesive is the shared sense that what we dream of in skiing is a lot bigger than what we’ve done so far.

With that sense, every race sort of feels like it’s already a piece of the past, if that makes sense. For example, that sprint at the Olympics was awesome for me, and I patted myself on the back. But then again, I looked around and everyone on the team could say ‘Your dream is to be better’ and because of that I can see myself being in the final or on the podium one day.

I know the other boys think the same way, and that’s what is really fun about the whole group. We all finish a race and we’re all already talking about what we could have done better and what type of training is going to help make us faster in that realm. And now, because of that, we’re motivated, and we’ll talk about it all summer and train together too.

FS: Yeah, like one of you guys said in a comment to Nat (Herz), [FasterSkier’s Olympics Correspondent], that there was a race at the Olympics where you were skiing along and Klæbo passed you, and you were like ‘holy crap I can ski with him, even if it’s just for a hill. Like, the goal is one day to ski with him much longer but that’s down the road.’ I thought that was a great metaphor for where you guys are in your skiing right there.

BO: That was definitely me in the 15 k classic. He lapped me and I skied with him up the hill and then over a little of the flat, and yeah, he beat me by how many minutes? But you know what, for that five-minute stretch there I could ski with him. That gives you an idea for what it takes to be where your goals are. I’m glad you picked up on that.

FS: Lastly, with you being a senior undergrad at UVM, I wanted to see if you could give us any leads on where we might see you skiing next year?

BO: I don’t know exactly. I’m just starting to get my head around it after NCAAs, but I’ll have a meeting with Weaver and see what he thinks and talk about what I want to do. I had big plans to just do an accelerated master’s in Engineering and stay at UVM for a fifth year. That was a year ago though, and then between the Olympics and World Cup I ended up missing 7 weeks of school. So, I had to ease off on that.

 It comes down to aspirations outside of skiing, which I definitely have, but with things taking off like they have this year I probably see myself doing something similar to this year at this moment. I don’t not see myself in school next year, and I still hopefully can balance it with whatever comes next with the next ski season.

FS: Well, wherever life lands you, I know I speak for a lot that we’ll be looking forward to seeing you ski, and congratulations on an incredible season.

NCAA History Notes:

*Ogden is the 9th skier to win NCAAs in its current format, winning both the 10 k Classic and 20 k Freestyle. This format has been skied since 1989. In the decade prior to the change from 1980-1988 five skier swept NCAAs by winning both a 10 k Classic and 3 x 5 k Classic Team Relay.

**Ogden is the 2nd American citizen, after Norwegian immigrant John Aalberg completed a sweep for the University of Utah in 1984.

Like Pokorny, Phinney is a 2016 graduate of Middlebury College, before continuing with her ski career, first with the SVSEF Gold Team and then the SMS T2 team until 2020. The 2019-2019 season was perhaps her peak year from a performance perspective; spending ample time in Europe racing World Cups, Phinney popped a top-20 during a skate sprint in Lahti, after having taken third at U.S. Nationals a month prior, behind Julia Kern and Hannah Halvorsen. At the end of the season, a crash during Spring Series left Phinney with a torn labrum in her shoulder, for which she underwent surgery later that year and rehabbed, before eventually stepping away from professional skiing. 

Phinney is currently in her final semester of graduate school where she’d pursuing a Master’s Degree in Health Systems, Management, and Policy through the Colorado School of Public Health. She now lives in her hometown of Boulder, CO with her partner, fellow retired SMS T2 skier Kyle Bratrud. 

FasterSkier (FS): When did you begin the process of becoming certified as a TD? What was your experience like with the certification process? Were you able to “fast-track” given your experience as an athlete and has your experience as a high level racer been an asset?

Kelsey Phinney (KP): I began the process of becoming a TD this past fall after a conversation with Annie Pokorny about ways to stay involved with the sport. My experience as a former racer has certainly been an asset. While I have learned much more about the specific rules than I knew when I was racing, I hope my ability to bring a racer’s perspective to decisions – like where to start and end turning zones in a classic race –  helps make races safer and more fair.

FS: You mentioned Annie helped get you involved. Can you say more about what those conversations were like? What/who were some of the other factors/people that motivated you to become a TD? 

KP: The primary reason I looked into becoming a TD was to give back to the sport within my current time constraints as a full-time graduate student. There is also a shortage of TDs in Colorado, which motivated me to follow through with the training and certification process following my conversation with Annie. 

Since I’m currently living in Boulder, the races hosted in Colorado are all within driving distance for me. This year, I was the assistant TD at a junior race in Aspen the weekend after my fall semester wrapped up, as well as at a college race in Steamboat a couple of weeks ago.

FS: There is an overall need for TDs in the U.S., and while there are some noteworthy female TDs who have or will be jury members at the World Cup, World Championship, and Olympic level, there are few women in the role domestically. We ran an article about the need for TDs in 2017 and at the time, there were only 10 women listed in the U.S. Is this something that you considered prior to becoming a TD? 

KP: To be honest, I didn’t think much about the lack of female representation of officials when I decided to work towards becoming a TD, but I do think representation matters and it is important to have diverse voices and perspectives included in the decision-making process. I’m happy to contribute to increased representation of women among the officials domestically. I think my racing experience and age are other important qualities I bring to the table.

Skiing-wise, Ian Torchia has nearly done it all. And now, in life, he’s ready to do some more.

In an Instagram post following the American Birkiebeiner, Torchia announced that he is retiring from professional skiing with his trademark blend of gratitude and humor, saying, “In the end I won’t remember the races won (a few) or lost (many more) but the lifelong bonds of teammates, the support of friends and family, and how special the ski community as a whole is.”

Heading into retirement, Torchia seemed to take a victory lap through the Midwest marathon circuit, starting with a win in the 37 k classic City of Lakes Loppet in Minneapolis on February 5th. He then went back-to-back to the following weekend at the Mora Vassaloppet, winning both the 48 k skate and classic races within one weekend. At the Birkie on February 26th, Torchia finished 5th in the 50 k skate, roughly 15 seconds behind the winner, Gerard Agnellet of France. Not a bad run.

That skiing contains truths about how to live a good life is not a unique notion, but Torchia had a one-of-a-kind knack for finding those truths and sharing what he learned. He also did so, of course, while racing very fast. Torchia lived out the wildest dreams that every young Midwestern kid has when lined up for the Junior Birkie – coming from Rochester, Minnesota to win a junior national title, ski for legendary coach Sten Fjeldheim at Northern Michigan University (NMU), add to that program’s legacy by winning a NCAA title in 2018, be nominated to the US Ski Team, race the World Cup, win the Birkie in 2021, and become training partners with some of the best athletes in the US, like Jessie Diggins.

It’s been a busy path that’s seen him in constant movement. But that suits Torchia.

When FasterSkier caught up with him less than a week after his announced retirement, he was stepping out from a visit to the St. Louis Aquarium on a day trip with his brother’s kids. Already on the move, Torchia was gracious enough to share what’s next, and what, in these early days of retrospection, he has learned from our sport.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

On the decision to retire and what comes next:

Ben Theyerl / FasterSkier (FS) : Starting with a pretty simple question; how are you feeling right now?

Ian Torchia (IT): I’m feeling great. I’m in St. Louis with my brother’s family and their five kids. It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind. I’m just taking a week off – not running or doing anything which I haven’t done in a long, long time. But I’m just feeling very energetic about what’s next.

I’m looking forward to a second interview for a job right now. I want to get some experience as a medical scribe before going to medical school to become an osteopathic physician. Between that, taking the MCAT, and a few prerequisites, it’s going to be a busy next two years.

FS: I know you just retired, but have to ask, any plans to throw your hat into citizen races the rest of the season?

IT: Maybe the Great Bear Chase. Realistically, my next race effort is going to be in Marquette, MI with my college buddies. There’s a route [in Marquette] where you go down County Road 510 to the Lake (Superior) and back, it’s 18mi or so, and we’ve wondered whether on an icy day you could do it in under an hour.

FS: Have you thought about what racing looks like next season for you?

IT: I want to do Senior Nationals in [Houghton, Michigan]. I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t in Houghton (Torchia is based out of Ann Arbor, MI). And probably, the Birkie.

FS: Which races would you want to race again at Nationals? Like are you targeting the 30 k, or have you thought that far yet?

IT: I mean, I had a lot of fun with sprint’s this year, and I qualified for my first final at Nationals, so while I haven’t thought too much about it, I’m going to miss doing those types of races so why not do one more? It’s more just that I want to do the races that I know that I like racing. A shorter, classic race is not really my forte, but like a longer classic race, or a skate marathon, I’m game. I think it’s a skate 30 k at Nationals next year, so that would be cool.

FS: With your goals set towards medical school, have you put any thought towards where you’d like to go?

IT: This is all early, but Pacific Northwest University in Yakima, Washington has an osteopathic school, and I think it’d be really cool to move out West for four years. But Kameron and I (Torchia’s wife) have definitely talked about coming back to the Midwest when everything’s said and done. And specifically, Marquette. We just love that place so much.

FS: Backing up, what was the process of coming to the decision that now is the right time to step away from professional skiing?

IT: I think it started at the beginning of the training season in May. I talked about it with my wife, and we both agreed that I should give it my best shot to qualify for the Olympics, because that’s always been my goal. At the time we also looked out beyond this season and said, ‘you know, the journey to become a doctor is a long one,’ and I need to get started at some time. I wasn’t thinking beyond this season with skiing, and personally, I was okay with that.

A lot of it comes down to just wanting other parts of my life. It’s hard being away from Kameron and our dog. I give a lot of props to the members of the US Ski Team who are away from their loved ones for four to five months every winter. It’s hard to do it, and yeah, one big reason to retire was actually being able to live with my wife.

Number two is, and I don’t want it to be misconstrued, but skiing at a professional level means being a little selfish – it is a big focus on you and yourself, and everyone around you is working for you. I think about life, and at some point, I wanted to step back and give back, and I think that’s the main goal I have now. My goal to become an osteopathic physician is based around helping others, and there’s a lot of cool things in skiing to do that work on inspiring the youth and inspiring each other.

FS: Yeah, on the skiing end, I think I can say I’m sure there’s at least a hundred kids who would sign up for an “Ian Torchia skate clinic” at Wirth Park (in Minneapolis) anytime.

IT: (Laughing) Well, thanks. That’s something I want to try to bring here, actually, to Ann Arbor and downstate Michigan. When I go skiing on the one snowmaking loop around here, I really don’t see that many kids out. So if in these next few years, I could get something going where I can help bring even more kids out from Detroit and get them on skis, it would be really cool. I’d love to do that.

On a life, so far, spent skiing:

FS: I know it’s early, but I wanted to go all the way back and get your retrospective on your time in skiing, if you’re okay with that?

IT: Oh that’s all I’ve been thinking about, so yeah.

FS: You’re from Minnesota, which is pretty well-known, but what’s glanced over is you’re from Rochester, which is I-90, not I-94 — it’s south of most of the ski leagues and big clubs. Coming from there, what drew you to Nordic skiing over say, running, which you and your older brothers were also very successful in?

IT: I credit my mom for starting all of this. Like, they put me on skis the day before I turned two, apparently, and I definitely don’t remember that.

Beyond that, my parents started the high school team here in 2000 when I was five. I have four older siblings who are all four plus years older than me, and so since my mom had no choice but to bring me along, I was an honorary member of the team. That Rochester team has just grown and grown over the years – right now there’s like 200 kids every year and over half of those are newcomers who just want to try it out. I think they’re getting their first snowmaking loop now, which with the way things are going is important to being able to have a place to ski [in Rochester].

It was an unusual place to start skiing. My family was building the team, and I got to help build the trails. I look back and it may be what led me to love skate more than classic, since we didn’t have classic trails in high school.

I loved it. It was unique, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.

 FS: Then from there it was a Junior Nationals title, the Northern Michigan (NMU) team, NCAA championships, the US ski teams, the Birkie win. You’ve seen a lot of the sport. What does that journey look like from where you’re sitting right now?

IT: (pausing) I mean, yeah, it really is just looking back on it all. It sounds funny to say, but I look at that Junior Nationals title my junior year of high school as a pivotal moment in my life. I give a lot of credit to Sten Fjeldheim who met with me like a week after that happened. I was thinking I was going to run in college, and I ended up winning my first junior nationals race, he sent me an email, and the rest is history. It’s the one moment I look back on and go, where would I be now?

So I guess I would say to Sten, ‘Thanks for finding me and putting me on the path I’m on.’ I’m grateful for everyone who’s helped me out on the way. The support, as I look back on it, is insane. My best friends have come from skiing. My wife – I wouldn’t know her if it wasn’t for skiing (Kameron and Ian were teammates at NMU). It’s shaped my life.

Yeah, I’m done with the professional side of it, but I’m going to be doing the Birkie for many years to come.

FS: To return to that moment, you mentioned Sten and NMU. That’s a big legacy in Midwestern and US skiing that you were instrumental in sustaining. What made Sten and that experience special?

IT: I was just getting a massage from this guy in Marquette, and we were talking about Sten, and my masseuse of all people was like, ‘man, Marquette would be a different place if Sten Fjeldheim had never been here.’ And it’s so true. He transformed not only the Northern Michigan team into a powerhouse but helped make Marquette a skiing community. And he’s just a force of nature. The first time I ever talked to him, even across the phone, I was getting fired up. As soon as I hung up the phone, I wanted to ski for that guy. He has a way of lighting a fire inside you and getting you to be your best self. I definitely miss being coached by him. 

Marquette is my favorite place in the world and I’m lucky to say that it’s my wife’s too. It just has everything that you could ever want. Every year, it seemed I would find a new thing that I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you can do this here.’ Freshman year it was just running on trails all the time, the next it was mountain biking, and the next I discovered surfing on Lake Superior. It’s a cool playground with a Midwest community and a Midwest vibe, and it would be great one day to return there. I have a pipe dream that my friends could all live next to each other, and yeah, that would just be too good to be true.

FS:  That’s going to be quite the lineup in the waves out there.

Both talking here and reading back on a few interviews you’ve done with FasterSkier, I keep being struck by just how much you seem to revel in both the sport of Nordic skiing, and the people who you do the sport with. A couple of years ago, you said [to FasterSkier] that one of your all-time favorite moments was having three All-Americans from NMU in the same year with you, Adam Martin, and Jake Brown.

What is special about nordic skiing as a sport for you? What’s been at the center of the sport for you as you kind of climbed up its ranks?

IT: It sounds cliche, but it’s not the destination. It’s the journey along the way. My favorite memories are out, training on the roads, doing three-hour ODs, the trails and the van rides.

It’s crazy people who love to be out in crazy weather pushing their hardest. Like, you don’t need any team bonding activities when you’re out on a rainy cold three-hour OD. That’s the thing bringing you together.

FS: Two-part question: Looking back over everything, what’s one – your favorite result? And two – your favorite moment?

IT: Favorite result; winning NCAAs was really special. It wasn’t the hardest I’d pushed in a race, but the tactics are what I’m really proud of. I think oftentimes I feel like I have a responsibility in a pack to go hard, and so it was a testament to my teammates that a sprint developed there and I was able to come out on top.

Favorite moment: The Birkie Classic [last year] because I hadn’t won the day before (the 2020 Birkie was raced over four days, with a Saturday race featuring an elite skate race, and a Sunday race featuring an elite classic race) and there were just crazy conditions. I bonked and pushed through it.

FS: I mean, I’ve been on the Birkie trail all my life, and watching you trudge through those conditions (a couple of inches of new, wet, heavy, snow covered what was essentially ice during the race) was one of the crazier scenes I’ve ever seen.

IT: It was hard to understand-type ‘crazy.’

FS: Picking the Birkie as a favorite moment reminds me that you’ve really been one of the more fun athletes to watch at that race the past couple of years. Not only last year, but also the year before — I have to imagine skiing with Niklas Dyrhaug was pretty cool.

IT: Oh yeah, thanks for bringing that up. I was proud of that one too, because I was having cramps about halfway through and pushed through those and just kind of stayed in it. I wasn’t battling it out with Dyrhaug at the end, but got into a sprint for second and ended up with it. That was definitely a special race too.

I mean, just doing this is making me realize there’s many little special moments along the way. Just a lot of special moments…

FS: Which brings you to where you are now. I know that’s a lot of big questions but…

IT: I should also say that Stratton (Mountain School) was huge the past couple of years. I hadn’t had a great last year of college, but they still brought me on the team and that was just the most unique experience. Getting to learn alongside Jessie (Diggins), Simi and Sophie (Hamilton), and Kyle Bratrud. Pat (O’Brien) especially drew me to that team. It was just like Marquette with it being another special pocket of the world in Vermont where Nordic skiing is just the thing.

FS: Yeah, like you just rattled off being teammates with Jessie, Sophie, and Simi – that’s three of the most influential athletes in US skiing history right there…

IT: I mean, yeah. I have an Instagram post about it from right after Jessie won the silver (medal, in the Olympic 30 k freestyle). I had a matched interval bounding workout last fall where I was at threshold, and she had max. five-minute sets. We’re fifteen seconds into the first one and she was already breathing like a truck. Then she just keeps it pinned there for the next, I don’t even know, thirty or thirty-five minutes.

I was watching the Olympic 30 k live and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve seen this film before.’ When you see her doing that on the television, it’s pretty cool. When she’s right next to you it makes you go, ‘Ok, if I want to be that good, I have to work this hard.’

FS: She goes out and turns in a performance that’s not just the iconic moment of the Olympics for skiing, but for the whole country. That’s a pretty unique way to experience it.

IT: Just one of the coolest.

FS: So, after all that then, do you have any other thoughts?

IT: I’m just lucky, and happy…and probably gotta get back to the aquarium. 

FS: Well then, I’ll end by saying congratulations from all of us out there in skiing.

IT: Thanks man. Thanks everyone.

Earlier this season FIS made a behind-the-scenes video, highlighting Vale Veurich, the only long-term female wax technician on the World Cup circuit. Gender representation among wax techs is not the only area of inequality in the cross-country world but there are groups working to change this. 

One example is the Women Ski Coaches Association which launched in 2019 with the goal to “develop, retain, and advance women in ski coaching leadership.” While the WSCA is primarily focused on representation in coaching, as part of this work they hosted a wax webinar in the fall of 2020 titled “Waxing Skis & Waning the Gender Gap. Prior to the event, they conducted a survey which showed that seventy-six percent of participants did not have access to information that made them feel successful as a wax tech. Fifty percent responded “Yes” to the question: “Do you ever feel like you are at a disadvantage obtaining wax product or process information because of your gender?”

Systemic change takes time but there is no time like the present. At World Juniors in Lygna, Norway a few weeks ago the US contingent had five female staff members, including two female wax-techs. Both Lizzie Larkins and Julia Hayes spent the week learning and working as techs for the junior racers. FasterSkier caught up with Larkins to hear more about her involvement and perspective on this experience. 

The following interview has been edited slightly for clarity. 

FasterSkier (FS): Can you fill us in a little on your background? 

Lizzie Larkins (LL): When I reflect on my experience coaching thus far, I think, “Well, that escalated quickly!” I graduated in 2020 from UVM with a degree in Nutrition and Food Science and a lot of love for the sport of nordic skiing. Between graduating from UVM in a pandemic and moving to Bozeman, I lived in my hometown of Truckee, California. I started coaching full-time for Auburn Ski Club (the club I skied for in high school). I primarily coached the high school-aged comp team, but I also coached the Master’s team, middle school team, and did technique clinics. In August of 2021, I accepted the assistant coach position at MSU, moved to Bozeman, and I have not looked back since!

FS: What drew you to the position at MSU? 

LL: As a recent college graduate and someone who understands the demands of being a student-athlete, I was drawn to coaching at the college level because I know what it feels like to be in the athletes’ shoes. I very recently had them on. I was also drawn to this position because of its location. Bozeman is a nordic hot-spot, but it is also an ideal place for work-life balance. I love that I can coach in the morning and spin Bridger laps with friends in the afternoon. It is wonderful to be exploring this mountain playground and living in a college town once again. 

Working with [head coach] Adam St. Pierre was also a factor in my decision to come to MSU. Adam cares so much about this team, goes above and beyond for every athlete he works with, and graciously shares his enthusiasm and knowledge for this sport, this community, and the future of US Skiing. I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of the MSU Ski Program. It’s a great fit!  

FS: Can you explain what the application process was like to join the World Juniors trip?

LL: In the late fall, I saw an email from Greta Anderson with the call for staff for both World Junior/U23 Championships as well as the U18 trip. While at our Thanksgiving Camp in Canmore, I compiled a coaching resume, wrote a cover letter, and emailed in my application. I heard back in December while home in Truckee for the holidays.

Throughout the process, one constant for me was self-doubt. I questioned whether I should apply while completing each step of this process. I am very fortunate that Adam saw this as a huge opportunity for professional development and encouraged me to apply in the first place. Even with his support, I had to dig deep to believe in myself and ignore the imposter syndrome. It was a huge leap outside my comfort zone, but I am really glad I licked the envelope and sent it. I encourage others to do the same especially if you find you are riding the same wave of uncertainty. 

FS: So you joined the staff as a wax tech, what has the learning process been like for that?

LL: The learning process for waxing has been one of the steeper ascents on the coaching learning curve for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love going uphill, but I was humbled by how much there is to learn about waxing in my transition from athlete to coach. One of the major keys to my learning process is being a nordic sponge in the wax cabin and on race day. I try to soak it all up and tune into all of the little steps in the testing, application, and decision-making process. I still have a ways to go before I am comfortable calling myself a wax-tech, but I am deeply motivated to keep learning and growing in this realm. I am also very grateful to have the hands-on learning opportunity in Lygna alongside a very talented service staff.

FS: Can you talk through what a race day looked like for you?

LL: In Lygna, we had seven races in six days with no days off in between, so a typical day was packed to the brim. Wake up, put on ski clothes, fuel up at breakfast, chug coffee, drive to the venue, inspect track conditions, prep skis for athletes who were training, drink more coffee, help with prepping test skis, do glide outs and necessary testing, help athletes test, run skis to start, retest if necessary, run more skis to start, cheer on athletes, eat lunch and Norwegian chocolate, zero test fleets, clean kick wax, prep training and race skis for the next day, eat a late dinner as a tech staff, pack a backpack for the following day, sleep hard, and get ready to do it all again!  

FS: If you had to pick one highlight from the trip what would it be?

LL: The highlight of my trip was watching Sammy Smith advance through the sprint heats on the final day of competition. Sammy skied with heart, determination, and most importantly, she was having fun. I love watching athletes exceed their expectations and enjoying the experience of racing. Sammy was doing just that and it was awesome to be there cheering her on. 

FS: What has been the biggest challenge of this experience?

LL: One of the biggest challenges was seeing athletes lose sight of why we do this sport and the associated disappointment. On social media, we only see the highlights, so it was hard for me to watch extraordinary athletes be unrelentingly hard on themselves and define their experience solely from results. There are an abundance of reasons to pursue this sport and love it. At major events like this, it is easy to get sucked into the numbers and lose sight of the successes along the way. 

FS: Among the US staff it seems like the split was pretty even in terms of male/female, were you able to get a sense if this was the case for other countries too?

LL: Truth be told, this was not at all the case for other countries. Once the racing began, it became quite obvious that Julia Hayes and I were the only two female techs at this event. There were a number of female coaches and staff members at the event, but in the testing depot and after the racing concluded, Julia and I noticed frequently that we were the only females there. Prior to this event, I knew we needed more female coaches and techs. Now, I understand how far we have to go before this becomes less of a male-dominated industry at the higher levels. 

FS: Any final thoughts you want to share?

LL: A few nuggets of wisdom from Coach Lizzie:

• Rocket ships need rocket fuel. Eating enough as an athlete should be a priority for health, wellness, and longevity in sport. 

• Have fun, be authentic, and be kind to yourself and others. 

• Fast is smooth, smooth is fast. Happy skiers indubitably go faster

After returning from Norway, Larkins will be rejoining the MSU team and preparing for NCAAs in Soldier Hollow happening this weekend from March 9-12th. 

At the end of September, Madshus USA announced that they had hired Lina Hultin as the new Race and Service Manager. According to the press release, “Lina will work towards finding, developing, and retaining the most talented and influential Nordic athletes in every age category. She will also work closely with the rest of the Madshus team to develop, and execute, a club and coach program that supports the brand and its dealers throughout the country.”

Hultin is Swedish and came to the United States in 2014 to pursue a Masters degree in Exercise Science and Nutrition at Montana State University.  As part of this academic opportunity, Hultin was awarded a scholarship for racing with MSU Nordic. Faster Skier caught up with Hultin to learn more about her background and what led her to this position at Madshus. The following interview has been edited slightly for clarity.

Faster Skier: Can you tell us a little about your background? 

Lina Hultin: It’s a cliché but for me, growing up in Scandinavia meant I started skiing as soon as I could walk. That’s how my family spends time together, we ski, bike, run, and have fika, ( preferably the activity and fika combination).  I entered my first ski race was when I was five years old. Nothing intense or competitive, just a snowy field with blueberry soup at the halfway mark. After a few winters of little snowfall, my parents decided to move further north to a little town called Bruksvallarna. It’s a Nordic skiers paradise, and we quickly got involved with the local Nordic team. Shortly after the move, at age seven, I got really serious about racing (yeah, I was that kid). We had a 5k groomed Nordic track outside of the school I attended, so there was no stopping me at that point. I skied all day, every day during the 7+ month winter.

I spent my high school years away from home at a Swedish high school skiing program (like most Swedish Nordic skiers do). I tended to perform best in sprints, I placed 5th in the Swedish Junior National Championships in 2009. I decided very young that I wanted to be the best. In my search for constant improvement, I became passionate about learning how the body reacts to training and how to perform optimally. So, when I heard about an undergraduate program in Meråker, Norway, where a group of world-class Nordic athletes study exercises physiology and sports performance, I had to apply! I got in as the only female athlete that year (together with Emil Iversen, Finn Hågen Krogh, Tomas Northug.. ). After being accepted I moved to the small village of Meråker, a town whose highschool and undergraduate alums have produced 24 Olympic medals in Nordic skiing and biathlon.

In this village, skiing is religion, and successful skiers become gods. However, even if you didn’t quite reach this status, there was a place for everyone who attended. I discovered the magic in the Norwegian success was their ability to share knowledge with one another. I will never forget the rainy fall mornings (when it has already been raining for two weeks straight) at 8am when I would start doubting why I was once again getting ready for an intensity session, only to show up alongside more than one hundred athletes, ready to do the same workout. The athletes ranged from freshmen in high school who just had decided to focus on skiing, to athletes who had podiumed in the previous season’s Olympics. There was room for everyone and it gave me the sense that it was just a matter of putting in the effort and time before I would be able to keep up with the fastest in the group. It felt like there were no secrets, no magic tricks, just smart training in an abundance, and in good company. 

To fully submerge myself in the culture, I joined the Norwegian team Henning Skilag. The club is run by Audun Kolstad and his brother Esten. Both in their 70’s with an infinite passion for skiing. Audun coached Petter Northug when he was in high school. Audun is a man of very few words, with a big heart and fitness any 70-year-old could only dream of. No matter how many hours we ran in the Norwegian bog, he was always right there running with us, while Esten was providing the fika. During my time in Norway I was able to produce some top 10 sprint performances in Norwegian cups. In my last race in Norway, I got to ski the sprint relay in the Norwegian National Championships with my teammate Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes. This is another experience I will never forget since I was right there with the best athletes in the world, feeling like I belonged.

After finishing my bachelor’s degree in Sports and Physical Education, I knew I wanted to keep studying (preferably full-time) but my love for racing was still strong. I always knew in the back of my mind that college skiing might be an option but, at age 22 I was starting to run out of time. Luckily, the MSU team had a spot left to fill and they had a Master’s program where I could study human performance in a lab with a roller ski treadmill (I later realized that was rare at the time in the US). 

I had never been to the states before, but after seeing the success of the US team and watching them at races in Sweden and Norway I was really curious to learn more about the emerging ski culture that was beginning to be established. I landed in Bozeman, Montana in August of 2014 and had no idea I had arrived in such a special place. The Nordic ski culture might not be apparent at first glance, but this town has more groomed trails and terrain for training than one can cover in years (and lots of sun! the sun is always shining and if it’s not, it’s snowing). Being a part of college sports in the US made me realize how much inspiration and knowledge can be drawn from other sports. I was thrilled at the idea of so many different ways and paths one can take in order to reach the same goal, it’s humbling and opens up a world of possibilities. 

FS: What has been your history with the Madshus brand?

LN: Growing up there were really two dominant (go-to) brands for skis in Scandinavia, and Madsus was one of them. Having an older brother, I got to inherit his skis, which happened to always be Madshus skis.

After performing well as a junior I got in contact with Madshus and got my first pair of brand new skis. I always felt a great deal of support from them, both in Sweden and Norway. I have been happy with the company’s products, so I kept skiing on Madshus for my seventeen-year long ski career. I have some favorite’s, including my Madshus klister skis (on which I beat the family record time in the Swedish Vasaloppet) and my Madsus Zero skis (which work in way warmer and way colder temperatures than you would expect from a zero ski).

FS: What about this new position at Madshus excites you the most?

LN: I am looking forward to being able to explore a whole other side of the skiing world. I have been coaching in the US for five years and have done my fair share of wax tech-ing but I have yet to learn about the supplier side of things. I’m excited to have the opportunity to work and learn firsthand from Bryan Cook who has years of experience in the industry. I’m also thrilled that I will be continuing to work closely with athletes, helping them to perform at their best. 

FS: What do you think will be one of the more challenging aspects of the job?

LN: It’s always challenging to learn something new, but I have always been curious and eager to learn so I think I have that going for me. I guess I will figure that out as soon as the season starts! Madshus is a forward-thinking brand and I’m stoked that I get to be part of such a great team. 

FS: Any other thoughts or comments?

LN: I’m very thankful for my US skiing family and for the warm welcome I have always felt being a part of this great community. I am especially grateful for the support, encouragement, and network I have found through being a part of the Women’s Ski Coaches Association. Go check them out!

For athletes training to race, rollerski sessions are an integral part of annual training volume. For some recreationalists, perhaps it’s a once-is-enough experience, and they part ways with rollerskiing, hopefully not having suffered too much of road-rash in the process. Regardless of level, most people who have tried rollerskiing can remember a time when things went wrong and ended with a skid on the pavement.

Learning to rollerski can be intimidating, particularly since the activity is fast-paced, takes place on an unforgiving surface, and lacks brakes. However, with time, tutelage, and practice, confidence and skill develop, and rollerskiing becomes significantly more enjoyable. 

This past summer, the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) piloted a “Learn to Rollerski” camp series. These camps were organized by Kait Miller, who joined NENSA full time as the Youth and Introductory Program Director in June of 2020. Many readers will recognize Miller’s name from her years of cross country ski racing with Craftsbury Green Racing Project, during which she earned a national title, raced in multiple international World Cups, and represented the USA at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. 

The next rollerski clinic takes place tomorrow, Saturday October 23rd, at Gould Academy in Bethel, ME. This event will take place alongside “The Maine Event” rollerski race, happening roughly an hour south at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester the next day.

In addition to the “Learn to Rollerski” clinics, NENSA partnered with Youth Enrichment Services for Boston Kids (YES) to host a rollerski camp with participants coming from YES programs as opposed to a ski club or program. (Quick note: find a follow-up article highlighting YES and their work here). Faster Skier caught up with Miller to learn more about these clinics and where she sees the program heading in the future. 

Faster Skier: What was the inspiration or motivation to start these “Learn to Rollerski” clinics this summer?

 Kait Miller: Over the past few years NENSA has been growing and expanding into summer programming, initially starting with rollerski race events. Thanks to the work and dedication of Amie Smith (Executive Director), Justin Beckwith (Competitive Program Director), Preston Noon (Operations Manager) and our supportive sponsors, NENSA has the foundation and resources to not only grow our race offerings into a series but to also expand beyond competitive events. My position (Youth & Introductory Program Director) went full time in June of 2020 with the goal of putting more focus and resources into summer programming and NENSA recently expanded the role of TD Coordinator Fred Bailey to include event management. Greater staffing availability combined with increased focus on our mission to expand participation and access to the sport, and increased community interest in rollerskiing and skiing in general, lead to the Learn-to-Rollerski clinics.

Our goal with these clinics is not only to introduce current skiers to a dryland version of the winter sport they enjoy but also to use rollerskiing as a vehicle to introduce folks who’ve never skied before to the sport in a fun, welcoming, relaxed, and supportive environment. Rollerskiing can also be a really fun recreational activity in its own right and we aim to incorporate the bicycle bump ramps in almost all of our clinics. We looked a little like a traveling circus this summer with Justin’s truck loaded down with ramps and rollerski racks!

I’ll add that I’m not a proponent of young children doing much rollerskiing. However, a little bit of rollerskiing can be really fun and certainly helps build basic balance and agility skills and develop comfort with the sport.

FS: What was engagement like? Did you get a lot of interest and participation in these clinics?

KM: Participation varied depending on the event. We capped our very first clinic at 10 participants as a sort of a “test event” if you will, but our most recent clinic in Boston had 37 participants. The first clinic was for all ages and we had participants ranging in age from 10-70 while our most recent clinic focused on youth and teens. In addition to some stand-alone clinics and clinics paired with rollerski races, we also visited some ski camps this summer.

At the BKL level some of the campers had rollerski experience but not a significant amount so for many it was a true introduction to the activity. For those who’d rollerskied before, it was an opportunity to gain more comfort and confidence, and to play on the ramps. We keep a really strong emphasis on play with the goal of providing just enough instruction to ensure participants feel comfortable trying new things on their rollerskis without fear.

FS: This past winter saw a big increase in interest in cross-country skiing mainly driven by COVID and social distancing. Do you think this effect was felt at the youth level as well?

KM: Yes, we definitely did see an increased interest in cross country skiing. Many of the New England and New York BKL clubs saw record enrollment and some programs had to cap registration to stay within state gathering limit guidelines. We also had many more schools reaching out about our Nordic Rocks program which provides students at participating elementary schools with the opportunity to experience cross country skiing during the school day with their teachers and classmates.

FS: Describe the recent day in Boston in coordination with YES, had any of the participants ever rollerskied? 

KM: The goal of the clinic was to introduce the Youth Enrichment Services (YES) program participants to rollersking, generate excitement for the upcoming winter season, and help strengthen the continuing relationship between the Eastern Mass Cross Country Ski Club (EMXC) and YES by connecting new folks in both programs. About half the YES participants had ski experience from previous YES Ski Program participation (and a few were quite experienced skiers) while the other half were brand new to the sport having never been on cross country skis, or rollerskis, before. A video recap of the camp can be found here. 

We’re very grateful for all the work YES Youth Recreation Coordinator & Equipment Specialist, Elliot Simmons-Uvin, put into making this event happen. We’re also grateful to the YES staff and volunteers and the EMXC coaches and juniors who helped facilitate and instruct the clinic. And the event certainly wouldn’t have been possible without the fantastic parking lot at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation’s Tenean Beach or all the boots and poles generously loaned to us by the Weston Ski Track.

FS: Does NENSA plan to continue partnering with YES to increase access to skiing?

KM: YES program participants have access to skiing twice a week at the Weston Ski Track so we really see NENSA’s role as building excitement and interest for those who might be new to the sport, providing some additional opportunities like the rollerski clinic with the agility ramps, and facilitating the connection between YES and EMXC. YES and EMXC have worked together for multiple years now but with athlete and liaison turnover, there were new EMXC members looking to volunteer with the YES ski program. Our shared goal is that interested YES program participants could join EMXC youth and junior programming.

As for NENSA’s partnership with YES going forward, we’ve already talked about hosting the clinic again next year and I’d also love to facilitate YES participation at the BKL Festival. I know my predecessor Amber Freeman worked with Elliot when the festival was last held at Weston. It will be much more of a challenge when the festival is not local (and this year it will be in Waterville, Maine) but I’d love to try and figure something out.

FS: The sport of Nordic skiing has a long way to go in terms of increasing diversity, equity and inclusion. Do you see these Learn-to-Ski clinics and/or this work with YES as helping to facilitate that?

KM: Our hope is that Learn-to-Ski clinics are at least a small step in the direction towards bringing more folks into the ski community and increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our sport. Change won’t happen overnight but by collaborating with other organizations and creating events and programs that welcome, actively empower, and support young people of all physical abilities, financial means, gender identifies, skin colors, and sexual orientations to learn and grow through the sport of cross country skiing, collectively we may be able to start chipping away at the problem.

FS: What are some goals you have moving forward as the Youth and Introductory Program director for NENSA?

KM: We’re currently in the process of a gear overhaul in the Nordic Rocks program but once that is finalized I hope to intentionally expand that program. Nordic Rocks is a school program funded by Share Winter that provides students at participating elementary schools with gear and the opportunity to try cross country skiing during the school day with their teachers and classmates. I feel that this is one of the most inclusive and equitable programs we run. In addition to expanding, we hope to facilitate more collaboration between local ski centers, Nordic Rocks programs, and local Bill Koch leagues so that schools can take field trips to local trail systems and so that youth who really like skiing have support to join a local league and/or attend the BKL Festival.

While no one would wish for the circumstances, a fall running of the Boston Marathon is perhaps a skier’s dream. The iconic foot race is on many a bucket list; however, the third Monday in April is early for those who spend the winter strapped to skinny skis rather than pounding pavement. 

After cancelling the April, 2020, running in light of the descending COVID-19 pandemic, and deciding against an April date for the 2021 event, the Boston Athletics Association (BAA) set its sights on October 11th, 2021, for a return to racing. 30 months without the Boston Marathon; it was go-time in Boston on Monday morning. The Red Sox even put on a show to celebrate, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 6-5 to win the ALDS in dramatic fashion later that evening.  

Among the 15,716 individuals making their way from Hopkinton to the finish line on Boylston Street in Boston were three familiar faces: former teammates, U.S. Ski Team members, and Olympians Kikkan Randall, Ida Sargent, and Liz Stephen. The threesome ran on behalf of Aktiv Against Cancer, which promotes physical activity as an integral part of cancer treatment. 

According to Aktiv’s mission statement, “Recent research indicates the benefits of physical activity extend beyond controlling symptoms and side-effects of cancer therapy; it is shown to reduce cancer progression and improve a patient’s response to anticancer therapy.”

Nearly two years ago in November, 2019, these women lined up together for the NYC Marathon, each achieving their goal of finishing under three hours. At the time, Randall was only one year beyond her own cancer treatment journey. After receiving the diagnosis of Stage 2 breast cancer in June of 2018, Randall underwent six rounds of chemotherapy, infusions of the drug Herceptin, and a lumpectomy. All the while, she remained active, sharing her journey openly through daily video updates and social media. 

Randall shared her Boston Marathon race experience via email.

“We’re all hobbling around today but also basking in the glow after a hard race and fun experience!! After meeting up for the NYC marathon two years ago, when the opportunity to run Boston in October came up (versus April) we jumped at the chance to get together and once again shine the spotlight on an organization near and dear to our hearts, AKTIV Against Cancer. 

“All of us have had close contacts with cancer in our personal lives and as athletes recognize how important physical activity is for tackling the treatment. So to be able to raise funds for important research and outreach, we jumped at the chance. We were able to raise over $17,000 collectively toward the cause!”

In 2019, Randall checked the box on her sub-3 goal with a time of 2:55:12. This year, she was just shy with a net time of 3:00:27.

“When we decided to do this back in April/May, I think all of us had ambitions to prepare for this race more seriously. But as we’re all finding post-racing, life is busy and I think we all came in a little under prepared. Regardless, it was going to be a great excuse to meet up with best friends.”

Two minutes behind Randall, Sargent crossed the line in 3:02:26. Sargent also remarked that she felt under-trained at the start line, but the experience and opportunity outweighed the feeling of the final 10k. 

“We plan to do these races as a little reunion and an opportunity to see and run with each other and support Aktiv,” wrote Sargent. “Today was so much fun but also a beast. The energy out on course of these big races is also so incredible. I hadn’t trained or run much at all leading up to the race so I really wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very excited that my legs felt great for so long. The last four or five miles were tough but I just told myself that I couldn’t walk and that kept me going through to the finish line.”

Despite being veterans when it comes to endurance racing, Randall shared that the women were perhaps lured out too quickly, leaving them a little too dinged up when they faced the Newton hills late in the race. Runners face the infamous “Hearbreak Hill” at mile 20, steadily climbing for half a mile on tired legs. 

Though all three women positive-split the race, Stephen bled the least amount of time in the second half; she clocked 1:25 through the first half, losing five minutes over the second to finish in 2:55:48.

“The downhill start was really fun for the first 10km,” wrote Randall. “At points we were on-pace for a sub-2:45.  But being Boston rookies, and light on the running mileage, that early fast pace took its toll on all of us at different points.  Liz made it under 3-hours, I was just a smidge over and Ida had a great day at 3:02.  The last 10km was incredibly tough and I think we were all missing those gliding sections you get in ski races to recover and recharge.”

The fun didn’t stop when they reached the painted yellow and blue finish line emblazoned with the Boston Athletics Association unicorn.  

“Liz’s partner Jeff [Bland] also ran the race and fundraised for AKTIV with us,” Randall explained. “So after the three girls finished, we went back out to cheer him on. (Bland finished in 4:19:59.) We figured we ended up walking another 7 miles, which was painful — but also maybe a little helpful to keep from tightening up.”

What’s the next race-reunion? According to Randall, they’re looking for ideas!

“I think we’re all looking forward to not running for a while and yet we can’t help but wonder, what should we do next?!”

Boston Marathon Results

This summer, the U.S. Ski Team announced that it had hired Greta Anderson as the new Development Team Coach. FasterSkier caught up with Anderson on the afternoon of the official announcement to delve deeper into her coaching philosophy, precise job description, and only sort of tongue-in-cheek plans for world domination.

Anderson’s hire was widely praised by both current and former athletes. Here’s Luke Jager, who’s known Anderson for nearly a decade starting in Alaska junior skiing and is currently a member of the USST Development Team, or D-Team: “Super stoked. We have come through the sport together so fired up to get to keep working with her!”

Here’s Gus Schumacher, now on the USST A-Team, who ascended the Alaska junior skiing ranks alongside Jager: “I think she’ll be good at bringing knowledge from a lot of different clubs, camps, and backgrounds to the national team pool. She’s been with [Alaska Winter Stars] recently, but has also been with APU and Crested Butte, as well as doing a bunch of REGs and World Juniors trips. Also it’s always good to get a female perspective in that currently disproportionately male area. She’s a good leader, and I think she’ll be really good in that position.”

And here’s fellow A-Team skier Hailey Swirbul, who was first coached by Anderson many years ago as a junior in Colorado: “I know that Greta has put in the time and work to gain valuable skills that will really help the D-team! She has been on so many international trips and coached at all levels to really develop as a leader and coach. I’m super excited that she will be part of the U.S. staff!”

So the athletes are excited. What does Anderson think about this job, and what parts of her background have prepared her for this position? Anderson spoke with FasterSkier at a west Anchorage playground in early June, a one-minute rollerski away from her childhood home, while planes from the nearby international airport intermittently roared overhead and a reporter’s children patiently entertained themselves on play structures.

Two quick disclosures here: One, Anchorage skiing is a small town. Greta was my coach with APU Masters from 2014–2015, and has remained a close personal friend since. She has listed me as a reference on her applications for several coaching positions over the past few years, though not for this particular one (and so far as I know, I had nothing to do with her being hired for this job). Two, the questions in this interview have been expanded from what I originally asked, so that they will provide more information and better function as transitions in a standalone article. The answers have been lightly edited for syntax and clarity.

Let’s start with your background. I know that you’re from here; you attended Service High School and skied for Alaska Winter Stars, then went to Alaska Pacific University, where you skied for the APU University Team and won the Tour of Anchorage. You graduated with a B.A. in Counseling Psychology. Am I leaving anything out – did you do anything else before you began coaching the Masters and Devos with APU?

That was my first get-my-feet-wet-in-coaching experience. And what happened was, it was springtime, I think in my junior year, and I hurt my back in the gym. And I said to Erik Flora, ‘I am going to take a break because my back is injured.’ And he said, ‘Well, why don’t you coach a little bit’, and I said, ‘Okay.’

And like so many people who do sports, I’m not good at moderation, and I slippery-sloped into a lot of coaching. And then my back got a little better. I was working with Charlie Renfro as the Devo coach at that time, and then Dylan Watts was the Masters coach at that time, and he was going to phase out in a year. And I enjoyed it a ton. And so then Erik was like, ‘Are you going to come back to racing.’ And I said, ‘No, I kind of love this. I think I wanna do this.’ So then I kept doing it.

So one year at APU begat several years with Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, and a brief stint with Crested Butte Nordic, before you ultimately came back home to Anchorage and Alaska Winter Stars, this time as a coach. And you must have been pretty good at this, because before too long you were at World Juniors with a front-row seat for a spate of breakthrough American performances. Which World Juniors were you at, and what was your official role at them?

I was at two, Lahti and Oberwiesenthal [in 2019 and 2020]. My first year was as a wax tech, my second year coaching – but those are float roles, right? It’s like, what do you need to do on race day? What gaps need to be filled? You’re wearing many hats.

And I was lucky in that a lot of coaches that go as a staff member on that, some of them don’t have any athletes there that they’ve worked with previously. And I, my first year, had Noel [Keeffe] and Waverly [Gebhardt] who were Steamboat athletes; Hunter [Wonders], Zanden [McMullen], Luke [Jager], and Gus [Schumacher]. And Gus I had not directly worked with at that time, but I’d seen him kind of grow up from across the stadium many times. And then, because of going to REG (Regional Elite Group) camps and that sort of thing, and U16 camps, I had already gotten to work some with Sydney [Palmer-Leger], with Novie [McCabe], with quite a few of those athletes. Which was – that rapport, which is such an essential part of this job, was really key in being able to connect quickly and be a good representative, a good helper for those athletes.

You mentioned rapport; I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that you need to be able to connect with your athletes in order to be an effective coach. That said, the ten athletes currently on the Development Team hail from a wide swath of the country (Alaska, Washington, California, Idaho, Colorado, Vermont, and Maine), and even beyond these specific individuals my sense is that your job requires you to be thinking about athlete development for basically the entire country, or at least the ski-friendly parts of it. How do you undertake to be a national team coach that in some way has her pulse on an entire nation when the country is just so darn big?

One common goal: to win, to put the athletes on the start line ready. I think when you walk into those rooms having the experience you have had and working with the people you’ve worked with, you realize there’s this essential amount of humility. That you realize what it took the athletes to get to that level and how huge their goals are.

As a coach, you have to check your ego at the door because you’re responsible for boosting everybody else. And there’s that old quote, right, “if you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” But those days when you accomplish the huge goals the athletes have, everything has to go perfectly that day, which means you have to be willing as a coach to wear a lot of hats, be a shapeshifter, and be really collaborative, so that that’s possible.

And more than getting athletes onto the podium by doing anything special as a coach, it’s really removing obstacles: Okay, what’s going to be a challenge? What can we foresee and take care of, with good planning, good logistics, and knowing what we know going into this in order to make sure that those huge goals, those huge reach goals, are attainable that day. And if we come in really prepared, then we have the potential when the athletes are on the start line to watch magic happen in front of us, to watch something really incredible happen. Because we all were doing the right things and all were working together. And more than anything else, I’m really proud of the way that the ski team is lacing those things together. So I’m really excited to start working with them in that capacity.

I don’t think there’s any single athlete in this country right now that’s made it to the top, world-class level only working with one coach, only having one tech, only having one source of input, and only working with one super genius. And that’s something that as a country we maybe have as an advantage over some other nations.

You alluded to a range of viewpoints here. With that in mind, how does your job description and what you’re doing on a daily basis relate to what this country’s club coaches are doing? How do you see your role, let’s say vis-à-vis club coaches – I don’t want to say “versus” because I assume it’s not antagonistic, but that said, how do you do your job as The National Team Coach when your athletes are clearly spending most of their time with their other coach in the club system?

My job is the opposite of “versus,” right. My role in this job is to do whatever it takes with the coaches that are making these athletes so phenomenal to lead, get out of the way, and advocate for the athlete’s best interest. And with each coach on a one-on-one basis and with the athletes and with their parents and with whoever else they’re working with that is enabling their success, making sure that that I’m walking into a room and I’m figuring out what they need, and I’m able to either meet that need, or be a resource who finds or links them with the person or the situation that’s going to enable that development. So I think more than anything that I do, my job is to help the athletes have the potential and opportunity to take skiing as far as they want to take it. It’s a little more I think of being a catalyst and an advocate, and somebody who’s able to communicate and link everyone together.

I think high-level sport – and really high-level anything, any craft, any art, any skill – you deal with people who have a ton of conviction, a lot of discipline, and big personalities, which often come with big egos.

There are so many coaches in this country, and so many athletes who believe in what they’re doing and are uncompromising on it. And I don’t know a single coach in this country, who’s super effective, who isn’t a bit polarizing, because they believe in what they’re doing, they’re not going to compromise on it, and they’re not going to let in distractions. My job is to work with those athletes and those coaches to make sure and to help put a system in place to — not just interpersonally in my role — but to put a system in place where there are really open doors of communication all the time. My job is to not be in the way, not be a barrier to open doors, and to make sure people know they are welcome to run through them at full speed.

I think we have six to eight “Jessie Digginses” in this country. Jessie is a really unique athlete. She’s obviously done a lot to maximize the potential she has. She has also had coaches who were moving on to the national team stage who knew her and provided continuity from the time that she was a club athlete. I would like to have that pathway, that system, and those open doors in place for more athletes, so that we can develop those versions of Jessie Diggins, those versions of Gus Schumacher, those versions of Kikkan Randall. So that that is something really deliberate we can identify and develop as a leading body in U.S. skiing, not an accident where we’re like, ‘Man, how do we do that again?’

Speaking of identifying areas for success, what are some things that you think are currently strengths when it comes to junior skiing or development in this country, and what are some things that you think present areas for improvement?

So the thing I think we do the best of anybody is: we put our athletes in the driver’s seat.

So to use the [2019] boys relay team as an example, they hung this really big goal out there and said, “We want to win the gold medal in the relay.” And you, a little bit in those meetings, saw Bryan Fish’s eyes glaze over. And he was like, “Okay…” And I think the boys’ inspiration stemmed from the girls’ relay team success, in many ways, in Soldier Hollow, in 2017. And the boys said, ‘We want to do that.’

Whoa, huge goal. Scary. Achievable. Gonna take everybody on board, pitching in and being all-in and having a lot of buy-in throughout the process. And from the year that they won the silver medal, Hunter Wonders had aged out of that spot. And so we didn’t know who was going to fill that spot, necessarily, going into that week in Lahti [in 2019]. And I was standing next to a German coach during the relay – Johnny [Hagenbuch] ended up being our guy – and Johnny got tagged, and he started skiing the third leg. And the German coach said, ‘Oh, this is the least experienced one, he must be your weakest link, we’ll see what happens.’ And Germany had happened to put their strongest skier in the third leg, actually.

And I said – and I really meant this – I looked at him and I said, ‘Actually, he might be our strongest skier. Johnny’s our wild card; we haven’t seen him race like this yet.’

And everybody – all four of the guys in that race had their job, had their assigned task. And Johnny executed his perfectly. And he didn’t know if he was going to be the strongest athlete or the weakest one or whatever link, either. I think all four of those guys were so strong, I would put four of any of them on the start line and put my money on them.

And so I think the thing that we do really well in this country is we’ve put our athletes in the driver’s seat, and we have said, ‘Okay, what do you want to do with skiing, where do you want to take it?’ And we sit down as a team – and Bryan Fish has been really good about this, and so has Kate [Johnson, née Barton], and so has Bernie [Nelson] – and we sit down at the beginning of meetings, when the teams come together. Everybody checks their ego and walks into the room.

And a lot of people don’t know each other yet or have raced and sort of know each other, but not well, and they say, ‘Hey, what are the keywords? What do you want this team to be?’ I mean, people spitball. ‘I want it to be collaborative;’ ‘I want it to be fun;’ ‘I want it to be strong;’ ‘I want it to be inspiring.’ Okay, what does that mean to you? And we pick some concepts, and we write it down, and it gets sent out on a WhatsApp or whatever. And we go with that all week.

That’s huge ownership for the athletes, right? That is what do you want this team to be? And what are you going to bring to the table to make it happen? And what are you going to hold your teammates accountable for bringing to the table.

And I’ve been so impressed with every single one of our athletes at both World Juniors I’ve been to, and I’ve watched that ripple effect now filter through U16 camp, and you hear it in Simi Hamilton’s voice when he races his last race, and he says, ‘I’m so happy to be part of Gus’s process in the future, I’m so happy to be this part of U.S. men’s skiing,’ and I think that’s really cool.

So that’s what we do well. [As for an area for potential improvement,] we’re a big country; we’re spread out. We have a lot of people that know what they’re doing well, in their respective area. I think that we can do a better job moving forward of collaborating, as far as realizing that what works in the East is not going to work in the Far West and saying, ‘Well, both are turning out world-class, top-caliber athletes.’

That’s not a bad thing, right? That’s a really good thing. Because that means that if you have a certain personality type, and you happen to live in Colorado, but you would like to go to sea level and train, you can go to the Pacific Northwest and get really good training there. I think that’s pretty huge. That’s something that can be a weakness if we let it be, or we can turn it into a huge advantage for ourselves.

I jumped right into things here with your personal background, but I should really back up and ask you a little more about your job description. I hate to make you define your job by reference to someone else, but this spring when I saw the D-Team position being advertised for the third time in three years I frankly thought something rather uncharitable, roughly, ‘Oh man, yet another coach left after just another year, something bad must be going on over there.’ And I know that some other people involved in American skiing had a comparable reaction when they saw your job posting this spring, after Bernie was announced for this role in 2019 and then Kate last year.

I’ve since learned that Kate is in fact very much still with the program, so obviously these initial, somewhat negative conclusions were inaccurate and unfair on my part. That said, can you speak to not only what your job entails, but also how it complements Kate’s current role, given that she is also employed by the U.S. Ski Team and that on paper your job description looks basically identical to hers?

So every coach that’s been in the Nordic program, all people I have tremendous respect for, who are disrupting the industry in such a good way are coming to it – and I saw your list of questions, that you’re going to ask what my coaching philosophy, I am a complete student of the sport. So I try to come to it with confidence and humility. And say, ‘Here’s what I think I know, here’s what I definitely don’t know, here’s some people who can help me find out.’

And I think more than having really good answers, I view my role here as being able to ask really good questions, being able to work together with people. And being able to communicate when there are disconnects.

I’ve worked across a lot of programs now and in several regions. And so I feel – I know that’s something that energizes me coming to my job, the different challenge every day, and I’m really excited to stay on my toes and keep having those challenges, if you will.

Having said that, what I’m getting to in my longwinded way, is: the coaches that I will be working with, who include all of Jason Cork, Chris Grover, Matt Whitcomb, Kate Johnson, Bryan Fish – I’m Fish’s shadow, basically. So all of those, but especially Fish.

The job description for this job was three pages long. And it was the same as it was for Kate last year. And this is the thing with the ski team, I think with pitching in and being willing to do what needs to be done. It’s, “Do you see a need, can you fill it.” And all of those coaches, those five coaches that I’ll be working with, especially Fish, have created a niche for themselves within the job role. They filled the role that needs to be filled.

So Matt and Grover – we don’t have a men’s coach right now. We have a World Cup coach [Whitcomb] and a program director [Grover] who are motivated to work together and work with other coaches and work with techs to make sure that there’s no gaps on race day. And so what Kate did was, Kate took on this job that Bernie [Nelson] had done a tremendous job with in the nine months that she was with the program and then vacated. And Bernie had a tremendous impact – a tremendous impact; she was so well received and so effective so quickly.

And they were understaffed last year on the World Cup. Kate, who was over in Europe, ended up staying over in Europe and helping out with World Cup, and she did a tremendous job, and she carved out a little niche for herself and they love having her there. 

What we used to have with the D-Team was these athletes that were racing the college circuit and the NorAm circuit and when they were ready to race up a few starts, they were racing up. We’re so fortunate, our future in this country with skiing is so bright, that our D-Team, our development team athletes, are ready to go on World Cup and they’re ready to score points. That means they need a coach there supporting that. That step, that Kate’s job role is changing, is showing our progress as a country in skiing.

And so Kate is going to be working internationally, she’s going to be on World Cup, she’s going to be continuing to work with the athletes in about the same capacity that she was last year, is my understanding. I am directly overseen by Bryan Fish. And Kate, Bryan, and I are going to work together pretty closely; Whitcomb’s going to tell us what he sees as successful at the World Cup level, and then I’m going to fill the gaps that need to be filled and try to carve out a little niche for myself. That’s going to look like whatever the team needs. 

Mostly, I’ll be organizing Junior camps, organizing logistics of U16 camp, making sure we’re inviting the right athletes, we’re casting a wide enough net, we’re able to support those athletes. And we’re able to – and this is a big goal of mine, having worked at several clubs directly – able to keep parents looped in, so that all the cogs on the wheel are working in unison to make everything spin as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Can you give me an example of something that you would want parents to know or something that would be important to you, when you say that you want to make sure that the parents are looped in?

I’d say, ‘Nothing you say is going to be used against your child.’

The more that we know about their whole lives, the better. And I want parents to feel like if they call or email me, they’re going to get a call or email back.

I guess in a word, I want to be approachable, right? I want parents to feel like the national team at the development level is there to help them navigate, help their child navigate, the ins and outs of ski racing. The kids, as they become high-level athletes, pressure increases; the responsibilities they carry increase, even when they’re minors. There are skills they’re going to need to be able to develop to manage travel, to manage sleep, to manage their time, that I want parents and coaches and national team staff to work in unison to know what’s going on and to be able to help where we can.

You just mentioned five or ten important skills that people need to be able to develop. At least at a facile level, none of them had anything to do with ski racing per se. Can you talk about that sense that maybe we’re talking about a whole person here rather than just “the athlete,” for lack of a better phrasing?

Happy people race fast. They train well, and they race for a really long time, long enough to develop. If you’re not happy in your life – I know Flora has the cup thing [“don’t overfill your cup,” discussed as the central metaphor of this article]. If you’re not happy in your life, you can win World Championships and there’s going to be a hole there. And what I want is to work with happy people who are really good friends; I want us to do what we can to make sure that ski racing is a really great part of these athletes’ lives and a part of their family’s lives. Not something they have to weigh against their happiness in order to enable.

But our athletes for the most part, the ones that I’ve seen, develop really well, stay in it, and are committed to it and are able to make it through injuries or tough times or years like Covid where things are very uncertain. When they have good support, and people to talk to and clarity, and they’re happy – or maybe that’s not the right word, but they find deep meaning in what they do.

I’ll tell you as a coach, I’ve wanted to be in a development role for a long time. Because I think what sport brings to us – you know this, you’re a master skier and you’re watching your girls grow up and start their first experience with sport outside of your home, right? It’s so deeply meaningful and such an important part of life that not a lot of other things can teach.

And so I guess that’s where my passion for this stems from. I coach the whole person; I want to work with the whole person, I don’t want to work with a piece of you. A world championship is most deeply meaningful when you share it, and so the image that comes to my mind when I say that is when Gus – Gus was the last finisher in that race [in Oberwiesenthal], or one of them. And when he finished the 10k that he won, there’s a picture of him hugging his mom. And in the background is Lin Hinderman, who came over with her husband just to watch the Alaskan kids and all the kids ski race because she’s been a FIS rep at Junior Nationals and watched all these kids. She’s a huge fan of skiing. She was, I think, the first women’s World Junior coach ever, working under John Estle, because he said, Lin can do this.

And then Matt Pauli was a chief of course, was on the jury there. Matt is an Anchorage resident, and I’ve known him for many years. And he is a huge fan of the sport. And it was them, and it was 12 different sets of parents from the United States. It was the Palmer-Legers, it was the Hagenbuches, Luke Jager’s dad came over for it, Greg Schumacher [Gus’s father] was our team doctor — everybody’s involved in this teeny, tiny piece. And what makes it meaningful are moments like those – and Gus said that, right? He was looking around and crying because he knows how much it means to the community.

And I think that’s – I want to take that community and on the race course, I want us to weaponize it to dominate the world.

And I think Kate’s vision is very similar. And she sent me a really nice text when I got hired and said, like, ‘Let’s take over the world together. Haha, kidding, but not really at all.’

I’m so proud of those athletes. And I’m as proud of them when they have to sit out a relay race and they’re just as happy for their teammates who are racing, as I am when they’re on the podium.

I want to ask you basically the same thing I asked Sadie earlier this spring. American skiing is currently at a very high level; results that would have been widely celebrated a decade ago sometimes don’t even get noticed now. This is a great problem to have, but it potentially still is a problem. What do you say to a 16-year-old junior who thinks if she’s not training 700 hours a year, or medaling at World Juniors, she’s a total failure. What do you say to a maybe not-very-hypothetical junior skier who in fact is doing everything right, at least for them, but who nonetheless thinks, ‘Oh my gosh, if I’m not reaching these impossibly high standards, either real ones or what I think I see from social media, I have no future in skiing’?

I say Rosie Frankowski, I say U16 Gus Schumacher, I say Holly Brooks.

[All three are, relatively speaking, late bloomers: Frankowski finished 44th at U.S. Nationals as a college skier, and 42nd after graduating, then went on to place 21st at the Olympics four years later; Schumacher finished 11th out of 26 in one U16 JOQ race; Brooks never qualified for NCAAs while skiing in college and once described her junior skiing results as, “I’m the girl from PNSA who always finished 40th” at JOs.]

[Relative to national-team athletes in local races] if you’re within four minutes of these guys at these races – and they hop in local races, and that’s unique to the U.S., and that is cool – you don’t go to World Juniors and wonder if you’re going to crack the top 30 that day anymore. You know. And so we have a really cool metric.

I absolutely understand what you’re saying, where the level is so high that maybe it seems discouraging. As adults and people with a lot of life experience, we look at Instagram and social media, and it gives us this skewed sense of all kinds of things, right – body image, finances, what people are up to on a day-to-day basis. Those things are going to keep happening. That’s our world now; at least currently; the only constant is change.

So how do we equip our junior athletes with the tools to handle things like that, the tools to handle those expectations, the tools to stick to what they’re doing, which is a good life skill, right? I can look around and see a bunch of other things that look rewarding, but I believe in this process, and I’m going to do it. I think as coaches, good coaches lead by example doing that. They believe in the training they’re doing, they’re not chasing hypotheticals, and I guess they have conviction, is the right word.

Are we giving them the tools to manage these unrealistic expectations, or these, ‘It’s sunny every day where I’m training.’ You well know that on Eagle Glacier, [according to social media] there are only pictures of sunny days, and everyone who has never been to Eagle Glacier thinks the sun shines there nonstop every day, and you can get the most wicked sunburn of your life.

Because if you pull a camera out on Eagle Glacier on a normal day, your camera will be destroyed. And so a lot of times, we’re not looking at the people putting their head down and putting in the work, because we just see the outcome.

I would like to make more people aware in this communication, as a coach, of the hard work, dedication, and sweat equity. Okay, do you want to wear that jacket? Do you want to wear that suit? Or do you want to put your head down and do intervals on Saturday morning, which means that you couldn’t be up late on Friday night? Do you really want to do that? Are you dedicated to that?

And that’s not a question of opting out, that’s as a coach saying, here’s what it takes, opt in. Because at this point in the U.S., if you opt in, as coaches, and I really believe this, we can get you there. We say as coaches, ‘You have to give us 110% of your effort.’ If we as coaches are only giving 98% of our effort, or attention, or we’re only giving 70%, or we’re not keeping up on research, we’re not paying attention and we are complacent – in business, that’s called fraud.

So if I say as an athlete, ‘You have to give me 110%, and I’m going to do the best I can with everything within my power to make you a world champion.’ If you follow this plan, and I give you anything less than my absolute best, that’s not integrity. That’s not how champions are made.

I want us to have a system in place in this country where we can tell athletes, ‘We know these are the benchmarks. We know that this is what it takes. We know we can’t make guarantees. But these are the things that, if you do these things, we’re as sure as we can be within our control, that you can be really successful at this.’ And maybe you don’t win a world championship, but you carry those skills over into your life, and you will be successful applying those skills at anything you do. You have a chance to have meaning in your life, and you have a chance to be happy. And that’s a philosophy, that’s an idea, that’s a concept that I really believe in. I believe that for sure.

You’re obviously giving up your current coaching job with Alaska Winter Stars to move into this U.S. Ski Team role. I saw you at Kincaid last night, surrounded by Winter Stars juniors, all of whom adore you. Are you going to miss your current athletes?

Yes. I love coaching. I miss every job I have – every time I’ve moved into a new job, new role, I have missed what I have departed from. Having said that, and this is a strength I think I have as a coach, I’m pretty good at maintaining that rapport. I have great friends that I’ve worked with since my first year coaching and I feel like we can pick up where we left off and maintain those relationships. 

Coaching is people, and you have to give more than a small afterthought about people; you have to really care about people as people in order to take a step toward first being an effective coach. That is a foundational aspect of being a coach.

Anything else?

I’m really thrilled to be doing this. I’m so excited to start collaborating with a lot of coaches in this country that I think are absolutely brilliant.