a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9V9RUbOlZzs/SYnuh6rGnuI/AAAAAAAAAKY/SLLq1-O9xcc/s1600-h/KR1_006.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9V9RUbOlZzs/SYnuh6rGnuI/AAAAAAAAAKY/SLLq1-O9xcc/s400/KR1_006.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299028703031238370″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”/spanspan style=”font-size:85%;”A number of US skiers scored their first sub-60 FIS point race on sunday after a group finish in the 15km mass start freestyle at Telemark. Racers covered the fast course in 33 minutes. There weren’t any major climbs on the course for the pack to break up and with one kilometer to go the lead group contained 20 skiers. I made a move to take the lead with 250m to go, but that only lasted for a short while. Leif Zimmerman won with Lars Flora 2nd. I finished 3rd, which is still a great result. Matt who led most of the race finished a strong 5th, ahead of Cook 6th. Kuzzy was involved in a crash near the highpoint but was able to navigate his way into 9th./span pspan style=”font-size:85%;”Kristina Strandberg won the women’s race edging Nicole Deyong at the line. JoJo again led the CXC women finishing on the podium in 3rd. Stuber finished 6th and Owen 8th./span/p pspan style=”font-size:85%;”Thanks Kelly Randolph for all the great photos/span/p p align=”center”span style=”font-size:85%;”img src=”http://www.xcskilife.com/images/KR1_063.JPG” width=”509″ height=”768″ /br / CXC Train: Kuzzy, Gregg, Watt/span/p p align=”center”span style=”font-size:85%;”img src=”http://www.xcskilife.com/images/KR1_136.JPG” width=”509″ height=”768″ /br / Matt Liebsch sprinting for 5th with Bryan Cook. Matt led the majority of the race/span/p p align=”center”span style=”font-size:85%;”img src=”http://www.xcskilife.com/images/KR1_151.JPG” width=”509″ height=”768″ /br / Watt/span/p p align=”center”span style=”font-size:85%;”
Category: XCFeeds
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Soldier Hollow Junior Olympic Qualifier
On January 30th and 31st, three MVNT racers (Kelsey Dickenson, Sage Abate, Jacqueline O’Keefe) competed at the former Olymipic venue near Park City, UT– Soldier Hollow. The photos below are from Tamera Abate and Janice Dickenson who also travelled to the race.br /br /embed type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” src=”http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf” width=”288″ height=”192″ flashvars=”host=picasaweb.google.comRGB=0x000000feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fmtnmind%2Falbumid%2F5298815101120193249%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”/embeddiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/489212310283984495-4694616392322574698?l=methowvalleynordicteam.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
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WebSkis Team Doings
The nation-wide Team of dedicated skiers who sport the Webskis and SOLDA suits have rolled into a flury of ski activity. These highlights include what I know. If there are WebSkis Team skiers out there who are doing other cool stuff, let me know.br /br /Hilary Garrett and Dan Packman classic raced and medaled at the TeaCup classic at Mount Hood.br /br /Greg Allen and Win Goodbody skied in the Craftsbury Marathon in Craftsbury Common, VT. That on was a 50 km classic race in classic New England terrain.br /br /I worked at counting shop inventory, yahoo.br /br /Kerie Raymond coached the Redmond, OR High School Team at TeaCup.br /br /Did anyone ski in City of Lakes Loppett, or the Michigan Cup Marathon?br /br /Cynthia Engel is in France competing in the Masters World Cup. In her age group, F2, she finished 9th in the 15km skate and and awesome 4th in the 10km classic. She has one more race, the 30km skate.br /br /This coming weekend many of us will be at the Boulder Mountain Tour in Sun Valley, Idaho.br /br /Many are also preparing for the American Birkebiener in Hayward, Wisconsin.br /br /Eric Martin of Bend just joined the Team. Welcome Eric.br /br /Go WebTeam!!br /br /Bertdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6589659500745667109-5175684780419995801?l=www.webskis.com%2Fwebskisblog.html’//div
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World Championships On The Horizon
Dr. Ross Flowers, USOC Sports Psychology consultant, enjoying the Antholz weather
It’s Tuesday, February 3, 2009 and I’m back in Ruhpolding, Germany after a two-week swing through the southern part of “Biathlon World”. Our latest world cup took place in Antholz, Italy – a beautiful venue and one of my favorite courses to race. It’s sits high up in a mountain valley, about as far north as you can get without hitting Austria. Even though the venue is at about 5,000 feet above sea level, I still enjoy the racing here because the course flows really well. Most of the climbs are longer gradual V2 sections and there are a lot of transitions. This is quite different from other world cup venues like Oberhof and Ruhpolding which feature steeper ascents and descents.
An afternoon trip to Vipiteno, Italy during our post-Antholz camp in Ridnaun, Italy. That clock tower was around before Columbus!
Although my ski time (compared to the rest of the field) improved in the Antholz 10km Sprint, I had an awful day on the shooting range and fell out of contention for the 12.5km Pursuit the following day. This was a big dissapointment but it forced me to step back and re-evaluated my training going in to World Championships in South Korea. It was nice to see Tim come back to form, placing 15th and 11th in the Sprint and Pursuit.
Recovery.
So now, I find myself back in Ruhpolding, Germany, preparing for the biggest races of the year, World Championships. We’ve spent the week focusing on longer intensity sessions and a lot of highly-monitored shooting training. Ruhpolding is a great venue, both during it’s annual World Cup event but also as a place to train. The staff is passionate about creating world-class skiing and shooting range conditions whether it is World Cup Race Day, or just another training day for the local Bavarian teams.
A tough day at the office. Ridnaun, Italy.
Just a few more days here, and then we head across four more time zones to Pyeong Chang, South Korea!
Cheers,
Lowell
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MAKING MEDIA
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYdOA-d9FWI/AAAAAAAAAhM/XMOdSjRBf-U/s1600-h/IMG_0526.JPG”img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 148px; height: 200px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYdOA-d9FWI/AAAAAAAAAhM/XMOdSjRBf-U/s200/IMG_0526.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298289265300280674″ border=”0″ //aMy 5th graders made the Alpina dealer’s catalog for 2009!br /br /Dorcas Wonsavage, my Alpina rep and friend from back east, is great about sending stickers and tattoos for the students. I make sure to take lots of pictures and have parents sign photo release forms at the a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYdOTftj7QI/AAAAAAAAAhU/TXmk8uDKlcI/s1600-h/IMG_0522.JPG”img style=”margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 200px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYdOTftj7QI/AAAAAAAAAhU/TXmk8uDKlcI/s200/IMG_0522.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298289583461756162″ border=”0″ //abeginning of each year. Apparently the release forms were a good idea because they are now in a National Magazine (cover shown above)!br /br /The elementary school has started their winter ski and board program on Friday’s. The entire school goes skiing each week and since I am home, I get to go too.br /br /My back has healed to the point of being able to ski freestyle although classic is still out of the question. The smallest thing can still set it off though, so I continue to be very careful about my daily activities.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYdN2vlGJwI/AAAAAAAAAhE/MDbXkqWpL0Y/s1600-h/IMG_0523.JPG”img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 158px; height: 200px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYdN2vlGJwI/AAAAAAAAAhE/MDbXkqWpL0Y/s200/IMG_0523.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298289089505011458″ border=”0″ //abr /div style=”text-align: left;”With the increase of certain activities (skating, swimming, spinning) and the omition of others (running, classic skiing) my body is under a lot of stress. Skiing freestyle everyday really takes it out of my legs, where as swimming has pretty much shot my shoulders and rotator cuffs. I can’t stand to be on my trainer for more than a few hours at a time – and ability to do strength is limited. My body is in desparate need of some varitey.br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYdNjprR0RI/AAAAAAAAAg8/FI3yoxABROY/s1600-h/IMG_0531.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 223px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYdNjprR0RI/AAAAAAAAAg8/FI3yoxABROY/s400/IMG_0531.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298288761502814482″ border=”0″ //a span style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”Robbie Durtschi, getting in some ks during our afternoon jaunt/span/spanspan style=”text-decoration: underline;”br /br //spandiv style=”text-align: left;”span style=”font-size:100%;”Congratulations to teammates both abroad and stateside. I hope to be mixing it up with you guys come March./spanbr //div/div/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4299718529371785873-6339810403433276162?l=in-the-arena-kate.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
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A few Questions from Matt Chisam
1. What is the athletic background of your parents and family?
My parents and family were very athletic and active when I was young. My parents met at a bike/ski shop in Manhattan and ran the shop’s weekend ski trips to Vermont together. I grew up downhill skiing in the winter and windsurfing and hiking in the Green Mountains in the summer.2. When did you begin participating in your sport? I began participating in my sport in High School. I was 16 years old when I started cross country skiing.
3. What was your early experiences with sport like? My early experience with sports was very positive. I can remember looking forward to recess and PE everyday!
4. How instrumental were parents and coaches in the early part of your development as an athlete? My parents were very instrumental in the early part of my development as an athlete. I learned how to ice skate, swim, and I did gymnastics early on in the city and was skiing from age two up in Vermont. As I grew older my coaches became amazing role models who definitely encouraged and inspired me to pursue an athletic path.
5. How were you introduced to your sport and how many other sports did you seriously participate in? During high school friends were a very important role in sports and fortunately some of my closest friends were as active as I was. My best friend, who I met alpine skiing in 5th grade switched to Nordic and she had so much fun she encouraged me to try it.
6. Is your success a product of nature or nurture? I think my success is a combination of both. I am the only sibling in my family who has pursued sports throughout school. I know that my little brothers and sister in California will never be cross country skiers because they simply don’t have access to snow. When I was born my parents were younger and were active themselves which was very influential for me. My parents no longer have the staminia to do the type of activities they used to and so my younger siblings are being raised much differently. I will say that I was extremely impressed when my little sister ran a 5k running race with me though.
7. Are you an expert in your field? (by your own definition)NO. I think that is what intrigues me so much about pursuing a sport. There are so many components to “master” and there will always be new and unexpected obstacles to overcome. I hope to gain enough knowledge and experience in the sport of cross country so that I could one day pass on what I have learned.
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A few Questions from Matt Chisam
1. What is the athletic background of your parents and family?
My parents and family were very athletic and active when I was young. My parents met at a bike/ski shop in Manhattan and ran the shop’s weekend ski trips to Vermont together. I grew up downhill skiing in the winter and windsurfing and hiking in the Green Mountains in the summer.2. When did you begin participating in your sport? I began participating in my sport in High School. I was 16 years old when I started cross country skiing.
3. What was your early experiences with sport like? My early experience with sports was very positive. I can remember looking forward to recess and PE everyday!
4. How instrumental were parents and coaches in the early part of your development as an athlete? My parents were very instrumental in the early part of my development as an athlete. I learned how to ice skate, swim, and I did gymnastics early on in the city and was skiing from age two up in Vermont. As I grew older my coaches became amazing role models who definitely encouraged and inspired me to pursue an athletic path.
5. How were you introduced to your sport and how many other sports did you seriously participate in? During high school friends were a very important role in sports and fortunately some of my closest friends were as active as I was. My best friend, who I met alpine skiing in 5th grade switched to Nordic and she had so much fun she encouraged me to try it.
6. Is your success a product of nature or nurture? I think my success is a combination of both. I am the only sibling in my family who has pursued sports throughout school. I know that my little brothers and sister in California will never be cross country skiers because they simply don’t have access to snow. When I was born my parents were younger and were active themselves which was very influential for me. My parents no longer have the staminia to do the type of activities they used to and so my younger siblings are being raised much differently. I will say that I was extremely impressed when my little sister ran a 5k running race with me though.
7. Are you an expert in your field? (by your own definition)NO. I think that is what intrigues me so much about pursuing a sport. There are so many components to “master” and there will always be new and unexpected obstacles to overcome. I hope to gain enough knowledge and experience in the sport of cross country so that I could one day pass on what I have learned.
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A few Questions from Matt Chisam
1. What is the athletic background of your parents and family?
My parents and family were very athletic and active when I was young. My parents met at a bike/ski shop in Manhattan and ran the shop’s weekend ski trips to Vermont together. I grew up downhill skiing in the winter and windsurfing and hiking in the Green Mountains in the summer.2. When did you begin participating in your sport? I began participating in my sport in High School. I was 16 years old when I started cross country skiing.
3. What was your early experiences with sport like? My early experience with sports was very positive. I can remember looking forward to recess and PE everyday!
4. How instrumental were parents and coaches in the early part of your development as an athlete? My parents were very instrumental in the early part of my development as an athlete. I learned how to ice skate, swim, and I did gymnastics early on in the city and was skiing from age two up in Vermont. As I grew older my coaches became amazing role models who definitely encouraged and inspired me to pursue an athletic path.
5. How were you introduced to your sport and how many other sports did you seriously participate in? During high school friends were a very important role in sports and fortunately some of my closest friends were as active as I was. My best friend, who I met alpine skiing in 5th grade switched to Nordic and she had so much fun she encouraged me to try it.
6. Is your success a product of nature or nurture? I think my success is a combination of both. I am the only sibling in my family who has pursued sports throughout school. I know that my little brothers and sister in California will never be cross country skiers because they simply don’t have access to snow. When I was born my parents were younger and were active themselves which was very influential for me. My parents no longer have the staminia to do the type of activities they used to and so my younger siblings are being raised much differently. I will say that I was extremely impressed when my little sister ran a 5k running race with me though.
7. Are you an expert in your field? (by your own definition)NO. I think that is what intrigues me so much about pursuing a sport. There are so many components to “master” and there will always be new and unexpected obstacles to overcome. I hope to gain enough knowledge and experience in the sport of cross country so that I could one day pass on what I have learned.
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A few Questions from Matt Chisam
1. What is the athletic background of your parents and family?
My parents and family were very athletic and active when I was young. My parents met at a bike/ski shop in Manhattan and ran the shop’s weekend ski trips to Vermont together. I grew up downhill skiing in the winter and windsurfing and hiking in the Green Mountains in the summer.2. When did you begin participating in your sport? I began participating in my sport in High School. I was 16 years old when I started cross country skiing.
3. What was your early experiences with sport like? My early experience with sports was very positive. I can remember looking forward to recess and PE everyday!
4. How instrumental were parents and coaches in the early part of your development as an athlete? My parents were very instrumental in the early part of my development as an athlete. I learned how to ice skate, swim, and I did gymnastics early on in the city and was skiing from age two up in Vermont. As I grew older my coaches became amazing role models who definitely encouraged and inspired me to pursue an athletic path.
5. How were you introduced to your sport and how many other sports did you seriously participate in? During high school friends were a very important role in sports and fortunately some of my closest friends were as active as I was. My best friend, who I met alpine skiing in 5th grade switched to Nordic and she had so much fun she encouraged me to try it.
6. Is your success a product of nature or nurture? I think my success is a combination of both. I am the only sibling in my family who has pursued sports throughout school. I know that my little brothers and sister in California will never be cross country skiers because they simply don’t have access to snow. When I was born my parents were younger and were active themselves which was very influential for me. My parents no longer have the staminia to do the type of activities they used to and so my younger siblings are being raised much differently. I will say that I was extremely impressed when my little sister ran a 5k running race with me though.
7. Are you an expert in your field? (by your own definition)NO. I think that is what intrigues me so much about pursuing a sport. There are so many components to “master” and there will always be new and unexpected obstacles to overcome. I hope to gain enough knowledge and experience in the sport of cross country so that I could one day pass on what I have learned.
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Boutot 9th in Sprint
In another difficult day on the range, Grace Boutot(Ft. Kent) managed again to strike down her targets. Entering prone with one of the top first lap times, Boutot rapidly nailed all five shots. Back on course she maintained her skiing position entering the range once again with gusting winds, but hitting all but one target. On her final lap,Boutot managed to climb up the list to land in 9th place. After the race she commented, “I knew I had to be more aggressive today. The Individual is definitely a shooters race and the Sprint is a skiers race. I’m prettyhappy with the way things went today and am in a good position for tomorrow’s Pursuit.” br /br /MWSC Biathlon Coach Gary Colliander commented, “Thiswas a solid race by Grace today. Last year she was 55th in this race, so 9th is a great improvement. Her shooting times today were great, not much over a minute for the two stages combined and her skiing was solid.”br /br /U.S. teammate Addie Byrne (Bovey, MN) led the team with a 6th place finish. Byrne like Boutot missed just one shot to finish 29.8 secondsbehind co-Champions Olga Galich or Russia and Yan Zhang of China who recorded the same time of 19:31.4.br /br /Hilary McNamee (Ft. Fairfield) stuggled in prone missing 4 of 5, but cameback to hit 4 of 5 in standing finishing 39th. Nick Michaud (Ft. Kent) showed good patience in the range hitting 7 of 10 to finish 43rd in the Youth Men’s race.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6813061107698506856-514460973450888675?l=mwscbiathlon.blogspot.com’//div
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Results of Jan. 31 Time Trial
span style=”font-family:courier new;”The trails skied great, and we had sunshine! Thanks to Casey Smith for grooming; Mike Harvey and Nancy Cushing for timing, and everyone else who helped get it done. MVNT, you look fast and ready for your upcoming races!/span For a more readable table of results, please refer to email from me or Flash.br /br /object width=”480″ height=”295″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/LyxPQbdwPkIhl=enfs=1″/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramparam name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/LyxPQbdwPkIhl=enfs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”480″ height=”295″/embed/objectbr /br /span style=”font-family:courier new;”Methow Valley Nordic Time Trial/Training Race 1/31/2009 LBHS Trails/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”Lap dist 3.46 km and 2.5 km (*) Skating /spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;” Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 Race/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”Bib Name Time Time Time Time Time/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;” /spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”6 Casey Smith 09:34 09:46 10:02 09:36 38:58/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”68 Evan Turner 09:35 10:02 10:20 09:54 39:51/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”1 Matty C. 10:23 11:10 11:21 10:39 43:33/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”40 Marc LeDuc 11:01 11:30 11:34 10:57 45:02/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”69 Rem Rohr 11:04 11:28 11:37 11:20 45:29/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;” /spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”17 Nina Eckblad * 07:48 08:07 15:55/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”11 Madison Jennings * 09:07 09:11 18:18/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”33 Nathalie Cushing * 09:05 09:28 18:33/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;” /spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”46 Claire Waichler * 10:38 10:38/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;” /spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”202 Laura McCabe 09:47 09:52 10:05 10:04 39:48/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”4047 Scott Waichler 10:07 10:30 10:51 10:50 42:18/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”57 Dave Ford 10:31 10:55 11:04 11:01 43:31/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”24 Louie Sukovaty 10:45 11:33 11:35 11:32 45:25/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”8 Steve Berg 11:17 12:07 12:02 11:45 47:11/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”7100 Rolf Borgersen 12:04 12:23 12:16 12:38 49:21/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”0 Dan Weinstein 13:16 13:24 13:17 13:30 53:27/spanbr /span style=”font-family:courier new;”70 Joe Brown 10:46 DNF/spandiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/489212310283984495-4166242392153461321?l=methowvalleynordicteam.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
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NATURE VS. NURTURE
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYSuozq98lI/AAAAAAAAAg0/umw_UEVY6IE/s1600-h/Mom+and+Kate,+circa+1985.jpg”img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 146px; height: 200px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SYSuozq98lI/AAAAAAAAAg0/umw_UEVY6IE/s200/Mom+and+Kate,+circa+1985.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297551077782975058″ border=”0″ //aOne of my
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My Ski History
Similar to several other skiers I know, I grew up skiing at a very young age. I started in my dads backpack and by the time I was three I had my own skis strapped to my feet. My family and I went on day-long trips to Hatcher Pass and skied for hours, or maybe what seemed like hours to me at the time. By the time I was six, I was old enough to join the local Junior Ski Program known as the Jr. Nordic League. After a few practices I was hooked…so hooked I convinced my sisters to join me!br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SYTQyzTmJJI/AAAAAAAAAQA/IOcGkLx0-Qo/s1600-h/00000001+-+Copy+%282%29.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 379px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SYTQyzTmJJI/AAAAAAAAAQA/IOcGkLx0-Qo/s400/00000001+-+Copy+%282%29.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297588632878982290″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”My family and I posing for a Christmas Ski picture in 1989br //span/divbr /My enthusiasm for skiing did not carry me all the way through elementary school. I was more intrigued with playing soccer than skiing. By the time I was in my “cool” junior high years, I decided that I really did not like skiing and after doing my first ski race I was sure that I would never race again! While my parents did not force me to keep skiing, they encouraged me to stick with it.br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SYTRkKL9KXI/AAAAAAAAAQI/HFWbYe3aszs/s1600-h/00000002.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 350px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SYTRkKL9KXI/AAAAAAAAAQI/HFWbYe3aszs/s400/00000002.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297589480834541938″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”My sister and I decked out in our “cool” spandexbr /br //span/divBy the time I got to high school I joined the cross-country running team and right after joined the cross-country ski team. At this point, I enjoyed these sports from more of a social aspect. The more I skied and raced, the more I learned to enjoy it. As I got better and better, I produced improving results, which fired my desire to keep skiing. My parents and coaches were very instrumental in supporting and encouraging me and they continue to do so to this day!br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SYTPk5E3cvI/AAAAAAAAAPo/tGPiKMzix0E/s1600-h/00000003+-+Copy.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 333px; height: 400px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SYTPk5E3cvI/AAAAAAAAAPo/tGPiKMzix0E/s400/00000003+-+Copy.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297587294398018290″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”font-style: italic;”Racing for East High School my freshman yearbr //span/span/span/divbr /After completing four years of racing on one of the best high school ski teams in the state, I decided to continue my ski ambitions as I pursued college. After skiing one year for Alaska Pacific University, I transferred to the University of Alaska Anchorage and skied for four successful years. Each year I produced improving results. As a result of my performances, I was asked to join an elite Olympic Development Team in Sun Valley, Idaho when I completed school.br /br /That is where I am today! I currently live and train in Sun Valley and I am a member of the Sun Valley Olympic Development Team. I can honestly tell you that I am very passionate about skiing and I am so thankful my parents introduced me to the sport and encouraged me to stick with it!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5903545846797966075-5639140326986988592?l=in-the-arena-nicole.blogspot.com’//div
