Some Views On College Skiing
Contributed by Pete Vordenberg
Generation XC - Resources
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A few weeks before the 1994 Olympic trials I gave a speech to a bunch of high school and Jr. high school kids up in Anchorage Alaska. In those days I was more then gung ho. I basically told those kids that if they wanted to be ski racers they could forget about college. Since then I've changed my mind.
I made the Olympic team in 92 and 94, competed in several World Cups in 95, was losing interest in 96, struggling in 97 and pushing hard for the Olympic team in 98, but didn't make it. I was reaching the age where a skier generally begins to come into his or her strongest and fastest years, and I felt like my career was already over.
If I could do it all over again I would have gone from High School to Sweden, just like I did. I would then have gone to Northern Michigan University, just like I did. Then I would have stayed at Northern Michigan University instead of pursuing the sport full time, like I did. I would have had stuck with the same great coach, had a team to train with, a steady, comfortable and balanced life style; I would have graduated from College, and I like to think that I would have made the 98 Olympic team, that I would still be psyched up about racing and training, that I'd be getting steadily faster every year, and that I still loved it like I used to. I no longer train at all, except as part of coaching, and I seldom race.
This is not an article about what I should have done, or about what I think junior skiers should do. What I hope to suggest is that skiing for a college, besides having all the advantages of going to, and graduating from college, can be a fantastic tool for skier development.
Most people graduate from High School when they are 17 or 18. Most skiers start, START, to reach their athletic peak around 26. College takes 4 to 5 years if you're nothing like me (I graduated at the age of 28). Let's say you graduate high school at the age of 18. If you go right to college after high school and take 4 to 5 years...let's see...18..um..subtract...carry the one...so you graduate from College at the age of 23 or 24. Just in time to really tackle the sport full on.
In the late teens and early twenties most people have a lot of physical, mental and emotional developing to do. College forces one in to a balanced lifestyle combining sport, school and social life, and this lifestyle enables one to do work on that necessary development. With regard to skiing specifically, this kind of life style ensures that one's training builds steadily over time.
"There are many who suggest it is bad that colleges import skiers from Europe, on the grounds that these skiers steal scholarship dollars. That is right they steal scholarship dollars, and if you want those dollars, you have to steal them back."
I attribute my lack of improvement during the years when I should have been climbing to my athletic peak to two things. The first was I built up my training volume way too fast as a young skier, and second, I dropped out of college so I could "just" train.
Had I stayed in college the other demands of school would have prevented me from building up my training too fast. Yet there would have plenty of time to train well and just enough time to develop as a skier and at a reasonable rate.
At the same time one maintains the spark for ski racing while in college because one cannot concentrate only on skiing. This is a spark I never would have thought I would, or even could, lose, and it could be that I would have lost it regardless, but it slipped away from me most when I was a skier and nothing else -- my worst years.
In College one has a team to train with and hang out with made up of people coming from all kinds of backgrounds, bringing different strengths, weaknesses, and ideas to training everyday. One has a coach who, even if he or she doesn't know everything about the sport, knows something to teach you about the sport.
This is a big one: In college one has people around your age and with similar interests of the opposite (and of the same) sex in greater abundance than you will ever find them again.
There are many who suggest it is bad that colleges import skiers from Europe, on the grounds that these skiers steal scholarship dollars. That is right they steal scholarship dollars, and if you want those dollars, you have to steal them back. I am for a free market importation of Europeans -- strong competition. Quit sniffling about it not being fair. You will find that there are a number of Europeans on the international circuit, and they are known to be pretty good skiers too. Scholarships have to be earned, and if you are an American it takes more to earn them -- plain hard fact. If you are not offered a ski scholarship there are a lot of non-athletic scholarships out there. You can join the team as a walk on and earn a ski scholarship by skiing fast easier than you can talk some coach into giving you one over the phone. In any case it will take some work. Go for it, work for it, do what you have to do, just donât whine about it.
The college circuit (I have no experience of the eastern circuit, just the strong NMU team in the midwest and the very tough western race circuit) is the best circuit in the North America. There are very fast Europeans, and some of the best Americans, to race and train with every weekend, or, if you are on the same team as they are, to train with every day.
This is a vital advantage to racing for a college team. While growing up in Boulder, I had Norwegian coaches from the University, and University (Scandinavian and American) athletes to train with. While at Northern Michigan I had some of the best up and coming racers in the country to train and race with. Both situations enabled me to take skiing as far as I did. At Northern Michigan we once had three skiers in the top ten at NCAA's and the fourth (when teams took 4) just out side the top ten -- all of us Americans.
At the University of New Mexico, where I used to coach, the two American guys we had got to train with a number of seasoned, speedy Scandinavian racers everyday, and race against the top Collegiate racers in the country almost every weekend. Both of our Americans made huge progress this year, they were the hardest workers on the team, and though they didn't have the background of our other racers (one of them is from Kentucky) they scared the top skiers with their progress anyway!
In college it is possible to build up one's training, improve steadily as a skier, and develop as an all around person. Then when you graduate from college there is a wide world of ski racing waiting for you, and many years, the best years, in which to do that ski racing.
Pete Vordenberg was a 1992 and 1994 U.S. Olympian. He is now an assistant coach with U.S. Ski and Snowboarding.
