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Photos left to right: Liz Stephen, Ida Sargent, and Sophie Caldwell. Courtesy of U.S. Ski Team. It is a race so hard that some competitors simply give up, as Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk, a 2014 Olympic gold medalist, did last year. But last January, there was the diminutive American Liz Stephen, flying gracefully up the mountainside as if carried by angels’ wings. She finished fourth, just two seconds behind Marit Bjoergen, the brilliant Nordic skier who is indisputably best in the world. Stephen ended up fifth overall in the seven-stage tour. It would have been unthinkable to consider a U.S. skier in the same caliber as Bjoergen or Kowalczyk a decade ago, when any hope of seeing an American in the top 30 was futile. The destiny of U.S. women seemed to lag behind that of the Norwegians, the Swedes, the Finns, the Russians, the Germans, the Italians, the Czechs and others from countries with deep cross-country traditions. But that has changed in large part due to skiers, led by Stephen, with vital connections to Vermont. U.S. women are now winning World Cup races, winning World Championship medals, and contending for podium positions and top-10 finishes in virtually every race they enter. And the fabric of the U.S. women’s cross-country team is woven with Vermont threads. Of the six members of the U.S. Cross Country women’s A team, three are Vermonters. Along with the 28-year-old Stephen, an East Montpelier native, there is Sophie Caldwell, a 25-year-old from the village of Peru, and 27-year-old Ida Sargent from Barton. In March, Jessie Diggins and Caitlin Gregg made history by winning the first two World Championship medals ever won by U.S. women. They, too, have some Vermont in their blood. Diggins, a native Minnesotan, honed her talents as a student at the Stratton Mountain School, and Gregg, who now lives in Minneapolis, grew up skiing in the Mad River Valley. Even Matt Whitcomb, the U.S. women’s head coach, has strong Vermont ties. Whitcomb, a Massachusetts native, now lives in northern Vermont and spent four years as a coach at Burke Mountain Academy before joining the national team. But it is Caldwell, Sargent and Stephen who carry the banner as native Vermonters. And although they are all Vermonters, their stories, their ascents into the elite level of their sport, are very different. Caldwell, from southern Vermont, has arrived at the top of her sport almost as a matter of genetic destiny. The Caldwell family has been producing Olympians and world-class coaches and ski technicians for three generations. Sophie’s father, Sverre, is currently the Nordic program director at the Stratton Mountain School, with perhaps the best scholastic Nordic program in the country. Sargent’s entry into cross-country skiing, not long after she learned to walk, was a product of pure playfulness, just a little 28 SkiVermont.com
girl being a little girl. Skiing was, she says, “mostly a social thing.” Her friends were skiing in the Bill Koch League (BKL) at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, and she wanted to hang with them. She first began competing as a 5-year-old in the BKL’s Lollipop division. Sophie Caldwell and Ida Sargent VSAA Winter Ad FINAL 2015.qxp_Layout 1 8/14/15 10:30 AM Page 1 Stephen came to the sport almost accidentally, a teenage latecomer. She entered Burke Mountain Academy as a 14-year-old Alpine racer, with little experience in cross-country skiing. But weighing in at barely over 100 pounds, she was deemed to lack the substantial muscle mass that is usually a physical attribute of the world’s best downhill competitors. With the support of Whitcomb, Burke’s Nordic coach at the time, a new seed was planted, and it blossomed with astonishing speed. Stephen arrived at the World Cup level just a few years later, in 2007, only 20 years old. Different stories, perhaps, but a common character thread of being a proud Vermonter runs throughout. “There is definitely some pride among Vermonters,” Caldwell says. “This is where we come from.” One senses that “coming from Vermont” means much more than geography to her. Something about where they come from seems to breed the kind of strength, resiliency and tenacity that are at the core identity of a world-class crosscountry skier. “Vermonters are tougher,” Sargent declares with emphasis, and Stephen echoes that sentiment. “Vermonters have a little tougher skin. We are the type of people with that pure desire to really work hard.” (CONTINUED on PAGE 31) 80th Anniversary Celebration! Suicide Six opened to the public in 1936 with its first rope tow on Hill No. 6. Installed by Wallace “Bunny” Bertram, he joked that to ski down the steep pitch of Hill No. 6 would be Suicide, and in jest, the name stuck. Today we are one of Vermont’s most family friendly ski resorts with terrain that suits every ability. The Woodstock Inn & Resort welcomes you to celebrate our 80th Anniversary with amazing skiing & snowboarding, as well as cross country skiing & snowshoeing on over 50km of trails. Plan your Vermont get away today! 866.615.5678 | www.woodstockinn.com | Woodstock, Vermont SkiVermont.com 29
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