UW-Madison grad student Nick Underwood (left) works with Juniors program participants Nina Chosy (center) and Eli Gore on form and racing technique.
If you happen to be near the Lussier Family Heritage Center or Gunflint Trail Park in Fitchburg this summer and see a bunch of teenagers hill bounding or roller skiing with poles, give ’em a wave.
These kids are part of the Madison Nordic Ski Club’s summer youth programs, designed for kids as young as 5. Trail Kids introduces the sport while emphasizing recreational activities such as obstacle-course running and mountain biking, while the Juniors program helps high school skiers train for the winter season by focusing on balance, technique, coordination, agility, and building aerobic capacity and fitness.
“Ideally, we would get to train in the snow 12 months of the year,” says Carly Ziegler, MadNorSki’s director of youth fitness, who moved to Madison from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. “But we don’t always know how much snow we’ll get, or when.”
So why not take advantage of the warm weather?
“Skiers are made in the summer, not in the winter,” says 16-year-old Eli Gore, who will be a junior at Madison West High School this fall. “So it is very important to get out and start training for the winter months as soon as April or May. The Juniors program has most certainly changed my results during the main season.”
Gore has qualified for the Midwest Junior National Team and represented the Midwest in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Meanwhile, Nina Chosy, 14, is in her fourth year of MadNorSki summer training and qualified for the New England Nordic Ski Association’s Championship Race last season as one of eight skiers on the Midwest Team.
“Training for cross country skiing in the summer is a great way to really make a difference in the winter,” she says. “Interestingly, in the summer, we practice generally at the same time — 5 to 7 p.m. — [and] the sun is still up. Much of our winter practices take place at those same hours, but the sun is already down and we ski on lit trails.”
With about 200 members, MadNorSki organizes monthly meetings, offers free lessons and also sponsors an evening race series.
MadNorSki is still signing up young skiers and other kids who are curious and want to experience summer training at pro-rated fees, Ziegler says. “We don’t want to be a club that excludes people who are new to the sport,” she explains. “If you’re from a family that does not ski, you are unlikely to give it a try, and we want to push back against that. Nordic skiing is for everyone.”
