Heyy its Nina!

A little about me: This is my first year skiing for the BSF pro team. I grew up in Lake Tahoe, California, and I’m entering my senior year at Dartmouth, studying psychology, neuroscience, and Spanish. When I’m not training or in school, my hobbies include aerial dance, cooking, and art.

This week, the team returned to Bozeman after our two-week summer training camp in Sweden. We spent the first week and a few days skiing in the Torsby Skidtunnel, then raced in the Trollhättan Action Week roller ski races.

Unfortunately, the airlines lost some of our baggage, but I was really grateful that we could help each other out and share equipment to make this training camp a great experience. A huge shoutout to Erin, Emma, and Max for lending me their skis.

I traveled to Sweden a few days before the team to spend some tine sailing with my cousins who live in Sigtuna and explore the old city in Stockholm. It worked out well having an easy week going into this training camp to have a short summer vacation with family who I only see every few years and exploring the beautiful archipelagos in the Baltic Sea by sailboat. 

Arriving at the Torsby underground ski tunnel with real snow was both exciting and a bit nerve-wracking. I was a little nervous about skiing the same loop, just over a kilometer long, over and over again for a week. But on my first ski, I was pleasantly surprised. The tunnel had a few hills of varying steepness and lots of fun corners and downhills. One direction of the loop was more gradual, while the other had some shorter, steeper climbs. A highlight was doing intervals with my teammates, Erin Bianco and Emma Albrecht. Skiing in the tunnel was such a unique experience, and it felt so refreshing to step into the cold bubble of winter for a few hours each day. Being back on snow for the first time in months got me really excited for the upcoming racing season. It was also a great technique workshop, helping us refresh some of the finer movements of skiing that just can’t be replicated on roller skis. On snow, it takes a finer weight transfer to maximize glide and efficiency, unlike the straightforward motion of roller skis. I always feel like a baby fawn tripping around on my first snow ski of the season, so refreshing that muscle memory was really valuable.

After about a week of skiing in the tunnel, we drove east to compete in the Trollhättan Action Week roller ski race series. The first race was a skate sprint, followed by a 48k classic mass start, and we finished with a 15k classic individual start. I decided to skip the 48k and focus on the skate sprint and 15k classic to improve my speed for my winter race distances. The skate sprint was especially challenging due to the heavy rain and slippery roads, which forced me to focus on maximizing upper body power and adjusting my weight transfer to prevent my roller skis from slipping. It was a tough technical adjustment but a valuable lesson in adapting to different conditions. The 15k classic race was a scenic two-loop course lined with spectators. I got passed by the women who finished first and second, and trying to keep up with them for a few minutes was both exciting and challenging. My goals for the upcoming season are to improve my tempo and double polling, which were two key features of racing fast in the 15k classic.

I'm super grateful for Andy doing all the work to make this happen and spending so much time and energy skiing with us, helping us work on technique, and supporting our racing. It was also amazing to have Amy on the trip with us as a physical therapist and sports psychology coach. I’ve traveled to quite a few countries in Europe for ski racing in the winter, but this was only my second time doing an overseas training camp in the summer. It was a special and unique experience to ski on real snow in an underground tunnel and race head-to-head with some of the best skiers. It was also great to see the beautiful scenery in three parts of Sweden and to become better friends with my new teammates, Emma and Erin. I enjoyed spending time with the team outside of training, having meals together and playing card games. 

Here are some photos!

Thank you for sharing this experience with me.

Cheers,

Nina

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