What country is home to over three million competitive cross country skiers and boasts nordic skiing as one of its three most popular sports?
If you said the United States then you are wrong. Very wrong.
For many Americans, cross country skiing is a sport which appears every four years at the Winter Olympics and then disappears. But for a diehard group of Dartmouth athletes, cross country skiing is a daily ritual.
A high caliber of academics and the first-rate ski program attracts skiers to Dartmouth.
"I've been skiing since I could walk," women's co-Captain Denali Kemppel '96 said. "Between its strong academics and strong skiing, Dartmouth was the best choice for me. There is no other place where you can get a good education without giving up skiing."
Men's co-Captain Colter Leys '96 agreed. He said few eastern schools can compete with Dartmouth in terms of education and skiing.
"A lot of the western schools are state schools where the quality of education is not as high," Leys said.
The Dartmouth team is also unique in its lack of foreign athletes.
"For the most part the big guns [at other schools] are recruited from Norway," Leys said. "I'm psyched to be skiing on a team that's all American."
Six skiers form the core of the nordic traveling team. Most skiers come to the team with a fair amount of experience.
"I've skied cross country for as long as I can remember," Leys said. "I raced alpine [in grade school] for a while, and then I decided to try something new so I got in to cross country racing. There are definitely people who haven't done much skiing but who get in to it in college."
Many of the less experienced skiers who come to the team benefit from the strong development program.
"What's nice about Dartmouth is that there is a Varsity team and a development team," Leys said. "This allows people to keep racing and work on technique as they train with the Varsity."
When there is adequate snow on the ground the team trains at Oak Hill, which is several miles from campus. Most racing is done on a "carnival circuit" during winter term. The traveling team tours different schools' winter carnivals all around the Northeast. These races serve as qualifying rounds for NCAA championships which will be held this year at Bozeman, Montana in March.
The women's varsity team is led by co-Captains Kemppel '96 and Danielle Fillion '96. The other skiers are Jessica Smith '99, Abi Holt '99, Christine Shaner '99 and Lara Burgel '96. Fillion often alternates with Valeri Wrenholt '97 in the number six position.
Cory Smith '96 and Leys are the men's captains. They ski with Paul Stone '98, Steve Donahue '99 and Chris Dums '97. Eric Maas '98 and Brant Stead '96 trade off at number six.
The team races both traditional skiing and skate-skiing. Traditional races are 10 kilometers for the women and 15 kilometers for the men. Skating is done in pairs of two men and two women.
While individual scoring is the basis for NCAA qualifiers, a team score is tallied for each race. As a result the skiers compete both for individual results and team results.
"You're out there to ski the best that you can," Kemppel said. "It's a mixture of both the team and the individual. It's always nice to see your teammates do well."
Races are started in either a mass start or an interval start. Leys said the team's cooperation is especially important in mass starts.
"There are a lot of races where you rely on your teammates," Leys said. "We test wax as a team and practice mass starts as a team. You always work together during races. It's one of those sports where training is hard enough that you need people there ... or else you find yourself slacking off."
Although the snow is only around for part of the year the team practices all four seasons. Their most intense training takes place in the winter.
According to Kemppel each of the women's practices is oriented around a specific goal. "We try to get in a set of intervals each week and also a long two-hour ski," she said. "We set goals of strength, speed and endurance."
The men's workouts are on a three-week cycle consisting of two "volume" weeks and one easier week. They practice every day, twice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and race on weekends.
All of the workouts are under the direction of Coach Cami Thompson for the women and Ruff Patterson for the men.
Patterson came to the Dartmouth ski program from the U.S. Ski Team with the goal of "lifting the level of the endurance athlete." He said competing against foreign skiers from other schools is like "trying to start a JV football team and compete on a level with pros." He said he believes that overall it helps raise his athletes' level of skiing.
"These boys work hard and I think it shows," Patterson said. "I'm real proud of them."
Kemppel said she is very happy with Thompson's guidance, particularly in competition.
"Skiers tend to be dedicated," she said. "When you see your hard work and training pay off it's nice."
The success of the Dartmouth nordic ski team is a testament to the coaching and to the athletes.
"Dartmouth has a really strong program and team," Kemppel said. "We're talking about a program that goes to NCAAs. We have kids going to [a challenging] school and being competitive at a high level...people with the potential to win a title."
So while the Soviet Union may have over three million cross country skiers in its ranks, the Dartmouth team shows incredible strength in small numbers. And although it is "not really a glamorous sport" as Kemppel said, it fares remarkably well.
