While many Dartmouth students spent their spring breaks on the beach, 22-year-old Libby Ludlow '06 spent the last few weeks of her extended off-term winning the giant slalom event at the U.S National Alpine Championships in Gridrow, Alaska.
Ludlow, a resident of Bellevue, Wash., balances her talent, affinity for skiing and desire for an education by attending Dartmouth during spring term. She spends the rest of the year training with the national team around the world, primarily in Europe, and in South America during the summer months.
A skier since the age of two, Ludlow credits her two older brothers with teaching her to go fast, and a race program at Crystal Mountain in Washington for inadvertently turning her from a pleasure skier into a racer. She joined the U.S. national when she was only 16.
Despite the fact that many U.S. ski team members are college-aged, Ludlow is the only woman on the team that attends college. She said the College's quarter system was a factor in her decision to come to Dartmouth, but added that it has not been as accommodating as one might think.
"It is convenient that spring term picks up right at the end of ski season, but it was a struggle convincing the administration to allow me to matriculate in the spring of 2002 instead of the fall," Ludlow said. "Also, freshman requirements are primarily offered only in the fall and winter, so I'm just taking my freshman seminar now."
Still, Ludlow said the chance for an education is worth the juggling and hassle.
"I'm taking care of the parts of my education I can now," Ludlow said. "At any point my career can change -- I could be injured -- so I want to get some stuff done now, even though I may be skiing for another 10 years. Officially, I'm on the 12-year plan, but I can't really say when I'll graduate."
Ludlow's college experience is atypical even by D-Plan standards, and she said she has missed much of the college experience as a result.
"Stepping onto a campus where everyone's already established themselves and has their friends is definitely hard, but at the same time I get to do a lot of cool stuff that other people don't get to do. The trade-off is huge."
Ludlow also said she believes that her time at Dartmouth every spring, however brief, is good for her skiing.
"I've always liked having other stuff than skiing to do," she said. "It's great to live like a normal person for 10 weeks and then go back and train even harder."
When she is at Dartmouth, however, Ludlow is just like any other student. Although April is the ski team's month off from hard training, she still has to balance school and sports.
"It's still hard to balance the two, even though I'm not training exclusively when I'm at Dartmouth," Ludlow said. "I cross-train about two hours a day, six days a week in the off-season, and just like any other student, I'm tired. But I take my studies very seriously when I'm here; I'm only here for 10 weeks -- I might as well."
The time and effort Ludlow has devoted to skiing has paid off. Overcoming knee injuries in the past five years, she has improved significantly to work her way up the ranks of the U.S. ski team. Ludlow said her Giant Slalom title as an achievement on the path to her next goal.
According to Ludlow, that goal is the World Championships next year, where she said she hopes to be a medal contender. And after the World Championships, Ludlow hopes to compete in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Ludlow's future outside of skiing is unclear, though she's considered many different things, including law and medicine. The one thing she does know is that she will always be involved with sports.
"I will be involved in sports the rest of my life, whether via a career or recreationally," she said. "I can't imagine not."
