All across the East, ski racers grow up dreaming of skiing for Dartmouth. The words "Dartmouth ski team" seem almost synonymous with "U.S. ski team." When Dartmouth's green jackets are spotted on the peaks or trails, young racers stop and take notice.
Before the Winter Olympics or the World Cup even existed, there was the Dartmouth ski team. In 1909, Dartmouth established the first college ski program in the nation, beginning a dynasty of success stretching over almost 100 years.
The Dartmouth ski team has been represented at almost every Winter Olympics since the first games in 1924. In Torino, Italy in 2006, five Dartmouth ski team alumni competed for the U.S. One skied for Canada and another for Australia.
Today, Dartmouth continues its tradition of excellence. At last year's NCAA Championships, the ski team finished third, behind western powerhouses Colorado University and the University of New Mexico. This was Dartmouth's highest finish since the championships went coed in 1983. Karl Johnson '06 also extended Dartmouth's run of men's individual slalom champions to five in a row.
The fact that Dartmouth can compete against teams like CU and UNM is a credit to Big Green athletes' dedication.
Western Division I ski programs are notorious for recruiting their skiers from the ranks of the world's national teams, as they are able to offer athletic scholarships that Dartmouth cannot, due to Ivy League regulations.
Alex Fucigna '07, co-captain of the women's alpine team, turned down athletic scholarships at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Vermont.
"I absolutely have not looked back once since I've been here," she said.
David Chodounsky '08, captain of the men's alpine team, also considered scholarships at the University of Denver and CU, but decided Dartmouth's combination of academic rigor and athletic excellence was too much to resist. This unique mix attracts some of the most talented skiers in the nation. Big Green skiers not only have to pass the academic standards for admission, they also have to keep up with the College's demanding workload, even in the winter.
The Dartmouth Plan does also offer flexibility to athletes with national ambitions.
"We have to go for the kids who are right on the edge between making the national teams," said men's alpine coach Peter Dodge. "They know that they can come here for a year, and maybe if they have a good year, they can make the team. They can ski with the U.S. ski team fall and winter, and come back here spring or summer."
This year alone, the U.S. ski team boasts seven Dartmouth skiers, which include Libby Ludlow '08 and Andrew Weibrecht '09. Many of these athletes will return to Hanover during the summers to work on their degrees.
"It can take awhile, its been an eight-year process for some guys, but eventually they can come out with a degree," Dodge said.
By recruiting athletes at this level, the ski team realizes that they might only benefit from one or two seasons of actual NCAA racing.
For example, Evan Weiss '06 has returned to the Big Green this year from the U.S. ski team. Weiss won the giant slalom and placed second in the slalom at this week's UNH carnival.
Due to the rigorous admissions standards at the College, recruiting these world-class athletes is not always easy.
"The problem isn't convincing kids that Dartmouth is the place for them, the problem is finding kids we can get in," Dodge said. "In the Ivy league we have these academic standards ... that pan out to about a 600 in all the topics," he said, referring to test scores for admission.
Even a 600 on all three sections of the SAT would be somewhere below the 25th percentile of average Dartmouth students.
"It's hard to get a lot through in one year. You have to build slowly," said Christine Booker, the women's alpine coach.
However, as Cami Thompson, the director of the ski program and the coach of the women's nordic team, pointed out, any athlete choosing Dartmouth over a possible scholarship at another Division I school obviously has academics as a top priority.
"I don't think it is hard to find women cross country skiers with the credentials to get into Dartmouth. It's a talented, motivated group," she said.
Some of Dartmouth's best skiers also excel beyond expectations in the classroom.
Alison Crocker '06 is a recent example. Crocker was a stellar skier, named to the World Junior and World U-23 teams, and was also a physics major with a flawless grade point average. Crocker was awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study astrophysics at Oxford University in England.
Coach Dodge also pointed out that often his recruits don't need any help at all with academics or admissions.
"When I look at the GPA list of the skiers, I find that the recruits often have higher GPAs than the walk-ons. These guys have years of experience with time management," he said.
Ski racing is an extremely time-consuming sport, but these athletes have long since gotten used to doing homework on the long bus rides and missing class for races.
It's clear that Dartmouth's skiers do not let the academic workload compromise their training or racing. This year, of the six men representing the United States at the U-23 World Cross Country Championships, three go to Dartmouth. Mike Sinnott '07, Ben True '08 and Glenn Randall '09 all were selected, based on their success at U.S. National championships.
The D-Plan can help, as these skiers can enroll in two classes instead of three. However, achieving this level of near-professional racing while still carrying the course load of two Ivy League classes is no small feat.
While skiers all over the East and the country may grow up dreaming of Dartmouth, the marriage of truly excellent academics and intense athletic competition narrows the field of recruits immensely. The student athlete willing to be so dedicated to his studies as well as his skiing is a much more rare breed of racer.
Perhaps Dartmouth's biggest rival for this type of student athlete is Middlebury College. Sinnott and Sara Studebaker '07, captains of the nordic team, both recalled considering Middlebury as a potential college choice. They also mentioned Denver University in that same vein, but the balance at the Big Green won out.
Coaches and athletes mentioned the intangible aura around the Dartmouth ski team. The parallel excellence of academics and athletics seems to imbue the Big Green skiing program with a widely recognized allure.
"Very little recruitment is done. Somehow the school does it itself," Sinnott said.
Studebaker spoke about the priorities of the program.
"While [Coach Thompson] expects dedication and hard work out of us, she understands that we are students first," she said.
These Big Green athletes are students first, but skiers as well -- skiers who know a thing or two about finishing first. A Big Green skier has taken first place in 13 of the 16 races contested so far. The Dartmouth ski team remains undefeated in the carnival season so far this year.
Last year, Dartmouth didn't win a single carnival, but managed to come from behind and leapfrog both the University of Vermont and Middlebury for third place at the NCAA championship. With two victories already under their belt, the Dartmouth ski team seems poised to push their success even higher.
