I caught up with cross-country skier David Sinclair '14 to discuss his best skiing experiences, his thoughts on the sport and his goals for this season.
When did you start skiing?
DS: Basically as soon as I could walk. When I was really little, my parents would take me skiing with them and they would pull me behind them in a little sled. By the time I was about four or five, I was skiing on my own.
So how did you decide to ski at Dartmouth?
DS: I really liked the coach here and all of the athletes here seemed to be doing really well. I also really liked the academics at Dartmouth, so I decided that it would be a good match for me.
What did the cross-country skiing team do to train over the winter interim this year?
DS: Over the interim, we had a team camp in Craftsbury, Vt. There was no natural snow there, but luckily up in Craftsbury they had about a 2.5-kilometer loop of manmade snow. So we spent about two weeks there just training really hard and getting ready for the season.
After your hard training over the interim, what would you say your goals are for this skiing season?
DS: My goal would probably be to make the NCAA championships in Middlebury, [Vt.] at the end of the season, and to be in the top 10 in both races there.
Moving away from this season specifically, where and when in your skiing experiences have you seen the best snow and skiing conditions?
DS: The best skiing conditions I've ever experienced were in my freshman year of high school. I went to Italy in the spring and got to ski in northern Italy in the mountains there. There was tons of snow and it was really just beautiful sunny days. It was just absolutely perfect skiing. I would definitely say that was my favorite skiing.
What would you say is the most challenging part of cross-country skiing as a whole?
DS: Just the mental aspect of when you're out racing and when you have to push yourself harder than you ever have before. It's really hard mentally to just push yourself completely to your max like that.
On that note, what do you think drew you to cross country skiing instead of, say, alpine skiing?
DS: It's really hard to word it. I think I like the aspect of having to work really hard and the idea of pushing yourself, as I said before. Also, I like not needing a chairlift or anything.
