It’s easy to find inspiration for your winter perspiration in Anchorage. In fact, if you’re looking for motivation to get out of bed for exercise on a cool morning, hoping to take your training to Olympic heights, or just want to hang in the shadow of athletic greatness, you’re golden here.
Spend enough time on Anchorage’s trails and slopes and you’re sure to get passed, and inspired, by an Olympian. You could be pushing at your lung-burning best on the trails at Kincaid Park and still get crushed by Kikkan Randall, James Southam or Holly Brooks. Don’t feel bad – they are Anchorage’s Nordic skiing stars who competed in the last Winter Olympics and they’ll quickly pass most American skiers. So will Anchorage’s Olympic biathlete Jeremy Teela, himself a strong skier.
Then again, Anchorage’s many Olympic veterans and hopefuls are also happy to humble, and even stop to help, other skiers, as well. You could be carving down Mount Alyeska on a bluebird day, feeling your fastest and smoothest, and suddenly left in a powdery wake by Olympic medalists and Alaska legends Tommy Moe (gold and silver on skis) and Rosey Fletcher (bronze on a snowboard). If she isn’t racing on the world circuit, you’ll probably get passed by Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, an Alaska Native, Girdwood local, Winter Olympian snowboarder in 2010 and star of the future for Team U.S.A.
One Anchorage star you will probably recognize without her gloves, hat and skis on is Randall – she’s America’s winter sports darling and Alaska’s skiing sweetheart. She’s the most visible and heavily decorated woman Nordic skier in U.S. history, a world champion and as dedicated to giving back to young Anchorage skiers as she is to her training. And she’s very serious about her training. She and many other world-class locals spend parts of their summers training on a strip of summer snow set on a glacier above Girdwood.
Anchorage’s Nordic trails and alpine areas are stars in their own rights. They are fast, challenging and have become regular hosts of national and world winter sport championships. They’ve also become the breeding ground for Olympic greatness.
