Sarah Konrad
Nordic Skier and Olympic Hopeful
Sarah Konrad knows NOLS inside and out. She worked
as an instructor from 1986-1994, and during that
time, Konrad was ubiquitous. “The time I worked for
NOLS shaped a lot of who I have become,” Konrad
says. “It’s a very powerful process. I
really had to learn a lot about how to get along with
people – not only for myself but also how to
teach other people how to get along.” Konrad says that her passion for racing eventually
pulled her away from NOLS and into the grueling, demanding
world of Nordic skiing. She began competing and succeeding
in Nordic races of distances totaling 30 kilometers
and more. Over time, she started placing in the top
three consistently. She turned 30 in 1998 and began
skiing in the Master’s competition, a division
for over 30-year-olds. At the World Master’s
in Lake Placid, Konrad won several medals in her 30-34-year-old
age group, including gold in the 10-K Freestyle race
and 4x5-K Relay race, and a silver medal in the 30-K
Classic race.
Konrad had earned her M.S. in Geology at Washington
University years earlier, but she began to pursue her
Ph.D. in glaciology from the University of Wyoming,
while competing full-time as a Nordic skier. Eventually,
she started garnering national attention for her high-ranking
finishes. In 1999, Konrad competed at the U.S. Nationals
and placed fifth.
“I just decided to keep racing at the same
time that I was doing my doctorate, and I got really
close to
making the Olympic team and the National Team,” she
explains.
In 2001, Konrad earned her Ph.D. and signed on as
a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Wyoming,
a job with a flexible schedule that enabled her to
continue skiing competitively. It paid off. Last
year,
Konrad placed second overall in the 30-K Freestyle
race. And in 2004, Konrad won the event, claiming
her first National Title.
“It was just nice to finally win,” Konrad
says. “I
had been getting so close for several years, but
I had never actually made it to the top of the podium.”
Unfortunately, Konrad says, the U.S. National Team
has never called and invited her to join. So she
resolved to do something about it. She has set
her sights on
a different target: the Biathlon team. “I called
them (last year),” she says. “I didn’t
know how to shoot at that point, but they said, ‘No
problem. If you ski as fast as you do, we don’t
care about your age.’”
Konrad is hopeful to make the 2006 U.S. Olympic
Biathlon Team.
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