There are over a dozen Vermonters headed to Sochi to compete in the Olympics. VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb spoke with one of them, Liz Stephen, to find out what it’s like to compete at the most elite level of international challenge.
Liz Stephen is competing in her second Olympics as a cross country skier. She competed in 2010, and most recently came in fourth in the 4 by 5k Relay and 6th in the 10k Freestyle at this year’s World Championships. When she’s not traveling for competition and training, Stephen calls East Montpelier home.
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“I’m really excited. It definitely in terms of the nervousness, it helps to have gone to one Olympics before, for sure. I remember at this time before Vancouver was, uh, quite stressful. I think after four more years of experience in learning how to deal with pressure, I am certainly more excited than I am nervous,” Stephen said.
Stephens made the switch from Alpine to Nordic while in high school at Burke Mountain Academy. She said she’d always been a runner and an endurance junkie. When she went to Burke, Alpine was her sport.
“Alpine is another passion, but it didn’t really line up with my running goals. And so I decided I wanted to do something a bit different, but I really loved the ski academy and cross country was the only other option,” she explained.
She made the switch at the prompting of the headmaster and the Nordic coach. “I loved it, I loved the people involved with the sport, and that’s certainly a part of why I’m still doing it. Skiing is the big thing and running is still part of the training for it.”
Most recently, the U.S. Women’s team came in fourth at the World Championships, the highest of any U.S. women’s team in history.
“We have a great team right now. We definitely have a goal of medaling in the 4 x 5k relay,” Stephens said.
Cross country skiing has been, in the past, overshadowed by Alpine in Olympic coverage, but Stephen said that’s beginning to change. She credits skier Kikkan Randall, with bringing the sport more attention. Randall was the first American woman to win gold at the World Championships in cross country in an individual event.
Stephen said organizers of the sport have also changed the format of events to make them more spectator friendly.
“There are a lot more mass starts. It’s not just one skier going off into the woods every 30 seconds, and coming out and going across the finish line and there are the results. It’s 80 people, who are all starting at the same time and you know who wins because they cross the finish line first. There are sprint races which are really exciting,” Stephen said. “I hope there is more coverage. Our team definitely has the best chance ever of coming home with more than just one medal. We have multiple athletes in multiple disciplines that have a chance of coming home with a medal.”
Stephen’s family will be among those watching the skiing competitions on television.
“Sochi was just a bit more of a process to get all of the visas and everything going for this year. So instead they came to the last few stages of the Tour de Ski, which is a World Cup stage race we do right after Christmas, so I’ve gotten to see them this year. And I know that they’ll be cheering hard along with everyone else from Vermont, and watching the TV which might even be better coverage than what you’ll get in Sochi,” Stephen said.
