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This week, we welcome Katharine Ogden to our Quench'd series! Katharine is former professional ski racer, three time NCAA D1 champ, and the first American woman to win an individual medal at the Junior World Nordic Ski Championships (among countless other achievements). Currently, she is a social worker in New Hampshire and a great sister to Bivo team member Charlotte and Bivo sponsored athlete Ben. She loves mountain biking, running, all types of skiing, and trying to give the family dog a bath. She is also on the board of the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) where she works to foster the love of nordic skiing all around New England. Thank you Katharine for sharing your story with all of us!

I was raised by the New England Nordic ski racing community in Southern Vermont. I started ski racing so long ago that I really don’t remember anything about how it began, to be honest. I was probably 3 or 4 when my dad first started bringing me to races and my siblings would have been even younger. I have friends who talk about their parents bribing them with hot cocoa and gummy worms to go skiing but that was never my family. My dad would hand over a banana on the drive over and that was about it as far as bribes go. I skied because of the fun culture and the loving people in the community, a much more powerful (or at least longer lasting) bribe than any sugared-up gelatin worm.

As I progressed through the ski racing pipeline, I became more and more enmeshed into the community. I absolutely loved racing. I was good at it, and I liked the validation of winning but that was far from the main source of motivation for me. I have a clear memory of one week in my freshman year of high school getting a cold and being told that I couldn’t go to the regional race that weekend since I needed time to get healthy. It was devastating. Not because I was worried about the racing but because I knew I was missing out on an opportunity to spend a whole weekend with my favorite people in the world.

In college I raced for the Dartmouth Ski team in New Hampshire and got to continue thriving within the warm embrace of eastern ski culture. I’m not exactly sure what it is that creates the magic. Maybe we’re all just a little trauma bonded by the volatility of the ski conditions around here? Maybe ski culture in New England is still just thriving off the energy brought by Bill Koch’s Olympic medal all those years ago? I don’t know what creates the magic but dang is it powerful.  

After college I spent a couple of years racing internationally for the U.S. Ski Team. It feels crazy to admit, but sometimes I wonder if growing up in the New England ski culture ruined me for skiing elsewhere. It was jarring to spend whole seasons racing in Europe feeling like an outsider every weekend when I was so used to ski races feeling like family reunions.

During my second-year racing for the national team I missed qualification for the Olympic team, so I had to go back home to Vermont for a few weeks mid-season while the rest of the team flew to Beijing. I went to an Eastern regional race over one of the weekends that I was home for. I had been dreading going to the race, feeling embarrassed and frustrated about failing to achieve my goal of Olympic qualification. Then, predictably, I arrived at the race venue and my New England skiing family welcomed me with so much love. That weekend ended up being one of my favorite racing memories of my career. I was in awe of the way that the community welcomed me back with open arms (literally, I received So. Many. Hugs. that weekend) regardless of if I had qualified for the Olympics.

I’ve moved on from ski racing now and am focused on other goals, but I was never going to be able to leave my eastern ski racing family behind entirely. I was given the incredible honor of a spot on the board of directors at NENSA, the organization responsible for putting on all the events I have such fond memories of and creating the culture I love so much. I feel incredible pride in the opportunity to give back to this community. People who nordic ski race in New England are a unique bunch and they are my people, they always will be.

Growing up in that culture shaped me into the person I am today, and now I get a chance to help ensure other kids get the same opportunity I did. How cool is that?