- The past few years on the US Ski Team,
traveling the world, has been an incredible experience.
We got to witness all sorts of cultures
and race against the best people in the world.
- For an American skier on the world cup,
that means leaving home in November
and not coming back until the end of March.
All three of the Dartmouth girls on the national team,
Sophie, Rosie, and Julia have all
been on the world cup racing internationally for longer
than I have, which has put me in a great position
of having these three mentors.
- When I first joined the team,
I had a lot of older girls to look up to
who are good role models and sort of showed me the ropes
and taught me the ins and outs of life
on the road, life on the world cup.
And so I found myself, this last year,
knowing it's my last year, sort of wanting to share
as much wisdom as possible with these young girls.
- It's really given me a sense of purpose
to make sure that the trajectory that we have
going in women's skiing right now in the US continues.
- I've looked up to them since I was really young.
Watching them go through their time at Dartmouth
and having a lot of success in college
and then to move on to the national team
and having success at the highest level.
- Julia and I have really grown up together
in the sport of skiing.
- For me, Catherine brings this friend, teammate,
schoolmate along all for the ride.
- Catherine grew up in the next town over from me.
She lives about seven minutes away.
I used to actually babysit her when I was little.
I'm really happy with the path I took.
And so I know I was always really excited when
I saw her following a similar one.
We went to the same elementary school, high school, college.
- People often joke on our team about,
"Oh, they're talking Dartmouth lingo".
And they started to pick up on some of the lingo
when we talk about our Dartmouth times or experiences.
- I definitely think there is some kind of Dartmouth bond.
You know, those four years were really important years
of my life and it's nice having people I can relate
to and who can share the stories
and know what we're talking about.
- It's just been an incredible experience
being able to go to Dartmouth.
It's one of the reasons I chose to go to Dartmouth
was being able to pursue my academic and athletic goals.
I've really been driven in both my whole life.
And it was important to me
to obtain an education while also ski racing.
- The flexibility of the Dartmouth plan and the faculty
at Dartmouth has definitely been really important for me
and has been just crucial for my being able to
simultaneously pursue professional skiing
and high level education.
- I think we've all taken advantage
of the T plan and seen it as an opportunity in our own ways.
- Sophie has always kind of brought a sense
of balance to everything.
And to me, she's shown me that it's really
important to be balanced, both in skiing and your lifestyle
and academics, to have a little bit of everything going on.
- I felt like after I graduated
and got the education that I received at Dartmouth,
I was ski racing because I felt
like it was something I really wanted to do
and something I wanted to pursue.
And I didn't feel the pressure that I had to do it
because I knew I had this amazing college degree
to fall back on.
- I've really looked up to her in that.
And same with Rosie.
Rosie has done school on the side.
She's done a combination of different things
and she's never given up.
It's just been cool to see people take different paths
but pursue both their athletic and academic goals.
- These young girls are already so far ahead
of where we were at that age.
And I think our generation had a lot of success.
So it'll be really exciting to see
where it takes them.
- I hope me and Juliette
and Kayo can find ourselves in Beijing next year.
And of course Sophie
but she is choosing to move on this year.
So we'll miss her dearly
but it's been a really great experience
to travel the world with fellow big green athletes.
- All three of those girls are incredibly special
to me and I know they will be forever.
And I think, you know, through our bond,
our bond through skiing,
our bond through our Dartmouth connection,
it's something special and I'm grateful for them all.
(soft music)