The XXII Olympic Winter Games will open in Sochi, Russia, on Feb. 7. With the Games less than two months away, athletes from around the country are competing for a spot on one of the Olympic teams ranging from alpine skiing to snowboard cross. Locally, nearly two dozen athletes are hoping to take one of the coveted spots, some competing for the United States and a few competing for our nations. To have a single athlete represent our region would be amazing, but with the possibility of a number of athletes set to represent the Tahoe-Truckee region, that phenomenal prospect is something to celebrate.
The Weekly will be celebrating those inspiring athletes in the coming months as they strive to earn a spot for the Winter Games in a series we’ve calling “Olympic Hopefuls.” Some of the athletes have already earned a spot, while others may or may not make one of the teams, but all of them deserve recognition for their athleticism and, most especially, for striving to reach their dreams (and inspiring others to do the same).
Olympic sport: Cross-Country Skiing
Hometown: Truckee
Resort team: Sun Valley Ski Education Association Ski Club
The Tahoe-Truckee area has produced a long string of Olympic medalists. It began with Jimmie Heuga in 1964, followed by Greg Jones who won a Bronze in 1976, then along came the more recent heroic medal-winning performances by Shannon Bahrke and Julia Mancuso. While we are proud of our Tahoe Olympic downhill skiing and snowboarding heroes, those of us enamored with cross-country skiing, also dream of the day when a cross-country skier from our neck of the woods joins the ranks of Olympic medalists.
Like many dreams, even though there are many folks working hard to make this happen, this one is a long shot. First, many top cross-country ski athletes in Tahoe are enticed away by the glamour and thrills of the downhill sports. And second, to become a successful Nordic racer can take a decade or more of training at the highest level to build up the necessary aerobic endurance to compete with those lungs on legs from Northern Europe.
Which brings us to Truckee native Matt Gelso. He’s fighting right now for one of the few remaining spots on the U.S. Olympic Cross-Country Ski Team heading to this year’s Winter Olympics. His performance in a series of upcoming competitions will be the deciding factor.
“It’s definitely a possibility, I’m one of the guys fighting for it. The goal is to get to Sochi,” says Gelso.
Gelso now lives in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he skis on the Gold Team for the Sun Valley Ski Education Association Ski Club. He began his cross-country ski career, however, in Truckee where he skied for the Sierra Mountain Middle School, Truckee High School and Auburn Ski Club in Far West Ski Association events.
“I came in at the tale end of a surge of great skiers in Truckee. I had a lot of time skiing with older guys and girls, which was great training,” he says. “I can’t say enough about the coaching I received from Glenn Jobe and Jeff Schloss.” (Jobe is an especially good model, as he competed in Biathlon at the 1980 Winter Olympics.)
In his early career, Gelso won four national championship races at the Junior Olympics. After high school, he skied for the University of Colorado in Boulder and competed in NCAA competitions, the top echelon of college cross-country ski racing. In 2010, he won the NCAA Championship in the 10 Kilometer Classic race.
It was after graduating from college, that Gelso confronted the issue that top Nordic racers face. Without a strong financial base of support, how do these athletes train year-round for years to work their way up the endurance chain? For example, Alaskan Kikkan Randall is America’s greatest hope for an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing in Sochi. But she raced in the World Cup for six years before breaking into the top 30, and now at the age of 30 is just beginning to reach her prime.
While Gelso’s fellow finance majors at University of Colorado were off to high-salaried jobs with financial firms in New York, Gelso moved to Sun Valley to train. He works in the construction business in Truckee or Ketchum, Idaho, during the summers, hoping to squirrel away enough reserves to get through the winter.
“It’s tough to have any job during the winter. You are gone for a month. Back for a week. You are short-changing yourself on both sides,” he says.
Perhaps one day, he will use his academic training to head to Wall Street, but he realizes that now is when he has to work hard at skiing if he is going to make it to the Olympic level.
Since college, he’s raced in the World Junior Championships, and in Europe, in what’s known as the Domestic Circuit, one step down from the World Cup. He’s also been able to travel to Canada to participate in several World Cup Races, where he quickly discovered that World Cup was a “serious step up in the level of competition. It was the real deal.”
For Gelso, like all potential cross-country Olympians, it’s about putting in the kilometers, and trying to slowly build up the power and endurance needed to join the Kikkan Randall’s of the world as an American Olympic cross-country skier.
