Paige Schember: Olympians Wouldn't Be Olympians Without a Team

The SVSEF college crew/Gold Team on top of Otto's Peak

Everyone knows that Nordic ski racing is largely an individual sport. When you are halfway through a race and your body is being pushed to its absolute limits, you have to rely on your own mental strength and training to get you to the finish. Sure, there are other athletes racing around you, but in reality, you're out there on your own and you can't turn to others to help you race faster. And I think this is one of the reasons Nordic skiers are a unique breed. We thrive on knowing that our failures and successes are, for the most part, our own responsibility.

But I think we can all agree that what happens during the races is built upon what happens during training. And what happens during training, happens with a team. Your teammates, whether temporary or long-term, are the support system that helps you get through the hard workouts, helps you form the memories from the good ones, and shapes you to become the athlete that you are. They cheer you on, challenge you, empathize with you, give you advice, and suffer right next to you through the long van rides, freezing cold, exhausting heat, and difficult training days. They know what you're feeling, because they've been there, and they are there.

I'm a firm believer that training with and immersing yourself in a team is one of the main ways to train effectively and live happily. Training without a support system to fall back on can easily lead to frustration and a lack of motivation and challenge, while training with a team pushes you outside of your comfort zone and teaches you the coping skills needed for the moments when you find yourself in the middle of the race with only yourself to fall back on. No matter what age you are or how serious you are about skiing, training with a team ignites the passion for the sport. You can think back to the days you spent chasing down your teammates on the road, trails, and snow, and you know that you've been there and done that, and this race is no big deal.


The Olympic Day kids organizing themselves into teams based on animal noises

I've always admired SVSEF because I knew that its team environment was a strong one, but I never realized just how strong it was until I got here. The group that is training here for the summer is absolutely awesome. They support each other and genuinely want their teammates to become better skiers, which makes practice something to look forward to every morning.

Gold Team! Miles, Mary, Colin, Chelsea, Ben and Me

But not only the nordic team is a tight group, the whole of SVSEF (nordic, alpine, freestyle, and snowboarding) is a team in itself. This week we hosted Olympic Day, a day of celebrating our past, present, and future Olympians. Over 150 kids from the foundation and from town signed up to play and were put on mini-teams to compete in games such as tug of war, jousting, tricycle races, paddle boat races, penalty kicks, BB gun shooting, and relays. It was so amazing to see the kids on the teams (many didn't know each other) bond together and work to include everyone in each task. No matter if you were a nordie, piner, freestyle skier, or snowboarder, you were included and valued. And THAT is awesome.

I'm feeling super duper lucky that I have the team I do, because the difficulty of the training doesn't matter when you're doing it with awesome people. Thank you Gold Team-ers (Mary, Chelsea, Ben, Miles) and all the college kids (Sloan, Jesse, Katie, Maggie, Corky, Sam, Adam, Jack, Cole, etc) for making June an awesome training month. I can't wait to see what July holds.