Ella, how did you join the Danish Skimarathon Team?

“When I decided I wanted to look for a ProTeam to join this season, I was excited by the idea of the Danish team as they understand what it’s like to be a cross-country skier in a country where there aren’t a huge number of resources for winter sports, compared to other sports. I think this gives athletes a unique outlook on competitive skiing that involves a specific type of resourcefulness, resilience, and playfulness towards the sport, as well as a great understanding of the value for being supportive of one another in a team. Being a workers’ team, they also understand what it means to have to balance full-time training with study and work commitments in a way that complements and benefits our athletic careers and our performance as a team. I am currently completing my Master of Social Work in parallel to my competitive ski racing, so this is something I relate to. I think it is quite special that this will be the first Season as Pro Team skiers for all of us on this team, so we will all be learning and experiencing it together.” 

What are your expectations for the season since you are all rookies in the Ski Classics Pro Tour circuit?

“As this is my first season on the Ski Classics Pro Tour circuit, I am excited to see how hard I can push myself in back-to-back marathon events from the first Pro Team Tempo to Marcialonga, and I aim to improve in every race whether it be in my ranking, my race tactics, or my pacing. Due to this season being our first with a Pro Licence, we don’t have as much support as other Pro Teams do, but we already have some great sponsors on board like Alpina, Northug, and Brix Energy Fuel. And we will all be out there supporting each other to achieve the best results we can as a team. I think that the goal of spreading the excitement of endurance skiing to Denmark rings true for me with Australia as well, so our goals and attitudes coming into this season are very similar.” 

You have raced all over the world. Can you tell us more about your background?

“Growing up in a major city in Australia, I didn’t know about XC skiing until I was in secondary school, but I always loved being in the mountains, and I was a super active kid who played almost every sport under the sun. When I discovered that my school ran a cross-country ski program, I just thought it would be fun to try something new, and then I was immediately hooked. I didn’t start racing competitively until my final years of schooling, but I managed to qualify for the State and Junior National teams. That gave me the opportunity to begin traveling with these teams to America and Europe over the Northern Winters by the age of 15. Skiing on the National team has led me all around the world, with some notable experiences being my first World Juniors in Romania, World Juniors in Utah, and World U23 Championships in Germany. During the transition from being a Junior athlete to a U23 Athlete, I spent a couple of seasons living with a wonderful host family in Idaho on the Sun Valley Ski Team, where I was really inspired by seeing such enthusiasm for the sport all over the USA. After that, I continued to travel and race for Australia on the national team on the OPA cup circuit in Europe, while we mostly based ourselves in our coach’s hometown in Davos, Switzerland, to prepare for the major championship events like the previously mentioned U23 Champs in Oberwiesenthal. During those championships in early 2020, there were talks of this new virus going around, so while I was named for the World University Games team for the following year, the event was canceled two years in a row. The past 8 years of traveling and racing on the Australian team have shown me so many incredible places, and I think a really special part about our sport is that it takes us to these small mountain towns in places that, as a tourist, I probably wouldn’t go, so I really value that and I am super excited to travel to even more places with the Ski Classics circuit this season!”

Double poling is the primary technique in Ski Classics – how comfortable are you with it?

“Double poling has always been my biggest strength and my favourite technique. I always joked that I wished there were races where everybody had to just double pole, as I’ve always had a strong core and upper body but found learning the striding technique really challenging. It was always during the striding sections where I would lose time in my races and the double pole sections where I would make my moves. My favourite training sessions are always the longer ones, and I have always made sure to add a marathon race to the end of each winter season just for something fun and different. There is no better feeling than the sustained pain of a marathon and see how far you can push your body like that. Now I have completed many of the goals that I had in those shorter events, so I feel it is a good time to switch my focus and naturally these events felt like the most suitable progression considering it combines all my favourite elements of cross-country skiing, which are double poling and endurance.” 

How has been your summer training? Or should we say winter season in Australia?

“It has been great to get a few months of skiing during our Aussie winter. I was sick for most of the winter, so having some training on snow was valuable. It was a good opportunity for me to train smarter and ensure that what I did do was high-quality on-snow training. While being sick for these months was a bit of a setback, it also gave me the opportunity to recalibrate my training and play around with different types of training and loading strategies. I couldn’t bring myself to miss out on every race during the season, so I still competed in our National Championships a week after being in hospital and managed to snag a silver medal there with a double pole finish, as well as placing 9th a few weeks later in the 42km Kangaroo Hoppet event while having a head cold. So thankfully, I don’t think my form has suffered too dramatically. Sometimes having to change these things up in training and overcome hurdles can be beneficial in the long term. I’m looking forward to seeing how the season plays out.” 

Finally, who are your heroes in long-distance skiing, and which races do you value the most?

“Honestly, my heroes are spread among many different sports and facets of life and are mostly people that I have looked up to who have supported me in becoming who I am today. Some of these have been competitive cross-country skiers, some have been close friends and family, team managers, and some have been rowers or even teammates of mine who ran from one side of the country (Australia) to another to raise funds for refugee rights. Though these people may not have specifically done long-distance ski racing, they inspire my training for these events in their own ways. I think that the mindset that goes into ski racing must encompass a multitude of elements, as before we are racers, we are first human beings. So, the lessons that each of these people have taught me about sport and about life, in general, are what inspire me every day.”

Read More: Danish Skimarathon Team – Pro Team Presentation Season XIV