“Sophia Laukli: Catch me if you can” from FASTSKIER.COM
Sophia Laukli is one of the exciting athletes on the US cross-country (XC) ski team. At just 23 years old, this Maine native is coming off her best season as a professional skier and is making waves in the world of trail running too. Laukli’s unique ability to combine her XC skiing and trail running careers has positioned her as a formidable and unique two-sport professional athlete. Her victory in last year’s Golden Trail Race series is then a testament to her exceptional talent and dedication.
Fastskier.com published interesting two parts interview with her where she talks about training changes, her portrayal in the media, and mentions also the potential comeback of skiing legend Therese Johaug.
““Skiing is still the priority. It’s sometimes hard—I’m much more successful at running, maybe I should commit to that? But the way I’ve combined the two now, is honestly making me more successful in both, so I don’t see a motivation to change. In skiing, there’s a lot more ambition there (for her). I’ve been skiing forever, and constantly improving on the World Cup. I find more reward in that than in my running, even though I’m more successful on paper in running. But financially, it’s running that pays the bills. From a financial point, running is providing much more and, in a sense, it’s financing skiing. But that was an after-the-fact thing. I didn’t know running had all this money. It means I can now fully commit to being an athlete because running can now support my skiing. My ski training is supporting my running from the physical standpoint.””
“ “…it was quite the learning experience because I was trying to portray this message in a podcast that for me it’s important to have a social life and have a life outside of running and skiing. Because I’m competing 12 months a year, I need a place where I can totally distract and not have to think about sport, and for me, that’s having a normal social life. The way that message got taken and put into all these articles…I had a hard time reading them and eventually stopped, because this is not what I said. This is sometimes how the press works and I have to be careful. In a way, they didn’t take it out of nowhere, but the way it was twisted was pretty unfortunate, and for me I want to be seen as a respectable athlete, and that was my biggest fear and frustration. There were little snippets from here and there put together that made it sound worse, but it wasn’t all fabricated. I need something outside of training racing and sports, going out and being able to put skiing and racing aside temporarily; this is an outlet.””
For a deeper dive into Sophia Laukli’s perspectives, check out the full articles on FasterSkier:
Catch Me if You Can—Sophia Laukli: Part I
Catch Me if You Can—Sophia Laukli: Part II