Hannah Halvorsen
Age 21
From Truckee, CA
4th-year US National Development Ski Team member
Junior World Championships Medalist
Known for sprinting and smiling :)
When I went to my first Nordic Junior Nationals (often called JNs), I didn’t have a goal. I didn’t go in with huge expectations. I was 15 at the time and I hadn’t been training all summer dreaming of this amazing national level race that would make all of the hours of training and hard work worth it. I remember that I was excited to go because I was getting to travel to a different state with a bunch of my friends and I liked ski racing, so that would be fun too. My first JNs was in Fairbanks, AK and I was a first year U16. I had fun and learned a lot. For example, I fell down in the prelim of the sprint because I was too cold. When I got on the plane to leave I was even more fired up about racing than I had been on the plane getting there. I left Fairbanks knowing I could do better with some more practice now that I knew what I needed to work on. For me, I think it takes doing something first before I can make a goal because I want to see what it is I am making a goal about. And now I had a goal, I wanted to win a sprint race at JNs.
My second JNs was in Stowe, VT and I felt like this was my year. I had been focused on every way I could improve through the long summer training months. I had worked hard all year to be as ready as I could for this week. I had been to Finland for the U18 trip, which is an international competition among the best skiers under 18 years of age in Scandinavia, earlier that season and I felt like I had gained the experience I needed to win this sprint. But I didn’t win, I was 4th. I had trained all year for this and I had actually done better the year before where I had been 3rd. I remember learning a valuable lesson that day. I learned that I could control what I did and work on becoming the best skier I could, but I had no say over how other people improved. The reality was I had had a great race and the three girls who beat me had just been faster than me that day. I left JNs in Stowe even more self-reflective than that first year. I was going to figure out what I needed to do to be fast enough to win the JNs sprint. Next year, in 2015, would be in my hometown, Truckee, CA. What a perfect year for me to win with all my friends and family there to cheer me on.
I worked on improving that whole next year and I made a lot of big strides. I had been 5th in the sprint at Senior Nationals, the highest-level competition in the United States among skiers of any age. I made the U18 trip again and even got a podium there. I felt confident that this was my year to win a JNs sprint. I had put in the work, hadn’t I? Didn’t I deserve it? But that year in Truckee I didn’t win the sprint. I was 2nd. And again I didn’t have any excuses. The girl who won was just faster than me and I had tried my best but I couldn’t beat her. The truth was I had had a really good race.
The next year was my fourth and last JNs in Cable WI, and I won the sprint. I guess you could call it a happy ending, but I think there are a lot of lessons in this journey that now I realize are more important to me than winning that sprint. When you win, you feel happy for that day and then its on to the next race. But when you learn something about yourself or about life you can hold on to it forever. I’ve learned a lot of life lessons through skiing at JNs that I am more grateful for than any race result. I’ve learned to never give up, to be patient, to give high fives and say good job when a competitor beats me, to try again, that its not all about winning, to work hard, and to believe in myself. Most of the hours I spent training and dreaming about JNs were in my hometown of Truckee, so the fact that JNs is taking place in Truckee again makes it all the more meaningful to me. I have been skiing since I was two and have been on the US National team for the last four years and racing internationally for the last six years, and Truckee is still my favorite place to ski. I am grateful for how many people supported me during my four years of racing at JNs and it’s those people that make it so special to me that JNs are in my hometown.