The 2013 Ski to School Scholarship, given each year by Cross Country Canada and the Ski to School Scholarship Committee, has been awarded to Carleton’s Peter Beisel, a fourth-year engineering student from Owen Sound, Ont.
As one of the most coveted cross-country ski scholarships in Canada, it is not just a simple test of skiing down a mountain.
Beisel said the award is judged on grades and as well as the Canadian points list, a record of how fast you have been going in comparison to the top athletes in Canada—a rating that skiers accumulate over the year.
The scholarship is only awarded to one individual each year, Beisel said, and many previous winners have gone on to become Olympic team members.
“Cross-country skiing is not as much of a physical danger in terms of having a sudden accident and hurting yourself, but definitely one of the risks endurance athletes face all the time is over-training or under-resting,” he said.
He said he trains everyday, averaging around 550 hours a year.
“Small setbacks like being sick or not getting enough rest, or not eating properly can really accumulate and really affect your racing for the four key months of winter when it really matters,” he said.
Skiing cannot take place throughout the entire year, but Beisel said they are lucky in skiing and can still train in the summer.
“We can do quite a few fun sports in the summer like bicycling, roller skiing, and running and it basically all contributes to your cardiovascular fitness and there’s a lot more focus on ski specific strength this time of year, and on ski-specific intensity or intervals that we do where we really focus on the cross-country skiing aspect,” he said.
The head coach of the Carleton nordic skiing team, Nicholas Clifford, said there are many university races that the Carleton team competes in during the season.
Clifford said the eastern and national championships include all skiers, and university athletes are not the only ones who compete.
“Athletes who are on the world cup are there and athletes that will be going to the Olympics are there so to have people also there ski for universities is pretty impressive, because they’re just at such a different calibre of racing,” Clifford said.
Beisel said all the athletes compete in the same races, but separate results are made for the university racers.
He came third overall in the men’s Canadian College and University Nordic Championships at nationals in 2012, and placed seventh overall in the 2013 event.
Learning to juggle studies and training is certainly an accomplishment, Clifford said, because it is very time-consuming and a huge demand on the body.
“They are training on a week basis, during school, on average 13 or 14 hours a week, with some weeks being close to 20 hours a week,” he said.
On top of all this, Beisel, along with fellow team member and Carleton student, Kendra Murray, has been selected to represent Canada in a 12-man team at the World University Games in December 2013, in Trentino, Italy.
Over nine days, Beisel said they will complete six different races, from two-kilometre sprints to 50-kilometre marathons, and in two different disciplines.
