When it comes to Olympic History in the Northeast region, Lake Placid has it in spades. The city has played host for both the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, and to this day remains an outdoor mecca for skiers. Lake Placid is also the site of the National U-16 REG camp, a weeklong training opportunity for the best U-16 skiers from all across the US.
Last week NENSA made the trip up to Lake Placid to co-host some exciting rollerski events with ORDA, the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority. Making a special guest appearance was Ludvig Sognen Jensen, who was in the United States for a week of events in collaboration with NENSA and The Greatest Win, as well as Andy Newell who was acting as a coach at the camp.
The first event of the day was a rollerski agility course race featuring rollers, gates, jumps, backward skiing and a grass runup. NENSA Competitive Program Director Justin Beckwith worked together with former Olympian Joe Lamb on the course to make vision for a new application of skill based learning.
Skiers tried their hand at our agility features and aimed to lay down the best time they could while going over the tough course. It certainly kept them on their toes! Jensen and Newell were next up and it was fun to watch the pros make their way through the course. Newell’s catlike agility was especially impressive to watch and his performance landed him first place in a time of 52.02 seconds.
But the agility course was not the end of racing for the day, and skiers made their way across the street to the Lake Placid Equestrian Stadium where a 100 meter paved course was laid out. Our guest Ludvig Sognen Jensen is the world record holder in the 100 meter sprint on skis, and it was time for the much hyped head to head between him and Newell, as well as efforts from the U16 campers.
It was a drag race for the ages as the two skiers faced off, and it all came down to tempo as Jensen edged out Newell for the win by a margin of only .41 seconds with winning a time of 11.69 seconds.
For the U16 skiers, top times were earned by Quincy Massey-Bierman and Will Koch, both of Vermont, with times of 14.30 and 12.93 respectively. The day ended with refreshments at High Peaks Cyclery, a well stocked rollerski outfitter in Lake Placid.
It was an fun day of skiing with hard efforts from both pros and campers alike and we are thankful to all of our partners in helping to host such a high quality event, including ORDA, NYSEF, High Peaks Cyclery, Underdog Timing, The Greatest Win and Lamb Lumber.
Stay tuned this week for more coverage of rollerski programming and the the App Gap Challenge!
All photos courtesy of Reese Brown
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