Local brothers Max and Sam Elgert have been selected for Cross Country Alberta’s 2014-2015 Alberta Development team, which means the summer ahead will include a lot of roller skiing.
Sam, 14, described roller skiing as “almost like rollerblading, but you use ski poles.”
“It’s pretty much like a ski with wheels,” added 15-year-old Max, saying they roller ski on paved streets or bike paths.
Max described the development team as a training program for the top three athletes in the older divisions for youth cross-country skiing in Alberta. There is no tryout process; instead, team members are selected near the end of May based largely on how they placed a string of eight Alberta Cup races during the season just ended. How they performed at the western Canadian championships and nationals is also considered.
“I was fifth in Alberta, but I also got a fifth place in nationals, which I think helped my standings,” said Max.
Sam finished second in the province at the end of last season.
Max is entering his third year on the development team; for Sam, the experience is a first, as he was too young to make the development team in previous years.
“There’s two main training camps: one in the spring and one in the fall,” Max said.
The Elgerts attended the spring camp May 29 – June 1 in Edmonton, where they heard Olympians who competed in Sochi speak, listened to University of Alberta experts expound on topics like nutrition, participated in fitness testing and created a summer training program.
In addition to roller skiing, that training regimen includes running and core workouts with the odd rest day.
The brothers’ mother, Colleen, said a long day might be an hour and a half of running or biking. A short day might be 30 minutes of intense focus on different systems or muscle groups.
Max said that in the coming season, he’d like another top-10 finish at nationals, this time as a junior-level skier; Sam would like to finish first in his birth year (boys born in 2000) in Alberta, competing at the juvenile level.
Their reasons for skiing are the same, the brothers said: being outdoors and being active. Plus, said Max, skiing gives them a leg up in other sports. Max is on a provincial beach volleyball team, and Sam is playing in beach volleyball youth premier tournaments with Volleyball Alberta this summer.
For Colleen, the community of like-minded people from around the province makes cross country’s climate worth immersing oneself in.
“Really, the kids are friends with their competitors. So, they’ll race hard against each other, and then everyone’s back at the chalet hanging out over lunch, or they’ll hit jumps together,” said Colleen.
The fact that cross-country skiers have to think about their health holistically is a bonus, said Colleen.
“Any endurance sport, they have to be really careful about what they eat and drink, so they get a lot of education about helping your body perform at its best,” she said.
Being on the development team means access to top coaches, Colleen said.
“This is their full-time job. They coach people just on the cusp of being in the Olympics,” she said. “And then they work with some of the youth for development purposes, too.”
Even with the top-tier coaching, the brothers stressed the continued importance of their training with coaches Henrik Asfeldt and Carl Allen with their local club, the Athabasca Nordic Ski Club.
“Next step is the Alberta ski team, and then the national team,” said Max.
