Racing over the last hill, freshman Linnea Ousdigian is tied neck and neck with another competitor. It’s the final push before the course turns into flat land, and the finish line is just a couple hundred meters away. After placing 2nd and 10th in earlier races, Ousdigian is not satisfied with her results yet. Slowly, she breaks away from the other skiers, and the gap between them widens as she lets gravity pull her down the slope, finishing the race 0.12 seconds before the others. She makes history at Mounds View as the national champion for the U16 Junior Nationals mass start this year.

On March 16, Ousdigian placed first at the XC Junior Nationals held in Lake Placid, New York. She’s been competing against the Midwest since middle school, but this was her first debut on the national level.

Ousdigian has been skiing since she’s been walking. She comes from a family of skiers, but rather than skiing competitively, they taught her how to enjoy skiing as a fun activity. It was her brother who first started ski racing, which introduced her to competitive skiing, as she soon began to compete too.

Already participating in cross country running, a sport she also continues to excel in today, Ousdigian became enamored with nordic racing. “There’s some people that like racing; there’s some people [who] like training. She seems to love all aspects of what it takes to be good at Nordic skiing, so it’s not a bore for her or a grind. It’s something that she enjoys, which is fun to, as a coach, to see someone have that success and have that mindset,” said Ian O’Neil, head coach of Mounds View’s Nordic team.

As she competed over 1,000 miles away from home with her club members, she was still supported back home in Minnesota by her high school coach and teammates. “I was following the whole time and was obviously very excited for her. I coached her in the high school setting, but they go together, like her success is super cool within the high school world and winning state is an amazing achievement,” said O’Neil.

Pulling ahead of the others through the race and getting first place wasn’t the outcome she expected. “I would say my goal was top five, but I was like, I’m just gonna go for it. Make everyone else hurt and see if I can hold on,” said Ousdigian.

The overall win has made Ousdigian more competitive as an athlete, and she hopes to make nationals once again during the next season of her nordic career. “I think it’s definitely made me motivated to keep working and keep trying to get better so I can win more,” said Ousdigian.

Although this is her first introduction to the national stage, her growth and development will continue to rise as she participates as an all-around athlete at Mounds View.

This story was originally published on Viewer on April 23, 2024.