Photo courtesy of Leann Bentley

Waterville, Maine - Colby Senior Jack Young (Craftsbury, Vt.) is beginning the 2024-25 ski season on the world's largest stage.  After a stellar performance at the 2024 US Nationals event last January, Young was rewarded last winter with two World Cup Sprint starts, representing the US Ski Team at Canmore (CAN) and Minneapolis (USA).  This season, he already has a World Cup start under his belt (December 7th in Lillehammer, Norway) and is staring down his next opportunity in less than 24 hours.  Young's Freestyle Sprint begins December 14 at 9:00am (LOC), or 3:00am Eastern Standard time. 

In last week's race, Young finished as the second American in 25th.

"It's incredible,but not at all surprising, to see Jack off to such a strong start in this year's World Cup, " said Colby Nordic Skiing Head Coach Tracey Cote. "Not only is he a talented skier, his ability to get himself ready down to every detail is worthy of the results he achieves. I have no doubt we'll see big things from him this year and in years to come." 

We had an opportunity to connect with Young recently on his experiences: 

Q: What did you do in the weeks leading up to the Lillehammer races?
A: In the weeks leading up to the race last week I was training hard. There was a US Ski Team Camp in Park City UT for two weeks in October that I attended. It was great to get a full two weeks at altitude in and also get to train with the best skiers in the country for those two weeks. I had a good training plan from last fall that worked well for me, so I didn't need to make any major changes. It's the entire year of training that counts, not just the few weeks before important races, so I would say the weeks leading up to Lillehammer included more of the same with perhaps an added emphasis on sleep. I trained at home at Craftsbury for the week of Thanksgiving and then off to Lilliehammer. I stayed in Europe in between races, arriving in Davos at the beginning of this week. 

Q: Last year you experienced your first World Cup race in Canmore.  How was this year's experience different?
A: This year is different for a couple of reasons. First of all, I have a lot more confidence coming into the World Cup circuit this year. Last year, despite having some really good results, I still wasn't quite as comfortable in those races as I would have liked to be. With experience, this has changed for the better. 

The second reason is that the field was a bit stronger in Lillehammer than in Canmore or Minneapolis. When a nation hosts a World Cup, they get to start 12 athletes as opposed to the customary 6 or 7, so in the case of Lillehammer, the Norwegian team was much stronger and deeper. Alongside this, any European World Cup will have a slightly bigger, stronger field than in North America because more European countries will send more athletes and actually fill up their quotas. Because of this, I knew that qualifying for heats in Lillehammer would be as hard as it gets which made the experience of qualifying that much better.

Q: What is your favorite place you've traveled to during this stretch? and why? 
A: Canmore was awesome last year, the way the mountains come right out of the valley is incredible, and waking up to that view every morning was pretty spectacular, but something about Lillehammer that left an impression on me last week was the incredibly high level of the recreational skiers there. A few times while I was there, I was training at some ski trails away from the World Cup venue, and I was blown away by the sheer number of good skiers of all ages there were. 

Q: What do you miss the most about Colby? 
A: What I miss most about Colby is the people. Mostly, I miss my teammates, but I also miss being in classes in person and the interaction that comes with that. Colby is a special place for a lot of reasons. 

You can follow Young's race live HERE.