Cross Country Skiing Olympian Julia Kern
Kristi sits down with 2022 Winter Olympian and nine-time US Cross Country Skiing National Team member Julia Kern. The two talk about Julia's journey in and out of sport, what motivates her during her other three years; and the similarities and differences between skiing and rowing.
*This is an automatically generated transcript*
Julia Kern 0:03
You have so many expectations of like, this is the Olympics. This is what I have dreamed of. And these are the goals I had. I didn't quite achieve like what I wanted to at least let results wise and walked away with like a lot of big takeaways of like, what is it? What is worth sacrificing and what is not worth sacrificing? Because? And does that even make me a better skier and so I think I had a lot of reflection last spring.
Kristi Wagner 0:27
Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream, they want to turn into a reality. Hi. And welcome to the podcast. So it's very exciting. This week, we have guest Julia Kern, Julia is a 2022 winter Olympian and cross country skiing, which is super cool. She's been on the US National cross country ski team for nine years since she was 17 years old, which is so impressive I was not doing that when I was 17 years old. As he would say, I was eating ice cream when I was 17 years old. But I think you can eat ice cream and be on the national team. But yeah, so this past winter, Julia won a bronze medal at the cross country skiing World Championships, which is amazing. And she's also metalled previously at the U 23. And Junior World Championships. So Julie and I are actually from the towns next to each other in Massachusetts, I but we've never crossed paths. So I just reached out to her and Instagram slid into her DMs, you may say and asked her to be on the podcast, she came on. And it was fun. We had a really cool conversation. We talked about you know, her life, her journey in sport and outside of sport, school and work and all of those things. And it was cool to see what similarities we had between our lives. But also, you know, what, what our sports differed in and how our lives differ. But I thought it was really interesting. Like, I really resonated with a lot of stuff that she said, especially like coming off the Olympics and and how that makes you reevaluate, you know, what you want your life to look like. Because it does in these, you know other three years, it takes more than just, you know that Olympic time to to be successful. But it also takes being happy and fulfilled in your life. So she had a lot of good, good things to say. And it was really fun conversation. But before we get into my conversation with Julia, here is an update on my training right now. Right now I am back in Saratoga I got back from Italy on Monday. And we just wrapped up racing at the Second World Cup and very say Italy. It was a experience of highs and lows. I raced in two events in the women's quad and the women's double. And in the quad we definitely did not do as well as we wanted to do. We actually didn't make the final which was a really tough go we just didn't doubling up was tough. Our races were pretty close together. And we just haven't spent that much time in the quad not an excuse just kind of a note. And yeah, we ended up winning the B finals became seventh overall. And we definitely got better every race but it's frustrating when you are capable or think you're capable of more. That's like a frustrating race result. So for me, I think for my teammates, it just didn't feel like we ever could put everything together in that 2000 meter race to have a result that we were, you know, felt exemplified our true speed and our true potential. So that was a bit frustrating. But we did have more success in the doubles. We both we raced into doubles. So I rode with Sophia, who I rode with last year and then Lauren and Emily the other two and our quad raced in a double and we both made the final so we had two votes in the final which is really awesome. And then in the final Sophia and I ended up coming in second like point 07 seconds from first so almost almost got that gold medal we were we're sprinting threw at the end but just ran out of track a little bit. So it was pretty cool to be able to have that race as our sixth Thrace in three days, which is a lot. I was definitely pretty tired at the end. And I feel happy. We went pretty fast and the doubles. So that was exciting. And I, I feel happy with with that. And it's always nice to end up on the podium, I think we were both really gunning for the wins. So a little little sad especially to have been so close, the US had a great Regatta, a lot of medals, but a lot of close seconds. And it's just like a hard pill to swallow when you're that close to a gold medal. But it's just a step along the way, the World Cup is not the World Championship, and you never know where the other countries are in their training, we still have things to do. So it it feels good to be in the mix, and know that we're doing the right things, but also to have things to work on and feel a little fire in the belly hungry for more know that there's more that we want to accomplish this year. And next year. So it was it was beautiful, though, it was really pretty there. The Racecourse is really nice. It's kind of on an open Lake, which is cool. And it was nice to be racing again, internationally, it's we don't get to do it that often. So it was it was a fun experience. And it was nice that the US team, you know, overall, like all the boats are doing really well though, our women's four one which was really exciting, my friends, and they're so happy for them. I know how hard they work just like everyone, so was really happy for them. And I think seeing that the US team is just doing well really makes makes me feel like, you know, we're doing the right things and to trust the training and trust the process, which is a good way to feel. But of course, you know, we all want to keep improving. And now we're kind of going into a time of another round of selections. So we have a little bit of time to rest and recover. But pretty soon we're gonna be going at it again. And I'm just trying to take advantage of a little bit of recovery time this week, kind of listen to my body, listen to my mind and have a break from the super competitiveness. And just do what feels good. move my body in different ways for some bike rides and runs and while time rowing and my single but really just trying to live live a little summer life and go out on the motorboat and the lake and go for a swim and just enjoy enjoy the beautiful scenery and stuff. It's it really does feel like summer here. Which summer in the Northeast is just there's really nothing like it I matter on docks like I feel like I missed the really bad mosquito season also, which is super nice. Although the bugs were pretty bad in Italy, so I don't know got plenty of bug bites I guess. Yeah, so it's been, it's been good. It was fundraising. And now it's it's nice to have a little bit of time to breathe before we get right back into it, and then it's going to be a major push through to the World Championships. But I'm back with in Saratoga with my normal team Orion and some of my teammates are already in Princeton for the second camp. And then some of them are actually racing in the Netherlands at the Holland Becker this weekend. So it's not a full group, but really exciting to see people off doing their thing. killin it and you know, also get to have a little bit of time here. So it's been all good. Now it is time for our review of the week. Just as a reminder, it would be amazing if you review this podcast and really any podcast that you like, it's pretty easy. You just like scroll to the bottom of the podcast page and you can leave five stars if you want if you think it's worth five stars, or and words. And if you leave me words, I might read them on the podcast, which is cool and fun. So this week, I am reading a review from Apple podcasts that is from my friend and my old teammate, Lizzie battle. And Lindsey says Kristi's podcast is an awesome behind the scenes look into the life of an elite athlete. She gives great perspective on both the highlights and challenges athletes face in their Olympic journey. Kristi is so inspiring and shows how hard work and resilience can truly make dreams come true. Kristi is a great storyteller and her wisdom relates to both rowing and life whether you've been in the rowing world or just love sports. This is an amazing podcast to listen to. Thanks, Lindsay. You're awesome You're You're so cool. I was the I used to roll with Lizzy and a pair. And she's, she's a great, she's a great friend. She was an amazing rower. Now. She's always been an amazing person. So thank you. And I can read your podcast and talk about how great you are if you leave on on Apple podcasts or Spotify. So do that. Please.
And now it's time for the fun part, my conversation with cross country skiing Olympian Julia Kern. So I hope that you guys love this conversation. It was really fun to have I learned a lot from Julia. Plus, we had some funny talks about tick tock and these other and the dances that the cross country skiing team does. And so if you have any thoughts about it, let me know you can reach out to me on Instagram at kristinumber1 . Or you can send me an email at the other three years@gmail.com You started skiing when you were like a baby.
Julia Kern 11:04
Yeah, I was like in the ski sled until I could walk and then straight on straight on the skis.
Kristi Wagner 11:10
Wow, that's awesome. So like, Did you always love it? And like know that you wanted to do it? Or?
Julia Kern 11:17
No, actually not. I think that's what maybe surprises some people but my grandma, a lot of my family is from Germany or my whole family is and so we would ski over Christmas and my grandparents would teach us how to ski as well. And my parents wanted to go do a loop and my grandma had to bribe me with gummy bears to keep going so I didn't always love I think I always enjoyed it. But it wasn't my favorite sport until middle of high school where things really shifted. And I was actually a lot more focused on basketball until I was like, 14.
Kristi Wagner 11:47
Oh, really? Yeah, I was. I was gonna ask did you play like other sports and growing up in high school? Yeah.
Julia Kern 11:55
Yeah, I played so many sports. I did. Track and Field. I played soccer through middle school. I swam into middle school. cross country running basketball. For the for the major sports and then just the outdoor sports for fun as a hobby.
Kristi Wagner 12:12
Yeah, cuz I feel like I mean, I don't know. I'm also from like Massachusetts, and I. I knew people that did like Nordic skiing, but I feel like it wasn't like a high school sport. I don't know. Do you know they mean, like, Did you Did does Waltham have like a team? Did you do it for Waltham at all? Or did you just always like, do it on the side.
Julia Kern 12:38
So at the time, when I was at Waltham, there was no high school team. But I recently found out last year when I did a, I went and talked to the high school students, they have developed the team now, which is really cool. But I just raised for the club team, which is now eMMC. It was formerly called CSU.
Kristi Wagner 12:54
Did you feel like you had a quote unquote, like normal childhood? Or like, were you spending a ton of time skiing? And then
Julia Kern 13:04
yeah, I would say normal as in the sense, I went to a public school, I didn't go to a ski Academy. And I had like the club team, but I was, you know, doing track and field for Waltham. And I played club basketball in the fall, and in the spring, so I was still doing other things. And I wasn't like, dead set on skiing. It was like my focus, but I had no idea where it was going to take me or couldn't have even imagined where I am now, when I was that age, for sure. But yeah, so I would say normal in that sense, but I would say my junior and senior year, I was missing quite a bit of school when I was in Europe, to race at like world, juniors in Europe a cup. So in that sense, that was not normal. And I was fortunate that my high school allowed that because I know like lesson, for example, didn't allow that for Zoey. And by the end, when I graduated, had like, almost a year of absentees in the four years I was there. So it was a lot of school mess. But I also my family was in Germany, so we would go over for Christmas, and I would miss a week there. So that was like, not normal, I would say but prepared me really well for doing college and skiing at the same time.
Kristi Wagner 14:11
Yeah. How was that experience? I like was reading something on your website that you like? Well, you went to Dartmouth, right? Yeah. And so they have I, I have some of my friends that went to Dartmouth and like, you can like take semesters off, right? Because it's like the quad, whatever it's called the quadrant system. So how was that? Yeah. So I,
Julia Kern 14:34
I was looking at like UVM and Dartmouth and Dartmouth had the quarter system. So it worked really well for skiing. And there's a legacy of eteam athletes going there to do the 12 year plan, which means taking this Supreme Court order for 12 years straight. I always knew I probably didn't want to do it to that extreme, but I didn't know how quick or slowly I would I would take my time and just wanted to kind of see how skiing was going. Um And I ended up actually doing quite a bit of school because I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of injuries. So I felt like my training load wasn't that high. And I did it about four years, about five years. And I would do like I did three years in a row of spring, summer fall. So I just flipped the school year and did summer, semester or quarter instead of winter semester. And fortunately, I was able to train with the Dartmouth team, I was on their roster. But I never raced for them. In the winter since I was gone, like winter term ended Thanksgiving, which was our first World Cup race weekend. And then it went until usually, like I missed maybe the first few days of class at the Spring semester for the last races of the season. So it really like book ended the season to take winter off and complemented really well. But it was a lot of a lot of time spent trying to train full time and, and do full course load. There's no like half load at Dartmouth, it's just you take three classes every quarter.
Kristi Wagner 16:01
I mean, that sounds like a ton. And like if you're going right into like, your major season, and then you get back and then you just have like full school, like, feel like there's no like break time theory there.
Julia Kern 16:15
Yeah, I think when I graduated, I realized, wow, I haven't had like a week of like, oh, I want to go visit my sister or do something that was that didn't exist. I it was ideal, because I had two weeks between spring and summer. And that was either trading camp or trading with my club team. And then in the fall between the summer and fall, I went down to New Zealand all three years. And so I had a training camp fit in there. So I often took like the last bit of my final in New Zealand and then had like my two week break, which was training camp so I could focus on training and then jump right back into school. So it was definitely exhausting. But then when I graduated, I was like, Oh, I can go out to San Diego and just like, visit my sister like I it was either Like always I'm on a ski trip or I'm school because there was no online option except for I guess, like my last COVID term, but it was really busy. But I liked the fast. The fast pace I got. Yeah, I got a lot done and experienced a lot. And I'm grateful that I got so much in person time because I got only I'd only two quarters online for COVID reasons.
Kristi Wagner 17:14
I like graduated from college a little while ago. So I like couldn't have imagined COVID I'm like, Oh my gosh. Yeah, I don't think I would have been very good at it. Like I've Yeah, it's really crazy. Like how, I don't know, very impressed with all the people like especially people that were like, I don't know, either like seniors in high school or freshman in college, you know, like, their whole experience has been crazy. Yeah, so now. Now you're just like, focused on skiing, kind of number one thing like all the time and nice to have some extra rest time.
Julia Kern 17:54
Yes. So my, my last year at school, I like did spring and then spring so that my last year out stretched out. And I started working for an app called pastimes as a designer and a little bit of social, little startup life. So doing a little bit of everything. And so I worked for that app last two years. And that's kind of faded out recently. So transfer from school right into working for an app that I was passionate about connecting people and outdoors. And now I'm at a point where I'm actually deciding what to do next. If I want to keep seeking out some stuff on the side just to keep my brain engaged in a different way, or just focus on skiing, I think I've realized more recently, like as you level up, there's more hours of training and more hours of physical therapy and body care, as you know. And so the days actually get quite busy. Even if you're not training like people go well, you aren't like training nine hours a day. And it's like yeah, but you got to go to practice, you got to take care of your equipment, just like the travel time and then you got to make cook good food. And then you have social media and sponsorship obligations, and then the day is already over and you're like Where's all my time going. So I found that with sponsorship stuff, I have a lot more going on, which is exciting, which brings a lot more like work and emails. And the other thing I just subscribed myself to as being an athlete representative for the International Ski Federation for cross country skiing and so there's two athletes total. So I just started that about like a month and a half two months ago. And so it's a volunteer position but it's as much as work as you want to make it so if you want to accomplish a lot you can get really involved in yeah represent athletes so that's something I'm doing on the side as
Kristi Wagner 19:39
well. Yeah, yeah, no, I totally like 100% know what you're talking about. I feel like when I'm really busy with like work stuff, I like find a way to make it all happen. Like get all my workouts and everything but then like when I like when we're at training camp or I don't know something like somehow the workouts and yeah PT or what Whatever it is, like seem to take up the whole day, and you're just like, I wouldn't have possibly had four or five hours to work today. Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know how I do that sometimes. And I think for me, like, especially like, because next year will be like our Olympic year for Summer Olympics, like, especially heading into like, a Olympic year, we just like travel a bit more. And everything's like a bit more intense. But you guys were like coming off of your Olympic year. So have you had like, well, I guess. Now you're one year out. But did you like congratulations on going to the office? And did you feel like you kind of had a bit of like a reset? Or was it just like, right back into training?
Julia Kern 20:46
No, I definitely took some time to reset. I think for me, the month of April is like our month off is really important to reset. And I think they'll unpicks Like went fine, but not great. And I actually had my best races after the Olympics at the end of the season. So I ended the season on a really high note, which was amazing last year, and really motivating. But it was also like, I don't know, the Olympic experience makes you really reflect on okay, this is like, you have so many expectations like this is the Olympics, this is what I have dreamed of. And these are the goals I had, I didn't quite achieve like what I wanted to at least about results wise and walked away with like a lot of big takeaways of like, what is it? What is worth sacrificing and what is not worth sacrificing? Because? And does that even make me a better skier? And so I think I had a lot of reflection last spring of like, how I want to approach skiing long term without school and without work. I was fine looking at like, Okay, what like, where do I want to go from here? And if I want to do this another eight years, like what does that look like sustainably and so I think I kind of had that kind of like mental and physical reset in the spring and definitely changed my approach to training a bit this year and just gave me like a different perspective. I didn't have before didn't have the time to like, think about and process before.
Kristi Wagner 22:03
Yeah, I also just feel like email app athletes now it's more sustainable to have like a career as a female athlete across like all sports, I just feel like in the past, it was like you had you could do your like athletic life and then start you know, whatever your like, quote unquote, real life. But now I feel like it's exactly what you're saying. Like, how can I find a way to make this my actual life I like also, I mean, it's hard. I like also didn't finish as high at the Olympics as I would have liked. And I feel like that gave me a good like kick in the pants like going into the next quad. But I totally agree with you. Like, I feel like I like sat down like blank slate like okay, well how can I make this next cycle? How can I like end up here with a different result. But you guys like it's a little bit different because you guys compete in a bunch of different events. Right?
Julia Kern 23:03
You can, you can repeat we have six events total. And I think what's so tricky about cross country skiing, too, is like there's so many. And maybe I don't know much enough about rowing. But I feel like there's so many factors out of your control and cross country skiing to that is both like motivating and not motivating in the sense of you can be the fittest person and like the best form of the day. But if the conditions don't match match, right, your skis don't like your skis aren't fast or you pick the wrong skis, it kind of already puts you at a huge disadvantage. And like for us in Jaco, like the conditions were very unlike anything we normally race on. And so I look back a little bit disappointed on the result. But at the same time, like extremely cold air, I struggle with my lungs and like absolutely no glide, it was just conditions that I had no control over. And so that's really difficult when the Olympics are so different to what we're normally used to. And so that was like red elevation, but there's just like, there's so many external factors that were different than normal. And so I think that's what's also really tricky and then we have different events and like I think any sport in the Olympics, we have to sprint race every Olympics but the technique alternate so last Olympics, it was a freestyle sprint next Olympics to me classic sprint, like so if your classic sprint specialists You have one chance and every eight years to do that, which is pretty nuts. Like it's like a track and field was like okay, we're only gonna run 100 meter today. This year. Next year we'll do the 200 or 200 is crazy. Yeah, so we have six events, which is a lot if you look at it but then you look at on a World Cup we started up to nine people per gender and at the Olympics can only start for athletes per race. And the way the schedule works out is like every other day schedule, so it's pretty condensed and you have to pick and choose but also like we on the women's side especially we have our top athletes are good at our top and everything so there's really only like one or two spots. We go response and all the other events?
Kristi Wagner 25:02
Yeah, I was gonna ask like, so. Is it better to try to be like, well, obviously, it's best to be like the best in every single thing. But like, is it better? Is it better to like, kind of be like, always one of the top people in everything? Or like, oh, like Julio always wins this one thing? Do you know what I'm like?
Julia Kern 25:27
Yeah, I mean, I think depends like what your goals are like if you're in like, if you're a sprint or distance specialists like I think in it, what team you're on, like certain teams are so stacked and sprint are so stacking distance that, like the athletes have to specialize because they have to, but essentially be metal potential to even get on the start line. And with our team, it depends also, like, who's retired and what the field is like. But you obviously want to have your best chance at meddling in an event. But there's also team events. And so putting that, like weighing that into account. Yeah, ideally, you're best at everything. So you have like a guaranteed cert, but we had people like make the Olympic team who didn't get to race because the same two or three people were racing every race, so there wasn't that many, many other opportunities.
Kristi Wagner 26:14
Yeah, so that's, that's really interesting to me, too. So like, the way that you and I tried to, like, look this up, but you guys can make the Olympic team in like a number of different ways, right? Like you can going through the season, or even like the year before, like, based on all these results, or a top performance at certain events, right? Yeah. So it's not like you're just qualifying, like, in swimming, or whatever they like qualify for, like the 200, free or whatever. But that's not exactly what's happening, right? So
Julia Kern 26:46
no, there's, so we have like no trials. And it's not like you're qualifying for a certain event, but there's certain quotas for certain events. So they have a clause now like, if only five up to five people can qualify for the sprint, like under the sprint criteria after that, if someone qualifies, but a six, they won't take them because most of the races are more distance heavy. And so they're not going to want more than one alternate for sprint. And so they'll take up to five sprinters and then the rest will be filled with distance skiers. But one of the criteria is a top eight in that Olympic discipline. So if it's a classic sprint at the Olympics, and half of the classic sprint, you get a top eight there that's like the top tier and then it's the the ranking on the World Cup, and then they fill the rest with discretion and from the US Circuit. And so there's no trials, which is I think, really cool because you hear the stories from swimming or track like what if you're sick on that given day at trials and you don't make it but you're like, by clearly the favorite and to be on the team but at the same time across country like you make the Olympic team it doesn't guarantee you anything except that you're on the Olympic team.
Kristi Wagner 27:49
But you might not race at all. Yeah, so are you guys just like doing like training camps and like workouts and then they just like the coaches, like who decides? Who's gonna start like, and how soon before do you find out?
Julia Kern 28:04
Yeah, I think it depends. It depends on the championship, but the with COVID since it was like so COVID times we had the two World Cups before also get cancelled. So the selection period ended up being shorter than they expected, but we had a pre camp to acclimate to altitude and in that pre camp, they started the way the coaches tried to approach it as they divvy out the stars for the first like three races. And then from there, they that they will see how the championship was going before they divvy out the rest unless it's like if it's like a 50 kilometer race like you're probably going to know like who's racing that are likely and they'll name alternates and so preparing for the Olympic races I like new okay, I had the first two races on the schedule and I didn't have a second one and maybe one later and team events are definitely decided later and so I prepared for those two events and then the rest was going to be determined as the championship went on.
Kristi Wagner 28:59
Wow Yeah, that's pretty different to rowing. Yeah, like qualify into like the boats and it's split like some some events are like trials so like if you win the trial you go and some are like a camp based but I do qualify
Julia Kern 29:17
as a boat or how do they like yeah, who even goes in the boat? Because it doesn't have to be like who you row well with and
Kristi Wagner 29:24
yeah, so the small boats are like trials boats. So first at like the World Championships the year before. So like this year's World Championships, we have to qualify like the actual boats, because you can't just like send like any boat, like you have to qualify like the whatever, the class the category. And then we have trials for like the one and two person votes. And so that's just like if you went on that certain day you go but yeah, it is a little weird and like, like in 2021 we had like the single trial and then And like the doubles trials were like, four weeks later or something. So after the singles trials, it's weird because all the people like, so I got like third in that race and I ended up rowing in the double with like the girl that got second. So like, it's kind of a weird, like, yeah, like everyone finds a partner. But then the bigger boats, like the four and the eight and the quad and stuff are, it's like a camp and coaches try a bunch of different things. And then there's a naming date, and they have to announce the team on that day. But it's yeah, it's a little, it's a little weird. But the thing, it's interesting because like rowing, usually at the Olympics is like really bad weather because, like, well, because they don't pick like the Olympics based on like, the rowing venue. So it's like, traditionally and like a pretty windy or like, not, you know, like, when we have our, just our normal races, they're in kind of these like, manmade, little, you know, so whether it's like a much bigger factor usually in the Olympics than it is just like a World Cup or World Championship. So it's interesting that you said that because like, really, they like select the Olympics based on like, you know, whatever the money and the TV viewing, you know, like, it doesn't actually have anything to do with the sports. And I think like I was watching the Winter Olympics on TV, and like, the, like alpine skiing, too, was like a huge factor. Right? Because the they just it was super cold and they had no like actual snow. But you guys race on like manmade snow a lot, right?
Julia Kern 31:39
We do, but not usually, like manmade in the cold, like usually you're using manmade words pretty warm. Okay, and so and then they Yeah, so it was like really cold and manmade. And it also snowed with me or they are like three times which it doesn't snow there. Then there was like rumors of like cloud seeding and stuff, which is pretty bizarre, but then it made the snow even more strange. And then you have like this wind and the wind was just wicking the moisture away. That's why an Alpine to like, it was like skiing on styrofoam. That's it the only way people could like the jump people were doing jumping competitions to like the landing and the speed was just completely different. And so we see Yeah, man made a lot, but not usually manmade. And then like at the negative legal limit, and then with a wind chill that's like negative 20 or negative 15 Fahrenheit. It was quite, quite bizarre. And I think that's what the common viewers often don't realize. It's like the Olympics don't favor the favorites if you were the underdogs, because you're having some of the best athletes in the world on like the World Cups and World Championships what's like more of a normal environment. And then you bring these sports to, like artificial environments or environments they don't naturally compete in and you get much different weather conditions. And if you're in a sport that depends on weather, which is most sports, it's, it's not conducive to maybe what the favorites are used to.
Kristi Wagner 33:06
Yeah. So is that why you guys had like, KT tape all over your faces?
Julia Kern 33:13
Yeah, it was it was so it was just like so cool in the end. So cold and like we had our night so this sprint we actually had like they change the time of the sprint because supposed to be a night sprint. And it was gonna be below the like legal racing limit, just an air temp. That doesn't include the way and like we I had to headbands and a hat on and was getting a brain threes because the wind was so bad. I've never experienced that we've seen in pretty cool conditions. But the wind was so strong, you'd literally like a brain freeze. And I skied in a rain jacket, the whole Olympics because the wind was so brutal. And so yeah, we had like our race times change the men's 50k got shortened to a 30k Which if you think about like if you're an Olympic event is a 50k and it gets hacked. That's like a hugely different race. Yeah. And to happen at the Olympics like the thing you may be prepared preparing for your whole life. And it was because they're worried people were gonna get like to like, get frostbite out there because you sweat a lot and the wind just chills you down. So it was pretty, pretty bizarre. Like I tried going skiing that day. And the coaches were like, I don't think you should go out there. Like, every like skis were flying across the state. Like everything was just like flying everywhere. Like you couldn't even see. Yeah, like all the events in the ski route was just like flapping in the wind and like it felt like you're kind of like in a hurricane.
Kristi Wagner 34:30
Oh my God, that's crazy. Yeah, that's I mean, I don't know I feel like it's funny like funny later in situations like that where you're just like yeah, we there was like a typhoon came in to Tokyo like so we had to like direct all our boats and like put them back in like containers that they had like, come it like, I don't know, it was just to me I'm like, This is hilarious like you like make it you make it to the Olympics and like it It's just like, like, I don't know. It's so funny. It's like these hilarious things happen. That's insane, though. That's crazy. Yeah, they actually are shortening the so we all grow like the same distance like 2000 meters. It's like, whatever our standard distance, and they're shortening it in LA. Like it's gonna be 1500 meters. Which is like, like you said, like, why a huge change? And everyone's just like, yeah, like, I don't know, it's just like one of those things you're like, Okay, I guess this is just what we'll do. Like, I don't know.
Julia Kern 35:37
Is that for the long term? Like, are they may mean that the new Olympic distance?
Kristi Wagner 35:40
No, they're literally like, the only place they could find to do it in LA is like 1500 is 500 meters shorter. So that's just what they're gonna do. Okay, but like, nude is still gonna be Yeah, he does. Yeah, I don't know. It's crazy.
Julia Kern 35:56
Interesting. Yeah, because we just like last week, when I was at these athletes face meetings, decided on the new Olympic distances, because we've moved to equal distance for men and women, which means now like the format needed to be changed and, like solidified for the long term, and that's for the next Olympics, like already decided, so it's changing like two and a half years out.
Kristi Wagner 36:18
That's, that's cool that you guys like that? That's what you get to do, though. I feel like that's like, a big urban thing to have a voice in.
Julia Kern 36:28
Yeah, no, it's really exciting. We tested equal distance the first time this year on World Cup, and then they want to see how it went and then get people's feedback and then decide, okay, what are the distances moving forward at the Olympics, and they're going to be the same for men and women. And yeah, it's like we're getting right into the water. It's like the last minute that they can change those formats. But it will be exciting hopefully simplify for viewers, too, that the format for the races.
Kristi Wagner 36:54
So you guys like in an in an Olympic year and a non Olympic year? You have like a really long season, right? Yeah, like you go to Europe, primarily in Europe, right.
Julia Kern 37:07
Yeah, we had over like mid early to render and then come back. end of March beginning of April. So it's usually like four and a half months on the road racing world cup.
Kristi Wagner 37:20
That's seems crazy. To me. That's like a really long time. Is it a wise
Julia Kern 37:24
rowing season?
Kristi Wagner 37:27
We don't we go to one world cup. And then we go to the World Championships, basically.
Julia Kern 37:34
Is there not a World Cup circuit?
Kristi Wagner 37:35
There is but it's in Europe. So we usually only go to one of the World Cups. We don't go to all three. There's three of them in rowing. Okay. The US team just as that I'm not really sure why you're so most of the European countries race a lot more than us. At least like international like they race like their international races. Rowing is a bit it's a bit hard like for us to like get over there that much. Same with like Australia and New Zealand, they usually only go to like one or maybe two of the World Cups. Yeah, I don't know. I only race like I go to probably like five races a year. So race like 10 to 15 times. Wow. Yeah.
Julia Kern 38:31
It's crazy. That's so different. Yeah.
Kristi Wagner 38:36
But I imagined it's both like exhausting, but also nice to have, like so many opportunities, but like, are there certain ones that are like more important? Or like bigger? I don't know. Like, how do you guys handle being on the road that much and racing that much?
Julia Kern 38:52
Yeah. So for like contests, we raised pretty much every weekend. We have a few weekends off throughout the winter, but pretty much every weekend for a month straight. So I raised almost every race except maybe like four or five this year and I did 34 races this season, including that includes World Championships. But for us like I would say the big events are Olympics World Championships and so only once every four years you have a year that doesn't have that which is this upcoming year. So those those are always like the big focus of the year but then also depends on like what your goals are. So if you're trying to go for the overall World Cup ranking, every weekend matters especially we all we have the touristy to which is like two different fonts but for cross country skiing and that's a big event too, because if you do well overall there it's triple points which you essentially have to do well there to have a chance at winning the world cup overall. And it's seven usually seven races in nine days and ends with a hillclimb Are you nordic ski up in Alpine mountain.
Kristi Wagner 39:59
So even though I mean, like, I don't
Julia Kern 40:02
know, like the biggest event of the year TV wise, and it's like around the holidays, a brand new year. So I feel like those are the big events of the year. But then like if you're going for Yeah, welcome overall sprint, Globe distance glow, every one of those races matters. And so you just, you gotta have like many peaks within having like a whole season peak. And this year was the first year where like, I didn't get sick or injured throughout the year. So I actually was like, picking into like, I actually picked races to sit out, like I love to race and race everything because I think it helps my, my, like fitness and I raised myself into shape. And so I feel very fortunate to be in a sport where we get to race a lot, because I really like racing and struggle more in training. And so having all those chances and opportunities to like, make mistakes and learn is really awesome. But, yeah, so it's just it's really like a lot of racing and I had to just end up picking okay, like we have worse than a week I can't do it all like what are my priorities and the for me I was focused on the sprint overall ranking. So I I sought out some distance races or some team events where there were no points and or we didn't have like a full team or strong enough team to metal and so that's kind of how you decide and then the other factors are like if you get sick, then you're obviously gonna miss something there.
Kristi Wagner 41:21
Yeah. I so I like spent a summer up in craftsbury. So I like whatever learned a little bit about crossing, like Babylon and stuff from some of the athletes there. But they were also saying that like, it's like, a huge spectator sport in Europe, like there's like, right? Like, it's like tons and tons of people. So is that also is it kind of weird, like, but it's such a big thing there and like not that big here or it's just like used to it. Now.
Julia Kern 41:56
I think I'm used to it now and like with COVID, but no spectators and it depends where you go in Europe in some places like in race racing midweek. You won't get many spectators like this year, we're in Norway and beginning of the year, and we had like, more American fans ends their Norwegians. It was super strange because we were like more in the woods of Norway. But then we had in March we have the famous homecourt race, which is the 50 kilometer race outside of Oslo, and there you get like 1000s of fans like at it's a huge party people are like camping overnight and partying and playing music and drinking and there's like all these fans and so it just varies on venue to venue. So I think you just get used to seeing like, variety and spectators and fans. Yeah.
Kristi Wagner 42:41
That's cool. Do you have a favorite race that you guys go to? Or a favorite like training camp location?
Julia Kern 42:51
Well, I won't be in Italy in general. I think the food's really good. It's usually pretty nice to sunny good skiing, like really scenic people really friendly. But in terms of like, spectators, the city events have been super fun we did Dresden Germany, did he sprint five years in a row and it was always action packed there a lot of crashes. Like you're right on the river along like this old city and it was an hour away from where my family's from Germany so I always had family coming to cheer me on so that was like definitely my favorite. Because I feel like they're like more chill races and that is what brings like, You got to get some we're trying to bring the venue the race is more to the people like if you're out in the like cross country skiing. No one is like a sport out like skiing in the woods. But if you want to get a lot of spectators, you got to bring it to the city like Helsinki does a city sprint and dress it like going to cities is the way to do it. And I think those are really fun just because I like more tactical and chaotic races. Maybe because I grew up on a golf the flag. Place Am I my strengths. I'm used to that. But those have been my favorite events so far. And like Team springs, I think are just so fun and exciting to do.
Kristi Wagner 44:03
Yeah, that's awesome. There's gonna be a World Cup in America, right?
Julia Kern 44:07
Yes. And that is so even though it's an off year this year, like no, no championship that's like our kid get chip in our mind to have like the first World Cup in the US in over 23 years. We were supposed to have won March of 2020 and COVID hit five days before it got canceled. Oh, yeah, absolutely heartbreaking. Yeah. Staying so heartbreaking. Yeah, so we haven't had a World Cup in Canada in a really long time to since COVID. as well. We were headed out to got canceled. So yeah, that's a huge highlight for us to be in Minneapolis. And that's I would say where you have the most cross country skiers and cross country skier fans in the Midwest and so I think it's like the perfect place to host it's outside the city. You're in a park like super easily accessible. It's gonna be free entry to watch so anyone can come watch and I think are really, really excited about it.
Kristi Wagner 44:57
Yeah, that's really cool. That's like awesome. I'm sure it'll be great. Hopefully you guys do really well to know, Brad, I read this article about you. And it said that if you weren't skiing, you'd be working in a marketing or advertising firm, but I feel like the article is from a few years ago, so do you still feel like that's what you would be doing? Or would you change your answer? At this point?
Julia Kern 45:23
I think I think that's kind of my answer. I mean, like, Creative Director or something where I'm combining the outdoor world with like business and the creative side, I think just like getting people to be outdoors and like, just getting the outdoor but I feel like when people get exposed to it, then it's, they see just like the value of like, sharing time with others and outdoors. And that's like what I'm really passionate about, and I love photography and videography and design. And so, I see myself hopefully working in that someday, but hopefully my career is another six years at least. So who knows where I'll end up in six years from
Kristi Wagner 45:58
now. Yeah, yeah. And you guys do a lot of like, tick tock dances. Did that start? Were you just like, inspired one day or?
Julia Kern 46:14
No, I have to give full credit to Jessie Diggins, who's my roommate and teammate and other teammate Lauren, because they have been in theaters of that I was like holding off on Tik Tok for so long, my friends, like you gotta get ticket before the Olympics. So you can like grow your brand, you know, get sponsors, I don't want to do with another platform like, I'm finally growing my Instagram presence. But I think Jessie loves to dance. We used to do Ski Team music videos, which were like really popular. And so then we started to Jesse and I decided to get tiktoks This fall in New York City when we were at our bigs became a fundraiser and their new social media guys like yeah, Phil, many things were like, Okay, let's do tick tock and Time Square. And that kind of got the ball rolling. And Jesse loves to dance. And so it's been a fun way, like a little fun step. It's on the road, just to make a funny tic tock dance. We have four and a half months together on the road. So it's a fun way to just like do a little team activity. We had like one this winter were, like, 10pm at night. And like, for some reason, we were all like wired with energy. And I was like, I'm not going to sleep right now to like, let's make a tick tock dad's, just get all that energy out. So it's like a team bonding thing. And just a fun way to I don't know, I think our team images like, he's a professional sport and like, can be serious. But most importantly, have to have fun with it. And I feel like that's a way of showing showing that as well.
Kristi Wagner 47:42
Yeah, you guys are like pretty good dancers, though.
Julia Kern 47:46
Jesse definitely is I learned from her. But she she's like dancing growing up. And like, she took me my first ever dance class last spring in Boston. I was like, wow, I thought it was a bloodbath. But now I'm like, maybe I'm not. It's so hard. But she's definitely taught us a bunch. And it's gotten the whole team involved. So
Kristi Wagner 48:04
it's a really fun
Julia Kern 48:05
team activity now and we have the time and energy.
Kristi Wagner 48:07
Yeah, no, it's fun. It's funny. I just think like, it would be hilarious. If like, the rowing team tried to do a tick tock dance like I should do it. We
Julia Kern 48:17
could do a little cross challenge.
Kristi Wagner 48:18
Yeah, maybe? I don't know. I think it would be hilarious. Like, I don't I guess I don't want to say that other people are bad dancers. But rowers are not exactly known for having good like hand eye coordination. And I just imagine it to be like, hilarious. But maybe, maybe we're about to go to a training camp. So maybe
Julia Kern 48:41
you should do I can. I can send you some easy ones because Nordic skiers and rowers come from the same family. Like there's so many people who cross sports like there's not many good head I coordinated people either, but you just got to practice it and pick something super simple and then just roll with it.
Kristi Wagner 48:59
Yeah, no, I It's nice. It's fun, though. I feel like I feel like at least on social media, it seems like you guys have like a lot of fun, which Yeah, you and you spend more time with your teammates than you do like your family and yeah, it's important. It's nice for little girls to have inspiring role models. Yeah.
Julia Kern 49:21
Yeah, I mean, I feel really fortunate just like my teammates were like, bro like Jessie Diggins still on posters you my like childhood bedroom wall and our like, sharing a bed for Florida, months and like best friends and teammates. So it's like, crazy to think like he's been a mentor to me, but now also a teammate and friend. So it's really cool how that how that can happen.
Kristi Wagner 49:42
I've had a few of those moments myself. We actually met Jessie Diggins. She is just like a total fangirl moment but they did like this thing after the Tokyo Olympics in Orlando at like universal. It was like supposed to be for people's like family and friends because like, they couldn't go to the Olympics, but my parents didn't want to go. So I went with my boyfriend. And a bunch of rowers went because rowing is the first week. So we had we could go after. And they had these kind of like viewing parties at night, whatever. And we were all there like watching and Jesse against like, came in. We're all like, oh my god, it's just again, or whatever. And then my boyfriend was like, That's Jessie Diggins. I rode the elevator with her, like, he asked me if I was here, like, you know, whatever. He said, Yeah, like my girlfriend, whatever. And he said, and then I don't know Oh, she said, Oh, I ski and he said, Oh, I ski to like, Oh, my God. Like, mortified. So you can tell her I'm sorry about my boyfriend that didn't know who she was. And whatever. That's funny. Yeah, I guess it's funny because we like do a case. We are so bad at cross country skiing, but we like have cross country skis, just like metal edges, and we'll just go out into the woods or like golf courses and stuff. That's ungroomed. And I guess he was talking to her about it. Like she didn't want to hear about that. She just doesn't care. Like, no, she does. He picked his like, purely on like, design of the skeet like the guy was like, like, this one's pretty. Yeah, the man selling them was like, oh, based on your height and weight, you should get these ones. And he was like, oh, no, I like this one better. Okay, dude, whatever.
Julia Kern 51:34
So that's so fun. Were you in DC for team USA week? Last year?
Kristi Wagner 51:40
No. Yeah, I was like, really bummed. It was literally during one of our, like, domestic races. Yeah, and like I said, we only raised like, very few times. They gave us like, so some people did go, they gave us the choice to like, go in the middle of our rate, like literally, like race, the heats, and then you know, take a train to DC. And I don't know, I just felt like it was I was really bummed to miss it though. Because I feel like it's like, well, hopefully not a once in a lifetime experience, but kind of a once in a lifetime experience.
Julia Kern 52:21
It was cool. Have summer and winter. Because you've I assume you know, Brooke maybe skiers together. So we were like always going head to head and raced on junior national teams for England together. So I got to know a lot of the hours that week. But normally it's not summer and winter together, which I think is such a cool thing. Because there's all these Olympic pro athletes who are doing similar things have similar lifestyles and experiences, but we never actually get to like interact together.
Kristi Wagner 52:47
I know they should just change they should consider that like a good thing from COVID. And they should just do it. Yeah, every I don't know. Yeah. Now it is time for Ask Kristi anything, or ask Kristi anything this week comes from Instagram. Elizabeth asked me, How do you physically and mentally approach a situation where you have multiple races with not much time between for recovery. So Elizabeth, I was just in this situation at the World Cup, a raced into events. And on both Saturday and Sunday, I think we had an hour and 15 minutes an hour and a half between our two races, which is not a ton of time. For me, I really just tried to do the task at hand, I try not to think too much about the it's not that I don't think about the big picture. But I tried to just focus on what I'm doing be where my feet are. So if I have two raises in one day, I just think about the first one I you have to just focus on what you're doing in that moment. And then as soon as that ends, you can start preparing for the next one, I have a lot going on. If I'm doubling up, or I have a lot of races or you have a heat and semi in the same day or something. I like to have thought through a lot of stuff the night before and just be ready for any scenario. So I like to have you know, lots of changes of clothes, lots of snack options, water options, different electrolyte refuel options, so that no matter what I need, I've already thought about it and I don't have to panic through it. I just find that that really helps me and if I've spent the time thinking about it the night before then I know I'll be ready for any situation. We were really fortunate also the US rowing staff was and our coaches were so amazing. They helped us out so much during the World Cup. So if you're have a really tight turnaround, it can be really helpful to have some supporters there and that they're doing things for you and thinking for you when you're exhausted and can't do it. And other than that, like, we're so much stronger than we think we are, pain is just, you know, in your head, like your body is trained to do way more than you think. And if you've put in the time and practices, then you'll be able to do it. Like I was able to go, you know, Sophia and I went, had the fastest last 1000 During our last race, like our legs were super tired then but we were able to do it. So it just shows that a lot of it is mental. I mean, it is physical, the fatigue, but you can push yourself, you know, harder than you think like That's true for everybody. So I think just focusing on the task at hand and being ready for, you know, a lot of different things. And I do take recovery pretty seriously, I, I do the you know, ice baths and we have amazing physical therapists who give us leg flushes put on my like recovery tights, get my legs up, have all my drinks and everything, get a lot of sleep. There's things you can do. But, yeah, thank you for that question, Elizabeth. And if you have a question for Ask Kristi anything, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram or send me an email the other three years@gmail.com Yeah, really, any topic doesn't have to be about rowing anything you want. Coming up next week, we have a super fun episode with some of my national team teammates known to the world as women in the boat. They are from the Princeton Training Center. And they have a very successful Instagram account called Women in the boat. And they are known for doing this thing on Instagram called Would You Rather Wednesdays, so I thought it would be fun to turn the tables on them and ask them some Would You Rather years play play a game of would you rather so it's super fun. We talk rowing life, play some games? It's silly. It's serious. There's something for everybody. And it's a fun time with fun people. So to close the show this week, we have our quote of the week and it's from Rachel Wilkin, I think is how you pronounce her last name. And Rachel says when your light is truly bright, you'll never have to dim anyone else's so that you can shine. So thanks for listening. See you next week. I'd love to hear from you. So send us a topic suggestion or if you'd like to submit a question for our Ask Kristi anything segment, head to our website, theother3years.com