Latin School of Chicago

When most people move inside for the winter, Andrew Nadler '13 packs up his skis and heads outdoors. On any given weekend from November through March, he can be found training on the isolated trails near his family's cottage in the north woods of Wisconsin or participating in one of 15 or so major Nordic ski races that are held throughout the country. A member of the Central Cross Country Ski Association's junior team throughout high school, Andrew is one of the top young Nordic (cross country) skiers in the Midwest. He has qualified for Junior Nationals in Nordic skiing for three out of the last four years, has participated in qualifying races for the U.S. Nationals and has consistently placed in the top three in Midwestern races in his age group. In February, he came in second at the 23K Kortelopet at the American Birkebeiner, the largest Nordic ski event in North America, beating the Wisconsin and Minnesota state champions. When the snow is gone, Andrew works on conditioning and endurance. He is a member of Latin's track and cross country teams and currently holds the record for the fastest threemile in school history. Over the summers, he usually spends six weeks at training camps from Wisconsin to Utah. Come Thanksgiving, he heads west to catch early snowfalls. For the most part, Andrew's training regiment has been a fairly solitary. Nordic skiing isn't exactly a big high school sport in the Midwest, and the Central Cross Country Ski Association is a loose-knit group, with team members meeting up at development camp and races. This year, Andrew was the only member from Illinois to qualify for junior nationals. "That is really the most challenging part – training alone and not having that team support," he said. Everything will change this fall, however, when he joins one of the topranked Division I cross country ski teams at Dartmouth College. "I am really looking forward to having a regular training schedule and having people to train with," he said. Andrew is reticent to talk about future hopes and whether the Olympics are on his radar. "At this point, I don't know how good I actually can be," he said. "How I do in college will determine what my potential really is." n "It helps keep me motivated that I am pretty good at it. It is tough to keep doing a grueling sport like cross country [skiing] if you aren't." LATI N SCHOOL OF CHI CA GO 45

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