Skiers pull double duty for silver finish
Skiers pull double duty for silver finish
Posted 2 years ago
Before they even strapped on their boots, the Zone 7 Alberta Winter Games team was at a disadvantage.
The team, which only consisted of Fort McMurray's Damaris Lichti and Michela d'Entremont, didn't have the standard third skier to compete in the relay event.
But that didn't stop the girls from earning a silver medal in the juvenile relay during the four-day competition in Leduc almost two weeks ago. The two-person team was allowed to compete as long as one skier didn't ski back-to-back legs.
Lichti, the more experienced of the two, started the race with the classic-style leg. Then after tagging d'Entremont for the second part of the relay, was driven to the exchange point for the third and final leg, changing her boots and skies on the way.
"We had the car all warmed up and her gear all laid out," coach Michael d'Entremont said of the frantic switch. "We threw on her stuff and made her walk around to make sure her heart rate didn't drop."
"I don't think my heart rate dropped after running back and forth and checking the time."
The team finished with a time of 0:30:42.2, earning them second-place honours. Both skiers are members of the Ptarmigan Nordic Ski Club and train all year for the winter season.
Michela, a student at Westwood High School, recently moved from midget to juvenile. The jump in age group has the 14 year old competing in longer races that average between five and seven kilometers. This was her second time attending the Alberta Winter Games.
"The competition was part of this huge event and you got to meet a whole bunch of other people in different sports from other places," she said. "It was pretty cool."
Damaris, who attends Composite High School, has been skiing at the juvenile level for two years. She also won silver medals in the classic and sprint events and ranks third in the Alberta Cup standing for her age group.
Her father and coach, Gerald Lichti, is also a member of the local ski club and says his daughter is hard to keep up with on the Birchwood Trail System between Thickwood and Timberlea.
"As the distance gets longer, she just keeps speeding up," said Gerald Lichti. "As she gets more and more worn down she keeps on getting faster. We are trying to work on her sprint and her starts. Those are her weaknesses. But once she gets going, wow."
Both skiers are attending this weekend's Alberta Cup races in Athabasca and Tawatinaw and will also travel to Yellowknife for the Arctic Winter Games, which begin March 9.
