Season talk with Sadie Maubet Bjornsen

FIS Cross-Country features World Cup athletes throughout the season to get an insight of their roots in Cross-Country skiing, what drives them to compete and how their season planning is going.

With regular successes of the US Team athletes, one name was missing on the start lists so far this season: Sadie Maubet Bjornsen. Sadie has had a fantastic start into the previous season but took the decision last autumn, to set out the first period of the current season. We sat down with Sadie virtually to talk about her background, what Cross-Country skiing means to her and how she took the decision to start her season later.

FIS Cross-Country: Who or what lit the spark for you to become one of the worlds top-class athlete in Cross-Country skiing?
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen: I grew up in Washington DC and my neighbors were both Olympic skiers and they were my inspiration that brought me to Cross-Country skiing. Despite our Scandinavian last name, it was not a tradition in our family, so we basically learned how to ski together. It became our family holidays to go to ski competitions.

When I went off to College, I went to Alaska to join NCAA Skiing for one year and after that I noticed that Kikkan Randall was across the road at Alaskan Pacific University that operated as a Club team which means that you could go to College but also join World Cup races.

Ever since I have been living in Alaska. I would say my path of ending up travelling around the world as a professional athlete comes from following athletes like Kikkan Randall, Holly Brooks and others and following the excitement they spread for the sport.

FIS Cross-Country: Was was your most memorable moment from those days?
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen: One of the most memorable moments was when Laura McCabe came back from the Nagano Olympic Winter Games and they welcomed her back by driving her through the town on a fire truck and in all streets people were lined up and greeted her home. I remember not really understanding what the Olympics were at the time but I remembered understanding that there was a lot of honor associated in what she was doing and I think at the time I thought for myself, ‘wow I really want to do that too’. As soon as I put my eyes on the Olympic rings I thought to myself that I want to be part of that.

I would say I have always been intrigued by things that come with the association by being part of a team. I have been competitive which comes from having close siblings and we literally made everything a competition. So the nature of how my brain worked and then seeing this, I wanted to be a part of that.

FIS Cross-Country: What is your biggest learning from your life as a professional athlete?
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen: I have analyzed it a few times why we all are doing what we are doing. I think more than anything I am motivated by challenge and overcoming challenge, and this is really the thing that makes me keep coming back.

I’ve shared publicly that in my senior high school year I had to take antibiotics because of a long lasting cold and one unforeseen side effect was that it had a lasting damaging effect on my Achilles tendon. So I have spent the majority of my professional career injured. I would say that I have probably been able to run 20% to 30% of my skiing career which is not that much. So I have always had to develop my own training methods and my own confidence. And this of course does not just work easily but has to be built up over time.

So that is what truly motivates me, having nothing being able to stand in my way.

FIS Cross-Country: Despite your set backs, what is it that makes you come back to competitions again and again?
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen: I am not necessarily the person that loves being in pain but when I am accomplishing my goals, I don’t really feel the pain. I just have this believe in myself. I think that’s what I love, generating a believe that I can overcome anything. That is what keeps me coming back.

FIS Cross-Country: This year, you decided to skip the first period of the World cup season. What drove you to this decision?
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen: Last year I had an amazing start into the season and had a great Tour de Ski but then mid-season I was not able to find my racing level. I think I was just mentally exhausted.
Travelling with the American team is one of the greatest things as we can support each other and have an amazing atmosphere that can be super uplifting. But for me after 8 years travelling on the World Cup, I noticed that the same things that used to motivate me weren't necessarily doing it anymore.
I had this amazing conversation with Therese mid-season where she asked me if I was tired or just mentally tired. For me this was a really great aha! moment because it made me realize that maybe I was not tired and maybe something else was going on.

I thought about it this summer and was analyzing how I can have more energy through the whole season. Part of that was just being excited the whole time to race the World Cup. So my plan this year was to start the season a little later and find a more sustainable way of racing for me.

FIS Cross-Country: What are you most proud of?
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen: The times I am most proud of is the times when I lost believe – and this goes along with the many injuries I have gone through. In times of injury, it felt like there was no way to accomplish the things I wanted to accomplish.
But after I fought through those tough times the feeling of achievement was one of the greatest things.

Another one of my favorite memories so far in ski racing was also when I was wearing the yellow bib. For my whole skiing career I was known as a Classic skier but I don’t like to be defined by any limitations. So in my mind I always knew that I could not just ski well in classic Sprints but also in freestyle formats and distance races. So having had this yellow bib – although it was early in the season and only for a short time – proved to me that I can do anything. It now hangs on my wall as one of my greatest achievements.

FIS Cross-Country: What does the team mean to you?
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen: I really appreciate the acceptance and encouragement from my coaches and my team, especially in those times. This is really something unique about the American team to others as we travel thousands of miles together and so I feel extremely lucky to have such a team for allowing us to go out there to become the best skiers that we can be.