Last year the American won the Golden Trail Championship as a runner. A few months later she was winning a cross country skiing world cup race
For most pro athletes, racing for 11 months each year in two different sports would be daunting, if not downright exhausting. For Sophia Laulki, it offers balance.
Last summer, Laukli won a trio of famous races – the Mont Blanc Marathon, Sierre-Zinal, and Pikes Peak Ascent – before sealing the Golden Trail Championship in October. Three months later Laukli won the final stage of the Tour de Ski, making her the youngest American ever to win a World Cup race. Surprisingly, being a professional athlete was never her plan, let alone a two-sport star.
Laukli was the top skier in her state as a senior, but she still didn’t see a future on snow. “I remember watching the 2018 Olympics and not once thinking about racing in 2022,” says Laukli, who would go on to represent the US in Beijing and place 15th in the 30km freestyle. races as possible. “When I was young it felt like pressure, but I now realize that they just wanted to be on the journey with me,” says Laukli. “Not every skier has parents as supportive as I do. They are my biggest fanboy and fangirl, which I try to never take for granted, even if it embarrasses me sometimes.”
Despite reaching the upper echelon of skiing, Laukli had long hated running. During high school summers she would find ways to avoid it. “I would run when cars passed, then I’d walk,” she says. “I would go into the woods and sit on a stump for an hour and pretend to stretch if someone passed.”
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