St. Cloud Celebrates Team USA’s Olympic Skiing Triumphs

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- Cross-country ski enthusiasts are cheering on the American athletes at the Olympic Games in Italy. Team USA has won two medals so far in the sport, including a bronze by Minnesotan Jessie Diggins and a Silver by Ben Ogden.

Molly Weyrens is the President of the Nordic Ski Club of Central Minnesota.

She says the biggest thing they do is develop youth skiers.

They host about 70 kids every Sunday at Riverside Park in St. Cloud. They want to help them overcome the biggest hurdle, which is the cost.

There's a lot of interest.  The tough part with cross-country skiing is just the equipment piece, and it can be a little expensive when you are just trying it, so we're trying to get out into the community more and say we have skis available.

Stearns County recently bought a trailer filled with equipment for cross-country skiing.

We had our Moonlight Ski in early January.  We have over 900 people show up at Quarry Park to ski and snowshoe.  The skies were flying out of the trailer.

The Nordic Ski Club of Central Minnesota also helps groom the trails around the St. Cloud area. Weyrens says the conditions this season have been up and down, and she's hoping for another round of snow yet this year.

The club has been in existence for about 45 years.

At this week's Minnesota State High School Nordic Ski finals, Sartell/Cathedral's Andrew Berndt finished 5th in the state in the Freestyle race and 2nd in the state in the Pursuit race.