Cool Summer: How Winter Olympians Train Without Winter

Three Winter Olympians shared how they're training in the lead-up to the Beijing Games.

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With Tokyo in the rearview mirror the Olympic world is focused on Beijing, where the Winter Games open in just three months. How do winter Olympians train when there is no winter? SI checked in with three elite skiers to see how they spent their summer, um, vacations.

(Interviews by Lila Bromberg and Dan Falkenheim.)

ASHLEY CALDWELL, FREESTYLE SKIING, PARK CITY, UTAH

Nils Nilsen/Sports Illustrated

The three-time Olympian and former child gymnast has an extremely varied summer regimen that includes mountain biking, hiking and running; bungee-corded trampoline routines; lots of jumping off 10-foot ledges (to practice landings); and 60-foot aerial routines that end with a splashdown. “It’s definitely way less scary than the snow,” she says.

Nils Nilsen/Sports Illustrated

"I've been jumping into a pool doing backflips since I started sport at the age of 13. It's definitely nice. It's summertime, you're usually pretty warm and it's a little less scary because you can fall and not get hurt as bad."

Nils Nilsen/Sports Illustrated

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JESSIE DIGGINS, CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING, STRATTON, VT.

Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

The owner of the only U.S. Olympic gold in her sport—she and Kikkan Randall won the team sprint in 2018—spent much of the summer on wheels, roller-skiing through the mountains to, she says, “home in on those specific bursts of speed or power or muscular endurance that are really unique to our sport.” She’s also been weightlifting, running, biking and swimming—and she grabbed some snow time with an August trip to the Oberhof Ski Tunnel in Germany.

Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

"The transition from training in the heat to racing in the cold, that's easy. I get to the cold and I'm like, 'Yes! This is where I belong.' "

Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

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MIKAELA SHIFFRIN, ALPINE SKIING, MAUI, HAWAII

Jordan Naholowa'a Murph/Sports Illustrated

When the World Cup season ended in March, the two-time Olympic gold medalist was already thinking about Beijing. “You get to those last races and all the athletes are saying, I can’t wait to have a short break and go home,” Shiffrin says. “I was just thinking, I have some work to do.” She stayed limber during a quick Hawaiian vacation with stretching and beach soccer drills, then headed to Colorado for summer ski and conditioning camps: “[I’m taking] advantage of the time that I have to get my fitness exactly where I want it to be.”

Jordan Naholowa'a Murph/Sports Illustrated

"We're so lucky to be doing this, especially now, especially after these last couple of years. I mean, are you kidding?"

Jordan Naholowa'a Murph/Sports Illustrated

(A version of this piece appears in the October 2021 issue of Sports Illustrated.)

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