MNC’s Greta Kilburn was recently recognized with the Gallagher Award from NENSA. Greta received this award as the top points scorer on the Eastern Cup this season!
You can read a press release from NENSA at this link.
From the release:
Adam Terko provided the following thoughts on Greta’s achievements this past season, and how her story in skiing acts as a testament to what is possible with patience, perseverance, and an embrace of the pure joy of competing in nordic skiing:
Greta is an overall phenomenal athlete. She skied and ran for Burlington High School in addition to being one of the top cyclists at her age in the entire country. However, the 2023-24 season was the first campaign in which she brought her extensive endurance pedigree to the Eastern Cup. We were lucky to have her training and racing with Mansfield while she navigated being a Freshman at the University of Vermont (where Kilburn will be joining the ski team later this Fall).
Greta arrived at the first Eastern Cup almost directly from biking competitions in the southern part of America, and with each new competition her skiing grew more confident. She had never raced a true sprint format event until the Lake Placid Eastern Cup, and had to learn some key steps about race days throughout the season by being thrown right into the deep end.
At Junior Nationals she was able to put all of that to good use with an amazing week of racing to cap off her season. She’ll begin her sophomore year as a newly-minted official member of the UVM ski team, but will still have to take a few weekends in the Fall off in order to also continue her mountain bike career.
In a culture increasingly affected by stress surrounding college skiing, early specialization, athletic career trajectories, and pressure to perform, I think Greta’s story is truly important. Greta did not race Eastern Cups until after high school, and she entered many championship races oblivious to the backgrounds of many competitors. Therefore Greta remained unfazed by pressure or preconception on race day. The more important factors in Greta’s season were learning new things and pushing herself as hard as she could.
Congrats Greta!
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