Laukli Puts Norwegian Elite In Place At Beitostølen
Sophie Laukli went into 15th place on Saturday's 10-kilometer classic during the season opener at Beitostølen and put several of the Norwegian national team runners in place on their own home track.
Cross-country skiing.com met the 21-year-old after the opening distance at Beitostølen on Saturday afternoon.
"It is very fun to do so well in such a company, and very fun also because my path into cross-country skiing is quite different than for most other elite runners," says the American national team member.
Laukli is originally from Maine in the far north of the American east coast, and it was only a couple of years ago that she started to focus seriously on cross-country skiing. Until then, she had practiced versatility with a number of different sports, and bet for a long time, including a long time on football. Cross-country skiing was more of a hobby I did in the winter. And in Maine, the winter conditions were not always very good, so it was not always tempting. But then I lived in Switzerland for a year, and that was when I started investing in cross-country skiing, Laukli says.