As the 53 women Olympians who have represented our country in cross country skiing, and calling our group United States Nordic Olympic Women (US NOW), we give an annual award, The Gold Rush Award, to a female athlete that demonstrates outstanding quantities of grit and grace throughout the year.
Huge achievements give everyone the joy of celebrating the success. We know it takes many people to realize these high goals. We congratulate and are inspired by each of the US Ski Team Athletes and everyone supporting them. We cheered loud and proud as we watched the coverage of the races. Thank you to each of you for your hard work, dedication and devotion to our sport. We love you all.
The Gold Rush Award
The past recipients of the award who chose this years athlete are: Rosie Brennan, co-recipients: Sadie Maubet Bjornsen / Sophie Caldwell Hamilton, and Jessie Diggins.
The 2022 US NOW Gold Rush Award goes to Julia Kern! Congratulations Julia!
Julia has been working hard for a long time, and we are so proud to recognize not only her outstanding results this season, but her grace and strength in bouncing back from many injuries over the years and her perseverance and trust in her training. Julia’s season highlights included making the 2022 Olympic team, a World Cup podium and 4th place finish, multiple US National Titles and her career-best World Cup distance races.
This winter was another year of stressful and strict covid safety protocols, which limited social interaction and increased the feeling of isolation and loneliness. As an extrovert who thrives off of group social activities, Julia handled the challenging situation with grace and spent a lot of time thinking about how to keep the team safe and create safe yet fun chances to interact and lighten the mood. Additionally, after a hard year last season and difficult injuries over the summer and fall, Julia kept faith in the hard work she was putting in during the training season, and continued to get stronger over the entire winter, ending the season as the best sprinter and distance skier in the US! Her work ethic and never-give-up attitude inspires all of us, and we are lucky to receive all the energy she brings to the team.
As if this weren’t enough, Julia is also a wonderful role model and ambassador to the next generation of skiers! She spends the summer training months engaged in many outreach activities, and comes back to her home club each year to get the younger skiers fired up.
Again, Congratulations Julia!
