Tahoe may be better known as a haven for Winter Olympians, but we’re not without a Summer Games shining star. Our hopes for a hometown medal in the 2012 Olympic Games in London rest on the talents of Truckee resident Katerina Nash, a four-time Olympian who will be competing for her native Czech Republic in the women’s mountain bike race on Aug.11.
Nash has been a world class athlete for nearly two decades and is one of a few athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. She made her Olympic debut as an upstart Czech mountain bike racer at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta before returning to her roots as a Nordic skier to compete in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan and Salt Lake City. After capping her Nordic ski racing career as a NCAA collegiate champion for the University of Nevada-Reno ski team, she returned to mountain bike racing in 2004.
Now 16 years after her first Olympic race, Nash, 34, is older and wiser heading to London, but still not immune to a few pre-race butterflies.
“The Olympics are a big deal for any athlete, so the excitement, anticipation, pressure, and focus are with me once again,” said Nash. “The difference is that in Atlanta I only had a skiing background and was very new to mountain bike racing. Going to London I’m now an experienced cyclist.”
Calling herself an experienced cyclist is a serious understatement. Nash is one of the top female off-road cyclists in the world, having spent 11 years racing on the Luna Chix pro cycling team. She has stood on the podium of countless mountain bike and cyclo-cross races including local events like the Downieville Classic and major international competitions such as the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships and several World Cup mountain bike races.
The crossover from Nordic skiing to cycling was a natural fit for the life-long racer.
“I’ve always chosen to compete in endurance sports where years of training pays off,” said Nash. “I switched from cross-country skiing to cycling, which gave me a new start as far as the racing environment, but I could bring over my fitness.”
Nash moved to Truckee full time after graduating from UNR in 2005 and getting married to fellow local Olympian Marcus Nash, a Nordic skier who competed in the 1994 and 1998 Winter Games. Training in Tahoe has been one of the secrets to Nash’s success for more reasons than one.
“Tahoe not only provides me endless opportunities to ride, run, ski, or hike, but the community has also helped me to be a better athlete,” said Nash. “We live in an incredibly fit community and I’ve found really fun people to train with, although it can be tough to get anyone to return my phone calls when there’s fresh powder and I’m looking for someone to go do cycling intervals.”
Although she’s known for her sprinting and technical trail prowess, there is no doubt that Nash’s favorite rocky Tahoe trails have helped define her skills on the World Cup circuit.
“The Tahoe Rim Trail is amazing, and so are the trails around Truckee like the Donner Lake Rim Trail,” said Nash. “I also ride the trails in Waddle Ranch a lot as they are close to my house in Glenshire.”
Nash’s top results in recent World Cup mountain bike races suggest she’s in the best shape of her life and prime to take home her first Olympic medal, if all goes as planned, when she rallies the race course in England on Aug. 11. Though she won’t be wearing the stars and stripes, her Tahoe roots run deep enough that we should all be cheering for her, if only to prove her training regiment is unbeatable.
“My favorite Tahoe training day is to ski powder in the morning, ride my bike in the afternoon, hike with the dogs, and then eat dinner at the Cottonwood with friends,” said Nash.
Now that’s a gold medal day.
~ Watch Nash in the women’s mountain bike race on NBC KCRA Channel 3 from 1:45 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 11. Comment on this column below.
