Gareth Williams

He’s had a quick rise up the cross-country ski ranks, but it seems like nothing can phase Kelowna’s Gareth Williams.

The 19-year-old just finished competing in his first World Cup finals, which happened over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Quebec City. Now he’s preparing for his final race of the season, which is the Canadian Nationals in Canmore, Alberta. After nationals, Williams will finally be able to take a breather and look back on what can only be described as a hectic few months.

Before the World Cup finals in Quebec City, Williams was touring Europe and performing quite well in a series of races on foreign soil. He managed a sixth place finish in a Continental Cup sprint race in Germany and managed to find the podium in Switzerland, coming second in the Swiss Cup. Even with those impressive results, Williams is still striving for more.

“Honestly, I was hoping for even a bit better than that after finishing so well at the World Junior Championships in Utah where I came 11th,” said Williams. “I was hoping to have more consistent results in all the Europe races, but those were the two best ones.”

The Utah finish he’s talking about was in the World Junior Championships. There he showed quite well, putting up the aforementioned 11th place finish along with a 20th place finish in the individual events. Williams also added a 10th place finish with his teammates in the relay.

“I wasn’t really sure how I would do because it was my first World Juniors, so I went in with a goal to hit top 30,” Williams told KelownaNow. “In the first race I was 20th, so after that I upped my goal to a top 15 finish for the last race and I came away from that 20km race with an 11th place finish, so it was exciting to be able to ski with the top junior skiers in the world.”

With just the one final race left in the cross-country season, Williams will soon be able to reflect on what can be considered a breakout season for the teenager and get started on his summer training. That summer training does include a bit of skiing, which Williams says happens up on the Hag Glacier near Canmore and it’s a huge help to keep him in ski shape during the warmer months. Most of the off-season training, however, is a variety of dryland workouts like running, bike riding and even roller skiing.”

“Road skiing is like rollerblading, but you’re still using ski boots and you just change the tips of the poles so it’s more of just a tip and it doesn’t really degrade when it hits the pavement,” explained Gareth, adding that it can be a little scary on the roads out there. “Some people try to run you over, but most are pretty nice about it.”

One of the biggest aspects of his summer training is on two wheels, though, as Williams says there’s plenty of mountain and road biking during the summer. When he’s not riding or roller skiing, chances are he’s running to stay in shape or spending his time in the gym. Safe to say, there’s not a lot of time to rest for a high level athlete like Williams. That kind of work ethic, combined with an introduction to skiing at an early age, is what has helped propel the Kelowna native into the world ranks of the cross-country ski world.

“I was originally born in Vancouver, but moved here when I pretty young,” said Williams, whose family was heavily involved with the Telemark Ski Club. “I’ve been skiing since I could walk, probably about two years old, and racing since I was three years old.”

Williams says he’s made a lot of good friends from all over the world through skiing, including a group of similar aged skiers who have been racing alongside him for a number of years. Not only has the Telemark Ski Club provided Williams with some great friends, but he’s also had a great coach who has been with him for the long haul in Adam Elliot. Elliot was a Telemark cross-country skier in his heyday and has now been the coach for the junior team for the last decade. Williams says having a coach that’s known him forever is a huge advantage and it will be a definite adjustment switching to a new coach when he moves from the junior national team to the senior national team.

No matter the coach, Williams has a bright future ahead in the cross-country ski world and he has set a number of goals for himself to reach. Short term, the 19-year-old wants to finish high on the podium at nationals, but he’s also looking beyond this year.

“Next year I’d love to make the U23 World Championships, because I’ll be out of U20, and obviously to be on the national podium as a senior athlete next year would be pretty cool,” said Williams. “To make the senior national team next year is another goal of mine.”

He’s set the bar high for himself, but if the early part of his career has taught us anything, it’s that Gareth Williams is the type of athlete to rise above the competition, even on the toughest stage.