3/6/2005 - Who needs snow to ski?

The more conventional choice might have been swimming. Maybe basketball. Instead, faced with the decision of which winter sports team to join, Sugoon Fucharoen, (an AFS) Thai foreign exchange student at Hastings High School (HHS), chose a truly Minnesotan experience. He joined the Nordic Skiing team.

Fucharoen, who goes by the nickname Kin, is from Khon Kaen, a city in tropical northeastern Thailand. Last Thursday, temperatures there reached 86 degrees. There was a light breeze, and the morning humidity tapered off in the afternoon.

Kin, though, spent the afternoon at Cottage Grove Ravine Park, where Hastings’ Nordic team competed in Park High School’s freestyle invitational. Temperatures hovered around 20, but Kin, wearing a full-body Spandex suit to keep warm could not have been happier. “Skiing is such a great experience, the greatest thing I have ever done,” he said after clearing the 5-kilometer course in 19 minutes, 58 seconds. “I’d never seen snow, never skied before, never seen skiing before. Who would say that a kid from Thailand would learn to ski and start racing in a high school race like this? It’s pretty cool.”

Making the decision

Clowning with teammates huddled near the finish line, Kin, a junior at HHS, recalled what drew him to the unlikeliest, coldest of winter-sport offerings. “When winter came I had to decide what I was going to do for a sport, and the thought just came up, I can try skiing,” he said. “I talked to my parents and some teachers, and they kind of encouraged me. I talked to my friend John Scully, and John Dewall, and I stepped up and decided, I’m going to do it.”

Kin played soccer for Hastings in the fall, and he competes in mountain biking competitions at home. Though athletically inclined, he knew tackling a completely foreign sport would mean a steep learning curve. “At the start, I knew nothing at all,” Kin added. “It’s unbelievable thinking back to the time I started compared to where I am now.”

It takes a uniquely driven athlete to make those strides in a foreign sport, but with a strong work ethic, Kin also brings a keen sense of perspective, particularly for a 16-year old. “ I can’t set a goal too high because this is my first year,” Kin said. “I just want to do my best every time I go in a race. Whatever I get, I get. I’m OK with what I get.”

Checking the timer’s sheet to compare his mark with others, Kin laughed as he described his biggest skiing accomplishment to this point—simply finishing the Raiders first meet of the season. Lack of snow had limited Kin’s preparation to the use of roller skis in practices.

“I learned to climb uphill on skis about half an hour before the race.” Kim remembered. “My skis kept going backwards, but I made it . The time wasn’t great, but I was proud of it.”

Serious business

Kin clearly takes his skiing seriously, but never himself. That’s one of the many things he said he has learned from his teammates this winter.

“When it is time for fun, we get crazy,” Kin said, “but when it is time for racing, they get serious. My teammates help me a lot. They wouldn’t mind going slow on the trail with me to show me how to ski. Coaches, friends on the team—everyone has helped me. They are such a great team.”

Though the climate will make it difficult, Kin intends to continue cross country skiing after he returns to Thailand. “I think I’ll probably bring the roller skis back home and keep doing it for fun and for exercise,” he said. “To keep the skiing form in my head and not forget it.”

And knowing he will be roller-skiing in 80-degree weather someday soon makes the temperatures here easier to bear. “The cold is fun for me,” he said. “I’ve got only one year.”

Reprinted with permission from the Hastings Star Gazette

Story by Michael Moore

Photographs courtesy of the Hastings Star Gazette, in the photo-Sugoon Fucharoen