Kyle Bratrud: An Introduction

November 19, 2013

[ Kyle Bratrud is one of the rising stars in Midwest racing.  Improving every season, Bratrud qualified for World Juniors last year and raced to All-American status at the NCAA Championships last March.   We're excited to be featuring writings from Bratrud this season, as he shares his experiences as well as keeping us up-to-date on the CCSA racing scene. -- Ed. ]

My name is Kyle Bratrud. I grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and now ski for Northern Michigan University. I have Doug Boonstra and Aaron Bartnik to thank for my cross country skiing start. This is how they got me there.

I grew up playing many sports; soccer, basketball, and baseball to name a few. My seventh grade year I discovered cross country and track and those other sports soon dissolved into recreational activities as a passion for running evolved inside me. At this same time I met a kid named Aaron Bartnik. For those who don’t know him, he won the MN State Cross Country and Nike Regionals races in 2009 and now runs for the Gophers. Intertwined in our close friendship was a high level of competition. Aaron kicked my butt in running and I didn’t like it. So I trained harder and we pushed each other throughout high school.

When Nordic season came around and I heard Aaron was joining, I felt obligated to join as well. Doug Boonstra or “Boonie”, as I called him, also played a pivotal role by pulling me out of my Marketing Strategies class one day to “persuade” me to ski. It was definitely pure intimidation, but it worked and I am forever grateful it did. I immediately fell in love with the sport and my senior year was able to win the skate race at Mesabi and finish 5th at state.

Around my sophomore year I also became aware of JOQs from my teammate and now Dartmouth skier, Erik Fagerstrom. I had two pathetic showings my sophomore year, one race even tumbling head over heels down the sledding hill at Wirth in a sprint. The next year I again did the Wirth races, but it wasn’t until my senior year that I decided I should give it a real shot and go to all the JOQ races. I made the Midwest team my senior year and raced my first JOs at Wirth. My biggest memory was getting 15th in the 15k classic mass start. It wasn’t the place that mattered, but dangling just off the lead pack knowing if I train more I could be in that pack.

I toured Northern Michigan and immediately fell in love with Sten Fjeldheim’s program. As my results were mediocre for a Northern skier, I felt that I could not turn down an offer from him to ski here and I owe everything I have become to him. That being said, I am beginning my junior year here at Northern. Last year was very successful. I was fortunate enough to qualify for World Juniors in the Czech Republic alongside one of my best friends, Ben Saxton. That experience has totally transformed my thinking on the sport as I was able to socialize and compete with some of the best juniors from powerhouse countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Russia and got to see firsthand how they are no different then me. I came home and was All American in the 20k skate race at NCAA’s.

With that momentum I feel I have built, I shot in to the summer with high expectations for this year. I am very blessed to have parents that allow me to travel places to train and don’t mind me skiing instead of working. My first stop was Fairbanks, Alaska for a three week camp with two other guys I went to Worlds with, Logan Hanneman and Tucker McCrerey. Alaska was amazing, the views were gorgeous and the training was super productive. REG was my next stop and I felt like that was really inspiring as I got to complete one of my biggest training weeks of the summer with some really motivated juniors. After REG, I was home briefly before hopping over to Marquette for the J2 National Camp. This was an awesome experience as I was able to see how far we have come as a ski nation. These kids were years younger than me and miles ahead of me technically. Finally, I flew to Park City for a National Training Group (NTG) camp. It was a humbling experience to train at the Center of Excellence and listen to Kikkan talk one night at dinner. I have to thank the National Nordic Foundation (NNF) for my summer as they are a part of funding REGs, NEGs, NTGs, and the J2 Camp. They are paving the way for future stars in the sport.

That brings me to now. Through these blog posts I hope to give people a sense of what college skiing is all about and hopefully inspire some young skiers like I was inspired. Now that you know who I am I will be able to spend more time on the fun side of the sport, daily training! Train hard and stay healthy Midwest!