A Moment in Time with Bjorn Daehlie

Well I think I have finally got it out of my system! The five days spent with Bjorn Daehlie and his father, Erling, at the Birkie were the culmination of months of planning that lead to as an intense, exciting and enjoyable period of time as I can ever remember. I first had the idea of inviting Bjorn to do the Birkie after discussions with Ned Zuelsdorff, Executive Director of the Birkie, and Colleen Kalt, President of the Wisconsin Chapter of the National MS Society. Colleen was involved because the invitation to Bjorn was to come as an “Ambassador for MS Research” and help us raise funds for the Birkie’s “Race for the Cure” charitable arm. Why Bjorn? Well, it’s a long story but the short version is that I met him in 2004 on my way to ski the Norwegian Birkebeiner then speak at an MS Research meeting in Bergen. I am a Professor of Neuroscience at UW-Madison and MS  has been my long-time research specialty. Bjorn’s mother has had MS for 20 years and I met her while in Norway. Bjorn was keen to know about research progress as I skied with him two days before the race, although it was hard to think about anything else than trying to stay upright and ski at a decent pace.

So after much persuasion, as he has extensive business and travel commitments, my invitation was accepted. He realized finally that his participation in the Birkie would really boost our cause. So there I was at Minneapolis Airport on Wednesday morning meeting Bjorn and Dad to take them up to Hayward to meet Ned and staff of the Birkie office before heading to Lake Owen and our condo, identifiable by a large Norwegian flag I had hung the day before. Dinner was quickly prepared thanks to my wife Sally’s premier lasagna and then off to bed! I hardly slept for the next four nights, constantly thinking of the day to come and our packed itinerary.
Up early on Thursday. Beautiful morning. Lake Owen looking pristine, took great pictures of Bjorn with the lake background – good start.

Thursday morning was to be one of the highlights, with the top 25 fundraisers taking part in the “Ski-with-Bjorn” hour at the North End Cabin. It was high excitement at the cabin when Bjorn arrived; we were a little late so there were whispers of “There he is,” “Let’s get some pictures” etc. People clustered around him to receive a generous gift of a ski hat with the famous and ubiquitous  Bjorn logo – he has his own  cross country ski line. He had given me a very cool training jacket and I was trying to appear like a Bjorn-clone as we sported identical outfits (pity about my skiing however). Terry Tansey, my great friend, accomplished racer and local ski guru led us up the trail to the power lines where Bjorn talked for a couple of minutes about his skiing philosophy and why he skis. It’s not just about winning Olympic gold.

We skied back to the Classic Trail then south to the 7K Birkie intersection. It’s hard to describe the pleasure everyone had. With blue skies and the groomer just ahead of us creating a perfect carpet of snow, it was like skiing in heaven with God! This was meant to be a no-skier-left-behind event, but occasionally he would pick up the pace and visions of Lillehammer appeared in front of us. All too soon it was over and with 25 beaming faces having a hard time getting over the fun, we went off to lunch at River’s Eatery in Cable. Mick and Beth Endersbe, the owners, most generously hosted a lunch for us all. Bjorn raved about the pizza, so much so that he went back there twice over the next few days. A highlight of the lunch was a gift Terry made on behalf of us all, a hand-carved wooden clock topped by a Viking ship. Bjorn’s father was given a book on Wisconsin, “Old Farm” a charming pictorial story of life and upbringing in rural Wisconsin.

Now the pace of events picked up and it was down to Hayward for the end of the Barnebirkie and the Elite Sprints. And this is where the request for pictures and autographs began. Over the next four days this was endless, yet he never refused, except when he had to move on, and did it with grace and good humor. He’s a natural at this and his poses with children were especially great and he clearly had fun. OK, so this sounds like enough for the day but not quite. More skiing was needed so it was off to Terry’s place and on to the Seeley Hills Trails with Terry and me for some striding. About half way up the second or third climb it did cross my mind that this was not part of my usual pre-Birkie regime, but wait a minute,who cares! So around 8 K later, back to Terry’s, home to condo, shower and off to the VIP dinner at Lakewoods. In my introduction to Bjorn I point out that, no it’s not as one skier asked me two weeks previously, the Dalai Lama who’s skiing the Birkie, but Bjorn Daehlie!. Joyce Nelson, President and CEO of the NMSS made some important points to the guests about MS Research and the need for fundraising,then it was Bjorn’s turn. In all, he spoke at six different events and always to a captivated audience. He rarely said the same thing twice and was modest, humorous and interesting throughout.

Friday morning saw us back down to Hayward for the Worldloppet Breakfast. We learned some interesting things about his physiology which were not that of the stereotypic elite athlete. His resting heart rate was not low (heck mine’s much lower!) but his max VO2 as we know was off the charts. Interestingly he could race at 190 bpm for long periods without becoming anaerobic! During question time he was asked by a curious woman if he was married; as his part-time manager I began to think I might be in charge of a dating service, but she was disappointed to learn of his wife and two sons. He answered well a possibly contentious question about the Lillehammer 4×10 relay. No sour grapes but yes, Silvio Fauner did draft a long way and while the Norwegian coaches recognized that Thomas Alsgard likely had a better sprint finish, he was potentially too young to take the pressure and so Bjorn was the anchor. When all of the Olympic stadium went quiet at the end of the race and Bjorn lay in the snow exhausted, he and apparently all present took minutes to believe that Norway had not won.

So moving on from there, it’s back to the Condo before the autograph hour at Telemark. Fischer Skis had made a really cool poster in his honor and from 12-1 he sat and signed poster after poster, smiled for picture after picture without flagging. Eventually we had to stop and retreated past the MS booth, to take a look at his embossed message and signature in Mike Cichanowski’s (Current Design’s) kayak prize and off home. It was another beautiful day so it we went for a skate ski on Lake Owen before resting ahead of dinner.