Under 23 Questions with Stephen Schumann

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2017 USANA Nordic Junior World Championships and U23 Cross Country World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 16-year-old Stephen Schumann, of the Park City Nordic Ski Club and U.S. Nordic Combined/USA Nordic, who’s representing the U.S. at his first Junior Worlds.

On Tuesday, Schumann raced to 10th to lead the U.S. in the individual normal hill/10-kilometer Gundersen. On Thursday, he was slated to start the nordic-combined 4 x 5 k team event, with teammates Elijah Vargas, Ben Loomis and Grant Andrews. 

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“My full name is Stephen John Schumann, but you can call me Skunk. I was born in Salt Lake City, raised in Salt Lake.

I started skiing when I was seven and jumping when I was five, thanks to my dad. I currently train in Park City, Utah, with the US Ski Team/ USA Nordic.

If I had to pick a favorite book, it would be ‘How the Skunk Learned to Jump‘.

One of the things I’m most excited about for U23/Junior Worlds at Soldier Hollow is having a home event.

One race I’m especially targeting there is the 10 kilometer individual race.

The best advice anyone ever gave me about skiing or racing was ‘don’t lead’. One of the best race memories I have is skiing my first COC.

If I don’t end up being a professional skier, I’ll probably be a coach.

I’m missing zero days of school to be here, and my teachers are probably thinking, ‘Thank god I don’t have to see that kid for a couple more months.’

You can follow me on Instagram @stephen_schumann or on Twitter @stephen_schu.”