Stillwater Area High School in Minnesota has produced its share of world-class Nordic skiers over the past two decades.

Jessie Diggins, the most decorated cross-country skier in U.S. history and currently the world’s top-ranked woman, raced for the high school before graduating in 2010. She won multiple state championships with the Ponies.

Diggins then received a homecoming parade down Main Street in the Twin Cities suburb after earning a gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018.

Four years later, fellow Stillwater graduate Sydney Peterson won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal during her Paralympic Winter Games debut in Beijing.

Adelaide Bielke could be one of the school’s next Nordic skiers to enjoy success on the international stage, but she’d rather not think that far ahead. She’s a 16-year-old junior and a member of the Ponies’ Nordic skiing team like Diggins and Peterson before her.

“When I was in seventh grade, Sydney Peterson was a senior at the high school. She introduced herself to me, so that’s really cool,” said Bielke, who was born missing part of her left arm and competes as a standing skier like Peterson. “I’ve kept in contact with her.”

Bielke said she didn’t start training seriously in Nordic skiing until this past year — after she joined Bluff Country Biathlon in Red Wing, Minnesota. Instead of focusing on someday qualifying for the Winter Paralympics, she’d rather set smaller goals for herself and take it one step at a time in the sport.

Bielke accomplished her first major goal last November when she competed in her first international race while taking part in a training camp hosted by U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing in Canmore, Alberta.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of expectations. It was more like I just wanted to do it,” Bielke said. “I just wanted to get myself out there, get those (International Ski and Snowboard Federation) points just to get my foot in the water and see what happens. … It was our first week on snow, so I definitely was not skiing my best, but it was fun. It was fun to train there. It wasn’t probably my best races, but I’m still happy and proud of myself for being there.”

A year ago, Bielke competed at the 2023 U.S. Biathlon National Championships in Casper, Wyoming. She finished seventh in the under-17 girls’ pursuit race and eighth in the sprint.

While in Casper, Bielke had the opportunity to race alongside two-time Paralympian Dani Aravich, who was also born missing part of her left arm. Like Bielke, Aravich is a standing skier who has worked on improving in the biathlon.

“She was at biathlon nationals in Wyoming last year, and carrying a lane with her and (being) right next to her, I just thought that was really exciting and that a Paralympian wanted to talk to me,” Bielke said, laughing. “We were some of the very few Para athletes there. I just thought that that was really exciting.”

As much as Bielke enjoys competing in the biathlon, she didn’t grow up shooting rifles for fun or going hunting with her family. She started doing taekwondo at age 7 and reached the level of second-degree black belt.

In 2017, Bielke learned through a local Shriners hospital that BethAnn Chamberlain, a development coach with U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing, was hosting a ski clinic at the Midwest Nordic Adaptive Festival in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Bielke, who was age 9 at the time, attended the ski clinic. She tried the biathlon for the first time while there, shooting with a laser rifle system that Chamberlain had set up for athletes.

Bielke hit all the targets, but she was too young to realize how impressive that was for a beginner. She admitted she was just having too much fun nailing one target after another.

“I’ve always liked the shooting part (of the biathlon), and I think it’s just because I like to see all the little green lights saying that I hit (a target) or the white going up (after hitting a target),” Bielke said. “It’s satisfying.”

Bielke then attended a one-day ski clinic that Shriners was hosting a couple of months later with Chamberlain’s help. After seven years of doing taekwondo, she decided to quit the sport because she realized she was more interested in Nordic skiing and was missing taekwondo practices to go on ski trips.

Chamberlain also lives in Minnesota, and she has met up with Bielke this winter to go skiing at least once a week at the Battle Creek Recreation Center in St. Paul. They’ve worked on the teenager’s ski technique.

Bielke said she has started looking into the possibility of skiing in college after she graduates from high school. She’d be following a path taken by Peterson, who recently wrapped up her time at St. Lawrence University in New York, where she was a member of the school’s Nordic skiing team.

“I definitely am really into biathlon, and it’s a lot of fun,” Bielke said. “So I think it’s just getting myself out there and continuing training to see how far I can go.”

Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to USParaNordic.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.

Adelaide Bielke Is Following A Rich Tradition Of Nordic Skiers From Minnesota’s Stillwater High

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