World University Games - Aidan’s experience

Team Birkie People!

Finishing stretch of the 10k skate

Aidan Ripp here giving you a (still somewhat jetlagged) athlete recap of World University Games (WUG) that just concluded last week in Pragelato, Italy. 

Racing in the first leg of the relay in the 90's inspired USA UNI suit

Over a span of 2 weeks university students from across the globe flocked to Torino, Italy for this year’s rendition of the Universidade games.  Amongst the sea of international competitors were three of your very own Team Birkie skiers.  Myself along with Conner Roberts competed in the cross-country events held at the 2006 Olympic venue in Pragelato-Plan.  Dolcie Tanguay also joined the US Biathlon team 2 miles down the valley in Pragelato-Rua.  

Upon our arrival Conner and I had the opportunity to experience some of the challenges that the nordic venue had to offer including a 60 meter vertical climb and a 40+ mph descent.  Due to a light snow year in Pragelato, the first week of training and racing was mostly done on transformed, man-made snow making downhills and corners especially challenging. 

Both Conner and myself had some strong results in the 10 kilometer skate as well as the classic sprint before the storms began to roll in.  Once it started snowing it never seemed to stop. 

Although total accumulation by the end of the week was in the ballpark of 6 inches, the tracks were always being refreshed and thus slowed down a lot.

Once the snow began falling the once hilly and technical course soon turned into a slow grinder of a course, especially making the long 400 meter final stretch a slog for the relay.  Despite battling with illness during the games up to this point the relay day proved to be the tipping point for me.  Although I was able to put in a good effort, I still felt flat and like I had crossed the edge from “feeling weird” to “getting sick.” The rest of the team still had a strong result with Conner anchoring the team for an 11th place overall result for the US. 

On the Biathlon side, Dolcie had strong results in the first three races over the week qualifying in the top 30 for the 12.5k mass start race in which she finished 23rd, her best result of the week.  Unlike the cross-country venue, the biathlon course was more rolling terrain, with less climbing and subsequently less rest than the cross-country venue.  

Team Birkie in the Alps (note the lack of snow on the mountains in the backgorund)

Although it was a challenging week with illness for me, WUG was still a super fun experience which I mainly give credit to the great crew of nordic athletes that I was surrounded by.  It’s always fun to have a cohesive group that makes challenging times easy and the good times better!

Onwards and upwards to the Birkie!

For those who are interested in more detail this is the link for the WUG results:  https://wugtorino2025.microplustimingservices.com/#/general-schedule