Faith carried Nelson down the slopes
Alpine skiers probably don’t associate the gently undulating terrain of rural Wright County in Minnesota with their sport.
There are more than 100 lakes in the county, but there are no downhill ski slopes. While Buffalo, the county seat, is only about 40 miles northwest of downtown Minneapolis, Wright County is not listed as one of the seven metropolitan counties in the Twin Cities region. It is in this setting where Olympian Tasha Nelson enjoyed her youth.
Born in 1974, Tasha has two older brothers, Todd and Troy. Her father, Dale, was an optometrist, and her mother, Sharon, was a stay-at-home parent.
They lived near 251-acre Lake Charlotte, which is almost equidistant to the communities of Buffalo, Hanover, and Rockford. The family hobby farm had an assortment of animals: horses, rabbits, chickens, geese, and more. They played hockey on the lake in the winter, engaged in tennis and golf in the summer, and all family members enjoyed downhill skiing. Like most wise parents, Dale and Sharon were supportive of Tasha’s early dreams of being an Olympic skier but never pushy. “It had to come from me,” asserts Tasha.
Buck Hill was their destination of choice. Located in Burnsville, its 305-foot drop makes it a seemingly tame slope compared to the precipitous mountains Tasha would be skiing years later.
Tasha began ski racing at age eight and became a member of the Buck Hill Ski Team for eight years. “We had practice Monday through Thursday nights for two hours after school. Then we raced every weekend,” said Tasha Nelson, who believes she was fortunate to have Erich Sailer, the renowned ski instructor from Austria who coached Olympians Lindsey (Kildow) Vonn and Kristina Koznick, as a coach. “Erich knew exactly what I needed. I was not the most talented, but I was absolutely determined to make it. He taught us to do whatever it takes.”
Sailer remembers Tasha well, and expresses the same thought of her. “When I saw Tasha first, she had great commitment to do whatever had to done,” Sailer said. “She never complained—very positive. She worked herself up to world class. When Tasha won, she wanted to learn how to win by more. She always worked to advance herself.”
The results showed quickly. As an eighth-grade student in Buffalo, Tasha won the Minnesota State High School League alpine championship in 1989, squeezed between champions from Edina, Duluth East, and Minnetonka, who dominated the state competition for years. Nelson didn’t attempt to repeat at the state meet because she began traveling too much nationally and internationally afterward to ski for Buffalo High School. At the international level, Tasha experienced success as a ninth-grader.
In 1990, Tasha enrolled at Stratton Mountain School, a winter sports academy in Vermont’s Green Mountains, as a sophomore to further develop her slalom skiing skills. Here, she was introduced to a second great mentor, Rob Clayton. “He believed in me,” Nelson said.
The outcome of the decision was mixed. “The first year at Mount Stratton was not that great,” Nelson said. “My second year really went well on the NorAm [North American] circuit until I tore my ACL. I tore it again the next year and the next.”
After each injury, Nelson returned to her family home to recuperate and attend Buffalo High School, graduating in 1993. Nelson would suffer no further serious knee injuries the remainder of her skiing career.
Clayton expresses his thoughts on an ideal student, saying, “The most important personal attribute Tasha has is her remarkable perseverance,” he said. “She had disappointment after disappointment due to injuries, but she didn’t let it get her down. Tasha had the perfect stature for slalom skiing. She is the right height, strong, good hand-eye coordination, and hardworking.”
One story which both Nelson and Sailer share in separate conversations illustrates Nelson’s faith in her strength and ability took place in a slalom race at the Junior Olympics in Colorado.
“I had broken my thumb two days earlier. We cut my glove so it fit my cast,’ Nelson said. “Then Erich duct-taped my hand to the pole. I ended up winning it by more than three seconds.”
Sailer repeats the story nearly word for word, but adds, “It showed her true character. It was a blessing to be with her,” he said.
Considered a technical form of alpine skiing, slalom racing has more gates—up to 60—on the women’s course spaced closer together than the giant slalom or super-G (super giant slalom) races, requiring quicker and sharper turns of the skiers as they pass between two poles forming the gate. While Tasha continued her progress in slalom skiing, her brother Todd also excelled. He earned a ski scholarship to the University of Wyoming. Now coaching at Buck Hill, Todd and Troy own and operate T & T Boatworks in Wayzata.
The 1995-96 ski season proved to be instrumental in Tasha’s career. In November 1995, the 5-foot, 7-inch athlete won the slalom NorAm Cup organized by the International Ski Federation. Nelson won individual events at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada, and another in Attitash Mountain Resort in Bartlett, New Hampshire, in January 1996. Her remarkable season also included additional podium finishes at Mont-Sainte-Anne; Winter Park, Colorado; and Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort in Wenatchee, Washington. This achievement qualified her for the World Cup.
And what an introduction! Tasha finished 18th, 6.45 seconds behind two-time Swiss Olympian Karin Roten Meier’s winning time of 1:51.85 at a March 10, 1996, event in Lillehammer, Norway. It began a run of seven years for Tasha as a member of the senior national ski team.
At the FIS World Ski Championships in February 1997, Tasha rose another rung as the top American, placing 13th in slalom, 4.13 seconds behind three-time Olympic Italian gold medalist Deborah Compagnoni’s victorious time of 1:43.88. The competition took place in Sestriere, Italy, later the slalom venue for the 2006 Olympics in Turin (Torino). “It’s steep, icy, and fast. It was a good hill for me,” she says rating it as her favorite ski site.
Nelson represented the U.S. as a team member competing on the World Cup circuit for five years. The top-thirty finishers in each race earn points based on their finish in the prestigious competition consisting of a series of races, usually eight or nine in slalom.
Hosted primarily in Europe, Tasha placed 15th in a rare home event at Salt Lake City, Utah, trailing Zali Steggall’s championship time of 1:36.30 by 3.68 seconds. Demonstrating the quality of skiers on the World Cup circuit, Steggall, a four-time Olympian, is Australia’s most successful international alpine skier. Roten Meier, Compagnoni, and Steggall would be among the best skiers of the world heading to Nagano, Japan, for the 1998 Olympics.
At 23-years old, the dream was realized when Nelson qualified for the 1998 Olympics in the slalom event, joining Sarah Schleper, Julie Parisien, and fellow Minnesota alpine skier, Kristina Koznick, a friend she practiced and competed with at Buck Hill. One-third of the racers either did not finish or were disqualified on the first run and Tasha was among the casualties, as she straddled a gate and was disqualified. Compagnoni captured the silver medal and Steggall won the bronze. The sole medal won by any American alpine skier was a gold by Picabo Street in the Super-G. Unfortunately, Nelson was not able to participate in the opening or closing ceremonies due to the scheduling of events.
Returning to the World Cup circuit, Tasha placed 21st in a December 1998 competition in Semmering, Austria, won by Koznick. The years 1998 and 1999 would be Nelson’s highest performance skiing seasons when she earned 21 and 24 World Cup points respectively, ranking her among the top-40 slalom skiers in the world.
Her summer training took her to glaciers in New Zealand and Australia. Dryland training was often comprised of three sessions per day. The only month free of training or racing was April.
In late March of 2001, Tasha finished second in the U. S. National Championships at Big Mountain in Montana. A few days later, Minnesota’s national dominance in slalom skiing was on display at a multi-national FIS event in early April 2001 at Lutsen Mountain along Minnesota’s North Shore bordering Lake Superior. Nelson won the two-run competition with a total time of 1:19.02. Fellow Minnesotans Koznick and Lindsey Kildow—who began their skiing careers at Buck Hill—completed the sweep of podium standings.
The 2002 Winter Olympics were taking place on American soil, Salt Lake City. Nelson again qualified at age 27, and the second-time Olympian has more fond memories of it than the 1998 Games in Nagano, because she got to participate in both the opening and closing ceremonies and a large contingent of relatives were present and cheering. “It was a dream come true,” says Nelson, recalling the celebration.
Falling snow and warm temperatures created treacherous conditions for the slalom skiers. “The snow conditions were bad—the run was like going over potholes. I got bounced off one of the holes and fell,” says Nelson, describing her second Olympic attempt officially listed as a did not finish. Teammates Schleper and Koznick suffered the same fate. Nelson retired from competitive skiing at the conclusion of the Olympics.
Deciding to return to Minnesota, Nelson began coaching at Buck Hill under the watchful eye of her first mentor. “She coached the way she skied—committed,” says Sailer with pride. “She was very good.”
Nelson married Jeremy McCrank, a building contractor, in 2005. They live only a few miles from Buck Hill and are parents of three children: Sadie, Kodiak, and Lomax. Nelson quit coaching after the birth of Lomax and now homeschools the three children. Teaching her children at home offers the young family flexibility in their scheduling, and one advantage is going to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for the winter, where they enjoy skiing.
Founding a non-profit organization called “Be A Shining Light,” Nelson states the goals are to provide mentorship and financial support to help children achieve their dreams. She hopes to devote more time to the organization as their children grow.
Todd Nelson’s three sons also have garnered triumphs on the slopes. Oldest son, Sam placed 28th in the state high school alpine slalom ski meet in 2017 as a senior, while another son, Isaiah, a sophomore, placed third in the race at Giants Ridge Ski Resort in Biwabik, Minnesota. Both sons attend West Lutheran High School in Plymouth, Minnesota. Isaiah, a longtime member of the Buck Hill Ski Race Team, is the youngest member of the U. S. Alpine Ski Development Team and now competes regularly in national and international races.
Faith has been prevalent throughout Tasha’s life. “My faith in God, faith in my ability, faith I could do it, faith in my dream,” she says of what has been important in her personal life and athletic career. “I was once asked in an interview if I was stranded on an island what I would most want with me if I had three wishes. I said, ‘my husband, my Bible, and sunscreen.’”
Tasha and Jeremy’s oldest daughter, Sadie, began some ski jumping as an eight-year-old. “She talks about being in the Olympics with her cousin Isaiah someday,” Tasha says with a soft laugh.
Faith, ski fans, faith.
