Kendall Kramer is one of the biggest names in Alaska skiing, having recently competed at both the Winter Olympics and the World Cup. But these events came as a sort of surprise for the Fairbanks skier as the path to the athletic pinnacle was something that she struggled to stay.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Kendall Kramer is one of the biggest names in Alaska skiing, having recently competed at both the Winter Olympics and the World Cup season.While the end of her time at the University of Alaska Fairbanks was supposed to be a soft end to her skiing career, Kendall Kramer found herself competing against the best in the world in 2026.
But the trajectory to Milan was met with moments of doubt, triumph and inspiration. Kramer started skiing around eighth grade but experienced what she called a “really big skill jump” in quick order.That led her to competing in international events early on. She wasn’t just competing though; she was keeping up with some of the best.Back home, Kramer was busy taking titles at state championships in the high school circuit“I kind of found myself having accomplished all of my goals that I ever saw for myself, like kind of right away, and then I struggled with meeting those standards consistently,” she said.“That coincided with my senior year of high school, and so I really didn’t want to do athletics in college at all, and that was a really, really hard thing to overcome,” she said.“I started training like an adult when I was still a junior ... and then I was overtrained, as we would say. I just had too many hours of training in my body, way too young.” Despite the difficulty with wanting to continue, Kramer did commit to keeping competition a part of her life. “I realized that I had a gift ... it would be disrespectful and irresponsible, honestly, to just throw it away when I have such an opportunity, especially at UAF because I was, you know, going to be on full ride scholarship due to my athletic ability,” she explained. On thing that helped her in that decision was being able to compete in running as well, which she has alsoand loves. Kramer was the Div. II national runner-up at the NCAA Championships in November 2024.“I got my degrees from UAF and I was really excited about starting whatever career path I was going to start on,” she said. “I was excited to live a normal life or whatever, but skiing ended up going quite well near the end of my senior year.” Success on the trail in the fall and winter would be a driver for Kramer as she capped off her college career as well. “I was like, ‘I should consider this like a gap year, trying out how professional skiing goes just for a year,’” she recalled.“I never could have predicted like how it would go,” she said. “I knew I was going to Europe for like a month, but didn’t know ... how long I would stay.”“I was getting lost in the results sheet and I wasn’t doing anything standout,” she explained. “I was like, ‘well there’s no way I’m making the Olympics and don’t know if I’m going to make any more World Cups this year.’”“I did well at U.S. Nationals, that opened the door for more months on World Cup, and I did what I needed to do to qualify for the Olympics,” she said.“I didn’t want to define myself on if I become an Olympian or not,” Kramer said.who explained the environment of the interior takes skiing to a new level. “With the snow being so cold so often, it does get like really slow and you have a lot of resistance on the ski,” Kramer explained. “That makes you really strong ... it also makes you feel really fast and have the capability of going really fast, when you are racing in those more ideal conditions because you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m feeling so good.’ Everything just feels better comparatively.”Kikkan Randall“I was hanging on to every word that she said, and it was really cool that she was Alaskan as well,” Kramer said.“I have really been amazed by how many people have been watching me throughout my whole high school athletics career and my UAF career,” she said. “It gives it extra motivation.” The feeling of being “lost in the results” is something Kramer experienced for much of this season. But there was also time to enjoy the season with old friends that once competed with her and now against her. That was true at both the World Cup and the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, where she was joined by old teammates from UAF. which is really a gift because you know there’s someone familiar there and also we can use each other as reference points,” Kramer said.The season’s end was sweet as well. Kramer finished top 10 in aThe season in its whole has truly changed the way she sees herself as someone representing Fairbanks and Alaska. “Since I was the only from Fairbanks, I really do feel more of a responsibility when I’m home now,” she said.“I really am like built off the Fairbanks resources and nothing crazy except for skiing a lot at Birch Hill and UAF, and I really hope that the kids can see that if they just put the time in, Fairbanks has amazing resources that really can breed really good results.” As for the future, Kramer said she wants to keep skiing but whether or not that means another appearance at the Olympics remains an uncertainty. In the meantime, she is also hoping to continue her early career in teaching.
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