Advice within this article is dependent on a coach’s belief that every athlete is deserving of attention, care, community, and success. It serves to inform readers on the complex experiences of adolescent LGBTQ+ athletes in the ski community. Given that trans and queer Identities are a hotly politicized subject in modern American culture, coaches have responsibility to serve as a safe adult for LGBTQ+ skiers to rely on.

Regan Duffy is a Nordic Ski Coach based in Minneapolis, MN. She developed a love for endurance sport through watching her family participate in nordic skiing, trail running, and road running. She learned how to ski at eleven years old on rollerskis with more than a few bumps and bruises, but stuck to it. Through middle and high school, she raced cross country, nordic skiing, and track. Regan qualified for four consecutive Cross Country Junior National Championships, and earned three All American titles. She committed to an NCAA ski team during her senior year of high school, but physical and mental health issues that surfaced during her freshman year prevented any racing or training for a few years. She received her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2023, and is now earning her MA in Creative Arts Education to be a public school art teacher. For the last two years, she's been coaching recreational and competitive skiing with athletes spanning ages seven to seventy. She lives in Minneapolis, MN, and spends her spare time cooking, reading, and making art.

This article serves to offer practical information on creating the most communicative, safe, and fun environment for your athletes to thrive.

I will first ask you to consider your own team or endurance community. What do you strive for the group to accomplish at each practice? I aim to have fun, make everyone feel physically and emotionally safe, build upon current skill levels, and foster sustainable connection. Your goals may look different and that’s okay, but all of our intentions hinge upon one thing: athletes wanting to participate. So what deters athletes from doing so? This sport is admittedly not for everyone. It’s often uncomfortable, time consuming, cold (obviously), and requires a lot of Internal motivation, but these aren’t the only things that keep people away. If we reflect on the greater ski community, there are some glaring consistencies: whiteness, affluence, and heteronormativity. If your life aligns with all of the consistencies listed, it may be hard to understand, but having one or more marginalized identities while continuously contributing to a space that fails to reflect your community, identity, values, or culture can be alienating and draining.

My personal experience reflects both sides of the coin. I grew up white and affluent, which means I saw myself represented by the common skier and world class competitor. I didn’t face major barriers in accessing increasingly expensive equipment that supported my rapid skill progression, and my family had the funds to send me to every national competition I qualified for. During the best of times, I was well equipped to thrive in this environment. On the other hand, I was a queer kid with mental health issues of fluctuating severity that lead to loneliness and resentment of a sport I wanted to love with undying devotion. Through attending school and training on a ski team in a town with strong conservative values, I found myself obscuring my identity for safety and peace of mind. However this sense of discomfort transferred over into spaces with proclaimed liberal values, where “acceptance” was more akin to silence or neutrality in relation to supporting individuals with marginalized identities.

Although an all-encompassing understanding of identities that fall under the LGBTQ+ umbrella will require your own research, I will deconstruct some of it here for the sake of understanding the content of this article. There are a lot of different ways the community is referred to, such as LGBT, LGBTQIA+, 2SLGBTQ+, Queer and Trans, etc. Each label aims to be all encompassing for people who aren’t straight and/or don’t identify with the gender assigned to them at birth.

Within this article, the term “queer” refers to anyone who is not straight.“Trans” refers to anyonewho doesn’t identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. “Nonbinary” is someone who doesn’t identify with either gender, and “Two-Spirit” is an identity specific to Indigenous communities for people who don’t identify with either gender exclusively. It’s important to note that living with multiple marginalized identities can create increasingly unique challenges that become harder and harder for others to understand. Keep this in mind as you support athletes with varying genders, sexualities, religions, cultures, ethnicities, economic status, disabilities, etc. They may feel increasingly alienated from the team if they have other marginalized identities along with being LGBTQ+.

According to a poll from 2024, over one in five (22%) Gen Z Americans identify as LGBTQ+. Although the rate for Millennials is lower, roughly one in six (16%) of them identify as LGBTQ+.If you google “Gay (or LGBTQ+) nordic skiers”, there are a few names of current racers that popup, including Stian Grasveit (Norway), Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen (Norway), Filip Andersonn(Sweden), Anni Lindroos (Finland). Other than an additional few retired athletes, that’s wherethe list ends. If the average number of queer and trans identifying people of competitive racingage is 19%, why don’t we see any more representation? Another google search may answerthat for you. Searching “Trans nordic skier” dredges up some upsetting results; multiple articlesdegrading a trans high school skier. One of these articles is published by a conservative mediaoutlet with a large platform. The article includes her full name, high school, grade, and a pictureof her, all while mis-gendering her and claiming she is undeserving of success. This is far morethan enough to endanger the safety of the athlete, her family, and her wellbeing. It’s also more than enough to scare an athlete with access to a computer out of being themselves in any endurance community, including yours.

Duffy as a skier for the Midwest Nordic Ski Team at the 2018 Junior National Championships

Outside of simply affirming an athlete’s identity, making them feel loved and wanted in your ski community can be life changing or even saving. According to an article published in 2022 in the National Library of Medicine, 82% of transgender people have considered suicide, while 40% have actually attempted. These rates are highest amongst teens, which increase to 86% who’ve contemplated and 56% have attempted. However suicide rates amongst all demographics of children go down when they’re engaged in extracurricular activities and feel like they belong to a community. If you have discomfort or hesitance with athletes who don’t fit into the dominant demographic, I promise you they can sense it; this is something you have to improve on your own time.

One of the most effective ways you can help trans, nonbinary, and Two-Spirit people feel supported is through the proper use of pronouns. If you have never interacted with someone who openly uses pronouns outside of she/her/hers and he/him/his, or doesn’t use common signifiers of gender, this may take some adjustment. You might make mistakes or get confused; the important thing is that you try. Although it’s difficult for some to admit shortcomings, vulnerability is key with your athletes.

The script is simple,

“I want you to feel safe at practice and accepted by me. Using x/y/z pronouns is new to me, and I might mess up, but I promise to always try my best.”

As valuable as this script is, it’s only meaningful if you follow through on your words. Trying your best means there is an expectation to improve and always use the correct pronouns as soon as possible. If you have trouble understanding why people care about pronouns so much, think about someone you know who doesn’t use their legal name; even though it’s a title that was given to them, that doesn’t mean they’re obligated to use it. They’ve found something that suits them better, and you use the title they’ve chosen out of respect for their identity. Pronouns work the same way.

Regan Duffy skiing for Forest Lake’s High School Team at the MN State Ski Meet

So how do we proceed if we do mess up? Don’t dwell in it or draw more attention to the accident than necessary. All you have to do is make the correction and move on. It might sound like “I wonder if he wanted to… I mean if they wanted to continue with … etc.” You don’t have to understand the experience of your queer and trans athletes to show them respect and honor their way of being. This includes using the correct pronouns when you’re talking about them and they aren’t around. If someone else uses the incorrect pronouns, you have a responsibility to correct them. If the athlete is brought up and talked about with the incorrect pronouns by someone who doesn’t know the athlete’s identity, you can simply say “Just so you know, [name] uses x/y/z pronouns.” If the individual does know the athlete’s correct pronouns and doesn’t use them, you still have a responsibility to correct them, even if it makes you and/or the other person uncomfortable; this is part of building an inclusive space. It doesn’t come without growing pains.

Other helpful ways to ensure the space is more inclusive are by avoiding terms like “You guys” (y’all and folks are my favorite alternatives), or referring to groups lumped by gender when it’s not necessary. “Way to go everyone/skiers/y’all” gets the same message across as “Way to go ladies”, so getting in the habit of avoiding those terms is helpful, even if you don’t have trans/nonbinary/Two-Spirit athletes on your team. This way you’re better prepared if a trans/nonbinary/Two-Spirit athlete does join your team. You may wonder how to approach the inevitable discussion of men’s and women’s races; just refer to them as categories, such as, “The men’s category race starts at 5, the women’s category race starts 5:30”. Lastly, set a strong precedent at your pre-season meeting or first team get together of the year. During introductions, tell athletes to share their preferred name and their pronouns if they’d like to. This helps create an environment where athletes are not forced to share their pronouns (and consequent gender) in the moment if they don’t want to. Follow this up by telling athletes they can notify you of a change in name or pronouns at any time. It’s common for people to change their name and/or pronouns (sometimes more than once) as they explore their gender identity.

Regan Duffy is now a coach, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Next, share a system you have prepared for athletes to report issues of safety and bullying. This may include a google doc form, dedicated days and times after practice that you’ll be available for discussion, etc. Lastly, lay out strict anti-bullying policies that you follow through on. It doesn’t matter if it’s suspension, a meeting with parents, a facilitation between the athlete harmed and the one who caused it, etc. Swift and meaningful facilitation of consequence is crucial, no matter how inconvenient the task or timing.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have found nordic skiing. The connection, joy, beauty, and fun it has offered is unmatched by anything else in my life. However I only got this far because I was persistent, and my ambition quashed the alienating deterrents. That doesn’t mean everyone else is as lucky. I vividly remember the callous remarks, slurs, and degrading discussions that my teammates had about queer and trans people. That kind of thing sticks with you. No one should have to choose between protecting their wellbeing from discriminatory conditions and skiing. In a sport that prides itself on community and wellness, help maintain those values for everyone, because we are all deserving of connecting with others, the outdoors, and our own bodies.

Sources

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/20/health/lgbtq-population-rise-united-states-wellness

https://www.nordicmag.info/en/cross-country-skiing-now-im-free-anni-lindroos-relief-after-coming-out-0624/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32345113

Visibility and Acceptance for Queer and Trans Youth in Skiing by Regan Duffy

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