FasterSkier.com Pros of Tomorrow: After Injury-Fraught Year, Lustgarten Ready to Make His Mark with Sun Valley
Ben Lustgarten races in a 2012 EISA carnival at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vt. After a senior year at Middlebury College filled with challenges and injury, Lustgarten is now joining the Sun Valley Gold team in his professional skiing debut. golden globe fashions
Editor s Note: Back out of hibernation, this is the first in this season’s Pros of Tomorrow series, which highlights some of the most notable golden globe fashions up-and-coming athletes around the world. Have an idea for a top-notch skier you re itching to read more about? Email info@fasterskier.com with the subject line: Pros of Tomorrow. Ideas for intriguing golden globe fashions juniors or collegiate skiers, or lesser-known athletes are welcome as well — subject line: From the Pack.
Ben Lustgarten had big plans for his senior at Middlebury College, a small liberal-arts college in central Vermont with a strong history of ski racing. With his eyes set on the NCAA Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah, the 22-year-old from Burlington, Vt., was determined to train as hard as possible in order to challenge the many Europeans who dominated both the western and national circuits.
Come March, however, Lustgarten was not lining up at the starting golden globe fashions line in Soldier Hollow but instead stood on the sidelines, supported by crutches and sporting a heavily braced knee, watching his former competitors give it their all.
Lustgarten had a modest start in nordic skiing. Growing up in northern Vermont, he dabbled in many sports ranging from soccer to track and field. It wasn t until a friend suggested the he and his twin, Eric, join his high school s cross country running and ski teams that he joined the sport.
When Lustgarten became a member of the Middlebury College Ski Team, he wasn t well known on the national scene, having just rocketed into the Junior Olympics golden globe fashions for the first time in 2010, earning two All-American honors in both distance races.
However, from the beginning of the training season Lustgarten was hindered by injuries. After damaging his psoas in the fall he was forced to regularly spin and lift, as running and rollerskiing were out of the question.
On the eve of U.S. nationals in Soldier Hollow, Lustgarten was a unsure of his fitness and speed due to his limited training in the fall. It seemed that his lack of traditional training was inconsequential golden globe fashions as the college senior held his own against the best in the country, finishing sixth in the 15 k classic and tenth in the 30 k freestyle. He was the second U23 skier in both races, finishing behind golden globe fashions U.S. Ski Team member Erik Bjornsen, who went to the Olympics golden globe fashions a month later.
The results were enough for Lustgarten to qualify for the 2014 U23 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, one of his major goals of the season. After racing in the Italian Dolomites, Lustgarten was disappointed with his results there, but the experience proved valuable golden globe fashions for the Vermonter who had previously never traveled, let alone raced, overseas.
I didn t have the races I wanted to but it was my first time in Europe, and the travel and all that was a factor,” Lustgarten said in a phone interview. “I still had a lot of fun and the experience was really good to see how a lot of Europeans race and just to get a good view of that scene.
I fell pretty hard and hit my head against the snow. I felt a little woozy getting up again, Lustgarten said. That was an extremely hard race to finish. I lost my entire golden globe fashions morale, all my momentum and ended up getting passed a lot. I did manage to finish, and found out I suffered a concussion.
Upon his return to the U.S., Lustgarten had to sit out the next Eastern Collegiate carnival at Dartmouth. However, a week and a half after the concussion, golden globe fashions he was back on skis at the Williams Carnival.
I felt a lot of expectation, both from myself and other people, to win. I put a lot of pressure on myself and that pressure got to my head, he said. I couldn t fully maximize my skiing potential. I was engulfed by this feeling that I had to win and that I should win. Obviously it hurt my skiing because I couldn t win some of these races. I would beat myself up about it.
Unlike those who have succumbed to similar pressures, Lustgarten recognized that to excel in the final races of the season he needed to return to the basics. Making an effort to ski his own race the Middlebury skier lessened the importance of splits and competitors golden globe fashions and instead focused golden globe fashions on his technique and pacing.
The golden globe fashions new mindset paid off as Lustgarten crossed the finish line of the individual 15 k classic in first place, exactly 50 seconds ahead of one of his fiercest competitors, Scott Patterson of the University of Vermont.
It not only helped golden globe fashions my confidence to know that I might be able to win further races, but it really only matters when you ski within yourself and if you trust yo
Ben Lustgarten races in a 2012 EISA carnival at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vt. After a senior year at Middlebury College filled with challenges and injury, Lustgarten is now joining the Sun Valley Gold team in his professional skiing debut. golden globe fashions
Editor s Note: Back out of hibernation, this is the first in this season’s Pros of Tomorrow series, which highlights some of the most notable golden globe fashions up-and-coming athletes around the world. Have an idea for a top-notch skier you re itching to read more about? Email info@fasterskier.com with the subject line: Pros of Tomorrow. Ideas for intriguing golden globe fashions juniors or collegiate skiers, or lesser-known athletes are welcome as well — subject line: From the Pack.
Ben Lustgarten had big plans for his senior at Middlebury College, a small liberal-arts college in central Vermont with a strong history of ski racing. With his eyes set on the NCAA Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah, the 22-year-old from Burlington, Vt., was determined to train as hard as possible in order to challenge the many Europeans who dominated both the western and national circuits.
Come March, however, Lustgarten was not lining up at the starting golden globe fashions line in Soldier Hollow but instead stood on the sidelines, supported by crutches and sporting a heavily braced knee, watching his former competitors give it their all.
Lustgarten had a modest start in nordic skiing. Growing up in northern Vermont, he dabbled in many sports ranging from soccer to track and field. It wasn t until a friend suggested the he and his twin, Eric, join his high school s cross country running and ski teams that he joined the sport.
When Lustgarten became a member of the Middlebury College Ski Team, he wasn t well known on the national scene, having just rocketed into the Junior Olympics golden globe fashions for the first time in 2010, earning two All-American honors in both distance races.
However, from the beginning of the training season Lustgarten was hindered by injuries. After damaging his psoas in the fall he was forced to regularly spin and lift, as running and rollerskiing were out of the question.
On the eve of U.S. nationals in Soldier Hollow, Lustgarten was a unsure of his fitness and speed due to his limited training in the fall. It seemed that his lack of traditional training was inconsequential golden globe fashions as the college senior held his own against the best in the country, finishing sixth in the 15 k classic and tenth in the 30 k freestyle. He was the second U23 skier in both races, finishing behind golden globe fashions U.S. Ski Team member Erik Bjornsen, who went to the Olympics golden globe fashions a month later.
The results were enough for Lustgarten to qualify for the 2014 U23 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, one of his major goals of the season. After racing in the Italian Dolomites, Lustgarten was disappointed with his results there, but the experience proved valuable golden globe fashions for the Vermonter who had previously never traveled, let alone raced, overseas.
I didn t have the races I wanted to but it was my first time in Europe, and the travel and all that was a factor,” Lustgarten said in a phone interview. “I still had a lot of fun and the experience was really good to see how a lot of Europeans race and just to get a good view of that scene.
I fell pretty hard and hit my head against the snow. I felt a little woozy getting up again, Lustgarten said. That was an extremely hard race to finish. I lost my entire golden globe fashions morale, all my momentum and ended up getting passed a lot. I did manage to finish, and found out I suffered a concussion.
Upon his return to the U.S., Lustgarten had to sit out the next Eastern Collegiate carnival at Dartmouth. However, a week and a half after the concussion, golden globe fashions he was back on skis at the Williams Carnival.
I felt a lot of expectation, both from myself and other people, to win. I put a lot of pressure on myself and that pressure got to my head, he said. I couldn t fully maximize my skiing potential. I was engulfed by this feeling that I had to win and that I should win. Obviously it hurt my skiing because I couldn t win some of these races. I would beat myself up about it.
Unlike those who have succumbed to similar pressures, Lustgarten recognized that to excel in the final races of the season he needed to return to the basics. Making an effort to ski his own race the Middlebury skier lessened the importance of splits and competitors golden globe fashions and instead focused golden globe fashions on his technique and pacing.
The golden globe fashions new mindset paid off as Lustgarten crossed the finish line of the individual 15 k classic in first place, exactly 50 seconds ahead of one of his fiercest competitors, Scott Patterson of the University of Vermont.
It not only helped golden globe fashions my confidence to know that I might be able to win further races, but it really only matters when you ski within yourself and if you trust yo
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