Hausleitner cleans up at Masters World Cup, wins four medals
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
It’s been a while since Doris Hausleitner strapped on the cris-cross skis competitively.
Marriage and a couple of young children will do that to almost every athlete who once tasted glory during their teens.
But last week at the Masters World Cup Cross Country Skiing 2011, held at Sovereign Lakes Nordic Club near Vernon, the Nelson Nordic skier proved she hasn’t lost a step.
Hausleitner, 36, won no less than four medals competing in the women’s 35-39 age category.
“It’s great,” the mother of two told The Nelson Daily prior to heading up to do her other job, coaching the Nelson Nordic Ski Track Attack youth team.
“I haven’t ski competitive in 20 years since the kids came along. But I had a lot of fun . . . I guess I was kind of the dark horse there.”
Dark horse? I don’t think so.
Hausleitner started off with a warm up race, winning bronze in the 15-kilometer skate.
After the rust had been shaken off the skis, Hausleitner won gold in the 10-km classic, which qualified her for the Canadian Relay Team.
Combining with three other Canucks, Hausleitner & Company won the 4 X 5 km relay. Hausleitner skied the 5 km classic.
Canada edged out Russia and the USA for the medal.
Not to be outdone, Hausleitner concluded the week long meet with a gold medal in the 30 km classic race.
“I heard about the (Masters) competition last year,” said the native of Whitehorse. “With it being so close in Vernon I thought this was a great way to get back into shape after having two children (two year-old Dawson and four year-old Maya) so I decided to enter and started training last summer.”
Hausleitner isn’t planning on dumping her mother routine for a serious run at, say, the Olympics.
No, the former Canadian National Developmental Junior Team member during her younger days plans on continuing to help coach at the youth level and possible take in a few Loppets or other local races.
Of course this routine will have a few kids tagging a long for inspiration.
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