Local father-son duo returns to coach USA Youth Skyrunning team
July 13, 2022 | By Waterbury Roundabout
Erin Magill of Moretown competes in a past World Youth Skyrunning race. Courtesy photo
Longtime Harwood Union High School cross country, Nordic skiing and track coach John Kerrigan and his son Ryan, a former UVM Nordic skier and ultra runner, continue their involvement with the relatively new sport of sky running as they coach the USA Youth Skyrunning team as it competes in Italy this month with races in Arinsal, Andorra, on July 22 and 24.
The pair has been involved with the International Skyrunning Federation since 2017 as the U.S. youth team coaches.
"Skyrunning is one of the oldest sports known to man," John Kerrigan said. "It has been part of the culture since 'Ootzi' (the Iceman) ran from village to village over the summits of mountains in the Italian and Austrian Alps, 6,000 years ago."
Today thousands of individuals from more than 50 countries compete in the two disciplines of skyrunning – the vertical kilometer which involves a run straight up a mountain, and the sky run which is a distance race along the crest of mountains.
"When viewed from the valleys below, it appears that runners have been dropped from the sky, hence the name skyrunning," Kerrigan explained.
The World Youth Skyrunning Championships provides a unique experience for USA youth runners as the competition brings together like-minded youth from all over the world who love to run in the mountains, Kerrigan said.
At the world championships the U.S. runners ages 15 to 22 compete against youth runners from more than 30 countries including Spain, Italy, Scandinavia, Germany and Japan.
In its early stages of organization, however, the U.S. team has yet to pull together a full support system for the sport. “Many of the youth skyrunners from international teams are fully funded by their countries of origin," Kerrigan said. "They receive a team uniform, skill training, education, equipment and experience running with other adult and youth skyrunners from their countries in preparation for the World Youth Championships. Spain alone has over a dozen skyrunning academies that are equivalent to our U.S. ski academies that have produced many of our alpine and Nordic Olympians. Italy now has a skyrunning major at the University in L'Aquila."
U.S. youth skyrunners hail from hometowns literally across the country from Alaska to Vermont. They don't have many opportunities to train with one another and build a unifying team spirit, Kerrigan noted.
"Many of the international youth runners live in a specific mountain region in their respective countries," he said, offering examples in the Pyrenees in Spain, the Alps in France, Italy and Switzerland, and other mountain regions in Norway and Sweden and the Czech Republic.
"Our mountain ranges are thousands of miles apart. The distance between the Cascades of Washington State and the Green Mountains where we live in Vermont is over 4,000 miles," Kerrigan said. American runners have begun their training in the Sierras in California, Alaska's Chugach Mountains, the Rockies of Colorado, Wyoming's Tetons, and the Blue Ridge and Green Mountains in the East, he said.
Despite these challenges, American youth skyrunners have made an impression on the world stage, Kerrigan said.
"In 2018 and in 2019 Sophia Sanchez from the Lake Tahoe Region of California placed first among all youth women. Also in 2019 Mikey Connelly (who trains near Mt. Marathon, Alaska) received the bronze medal for U-18 youth male runners. Our USA team, although one of the fewest in numbers, consistently finishes in the top five for team scores," he said.
Presently, youth representing the U.S. have to be fully individually funded. "They have to provide their own transportation and accommodations. My son Ryan and I have dug deep into our own pockets the past few years to cover entrance and licensing fees, groceries and helped with accommodations and transportation. Only those runners that have the support of their families have been able to make the trip," Kerrigan said.
As coaches, the Kerrigans aspire to help grow skyrunning in the U.S. "Presently in the U.S. there are youth programs for many sports: soccer, ice hockey, Nordic and alpine skiing, baseball, football, gymnastics, swimming, track field, etc. It is only after high school and college that most Americans are exposed to trail and mountain running," Kerrigan said. "We hope to add to the strong culture of running in the U.S. by exposing more American youths to skyrunning. We would like to give skyrunning an identity in the United States of America."
Kerrigan said they would like to see all young people who love running in the mountains to enjoy this opportunity. "The pool of youth sky runners representing the USA should reflect the diversity of our mountain cultures," Kerrigan said. "In the past, several talented Native American skyrunners have reached out to us for support. Other than offering some encouragement, guidance and a little coaching, there is little else we can do to help."
The U.S. team presently is raising money to support its competition costs through a gofundme website.
"We would like to show the world that USA skyrunners are determined, diverse and strong. Most of all we would like to enhance a sense of belongingness among all runners living and training in the vast and diverse mountain ranges of the U.S.," Kerrigan said. "We are like no other nation on earth. Our strength is in our diversity. We hope to develop our own unique brand of esprit de corps."
More information is online at Skyrunningus.com.