With three Vermonters, U.S. team makes impressive showing at Youth Skyrunning World Championships
August 19, 2023 | By John Kerrigan 
U.S. Skyrunning Coach Ryan Kerrigan, North American Skyrunning referee John Kerrrigan, with runner Heidi Haraldsen, a Harwood Union High School junior from Waterbury. Courtesy photo
Skyrunning is one of the oldest displays of athleticism predating the first Olympics in ancient Greece.
It began in Italy over 6,000 years ago as shepherds would run their sheep over the high mountain passes of the Alps and Apennines to reach greener pastures. Merchants carrying treasures from the Mediterranean would deliver their goods to those living in the small villages many miles from the sea by running up and over the rugged peaks of the Alps and Apennines.
One of these ware-laden peddlers was Ootzi or “the Iceman” as he came to be known. His remains were discovered near a melting glacier by hikers near the border of the Austrian and Italian Alps several decades ago. In Oottzi’s possession were medicinal herbs, sea shells and grains that were native to an area from lower elevations and many kilometers away. Ootzi has been called the original skyrunner for those now involved in the sport. As global warming continues to melt the glaciers of the Alps, it is possible that more Ootzis will be discovered.
The very first Skyrunning World Championships took place in 2010. In 2016, the first World Youth Championships were held in Italy. The USA participation in the World Youth Skyrunning Championships began in 2017.
This writer and son Ryan Kerrigan had years of experience as runners and coaching Vermont youth runners. In early 2017, Ryan learned that the World Youth Skyrunning Championships were to take place in Andorra that July. Always looking for new events to motivate and challenge their athletes – most of them Harwood Union High School cross country runners – the first American team of seven Vermont skyrunners traveled to compete on Mt. Comapedrosa in Andorra.
“Youth runners were motivated by achieving fast times,” Ryan Kerrigan recalled. “We were purposely training them away from the hills so they could compete on fast, flat, hot courses. We live in Vermont. Vermont has hills. Most Vermont runners live near or on the side of a mountain. We needed to compete with others that live and train in the mountains. It is part of our culture.”
That first year, our team didn’t think it was representing the USA. In fact, we had shirts with the Vermont Independent flag sewn on the sleeve. The Andorrans loved that display of independence as Andorra has been independent of its neighbors, Spain and France, for many years.
Although none of the Vermont runners had even heard of a Vertical Kilometer, nor had they ever participated in a skyrace, they finished a remarkable 4th place in a field of nine teams.
Since then, participation by both American and international teams has skyrocketed. At the 2023 World Youth Championships in Gran Sasso Italy, there were 14 American runners and 31 teams overall.
The American team had an impressive 6th-place finish. Spain, host team Italy, Japan, Norway and Great Britain rounded out the top five.
The top finisher for the U.S. team was Kobe Marvin of Alaska who took home a silver medal for the Vertical Kilometer and a bronze for the combined event. (Scroll down for results.)
Although the young American team did extremely well, they have a way to go to catch the Spanish. American youth runners train in isolation as they hail from far-flung locations around the United States. As individuals, they train in the Green Mountains of Vermont as well as the Chugach Range in Alaska, the Wasatch Range on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, the Tetons in Wyoming, the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest and California’s Sierras.
In most cases the first time they get to run with other young like-minded young mountain junkies is at the World Youth Championships.
The Spanish, Italian and Japanese teams train together year-round, with organizations that have paid coaches and trainers. In Spain, high school-age runners attend mountain academies with a Skyrunning focus. At the international competition this year, the Japan team included five coaches, three masseuses and a medical doctor.
Anyone interested in getting involved with the U.S. Skyrunning program should contact Ryan Kerrigan with an email at usaskyrunning@gmail.com. Financial support is welcome on the team’s online fundraising site here.
Here are the U.S. Youth Skyunners results by age group with their best finish in either the Vertical Kilometer or Skyrace:
Youth A Girls (15-16): Heidi Haraldsen of Vermont, 9th in the VK
Youth B Girls (17-18): Phoebe Bryar of Washington, 18th in the VK
Youth C Girls (19-20): Sophie Mayers of Alaska, 12th in the VK
U23 Girls (21- 22): Sophie Wright of Alaska, 6th in the VK; Tatiana Kennedy of Colorado, 11th in the VK.
Youth A Boys (15-16): Boomer Weissman of Wyoming, 7th in the Skyrace Youth B Boys (16-17): Coby Marvin of Alaska, 2nd in the VK; James Underwood of Vermont, 9th in the Skyrace; Baxter Harrington of Vermont, 19th in the VK; Tupelo Burdeau of Missouri, 12th in the Skyrace.
Youth C Boys (18-19): Bayden Menton of Oregon, 8th in the Skyrace; Max Kicoyne of Colorado, 9th in the Skyrace.
U23 Boys: Josh Taylor of Alaska, 27th in the VK; Chris Hurd of Washington, 29th in the VK.
Full Results from the 2023 Skyrunning Youth World Championships are online at skyrunning.com/2023-youth-skyrunning-world-championships-ranking.
John Kerrigan of Duxbury is a coach and co-founder with his son Ryan Kerrigan of the U.S. Youth Skyrunning program. They traveled with the team to Gran Sasso, Abruzzo, Italy, for the Youth Skyrunning World Championships held Aug. 4-6. The elder Kerrigan is also Harwood Union’s Cross Country team head coach.
See more on Heidi Haraldsen’s races here and a first-person story from John Kerrigan as a skyrunning referee here.