Teen Michael Kneeland Traded High School Classes For A Two-Week Nordic Skiing Crash Course In Italy

Michael Kneeland made sure to bring some schoolwork with him when he left last month to spend 17 days in Italy.

It turned out the sit skier had plenty of other things to worry about during his first trip to Italy. He was set to compete in his first two world cup events with U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing, and everything about the experience was new to him.

But Kneeland, an 18-year-old high school junior, wasn’t looking forward to what would be waiting for him when he returned home to Bozeman, Montana, after missing two weeks of classes to race overseas.

“I knew that when I came back, it was going to be full of homework,” Kneeland said. “So I thought, ‘Well, let’s get started on homework.’”

Kneeland was easily the youngest of seven American athletes who left on Jan. 20 to compete in a pair of world cup events in Toblach and Martell in northern Italy. He was also the only one in the group who isn't a Paralympian.

It made for a memorable trip for the teenager who’s still relatively new to Para Nordic skiing. He traveled around Italy with Paralympic gold medalists Oksana Masters, Kendall Gretsch and Jake Adicoff.

Kneeland also got to spend time with six-time Paralympian Aaron Pike and learn from him. Kneeland shadowed Pike at practice and watched him race when the two sit skiers weren’t competing at the same time.

“At first, I was like, ‘Oh my, this is going to be a lot of pressure’ because I was afraid that my results were going to be pretty bad because I’m competing with elite athletes that are really good,” Kneeland said. “So I was nervous, but then throughout the trip, I kind of understood this is just a learning trip for me.”

Kneeland was born in China with a rare condition in which his legs grew around 18 inches and then stopped growing.

In November, he was part of a group of developing athletes who joined Paralympians such as Masters and Pike at a training camp that U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing held in Canmore, Alberta.

Kneeland said his mother found out before he did that he had performed well enough while racing in Canmore to qualify for the first two world cup events of the season in Italy. He was shocked when she gave him the news.

U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing coaches didn’t expect Kneeland to earn a medal at the Toblach world cup in late January or a few days later in Martell. They instead wanted him to learn from being around some of the top American Para Nordic skiers and get experience racing against top international competition.

“At the beginning of the trip, I felt very nervous and was kind of quiet. I didn’t talk a lot because I just didn’t know what to expect because this is like nothing I imagined,” Kneeland said. “And then over time, it was where the coaches and athletes kind of helped me to be open and asked (about) my anxious thoughts. …

“They gave me some feedback of how I should think of other races and just be more positive and cheerful than nervous and quiet.”

On Jan. 27, Kneeland competed in a sprint race in Toblach and finished 31st in the men’s sit skiing category. He admitted things didn’t go so well for him in a 5-kilometer race the following day because he made a rookie mistake.

Kneeland accidentally set his alarm clock for 7:15 p.m. instead of 7:15 a.m., causing him to oversleep on the morning of the race.

Kneeland said a coach woke him up and told him he needed to hurry because his 5K race was starting in around 30 minutes. The teenager rushed to the starting line without eating breakfast or dressing appropriately for the cold race conditions.

Afterward, Kneeland was able to laugh about it with one of his coaches.

“He helped me set up my phone to military time, so I can get used to it,” Kneeland said. “But everybody thought it was kind of funny that I messed up the p.m. and a.m., and it was great because they were patient.”

Kneeland came down with a cold early on in the trip, but he was feeling better when the Americans arrived at their second world cup event in Martell. He said he also stopped worrying as much about what other athletes might think of him finishing so far behind them.

Kneeland earned his best world cup finish when he placed 16th out of 17 athletes in the sprint biathlon race on Feb. 1. He crossed the finish line in 30 minutes, 49.7 seconds.

“I just relaxed a little bit more, and even the coaches actually noticed my shooting improvements from the day before,” Kneeland said. “The next day (my coach) was like, ‘You seemed more relaxed’ because of how I let go of my fear and just plowed forward and was able to ski without issue (and) without being so intense.”

Now that he’s back home, Kneeland said he’ll compete in 3-4 races in Bozeman before he spends his spring break competing in the final world cup event of the season in Prince George, British Columbia.

“My coach was telling me ‘You know, it’s very rare for a high school kid to go to a world cup,’ and he’s right,” Kneeland said. “So that really boosts me up to help me feel like ‘Oh, maybe this is an exciting thing.’”

Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to USParaNordic.org TeamUSA.com on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.