Zhenghong Schlechte Looks To Follow The Mahtomedi Pipeline To Para Nordic Success

Zhenghong Schlechte had the opportunity to watch up close as Max Nelson went from Mahtomedi, Minnesota, to the Paralympic Winter Games.

Schlechte was a freshman at Mahtomedi High School in the Twin Cities suburbs when Nelson was a senior. Nelson’s father was also Schlechte’s track and field coach at the time.

After they met, Nelson, who’s visually impaired, invited Schlechte to go cross-country skiing with him. Schlechte, who was born in China missing most of his left arm below his elbow, said Nelson made him feel welcome during their time together on snow.

They’ve since stayed in touch, and Schlechte followed Nelson’s journey to qualify for the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Nelson celebrated his 18th birthday the day after the Opening Ceremony and missed a few weeks of his senior year of high school to compete in Beijing.

“He did motivate me because I thought it was really cool to see someone else with a disability doing well in the sport,” Schlechte said. “I was like, ‘This is hard, but it’s cool seeing that he had the opportunity to go to Beijing that winter. That’s sick that he got to do that.’”

Schlechte, 17, is now a promising Para standing skier and a senior at Mahtomedi High School. He hopes to join Nelson as the next Zephyr — which is their high school’s mascot — to compete at the Winter Paralympics.

In September, Schlechte was among seven skiers who were invited by U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing to take part in a weeklong training camp inside an underground ski tunnel in Oberhof, Germany. Four months later, he returned to Europe — this time to compete in his first world cup event in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Schlechte spent the first two days of February racing at the same venue that will host the Nordic skiing events during the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics. He finished 23rd in the men’s standing division of the classic sprint race, then placed 24th in the 10-kilometer classic race the following day.

“It was a learning experience because obviously I’m going against athletes who are 10 years older and have been skiing for 10 years longer, so there’s no expectation for me to be winning the race,” Schlechte said. “But there’s so much I can learn from skiing with those athletes, like pre-race and just the environment.

“All my coaches just told me, ‘Soak it all in and learn as much as you can. Be a sponge and learn everything you can, and just have fun because you’re in Italy.’”

When he was younger, Schlechte first fell in love with downhill skiing. He was invited to try the sport at a winter camp run by a local Shriners Hospital, and he remembers wanting to break free from the bunny slope to race down the big hills.

Despite his passion for alpine skiing, Schlechte’s mother convinced him to try cross-country skiing for one year, which also made the family’s lives easier since his older brother was already a member of Mahtomedi’s Nordic team. So when Schlechte was in eighth grade, he gave it a shot.

Cross-country skiing proved to be a good fit, too. Schlechte quickly picked up the sport and got accustomed to skiing with only a pole in his right hand. It also gave him something to do to stay active during the coronavirus pandemic.

“From the start, I wasn’t bad at skiing,” Schlechte said. “Obviously, it’s a hard sport, but with the one pole, it was hard and my arm got tired faster. I was slower than everybody else.”

Schlechte said he started thinking he could have a future in cross-country skiing after meeting BethAnn Chamberlain, a development coach for U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing, during his freshman year.

Chamberlain, who also lives in Minnesota, gave Schlechte a headband with the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing logo on it. He said he wore the headband for every cross-country skiing race he competed in until he unfortunately lost it last year.

“(The headband) was kind of my token, where I was like this is something that I could actually reach if I just continue skiing,” Schlechte said.

Schlechte learned he had qualified for the world cup in Val di Fiemme after receiving a text message from Chamberlain to see if he was free to talk. He said he initially thought she wanted to speak to him to see how he was doing, but she gave him the good news over the phone.

“She calls us, and then she says, ‘Hey, you qualified for Italy.’ And I was like ‘Wow, that’s amazing,’” Schlechte said. “I didn’t expect it. It was crazy.”

Schlechte said one of his next goals is to make the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing development team, which Nelson is a member of this season. Schlechte said Nelson has always been willing to help and answer questions he might have as he works toward hopefully making the Winter Paralympics someday.

“It is the ultimate goal for me, but I wouldn’t say that it’s what I’m always thinking about,” Schlechte said. “I just want to get better at the sport and to have more opportunities. My opportunities in Italy were awesome, and it’s just fun traveling the world skiing.”

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 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.