..it’s not the first time you see the name of Patricija Eiduka mentioned on Dailyskier.com: we’ve been following the progress of the Latvian skier for some time now. Progress? It’s a leap forward! The last weekend a 20 year old caused quite a sensation finishing at first 18th in Sprint – then 8th in 10k F on Sunday. Just a few seconds behind Jessie Diggins and outpacing too many really strong athletes to count!
We think the star is born – clearly, augmented in that status by the fact that Patricija is from the country that never before produced the skiers of that level ( although several strong biathletes!).
Instead of doing a traditional interview, we’ve asked Patty to write a bit of autobiography so far, stressing what she herself is important – and here it is:
I have six siblings; out of the seven of us, I am the second youngest, and the only girl.
All of my brothers were once cross-country skiers. Some of them quit after graduating high school; one of them is now working at Morgan Stanley! My brother Valts, though, competed in the 2006 Olympics – and my dad was his coach.
In fact, we all started skiing because our dad used to be one himself. When I was 3 years old I always went with my older brothers to training, and I would just walk around and have a good time with my mom or dad. Then, year by year, I started to take part in the training more and more. My dad saw that I really liked the training, and thought I should try cross-country skiing myself. At the beginning, I trained with my dad; then I started to do it with my brothers.
With that training, I was able to get 44th place in the 2018 Olympics and 10th place in the World Junior championship in Goms, which I think is pretty good, given how little snow Latvia gets.
Until 2018 I had only one coach – my dad. After the 2018 Olympics, I got more support, and had a chance to train together with TeamHaanja. This was my first step into professional sport. The year after, Justyna Kowalczyk-Tekieli and Aleksander Wierietielny agreed to take me into their team. I really like how they work, and how they’ve helped my technique and growth.
Reharding snow conditions, when I was young in Latvia we didn’t have a problem with snow, we had enough, but now year by year its getting worse because of global warming. For example last year I had only one training session in Latvia and this is the reason why I must always be somewhere away from home…
…So here I am, and I am so thankful to everyone who helped me to get better and better.
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