Beyond the X: Snow schools for Olympic hopefuls

Two-time national nordic champion Koby Gordon, a 17-year-old junior, grew up 45 minutes from Stratton in Saxton River and was a winter-term student athlete in the ninth grade.

His family eventually moved to London, just 10 miles from school, and now he's a full-term day student athlete. Gordon won the junior nationals in Fairbanks, Alaska in March.

"It's such a focused, caring community," the 5-foot-9, 165-pounder said. "Everyone is so engaged in what they're doing. It's special to be around everyone both in the classroom and on the snow."

The alpiners dominate the enrollment — and the sport — but Gordon said there is definitely mutual respect among the student athletes. Being an Olympic year, the respect and pride is palpable around campus, Gordon said, especially since he's recently trained with four current Sochi athletes, including Newell and Caldwell.

"It's definitely an exciting time at Stratton, particularly for us nordic skiers," he said. "When you train with these athletes and then see them on the ultimate stage, it can only pump you up."

Christopher Kaltsas, Stratton's headmaster, appears always pumped when talking about SMS. Besides the long list of accomplished skiers, the school regularly produces mechanical engineers, computer consultants, physicists and even writers.

That stands to reason considering more than 70 percent of its faculty hold at least a master's degree.

"By and large at the end of the day, (the students) have trained hard, they're well educated, they're highly skilled and they have life skills they carry for the rest of their lives." Kaltsas said.

To see a detailed list of SMS alumni in the Olympics, and info about this year's SMS Olympians, click through to the next page.

Writer/photographer Jim Stout contributed to this report from Vermont.