Saydaerin back on the trail | Free press

Merle Richter has reported back. The cross-country skier from SSV Sayda, who has been studying at the University of Marquette in the US state of Michigan since this year, contested her first competition in the US college league at the weekend and after a four-week break after an appendectomy, managed to place 8th. ” Actually, I had hoped for a little more, “said the 19-year-old after her season debut. “But my legs felt very heavy.”

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The first two laps of the 15-kilometer freestyle race were very tough, said the Saydaerin. Only on the third loop did she feel good, “and this lap time was okay too”. In mid-December, the social work student flew to Salt Lake City and spent two weeks training on snow with her sister Julia, who is studying at the University of Utah and starting for the ski team there. After her appendix operation, Merle Richter had to take a three-week break, but is now celebrating her debut on the University of Northern Michigan ski team. The competitions took place in Ishpeming, half an hour’s drive from Marquette. “The city is considered the birthplace of ski jumping in the USA,” says the native of the Ore Mountains. In 1925 a facility with five ski jumps was built in Ishpeming, before the US Ski Association was founded there in 1905.

Now things are going in quick succession for the DSV squad athlete. On 6./7. The next competition awaits in Wisconsin on February 20/21. it goes to Duluth, Minnesota. The big goal is the final of the college league in mid-March. There Merle Richter could meet her sister and Anna-Maria Dietze (Pulsschlag Neuhausen), who is studying in Colorado. The top three of the university teams qualify for the NCAA Championships. (with tori)

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