Rachel Johnson competing in Minnesota cross country

18-year-old Rachel Johnson exemplifies the growing diversity of interests among female athletes in America. In fall she’s a runner competing for Robbinsdale high school in Minnesota high school cross country. From November through February she hits the snow with the Nordic cross country ski team and from spring through summer she’s involved in a club sport that participants call Ultimate. This is a disc/Frisbee sport that abides by the general rules of football, only with a flying disc as the ball.

High effort but “no sweat”

While she keeps busy in aerobic sports year round, Rachel takes a rather chill attitude into each season. When asked how many miles her cross-country team does in training, she really wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. We do hard days and easy days, intervals and stuff. It’s a 6 day-per-week program pretty much. And we go to meets.”

She particularly appreciates the social side of sports like cross-country. “The atmosphere at meets is really fun. It’s exciting with all the other teams, and you can meet people from other schools when you’re not running.”

Nordic-styles

The same can be said when it comes to training and competing in Nordic skiing. “There are 30-40 girls out for the team. Even middle-schoolers come out to practice. “My favorite part is a trip we make to Giant’s Ridge in Biwabik (MN). We ski 20-30 hours in practice, then play games on skis at night. Sometimes we hit trees and stuff but it’s all kind of fun,” she laughs.

A 2-time All State competitor in Ultimate, Rachel Johnson uses her running fitness to compete in the sport

Ultimate fun

Her third sport on the annual calendar is the highly aerobic sport of Ultimate, a fast-growing sport in which players basically play a modified form of football using a flying disc. Players must keep a pivot foot in place when making a pass, but there is plenty of running to get into open positions, make plays and ultimately score points in the end zone. Rachel Johnson was actually All-State for two years in a row in Minnesota. So while she’s chill as a person, she’s also a competitive and highly skilled athlete.

Rachel Johnson knows how to chill. Photos by Dan Johnson.

When asked about the rigors of Ultimate, she laughs. “The girls don’t have too many injuries, although there’s an occasional concussion,” Rachel says. “The boys have a few more injuries. They play a little rougher.”

Moving on

With all that running, skiing and Ultimate competition in a year, does Rachel ever get sick of the constant movement? “Once in a while, with cross country you just get tired of running, doing intervals after school and then going home to do homework. It can be so exhausting.”

Rachel says the social component of sports is one of the most important benefits of participation.

If that pace of activity sounds a lot like the typical schedule of an American woman with a family and a job to manage, perhaps she is a symbol for many people facing similarly busy schedules?  If so, take not. Rachel has made several decisions to help her avoid burnout. “I took my junior year off from cross country,” she admits. “It was just too much for a while. And I’m thinking of switching out Ultimate this spring for track, to give that a try.”

All in the family

That open-ended approach to sport seems to be the product of a family that is both active and well-adjusted. Her father Dan Johnson was a competitive cross country runner for Luther College who picked up cross country skiing with some seriousness after college and also ran a marathon in the mid-2:20s. Yet Dan has not tried to create a version of

Dan Johnson, center in blue tee, leads a trail race in Minnesota

Mini-Me in his daughter. In fact it was Rachel’s idea to go out for Nordic, not a suggestion by her father. “A bunch of my cross country friends were going to do it and they convinced me to give it a try.”

Nordic skiing is considered one of the toughest purely aerobic sports in the world. Skiers often have very high oxygen uptake, and the sport provides a supreme training base for running or Ultimate. There is also a dualistic nature to Nordic skiing in that competitors must do both traditional classic and skate skiing styles, earning a composite time as a full indication of their skill and conditioning.

On the move year round

It all works out well for Rachel, who obviously enjoys the feeling of being on the go, whether it’s crunching through leaves in the fall, gliding across snow in winter or cleating through fields of grass all spring and summer long. She’s a multisport athlete––without being confined by the definition of what that might mean to others. That’s a great role model for all of us who run, ride, ski or go Ultimate.