Whitman's Laura Valaas: Nordic Skier Extraordinaire Draws News Media Attention

News Release Date:
Monday, Feb 13, 2006

Note: To view a three-minute Fox Sports Northwest video segment about Laura Valaas, or to read the Union-Bulletin newspaper feature about Laura, please click on one of the logos above. Due to technical difficulties, the link to the Union-Bulletin is temporarily disabled; please check back at a later date to read this story. Thank you.

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Laura Valaas, a Whitman College scholar athlete, has drawn plenty of news media attention in recent weeks.

Valaas, who excels in both Nordic skiing and cycling, was one of the student athletes featured in the February episode of NCAA on Campus, which airs nationally on the Fox Sports Network. A feature story on Valaas also graced the Feb. 13 sports page of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin newspaper.

Valaas, who is majoring in mathematics with minors in physics and gender studies, was named last spring to ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District Team. She earned All-American honors in two events at last year's NCAA Skiing Championships.

Valaas has continued to emerge this year as one of America's top young skiers. Competing against a field of Olympic hopefuls, she placed third in the freestyle sprint at U.S. Nationals in early January.

She also became the first American woman in nearly two years to win a Nordic ski race in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association, which represents 11 schools in the western U.S. that compete in NCAA skiing. The women's nordic races have been dominated in recent years by European athletes enrolled at U.S. school.

Valaas was also one of six women selected to represent the U.S. at the Under-23 World Cross Country Skiing Championships in Kranj, Slovenia.

To view the three-minute FSN video segment about Valaas, or to read the Union-Bulletin newspaper account, please click on one of the logos above.