By Gavin Kentch
In late March, 2023, Hailey Swirbul completed what was by all appearances her final race as a professional skier. She finished 26th in the 20km mass start classic in Lahti in World Cup Finals, on a day when the Americans candidly did not have the best skis, but the result, by then, was probably no longer really the point.
After a coruscating start to her career — World Juniors relay medal at age 18, two individual World Juniors medals at 19, World Cup podium at 22, first World Championships team at 22, Olympics at 23, second world champs team at 24 — Swirbul was out of professional skiing before her 25th birthday.
She posed with champagne in the Lahti finish pen, wearing the USST pajama uniforms of the 2022/2023 season. She was hosted by Julia Kern and Jessie Diggins, with Sammy Smith at their side. An exultant Rosie Brennan raced over to hold Swirbul’s Madshus-clad feet, not wanting to be left out. Novie McCabe happily came into the frame, and they took the group photo yet again. Swirbul held a bottle of champagne and a broad smile. Everyone gave her hugs. A lovely, caring, and sometimes tormented athlete seemed, for this moment, to be at peace.
Swirbul returned to Anchorage, faced down World Cup–level nerves to edge out Kikkan in the NordicX final a few weeks later, and reveled in the glory that is an Alaska springtime. Slowly, she started to figure out what was next; ending one’s life’s work at 24 is common for athletes, but not otherwise. She worked for an engineering firm. She did some local trail races and citizens races. She coached juniors with APU and worked on ski patrol in Colorado, near her childhood home of El Jebel.
Time passed. This summer, Swirbul assumed a full-time coaching load through APU. (Disclosure: Hailey coached me in APU Masters all this summer. I have long thought the world of Hailey Swirbul. Experiencing firsthand her perspicacity as a coach did not, shall we say, lessen my opinion of her.) She was also helping to coach the APU Elite Team. Social media increasingly showed her crushing workouts alongside that crew.
Rumors started to percolate locally that Swirbul was harboring aspirations of competing again. She did not deny them when asked.
“The secret is out I suppose!!” she wrote to me earlier this week. “Yes, I’m going to try to go for it 🙂 I haven’t made an official announcement beyond some APU folks now.”
Consider this your official announcement: Hailey Swirbul is lacing up her boots once more. I am, as per the disclosure above, desperately biased here, but I wish her all the best.
A longer piece catching up with Swirbul in earnest will run later this fall. Stay tuned.
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