By Tyler Maheu, Staff Sportswriter
Nineteen-year-old James Underwood has just returned to Colby College for the second semester of his freshman year with an impressive accolade under his belt — a selection to the Stifel United States Cross Country Ski Team for the 2026 Junior World Championships.
The event, which will take place from March 2 through March 8, will be held in Lillehammer, Norway. For Underwood, the selection is the result of years of hard work and a love for the sport.
“I started a really long time ago, probably at the age of five or six,” he told the Standard on Monday. According to the Woodstock Class of 2025 alum, he began as an alpine skier as soon as he could walk, before switching to snowboard racing.
He began Nordic skiing as a way to cross-train for cross country running in the fall and track in the spring, but quickly discovered he was skilled on skis. Proximity to Woodstock’s public trails was a boon to the young Wasp. “I grew up less than a quarter mile from the ski trails in Woodstock,” he recalled. “In high school, almost every day after dinner, I would put on my skis, head to the trails, and spend an hour with my headlamp cruising.” He continued, “I love the feeling of skiing through the woods. It’s a really good way to escape, and gives me a lot of freedom.”
James Underwood skis in the 1.2K Sprint event at Nationals at Lake Placid in early January, en route to a first-place finish out of all skiers under age 20. Daryn Slover Photos
Underwood credits the Woodstock Ski Runners program, as well as the high school Nordic team for setting him up for success. “I think we have an awesome high school team with so many super experienced, super accomplished skiers,” he said. “The team culture at Woodstock is really awesome. We were always able to perform at a really high level while having a lot of fun doing that.”
His success in high school led him to Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where he is currently undecided on a major. “I’m leaning towards Environmental Policy,” he said. There, he has had the chance to broaden his horizons as a skier, which came in handy at this year’s US Nationals at Lake Placid. “Traditionally, I haven’t thought of myself as a sprinter, but at Colby, we’ve been doing a lot more strength and speed-focused workouts,” he said. “Which has built me as a sprinter, as well as a distance skier, which is awesome.”
To qualify for the U-20 Junior Worlds team, Underwood competed in a series of three races against the country’s best: a classic 10K race, a skate sprint, and a skate 10K. After completing the races, officials took the two best scores and decided the team of 12, consisting of six men and six women. Underwood’s second-place finish in the sprint and sixth place in the classic 10K propelled him to the high honor.
Underwood joins two more Vermonters, both men, on the team: Tabor Greenberg, of Burlington, and Micah Bruner South, from Londonbury. The other nine athletes are Neve Gerard from Oregon, Britta Johnson from California, Maeve Ingelfinger from Montana, Lena Poduska and Ally Wheeler from Wyoming, Grey Barbier from Colorado, and Vebjorn Flagstad, Murphy Kimball, and Jack Leveque from Alaska.
“I’m probably most excited to prove myself and see how I stack up against the highest caliber of athletes in the world,” Underwood said.
Junior Worlds may just be the beginning for Underwood. “I think I have Olympic hopes,” he said. “I’m going to see how far skiing can take me, and I think that qualifying for the junior world championships is really special because you put in so much work as an athlete, and seeing that pay off is so validating and important to stay motivated.”
He concluded the conversation, stating, “I love skiing, regardless of competitions and races. I just want to keep doing this as long as I can.”
