Send Gavin to the World Cup

As we enter the second year of Nordic Insights, I am suddenly become, by many measures, the closest thing to a full-time nordic ski journalist that this country currently has to offer. You can decide for yourself if there is quality there to match that quantity, but I think I can credibly claim to have written more articles about cross-country skiing than anyone else in this country last year.

Here are some glimpses at what this exceedingly glamorous lifestyle looks like:

• Uploading a story from the parking lot of the Houghton McDonald’s because the wifi went out at my Airbnb.

• Writing 5,000 words a day perched at the “breakfast nook” in my Airbnb because there was no real table in the place, feeling my hamstrings tightening with every hour on my awkward seat.

• Updating the Nordic Insights Instagram page with close to real-time coverage of U.S. Nationals… from the front seat of my car with the engine running… because there is no indoor space by the stadium in either of the last two venues that hosted U.S. Nationals.

• Bringing my own breakfast (oatmeal) and dinner (brown rice and bagged Indian food) on all reporting trips to save on costs.

And so on. I am proud of the work that I have done here, but I don’t exactly have a New York Times expense account. Most people in this country go into cross-country skiing because they want to make a difference rather than because they want to make money; I am not alone in this regard.

Which is good, because I haven’t made much money! I took in roughly $5,500 in ad revenue in the first year of the site, and $4,000, so far, in year two. I have kept my costs low (think oatmeal and mileage tickets), but it does not cost nothing to travel to Houghton, Whistler, Salt Lake City, and Canmore. Readers’ generosity in version 1.0 of this GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I have not lost money on this labor of love site, which is in turn the only reason why there is a year two for you to be reading now. Thank you.

I can’t thank you enough for your help last year. And now, like Bernie Sanders in the enduring meme, I am once again asking for your financial support. I am deeply honored by all that I have received so far. I have spent weeks living in shoddy hotel rooms and living like a Covid-avoiding monk, writing several thousand words a day on deadline, feeling my ski fitness slip away with each hour of sitting, to justify that support.

I can’t wait to do it again this year, this time in Canmore for the World Cup. I will pack my laptop and my oatmeal and my prepackaged Indian food. I will stand trailside for hours in inclement weather to honor the effort of athletes who are racing their heart out for their country. And then I will head to the mixed zone to wait for a Renae Anderson or a Braden Becker or a Graham Houtsma, someone making their World Cup debut, someone who might not make the podium and who might not receive an iota of media attention otherwise. And I will say to them, “Tell me about your race,” because their effort matters, too. And then I will tell you what they had to say about their race.

I would love to not lose money in the process of doing so. Thank you for your support to help me turn this from a money-losing venture into a barely profitable one.

Gavin Kentch