By Ellen Long and Amy Schumacher

Rollie and Nancy Cooper’s 21-year old Alaskan grandson Gus Schumacher will be competing in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing as a member of Team USA Cross Country Ski Team.

Gus was born in Madison and moved to Alaska as an infant as his parents started work in Anchorage. Dad, Greg, (from Platteville, WI) was stationed at Elmendorf AFB as an orthopedic surgeon, and mom, Amy, joined the AK Native medical center as a pediatrician.

Gus started enjoying outdoor sports at a young age on the trails and mountains of his hometown, and joined the community based Junior Nordic program, finding fun with friends and an endless trial system in town.
When his dad volunteered as a team doctor for the U.S. cross country ski team, Gus enjoyed the opportunity to travel to Europe and watch World Cup racing and loved it! He loved it enough to spend long hours training with the Alaska Winter Stars club team. He has continued with this same club and coach, Jan Buron, since age 8 years.

After multiple high school ski and running championships and US junior/senior national podiums, Gus moved on to the world stage. He qualified for his first world junior team in 2018, then anchored the U.S. men to their first-ever medal in the 4x5km relay that year. In 2019, he anchored the relay to its first-ever American world junior gold medal and finished just off the podium in two other distance races. In 2020, just before the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Schumacher became the first American skier to win an individual junior world title (10k classic) and helped the U.S. men defend their relay title.

Last season, in his first full year competing in the World Cup, Schumacher finished in the points in almost every race he entered, with a career-high eighth place in a 15k classic race. And he finished 18th overall in last season’s Tour de Ski (the best-ever U.S. men’s result).

Gus has two younger siblings, Rudy (U of Utah) and Heidi (9th grade, Service HS). He is a civil engineering major at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.

It’s common for high schools in Alaska to field a “Nordic” ski team. Eight of the 14 members of the US Winter Olympic 2022 men’s and women’s teams were born and raised, or trained in Alaska. Gus is excited to share this experience with friends.

“I really have to stop and give myself some credit because it’s a lifelong dream coming to fruition, but at the same time my goals keep coming and just making the team isn’t the end of the road. I wanna race fast! But overall I’m very excited for the opportunity to represent the U.S. on the highest level in my sport.”

2022 Olympic Winter Games Cross Country Schedule runs from Sat., Feb. 5 – Sat., Feb. 19.

Gus plans to race in the 30km skiathlon, 15km classic, 4 x 10 relay, and 50km freestyle mass start.
Follow him at
gusschumacher.com
https://www.instagram.com/gus.schumacher
https://www.facebook.com/people/Gus-Schumacher/100015070396868/

The Winter Olympics will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock.