[Photos provided]
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Alex Fragomeni, a junior at Saratoga Springs High School, just celebrated his seventeenth birthday on the slopes in Utah during Junior Nationals. Fragomeni has been Nordic skiing for the last three years, through the school and club skiing, having just competed in his first Junior Nationals competition two weeks ago.
“It was a really exciting event. It was my first time going to a big race like that. I had a lot of nerves, a lot of excitement, and it was also my first time at altitude, so races were really tricky. When you’re at altitude, if you’re going as hard as you can, and you just don’t have any oxygen to breathe, it’s a whole 20 minutes of being in the pain cave, and it just hurts,” Fragomeni laughed, “other than that, the races were amazing. It was a great venue and great weather.”
Fragomeni was encouraged to try Nordic skiing by his "nana" and "poppy."
“My nana and poppy had a daughter and she was really into skiing, she made a lot of noise in the community with her good results, and she saw that in me. I kept getting older and older and she was like, ‘maybe I can get him into it and make him have some noise and get crowds going.’ After that, she told me I should join the Nordic Ski program at Saratoga Springs High School and ever since then I’ve been so hooked on it, just wanting to do it more and more,” he explained.
Before Fragomeni became hooked on Nordic, he was a competitive rower for five years, but since Nordic has taken over, he trains for that year-long. In the offseason, Fragomeni trains with a lot of roller skiing, running, and biking.
“I went on a really exciting roller ski one day. I decided, I’m just going to get up and go for a super long time. I ended up going for eight hours straight and covered over 100 kilometers at SPAC. I just went around in circles,” he laughed.
Fragomeni went to Junior Nationals and went to the Eastern High School Championships in Maine with friend and fellow skier, Michael Halligan.
“We’re really close. Over the summer I didn’t have my car, so I’d bike to Mikey’s house with all of my roller skis on my back and then he’d drive us to SPAC and we would just go for really long roller skis together,” Fragomeni said.
The boys met through Nordic skiing.
Fragomeni cites the races in Maine as, “best couple races of my life. Amazing results, amazing races, amazing experience!”
In the off-season, Fragomeni trains with assistant club coach Brian Halligan, Michael’s older brother.
“My biggest inspiration is Brian Halligan. We’ve become really close,” he explained.
Fragomeni says his biggest supporters are definitely his mom and grandparents, and he’s also very close to his three sisters: Olivia, Bella, and Francesca.
“I have three sisters, they’re always at every race cheering me on. We always go together anywhere, even if it’s just to the grocery store,” he explained.
In his off time, Fragomeni enjoys rock climbing and hanging out with his friends.
“I really like to get outside,” he explained, “I don’t like being stuck inside in the dark.”
As far as his academics go, he says his “grades slip a little” during the season but he knows that he has to stay on top of them if he wants to get into a good college. While he says that his school ski team is like a small supportive family, he prefers club skiing to school skiing.
“Definitely prefer club skiing over school skiing. It’s a different level of competition, a lot more competitive, and there’s also a lot more travel,” he said.
Fragomeni has decided to take a couple weeks off now that the season is over, but he intends to go back to training around Mid-April. Over the summer he will be intensely training to return to Junior Nationals next year, where he wants to be one of the top athletes. Still, his favorite part of skiing is the sport itself.
“Just being at the race, being in the moment, and just having the crowd cheer you on while you do what you do best,” he said.
