Cole Mirek: How Creating Content Changed My Perspective on the Sport of Nordic Skiing

Cole Mirek: How Creating Content Changed My Perspective on the Sport of Nordic Skiing

AMBASSADÖRK Cole is a high school senior out of Wisconsin who started pointing a camera at his own ski season a couple of winters ago. What he found on the other side of the lens wasn't faster results. It was a completely different relationship with the sport.

With that, let's get to it.

ambassadörks: How Creating Content Changed My Perspective on the Sport of Nordic Skiing

I first started making YouTube Vlogs in December 2023. I wanted to combine two of my favorite hobbies, cross country skiing and making videos. When I first started making vlogs, I honestly just thought it would be cool to document races and workouts. I didn’t think it would change how I actually felt about the sport. But over time, it completely shifted my perspective.

Before I started vlogging, skiing was mostly about results. I would look at race placements, splits, and how I stacked up against other guys. A good race meant a good weekend. A bad race could ruin my mood for days. But when I started filming, I began to shift my mindset.

Instead of only thinking about my results, I started noticing the sunrise during early morning roller ski sessions. I started appreciating how hard interval days really are, not just physically, but mentally. I started capturing the team jokes on long travel days and the nervous energy before the start of each race. Content creation forced me to slow down and actually see the sport from the outside. When I started vlogging, it was a point of my ski career where I was very in my head about accomplishing certain high placing results. But before I started any race, I would pull out my GoPro and take a video, talking about where I was, what the race was, how lucky I was to be able to ski and race and be where I was. It allowed me to step away from the scary daunting thoughts in my head and appreciate where I was and what I was doing. I found that when I film myself grinding through a workout and then edit the footage later, you can truly realize how much effort you’re actually putting in. Even if the race result doesn’t show it yet, the work is there. The progress is happening.

It also made me realize that people don’t connect with perfect results, they connect with honesty. The hard days. The setbacks. The learning moments. Sharing that made skiing feel less like a personal scoreboard and more like a journey I get to invite others into. Now, when I race, I still want to perform. I still want to improve. But I think back on all the work I’ve done up to this point and trust it. I think back to each season and session and ask myself; What am I learning? How can I adapt and make myself faster, stronger, tougher? What have I learned that I can share with others going through the same thing? Creating content didn’t make me less competitive. It made me more aware. It reminded me why I fell in love with cross country skiing in the first place; the grind, the beauty of winter, the challenge of pushing yourself past your limits.

There’s one key point from this I want to express: if you only chase results, you’re setting yourself up for constant frustration. Results are unpredictable. Weather changes. Wax changes. Competition changes. Even how your body feels on a given day can change everything. What doesn’t change is the process.

The early mornings, the strength sessions, the long roller ski distance days in the grueling heat of summer, the insanely tough lactic filled intervals, the recovery routines, and the discipline of getting good quality sleep. The process is where you build who you are.

Results are a one time thing, where the process is forever.

I’ve started to take pride in finishing a brutal interval session strong. In committing to good technique even when I’m exhausted. In choosing consistency over excuses. Ironically, when you focus on the process, the results often follow, but in that process they stop being the only thing that matters. Filming my journey has helped with this too. When I look back at old videos, I don’t see race placements first. I see growth. I see a younger version of myself with bad technique and not very fast. But that’s what I want to keep chasing, becoming a better version of myself than I was last season, last month, last week, yesterday.

Because at the end of the day, a result is a one time thing, where the process is forever. I want to share this topic because I think it’s very important for all young skiers to understand that a time or place does not define you. It’s important to make sure you are always having fun!

Authors Note: My name is Cole! And I am a Nordie from the Midwest region who loves everything about the sport, the community, and I love making videos documenting both! I am a senior in high school and I have been a part of Peak Nordic Ski Club since I was in fourth grade. I’ve grown to love cross-country skiing and it has inspired me to set my goals and dreams to one day becoming a professional skier! Cole can be found over on the grid @colemirek_ski

the closer: What We're Thinking About.

That Cole has worked out something in high school that plenty of us are still chasing. The process is the part you actually own. Go watch his vlogs, then go do your intervals. Takk, Cole.