{"id":65706,"date":"2020-04-23T16:54:12","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T20:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=65706"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:03:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:03:33","slug":"cross-country-ski-zoe-williams","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/cross-country-ski-zoe-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-Country Star Zo\u00eb Williams Strives for Success at School and on the Ski Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Cross-Country Star Zo\u00eb Williams Strives for Success at School and on the Ski Trail\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

When Zo\u00eb Williams<\/a> was a kid, cross-country skiing with her parents and siblings on a trail network near their home in North Bay, Ont., her mother would hand over a walkie talkie and let her daughter circumnavigate a challenging five-kilometre loop on her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, with the device in a pocket, Zo\u00eb would inadvertently push the talk button and her mother would listen to the seven-year-old singing to herself as she swooshed through the woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Zo\u00eb
Zo\u00eb Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was very liberating to be able to go out and conquer the trails on my own,\u201d says Williams, whose parents weren\u2019t diehard skiers but wanted to nurture an appreciation for winter and find an affordable sport they could do as a family, one that didn\u2019t entail driving their six children to a string of different activities.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cSkiing is something that\u2019s been both constant and changing throughout my life,\u201d continues Williams, one of the stars<\/a> of the Ravens Nordic ski team<\/a>, whose family moved to Cantley, Que., in 2005 when her father, English Prof. Grant Williams<\/a>, got a faculty position at Carleton.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cBeing outside and being in motion in a natural setting has always been good for my mental health. It\u2019s always been a place I could go and feel comfortable, no matter what was happening. But it\u2019s also been a place for me to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are things you can control and things you can\u2019t control when you\u2019re skiing, so it\u2019s been a way for me to get to know myself in a way that no other sport could.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Cross-Country<\/figure>\n\n\n

Another Carleton Sports Dynasty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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In late February in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Williams, now 22, helped lead the Ravens women\u2019s Nordic ski team to its fifth straight Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship<\/a> \u2014 a sports dynasty alongside the men\u2019s basketball program at Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men\u2019s ski team also won the provincial title in Sault Ste. Marie this season, its first OUA championship since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the same year that the Carleton women last won the Canadian university nationals<\/a>, which Williams was excited about competing in again, until the coronavirus pandemic cancelled the late-March meet in British Columbia and put a premature end to the ski season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Williams
Williams waxes her skis before hitting the trails<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Williams, a fifth-year Neuroscience and Mental Health<\/a> student minoring in Psychology<\/a>, hopes to get back onto the trails soon \u2014 and she isn\u2019t overly concerned about sliding back into ski mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, it\u2019s a sport that she\u2019s been immersed in for nearly two decades, and she loves every aspect of it \u2014 the demanding training, the focus on technique, the mental strength and physical stamina required \u2014 as well as the challenge of balancing skiing with studies that are also a passion for her.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cNot many people decide to pursue cross-country skiing and university at the same time,\u201d says Williams, explaining that when elite skiers in Canada turn 18, they typically relocate to one of three national training centres \u2014 in Thunder Bay, Ont., Mont-Sainte-Anne, Que., and Canmore, Alta. \u2014 rather than attempt to juggle sport and school.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cPeople usually view it as an either-or thing. But a national training centre probably wouldn\u2019t have worked for me. It wouldn\u2019t have been conducive to me enjoying the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It helps that cross-country skiers, like other endurance athletes, tend to peak in their late 20s and early 30s, giving Williams time to continue developing as a skier while at university \u2014 a path that she hopes to help validate by example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also helps that her parents decided to settle in Cantley, a short drive from the Nakkertok Nordic ski club<\/a>, whose trails she trains on and whose teams she races for, instead of buying a house in the city. The couple homeschooled their children, and in winter, gym class often consisted of sending their girls and boys outside to ski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re going hard and moving quickly over the snow, it feels like you\u2019re flying,\u201d says Williams. \u201cSkiing means many things to me. But really, it\u2019s just fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Carleton<\/figure>\n\n\n

Olympic Dreams for 2022<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Like many competitive cross-country skiers, Williams does both classic and skate, and she races distances that range from 1.5-kilometres sprints to 30 kilometres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the Ravens \u2014 which her younger sister Bronwyn<\/a> joined last season \u2014 she\u2019s been a member of the junior national team and Quebec\u2019s provincial team and has competed in World Cup races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because she\u2019s only taking three courses a term to allow for time to train and ski, Williams will still have a semester of school to finish after this spring. And even though this is her last year of OUA eligibility, she\u2019s hoping to compete for Carleton alongside her sister at the World University Championships in Switzerland in 2021<\/a> \u2014 and she\u2019ll be working toward her dream goal of representing Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cross-Country
Willams and her teammates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Attempting to qualify for the Olympics will mean putting grad school on hold for now, but Williams approaches her education with the same type of zeal that she displays on the trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While still working on high school courses at home, Williams took a first-year Neuroscience class at Carleton taught by Prof. Kim Hellemans<\/a>, whose passion for the field was infectious and stoked a growing interest in science and biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams is currently doing research on microbiota \u2014 bacteria in our guts \u2014 and their role in the bi-directional gut-brain communication axis. Specifically, through lab work involving mice, including voluntary wheel running, she\u2019s exploring how exercise impacts depressive or anxious behaviour, an area that has potential human health implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExercise is something that\u2019s emerging as a way to treat depression and anxiety,\u201d says Williams, who is also curious about test results differing in female and male mice, which could be significant considering that male mice are generally used for experiments because their physiology is not impacted by reproductive cycles.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019m really interested in this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nordic skiers have the highest grade point averages among varsity athletes at Carleton, something that Williams attributes, in her case, to time management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving both skiing and school keeps me balanced and keeps me honest,\u201d she says. \u201cHaving less time to do things keeps me focused and productive. If you have a small window of time for studying, you\u2019ve got to study. Skiing is a difficult sport. It teaches you to work hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely going to do master\u2019s degree,\u201d continues Williams, \u201cbut first I\u2019m going to take a break from school for a while. That\u2019s been my motivation, the light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of fitting skiing into my life, I want to flip things around and just ski.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Cross-Country<\/figure>\n\n\n

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When Zo\u00eb Williams was a kid, cross-country skiing with her parents and siblings on a trail network near their home in North Bay, Ont., her mother would hand over a walkie talkie and let her daughter circumnavigate a challenging five-kilometre loop on her own. Sometimes, with the device in a pocket, Zo\u00eb would inadvertently push […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":65855,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[18],"cu_story_tag":[1928],"class_list":["post-65706","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-athletics-recreation","cu_story_tag-athletics"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/65706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/65706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97847,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/65706\/revisions\/97847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=65706"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=65706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}