Karolcia’s long story short - From Colorado to Minneapolis
My name is Karolina Kaleta — but most people just call me Karol (or Cucaracha 🪳). I’m excited to be a new member of Team Birkie’s Continental Team!
I’m originally from Poland, but I spent the last four years skiing for the University of Colorado Boulder. After graduating this past May, I packed up my entire life into a car and drove straight from Colorado to Minneapolis. Not gonna lie… that trip was tough. But I made it — and now I’m here, ready for this next adventure.
I wanted to share my story with you all, and I’m so excited to take you along on this journey!
This is Karolcia entertaining herself by singing some polish songs while driving through Nebraska!
Soo...
Four years of racing on the college circuit for CU taught me something important: skiing can be both professional and fun at the same time. Those years in Colorado flew by very fast and when my last season ended, I knew one thing for sure — my ski career wasn’t over. I wasn’t ready to hang up the skis. I wanted more.
Karolcia’s senior race!!
The only problem? I had no idea where I wanted to go. I just knew I needed a change. I was hungry for something new!
During college races, I often spotted Team Birkie athletes flying around the course, testing skis, racing hard, and looking every bit like a professional team. I always wondered: What would it be like to be part of something like that? So, I took a chance, reached out… and now here I am, a Team Birkie athlete!
(And honestly, nothing was really tying me down in Colorado. So, the move from high-altitude mountains to sea-level lakes felt exciting — a fresh start. New city, new people, new trails, basically new life)
Now, a lot of people would ask “Karolcia, why would you leave the beautiful Mountains for… Minneapolis?!” - Fair question. To be honest, I don’t have a perfect answer. I’ve never lived in a city before, had no idea what to expect — but I was open to exploring... And now after those four months I’m still exploring...
The cities are huge, and I still drive around with GPS on! (I'm curious how long it will take me to learn all the roads)
The Twin Cities Life
Okay, seriously now — it is not that bad I really do like the Twin Cities. (I mean the mall of America is a little too much but still...) Traveling with the team and heading to new places keeps everything exciting, and coming back here between camps makes it feel like we never get bored of city life.
Karolcia exploring the city
So far, we’ve already had a few awesome training camps: two in Cable, WI, and one high-altitude in Steamboat, CO. Each time, returning to Minneapolis has been the perfect reset (well… except for the humidity. Honestly, it might be worse than altitude).
I've only been to Cable during winter, so going there in the summer was so much fun, seeing the whole course not covered in snow and not in negative 30-degree Celsius was so much better. And of course, training on the American Birkebeiner trails was awesome
Karolcia doing some classic intervals in Cable
About the high-altitude camp in Steamboat... what can I say, it was nice to be back in the mountains and run some uphill. It was also a good opportunity to get to know each other
better since the camp was about 2 weeks long. All the training sessions were full of conversations and hard work!
Cable/Steamboat Recap
But overall, after these past few months, I can honestly say we’ve built something special. The team is amazing — everyone is not only incredibly nice but also trains hard and pushes each other to get better. Turns out, trading mountain peaks for endless lakes (and okay, a few mosquitoes) really isn’t such a bad deal after all.
Right now, as I’m writing this blog, I’m just a few days away from flying to Poland. I’ll get to visit my family and take a shot at qualifying for the Polish National Ski Team for the upcoming season. I can’t wait to share more stories with you guys — and I hope you’ll follow along, cheering not only for me but for the whole Team Birkie crew. We’re just getting started!
