Moments with Melinda: Interview with Tara Geraghty-Moats

[music] Good morning and welcome to Moments with Melinda. I am your host Melinda Molton and today my guest is Tara Gity Moes. Hi Tara. How are you? >> Hi Melinda. I'm great. I'm just finishing up a training here in Greensboro, Vermont. Um as you can hear, I'm outside right now which is where I spend most of my summer training. >> Well, I'm so glad that you took the time to to sit down with me and my viewers. Um I want to let you know uh that I have known Tara since the day she was born. um were good friends of her parents and um so I've known you since you were literally uh in diapers but we won't get into that but let me tell my viewers a little bit about you okay so Tara Gity Moes is an American ski jumper Nordic combined and bylon champion she has competed at the World Cup level since the 2014 2015 season she won the 2018 2019 Continental Cup season with 10 consecutive wins in 11 competitions. In December 2020, she won the first ever Nordic combined women's World Cup competition. Tara received the Fresh Tracks Award from the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Well, there you have it. I'm sure I missed some things, but we're going to get into it. Um, you know, I you're you're just I you're you're like my hero. I've always admired you so much and and I'm so excited for my um viewers to learn more about you. Tara is a verter born and raised here. So, let's start at the beginning and talk about your childhood growing up in Vermont. >> Well, firstly, I want to just say that you're one of my heroes. You always do such a good job for speaking out about issues you care about and being involved in the Vermont community. So, very thankful for you as an individual in in my wider Vermont community. mutual >> like you said I grew up in Vermont. I'm my hometown was West Fairley, Vermont and I now live in Albany, Vermont. So lifelong Verer. I grew up skiing at Mad River Glenn and Oak Hill for cross country and I also skied a little bit in New Hampshire. So that would be the Greens. So there's a software developer in New Hampshire. Greens, Dorchester area, and he just donated all these trails to cross-country skiers and talk about community support. I I learned how to cross country ski out there. So, growing up all over Vermont and New Hampshire. >> So, talk a little bit about your upbringing though because you had kind of a back to the woods, you know, childhood where you were introduced to nature early on and it was it was not necessarily typical like many of us have raised our children. Um, talk to us a little bit about that and and the care and and tenderness that your mother gave you to love the the outdoors. >> So, from my point of view, I did have kind of a typical Vermont upbringing. Um, I grew up in a town of 500 people uh at the end of a long dirt road. I think it was about I want to say threequarters of a mile uphill. Our our driveway or the dirt road we lived off of. Um, so not exactly a lot of, you know, shopping malls or movie theaters or bowling alleys. Um, myself, like many Vermont kids, grew up playing in the woods, you know, whether it was skiing or biking or running or I didn't do too much four-wheeling, but like there were four-wheeler trails all around our house that we ran on. And that really was what childhood was in West Fairley, Vermont. you know, whether you were fishing or you were helping out on the farm, it was that quintessential, often kind of overromanticized childhood of being a rural child. And I learned how to, you know, grow a garden. But I just thought that's how life was. I must have spent, you know, a good 16 hours outside every day in the summer growing. >> And that's very different from today's world. Right. >> Right. There were no screens. Um, I think we had a TV with five channels on it and if you wanted to change the channels, you actually had to go out in the road and change where the rabbit ears pointed because the rabbit ears kept falling off our house um because there was so much snow on the roof. So maybe that is a little bit of a lens into my childhood. >> Fantastic. So, um, so you talked a little bit about where you got your start in skiing and and I want you to talk about your relationship with Mad River Glenn, uh, over in Fen and how this mountain helped shape your talent and your grit. >> Yeah. So, growing up, I started going to normal school, I guess, and then sort of gradually transitioned to more homeschooling and not going to, you know, every day of of elementary school and then middle school. And a lot of times we would go to Mad River and I would do some sort of school work in the lodge a little bit and ski all day. And kind [snorts] of the deal was if we were going skiing that day, we were going skiing and it didn't really matter what the weather was or what the conditions were. Um, we always just dressed for the conditions. And growing up there was not like a chic skiing style at Mad River. You just put on as many possible layers as you could and went out the door and went skiing. and that kind of mentality of um kind of meeting the mountain where it was at and respecting the mountain whether it was really cold or windy or icy but then enjoying the beautiful sport of skiing every day no matter what has really stuck with me as an athlete and served me really well in life and also as a competitor on the world stage. >> So um was that your was that pretty much your only sport or did you do I mean know your mother did your mom host homeschool you? Yeah. So, my mom was an outdoor educator for a long time and then she did my homeschooling through elementary school and then I went to a correspondent school. Um, I never really intended not to go to traditional high school, but by the time I was 14, I was almost on the ski jumping development team, national development team. So, I really would have had to chose I really would have had to choose between being a normal like traditional high school student and being kind of an elite athlete at that time. >> Did you do other sports? Were there any other sports that you >> I didn't really compete full-time in other sports, but I did every sport. I ran. I mountain biked. I tried out rowing. I didn't do so many team sports. Um, but I tried to try a little bit of everything. Good for you. So now there's a story about you at about age nine and I believe when you competed in the Triple Crown Allterrain contest at Mad River. It was a tower 10 and you had a broken ski binding. Nevertheless, you skied the event on one ski as a Telmark skier, winning not only in the under 13 division but also in the women's overall. I mean, the whole, you know, group at Mad River was just blown away by this. Talk us a little bit about that moment in your life at nine years old. >> Yeah. So, I remember that day my binding broke and I was going to ski down on one ski and I was kind of bummed that I wasn't going to be able to do this competition because I was really looking forward to it. All my friends were doing it and then I realized like this isn't about winning. This is about just going down and having the best run you can. So, why not see what I can do on one ski? And I had always played around with skiing things randomly on one ski, especially when the mountain opened at the first part of the year. There weren't so many trails and I just I could ski on one ski. It was it was just kind of a fun thing I did sometimes. So, I figured I would try it even though it was a competition. And then I didn't really realize kind of how impressive it would be or think about other people's reactions. I just kind of >> Was that the moment was that the moment you realized that you were that you could be a champion and that you decided to >> to take on the sport seriously? >> I mean, when when did that moment happen? >> I never really think of myself as a champion. And I know that might sound like I'm not confident enough. Well, I appreciate that, but I think of myself as just a lifelong skier. You know, I love to ski and and that's why I do it. And you know, of course, if you're representing the USA and everyone back home, it does become more serious. You know, there's there's a lot of people who have put time and effort into you as an athlete, and you don't want to let them down. But it's really important to me to kind of keep that um childlike love for the sport while I'm also competing at a very high level. >> Well, to me, that makes you a champion, quite frankly, that attitude. But there must have been a point in time when you thought to yourself or maybe your parents where you said I'm I want to get out there and compete. What What was that moment for you if you can remember it? >> I think it was a gradual thing for me. So if I look at my goals from when I was about 12 years old, my long-term goals, we did a little my cross country junior team did a little goal sheet and it was like short-term goals, long-term goals. And on there I did have go to world championships, go to junior world championships. I think ski 50k was on there. So you can kind of tell from that that I had it in my um sort of long-term goals. I had it in my viewpoint as it were, but I was more focused on like what competition am I going to do next? Like can I get a purple ribbon at the Bill Coke Festival? Can I do the unconventional terrain competition? I think one of the competitions at Mad River where I realized I could be a very good skier is actually the vertical uh challenge. So that's a competition where you ski for seven hours straight and see how many runs you can do on lift line and it was a really cold windy day and I skied all day long. I think I did 21 runs. I was nine years old and I came in third in the women's open class and I realized that skiing for me was a very natural thing to do and I had an ability that was good for anyone of any age. >> Amazing. Nine years old. So now you excelled in ski jumping at a very early age. So when you talk about it, you know, just being that you want to just ski, I mean, there's something about going off of a jump where you're flying in the air for, you know, hundreds of feet and hoping that you can land on your two skis. I want you to talk to us about a little bit about your pursuit of this sport and share with us how you were able to get women included in ski jumping competition and in the Olympics. >> That's right. I started ski jumping when I was nine. I always loved the feeling of flying through the air. I was one of those kids that loved jumping off things, whether it was a slide or the bed, um, or a ski jump. And so, ski jumping was very natural for me. And I was on the development team at 16 years old. I learned to jump in Hanover, New Hampshire, Lebanon, New Hampshire, and went on to jump in Brattle, B, Vermont, and Lake Plid, New York. Um, and then pretty quickly I realized that Nordic combined, which is cross-country skiing and ski jumping, was not an Olympic sport for women, but it was for men. So, at a very young age, I kind of became an advocate for getting into the Olympics, getting it into world championships for women, getting it into junior junior nationals, junior world championships, and was one of the first voices internationally that really started to question why why do we not have this sport for women while we have it for men? And so what what happened? >> Well, I went on to win the first ever World Cup for women in Nordic combined after many many years of advocating for it and and doing that with a community of people who are really supportive of kind of bringing women to that level where we earned our spot at world championships. So that was really a a lifelong dream come true to like have a World Cup for women in Nordic combined, but also to do well, you know, to be the first women ever to win a World Cup and and go down in history. It was it was really a fairy tale ending, which you don't always get in sports. >> And when and what was the reason that they I mean that they didn't want women? I mean, you you you advocated and you got ski jumping competition for women in the Olympics, but was it because men were concerned that you were lighter and could fly farther? I mean, what what was the what was the what was holding them back? >> I mean, I think that is kind of oversimplifying it. You see this a lot in social justice issues, right? They were afraid that women weren't at a high enough level and would kind of be an embarrassment to the sport. So then they didn't want to give the women opportunity to compete. So then it kind of became a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? If you take opportunity away from a group of individuals, they don't have an opportunity to develop. Kind of like if you don't let people learn how to read, they're not going to be able to read books. So then they're like, well, you don't need libraries anyway. If that makes that analogy make sense. The same thing was happening with Nordic combined. So they weren't allowing women to compete. So there were no women who did Nordic combined. So they didn't want to have any competitions for women and the circle was just kind of stuck there and had been stuck there for almost a hundred years even though that sounds crazy. And they were able to break that cycle with women ski jumping. Women's ski jumping got in the Olympics in 2014 through a lot of ad advocacy mostly through a kind of homegrown group of parents and coaches in Park City. And that group really thought that, oh, if we get women ski jumping in the Olympics, Nordic Combine will just follow naturally. But really, we had to go through the same process over again with Nordic Combine. >> And we're going to talk about that. That's on my agenda. Now, I think you went to Norway to run cross country after getting injured at Lake Placid while jumping. And I believe you made the Norwegian Junior Bathlon team. I think you were 15. >> Sweden. Sweden. >> What? >> Sweden. I went to Sweden for a year. Okay. So, as an student, >> I went for to Sweden for a year as an exchange student in Bathlon when I was 19 and 20. And that was an amazing experience. >> And you won the countries. You won Sweden's national junior championships. >> I did. So, in the sprint class of the junior national championship, I won. So, it was it was a really proud moment for me. I had worked really hard at bathlon. Bathlon is a sport that I really love, but I'm not as naturally talented at as ski jumping in and Nordic combined. So, it took a lot of work for me to get there. A lot of struggles. And then at the end of the year in April or end of end of March, I was able to get a junior national championship and um beat my fellow classmates that I had trained with all year. And that's when I really understood how hard work can pay off and consistency and dedication to something can pay off. And and triathlon to my viewers is cross-country skiing and you have to lay down and shoot and hit a target and so you're exhausted. You're you're not exhausted but certainly I would be. Okay. >> So So you're tired and you've been skiing and then you have to lie down and steady your gun and hit the So that's what bathlon is. Now this this win led you to compete internationally in the Nordic combined eventually becoming the FIS world champion. I hope they have that correct. They staged 11 events. >> Like it is kind kind of complicated. I've competed internationally in ski jumping, Nordic combined, and bathlon. And those are all three different sports. I'm the only American to ever go to world championships in ski jumping, bathlon, and Nordic combined. >> The only American, male or female? >> Male or female? >> Yes. >> Well, I think that should be tattooed on your chest. I mean, dear Lord, maybe not your chest, but your back. I mean, that that's extraordinary. But you became an FIS world champion and they staged 11 events and you won 10 of the 11. Um this should have taken you to the Olympics. Why didn't it? >> Because they didn't have um Nordic combined for women. And just recently they've taken Nordic combined out of the Olympics completely because they didn't want to add women. So they decided that they were going to make the sports gender equal >> um by taking out Nordic mind instead of adding women, which is is really crazy. >> Oh, it's really it's horrifying. I hope that nobody in your in our in our realm is leaving that to lie that we're going to keep fighting. But we're going to move on. We I want to move into that. The International Olympic Committee's decision to eliminate all Nordic combined from their competitions as of this year. It existed as a competition since 1924, the first Olympics, but it never ever included women. So, talk to us about your activism to get women included because they were excluded forever. And now the Olympics response is to eliminate the oldest winter competition for both men and women and they've taken it off their competition roster. And you think it's because rather than give it to women? I mean, how sexist is that? I mean, I would think that there would be some some some legal ability to to I mean, I don't know if there's discrimination um you know, policies in the Olympic committees, but that is discrimination beyond belief. >> So, do you want to know a crazy fact, Melinda? >> Yes. >> The IOC is a nonprofit organization. You know how many billions of dollars they make? and and give to NBC and donate to national governing bodies, but they are a nonprofit. So, they are not subject to a lot of the rules, regulations, um constrictions that like a company might be subject to because they're a nonprofit, but they're a very very powerful nonprofit that gives a lot of money, development money to national government bodies all over the world and every different sport. So it really becomes a very political dance about what sports are added and what sports are taken out. And like you said, they took out a sport that has been in the Olympics for over 100 years now. They said that if women's Nordic combined developed quickly and had successful world championships and had successful engagement and showed growth that they would add it to the Olympics. And we met every single one of those checkpoints that they laid out for us. And they didn't add us. They took that out completely. >> And they did go ahead >> they did add other sports just recently in July that didn't meet those benchmarks they set for us. So not that I don't want to see other sports in the Olympics, but it was very disappointing to see Synchro 9, for example, which requires a lot of athletes to get credentials and hasn't had that many international competitions and is a very new discipline. They added synchro 9 for ice skating which again it's a beautiful sport. I don't have any objection to them being in the games but they didn't they were not nearly at the level that women's Nordic combined or Nordic combined as a sport was at and they didn't have near the engagement and the same thing could be said of ski mountaineering. I mean they haven't had as many world championships. They haven't had as many World Cup competitions. They don't have as many competitors and they added them. So I it is very confusing that they didn't want to add >> So how did the men feel about this? How did the men feel about losing Nordic combined? I mean, did they join you in this this battle to to to to keep it? >> They did. So, they the athletes as a whole over the last four years have come together. We've written uh letters to the IOC, to our NGBs, to diplomats around the world advocating. I mean, Lieutenant Governor Rogers even wrote a letter to the IOC. Um, German diplomats, uh, Austrian diplomats. like this was a very international effort to kind of advocate and lobby the IFC to keep Nordic combined in and add women and it was not successful unfortunately. >> So you you did fight the battle for women ski jumping and you won but this battle you lost. >> So I want you to talk about how how this loss and the having to fight to have your your uh your skills and your genius and what you do recognized. How have they affected you both as an international female champion and as a woman dealing with deep sexual discrimination? I think that um coming face to face with sexism at 11 years old is not a experience that most western women have and it made me very aware of social injustices towards women the world over and I think that it's something that in general the world doesn't take seriously enough. I mean, it's easy for me to feel sad and disappointed, but then I look at all the other issues around the world where this is also a factor and how we as a culture kind of turn a blind eye to sexism in general, and it just makes me want to educate people and and stand up for it. And I'm going to paraphrase, but Ruth Bader Ginsburgg basically said, "Gen steps forward for gender discrimination happen slowly and consistently. It doesn't happen all at once." And I really am guided by that of the more education and the more advocacy we can have, the better. And you're going to take steps back. But at the end of the day, I still have world championships this year for women's Nordic combined. that is as a direct result from the advocacy I and others did. So, I'm going to take that opportunity and make the absolute most of it and then continue to advocate for the return of Nordic combined into the Olympics. It's it's not over. And the Olympics in 2034 will be in Park City, Utah for ski jumping or Salt Lake as a as a general um venue for the Olympics. So, Salt Lake 2034 and hopefully we can get Nordic Mine back in the Olympics for 2034 with >> anything there's anything that I can do or my viewers um you know, let me know and we'll join this fight with you. Now, you joined the army and you pursued a bialon competition and I and I believe that a lot of this had to do with money. Now, maybe I'm wrong, but as a bathlete competitor, you could be subsidized by the US Army to support your competition. And therefore, by joining the army, you were sponsored. And and as an Olympian, you're not sponsored unless you get I mean, I don't even think you can put Pepsi on your back. I mean, you you you don't get money when you when you're a champion or an Olympian. So, going into the army for you was it's so interesting that you did that. Can you explain that to the to my viewers? >> So, we're not exactly subsidized. Um, I joined the military because as an older athlete, and I say older, I was under 30. Um, but I wanted to make sure that I had a career away from being an athlete because at some point I am going to stop competing in athletics. And it was very important to me to not have a moment of what do I do now and be able to develop a career outside of athletics. And for me, a really good choice was the army. with that. I really enjoy the army because there's so many opportunities within it. Many people kind of think of the army as you're driving tanks and you're shooting guns, but I'm actually working in HR. Um, another career in the army that interested me was being a dental hygieneist or working in um med the medical department. There's so many opportunities within the US Army in terms of careers and you can change careers several different times but then keep your promotion, keep your rank and keep moving upwards. In the civilian world, if you want to switch careers five times, you might take a big hit to your career. So, that really appealed to me. There's also a bathlon team within the army. The army has army sports um because obviously being physically fit is very important in the army. So if you qualify for a national team in bathlon, they will help you attend those national team camps or the international com uh competitions that you qualify for. So you do have to meet that very high level of qualifying for international competition. It's not something that you can kind of just show up for. Um you like like most army things, you really have to earn your stripes to get there. But it was an amazing opportunity for me to be able to have a military career and then be supported to compete internationally at the same time. Okay. So, u in America, the US ski team does not support Nordic skiers to the same extent it supports snowboarders and alpine skiers. Why is that? >> That's a great question. Um, they're definitely the US ski team is supporting ski jumping a lot more than it used to, but given the fact that we have great results for ski jumping for the past few seasons and we also have multiple medals for Nordic combined, it is very confusing to me that the US ski team doesn't support us more financially. For example, I had two uh World Cup medals last season and the US ski team is not giving me any money, but at the same time, I have to wear a jacket that has a US ski team sponsors on my jacket if I want to be part of the ski team and represent the US ski team. Um, so they do do some stuff for us in terms of like insurance. They let us use some physical therapy. Um, they give us Kodiak cakes. um for like snacks and stuff, but it is kind of crazy like the differences between sports and the differences between financial support. >> Have you met with the leaders of of that of the organization? Have you actually gotten through in the door and met with the board and >> Yeah. >> So, a there's a lot of people working together to try to kind of address this issue. Um, the way the USOPC does it is athletes elect athlete representatives and those athlete representatives are the representatives to the board. At this point in time, I'm not an athlete representative, but we do have some really great athlete representatives like representing us and and speaking with the board. Um really what it comes down to is there's uh private and corporate sponsors that donate money and a lot of those private and corporate sponsors ear market for alpine skiing and that none of it goes to um Nordic combined or ski jumping. Um, for example, uh, the US Army is actually one of the sponsors for the ski team, but somehow none of that money goes to ski jumping or Nordic combined. >> That's crazy. Wow. Well, you are you are you're a warrior, so you need to you're just this is what you're going to be doing. You're going to have to fight for this. And but as a woman, >> a lot of things you kind of have to pick your battles, right, Melinda? So, I mean the team is doing quite a lot right. Um there are resources athletes who are injured can use they just have a partnership with the uh Utah state so we can take free classes through University of Utah which is a great resource. Um, but again, that doesn't really get you to the starting line, right? So, what I have to do is do a lot of fundraising um for that and and kind of that's under my wheelhouse, which kind of turns into a part-time job. And right now, I have a military career, I have a fundraising part-time job, and I'm on two different national teams. So, that doesn't leave a lot of extra time in my life. >> Well, I'm glad you found time for us um to speak with us today, Tara. So, you >> Well, and thank you so much for having me. I'm >> Yeah, really. Totally. So, >> and I I say that I do a lot, but I think most Vermonters and most people listening to this show also do a lot in their lives. Like that is not so different from a lot of individuals. >> Well, a lot of women have to fight for, you know, I mean, you faced it in this realm. A lot of women face it every day in their careers and everything and even their marriages. So, your mother, Betsy Gerity, has been a strong influence in your life and one of your greatest supporters. Um, I believe that she takes tremendous pride in your extraordinary accomplishments. Um, so talk to us a little bit about your relationship with your mom. My mom really instilled in me a love for the outdoors. Um, one of her favorite lines is running shoes are cheaper than a therapist. And she doesn't mean that in that don't go to therapy, but she means that in nature can be a really amazing healer and it can be really important for your health like physically and mentally. And getting outside has always been kind of a cornerstone of her her life lessons. And I remember in when she did homeschool me in elementary school, one of her big things, we would go outside and we would take field books and I would write down the weather and I would write down what was going on in the outside world. And kind of that observant, always curious, always questioning attitude um while being outside has has served me amazingly in life. And it I think it's so important that we pay attention to the outside world around us whether it's the people in our community or you know what's going on in our community in terms of you know how are the forests doing like what is the forest management plan what is the town zoning you know are the farms in the town using a lot of pesticides are they able to make a living on the dairy farms you know what kind of taxes are uh affecting them you know you it's endless if you are aware of your community and aware of the world around you. It gives you so much more power because knowledge is power, right? >> You're here. So, what words of wisdom would you give girls today who want to follow in your footsteps in the ski competition world? >> Um, I think number one is to never give up on your dreams and to not compromise on your dreams. I think I recently took five years away from the sport of ski jumping and then kind of announced that I wanted to go back and there weren't a ton of people who believed in me, but I decided that this was something that I wanted to do and would make me happy and I took a step-by-step approach and came back and got World Cup medals from it. And that was a real testament of even if you don't have a whole crowd behind you. Um believe in yourself and always ask what about this can't I do? So break break down your dreams and take it one step at a time and believe in yourself. >> That's so beautiful. So what words of wisdom can you give my viewers who are facing some truly deep fears about the future of our world whether it's climate change or all the other issues that we're facing the economy um you know the wars. I mean, what what what what keeps you what helps you sleep at night? What >> I think that for me, it's a lot easier to deal with fears when I'm doing something, even if it's something small. And we live in a very volatile time, whether it's forest fires or political change in the world. And I think a lot of humans have also felt that they lived in a very volatile time through through humanity. So that's kind of important to keep it in perspective. But pick pick something that really matters to you and and work on it. Whether it's being on your town select board or campaigning for a candidate you believe in or just picking up litter by the side of the road or, you know, funding an athlete who needs needs funding. you know, do something. And I think that will make you feel a lot better that you're doing what you can. I mean, it can also be pretty overwhelming. And I think just realizing that it's okay to be overwhelmed, and it's okay to be a little scared. It means you're paying attention. And, you know, get outside, breathe the air, take a few deep breaths, and carry on. >> And it makes a difference. So, we've run out of time. Tara, thank you so much for sharing your life and your indomitable spirit with my viewers. We're proud, so proud to have you as one of Vermont's most accomplished ski sport champions and as a member of our community. Born and raised here. You are an inspiration to so many and you've been an inspiration to me for your entire life. So, thank you for taking this time and for being outside. I love the fact that you're sitting outside surrounded by by nature. I'm so glad we're doing this and you're outside. If I had known, I would have sat outside, but um I'm stuck in here. But thank you so much for taking the time, Tara. It means the world. >> Thank you too, Melinda. I appreciate it. >> And to my viewers, I want to thank you all for joining us today. And um and you know what? I'm gonna see you next time. Thank you for tuning in. Bye bye.