Bill Harmeyer's 21-22 Season Fundraiser

Hello and welcome!

First off, thank you. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your hectic day to share this journey with me. This will be my ninth season of ski racing since qualifying for my first Junior Nationals as a second year U16 and every moment has been made special by the people I’ve met along the way. Those people are you! Yes, you! And I sincerely appreciate you.

For those who are new here, my name is Bill Harmeyer, I’m a professional skier based out of southern Vermont skiing with the SMST2 team . We are a small group of professional cross-country skiers who train and race full time, both domestically and internationally. This is my second season skiing with the team (but would consider it my first given how last year played out).

Born and raised in Underhill, I’m a Vermonter at heart. I have two loving parents; Pat and Don, an older sister; Maggie, and a twin brother; Henry. I had what most would consider a cliche endurance athlete upbringing. The usual… on skis by three, always outside, frolicking in the woods. But what made my childhood unique was the community I discovered.

I grew up skiing with Mansfield Nordic Club. From a wee BK’er, all the way through high school, MNC provided an environment for me to grow and develop. The community of athletes, coaches and parents helped foster a love for cross country skiing which I continue to treasure. After graduating from Mt. Mansfield Union High School in 2015, I spent a year in the west. I skied, worked, and lived in Bend, Oregon and was met, again, by a community of warm hearted individuals who helped support my goals. After a year of skiing with Bend Endurance Academy, I was given the opportunity to come back to my home state and ski with the University of Vermont Ski Team.

My four years at UVM were incredible. I was given multiple opportunities to represent my school and home state racing nationally and internationally. Twice I traveled to U20 and U23 World Championships, placing 12th in the 2017 Junior World Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah. In addition, I had the honor of representing the Catamounts twice at NCAAs, placing 5th in the 10km skate in 2019 on home soil at Trapp Family Lodge.

After an anticlimactic ending to my college career (being sent home early from NCAAs due to COVID), I was given the amazing opportunity to continue skiing professionally. I couldn’t imagine a better place to do that than in the state where it all began, with the SMST2 team. I spent my first year with Stratton growing accustomed to the life style and training load, learning as much as I could from my teammates and coaches. After spending last winter bunkered down, doing my best to flatten the curve, I’m incredibly excited to be going into the 2021/22 season healthy, fit, and hungry to race.

And this season is a big one. This will be my first full season of competitive racing since graduating college. It also happens to be an Olympic year. A fantasy of mine as a child, I now have a shot at representing my state and community at the highest level in sport. The path to this goal has been a long time in the making, and safe to say I’ll be putting (and have put) every ounce of energy and focus into making this dream a reality.

And thats where you come in. I’ve spent the past few months bunkered down, training hard and I’m happy to say my body and mind are in a great place. It’s been a productive summer and fall of training, I’ve had some amazing training opportunities and it’s almost time to put that training to the test. But, a large portion of my training and racing expenses are unfunded. As a non US Ski Team athlete, racing expenses like airfare, car rentals, room and board, food, race entree fees, etc. are paid for by me.

In anticipation of the 2022 Winter Olympics, I plan to maximize training and racing opportunities to put myself in a position to qualify. Qualification will be based on results from early season races, including the opening Supertours, US Nationals, and potential World Cups. Your donation will help get me to where I need to be in order to qualify for these events.

A breakdown…

Supertour Period 1 costs between $1500-2000 with a $300-500 plane ticket. A trip to US Senior Nationals costs roughly $1500-2000 with a $400-800 plane ticket. A one week trip to the World Cup in Europe costs roughly $140/day in room and board, $75/race for waxing, with a $1000+ plane ticket, totaling between $2000-3000. A trip to Supertour Finals costs between $1500-2000 with a $400-800 plane ticket.

In other words…

A $75 donation pays for a week of food on the road.

A $150 donation pays for a day of room and board in either the US or Europe.

A $250 donation pays for a World Cup weekend of waxing.

A $500 donation pays for a domestic plane ticket.

A $750 donation pays for a week of racing in the US.

A $1000 donation pays for a week of room and board on the World Cup.

A $2500 donation pays for an entire week of racing on the World Cup (room and board + waxing + airfare).

Your donations will go directly towards these expenses.

Want to follow your donation? Check out my VLOG. I produce weekly videos that showcase behind the scenes of racing and training, as well as other unique perspectives from a professional athlete. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and turn on notifications so you can follow along and keep up to date with my season!

And again, thank you! Its people like you who have helped get to where I’m at today. And your continued support means the world to me! I’m looking forward to seeing you all on the trails!

All the best,

Bill Harmeyer

Photos in order of appearance...

Reese Brown

Julia Kern

Julia Kern