NORMALLY, when you make a shambles of the competition the way John Aalberg did at last week's U.S. Cross Country skiing championships in Minnesota - when you win every race on the schedule, when there isn't a person wearing nordic skis in the country who's not behind you - that would be quite enough to ensure qualification for the Olympic Games. All you'd have to do is wait for the car and driver to take you to the airport.
But with Aalberg, there remains one more step in the qualification process for the Albertville Winter Games that begin Feb. 8 in France.Next Wednesday, he needs to ski down to the U.S. Courthouse in Salt Lake City and be sworn in as a United States citizen.
The Olympics have relaxed a lot of their rules and requirements the past several years, but citizenship isn't one of them. You still have to be a citizen of the country you intend to represent.
Aalberg has been waiting to become a U.S. citizen for the past three years. A native of Norway, he first came to the United States in 1983 as a recruit of the University of Utah ski team. He was 22-years-old at the time and had two years of college eligibility to give the Utes, after which he was likely to return to his homeland.
But he helped Utah to the 1984 NCAA skiing championship his first season, and helped himself to the individual national cross-country championship, and not only took an instant liking to American snow, but to Wasatch Range snow in particular.
He won another individual national championship as a U. of U. senior in 1985, switched to the Utes' track team and won All-America honors as a cross-country runner as well, finishing ninth in the national championships; completed a degree in computer science, got a job with a local computer firm, met and married his wife, Carolyn, at the university, and settled down on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
He was your basic All-American boy from next door; as long as you considered Stjordal, Norway, next door.
After marrying an American citizen Aalberg qualified for resident status, which enabled him to become a member of the U.S. Ski Team and compete in the national championships. But there was a three-year waiting period between resident and for citizenship status.
He and Carolyn were married in August of 1988 and, at first, Aalberg took that to mean he could become a citizen exactly three years later, in August of 1991. But then he was told the three-year countdown didn't officially start until the day the government assigned him a resident's green card, which was Jan. 5, 1989.
Then, when he filled out his application for citizenship this past Oct. 23, he was told there was a minimum 90-day waiting period between filing out the application and getting his citizenship.
That meant Jan. 23, 1992 - next Wednesday - would be the earliest he could turn American.
As it turns out, Jan. 23 is also the day the rest of the U.S. cross-country ski team will leave for Europe to begin pre-Olympics competitions and acclimatizing.
"I will have to join them as soon as I can," said Aalberg, who, once he becomes a full-fledged citizen, must also deal with the matter of acquiring a U.S. passport.
To expedite the passport procedure, he has the support of U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch in Washington, D.C.
Ideally, it would be better to not have such distractions just a matter of days before the Olympics, but if last week's nationals are any indication, Aalberg can deal with them. Skiing both the classical and freestyle techniques in Minnesota, he won at 10 kilometers. He won at 15 kilometers. He won at 30 kilometers. And he won at 50 kilometers. In the end, he picked up a check for $5,200 - the maximum amount possible for an individual to win.
"I was surprised. I didn't think I could win all four races," said Aalberg, although it is true he hasn't been beaten by an American since last March.
Competing for the U.S. team in World Cup races in December in Canada, Aalberg showed world-class potential. Against the best nordic racers in the world he placed as high as 16th and consistently finished alongside skiers from the top half of the teams from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia.
He knows it will be his fellow Scandinavians, as well as a few Eastern Europeans, who will present the most formidable competition in Albertville. Many of the Norwegians there will be friends and teammates from his days as a junior racer in Norway. Only now they will be the opposition.
"That should be interesting," said Aalberg.
But for now that's getting ahead of the race. He hasn't qualified for the Olympics yet. He still needs to become a U.S. citizen, and acquire a U.S. passport.
"There are so many steps for me to get to the Olympics," Aalberg said this week. "I won't even have time to celebrate getting my citizenship next week. But I'm sure I'll find some way to celebrate - maybe in Albertville."