This is Wendy Wagner describing her parents, Dave and Debbie:
"They have fun going out there and suffering; then they have fun talking with their friends about how much fun it was to suffer."
This, by the way, is a tribute.
Because if Wendy Wagner knows anything, she knows that without her parents long ago ushering her into the wonderful world of hurting, she wouldn't have made it to one Olympics, let alone two, and she wouldn't have turned herself into one of America's most decorated cross-country skiers ever.
Last month, at the age of 32, Wendy retired from world-class competition after winning the U.S. national marathon championship in Maine; a crowning moment that came on the heels of the Italian Olympics in February, where Wendy and teammate Kikkan Randall made history when they placed 10th in the sprint relay to become the first-ever American duo to crack the top 10.
Thus ended a journey that began in the late 1970s when Dave and Debbie were on their way to Park City for a cross-country ski race and said to their young daughter, "You can sit and color or come with us."
Wendy, as kids will do, elected to follow her parents. Later on, her younger brother Chris did likewise, and if you're looking for a poster family that counters just about everything the PlayStation Generation stands for, look no farther than the Wagners of Utah.
Do not blame the obesity pandemic on them.
Not that they would ever say so out loud — for one thing, they're too busy exercising; for another, they're not exactly the preachy type — but Wendy's Olympic notoriety has helped illuminate the fact that there are still people out there who think perspiration is a good thing.
For the Wagners, being active is priority one — as evidenced by Dave and Debbie's current residence in rural Summit County that is all about substance over style. They have space for their horses and enough room for a cross-country ski track. In the winters, Dave clears the track himself, not unlike a plow horse.
When the kids were younger, the Wagners lived in Draper when Corner Canyon was still the edge of the wilderness and the whole family could go out the back door and run and ride. As Debbie describes it, "We didn't see anybody but other crazy people like us."
The object was never to specifically raise an Olympian; that turned out to be merely one of the pleasant by-products, like negligible body fat, of a lifetime workout. In the early 1980s, the family
entered the Utah Winter Games and Wendy was among the top finishers in her age group in cross-country skiing, not aware the race was also a junior national qualifying event.
"They were saying, 'You have to come to junior nationals in Lake Placid,' " remembers Wendy. "I didn't know what junior nationals was, or Lake Placid."
Cross-country skiing was a relatively new pursuit for the Wagners, a distant cousin from the alpine skiing that got the family started in the first place. In 1972, Dave Wagner was the alpine ski coach at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and Debbie was one of his racers. They married that year and moved to Salt Lake so Dave could enter architectural school at the University of Utah.
Wendy came along in 1973 and Chris, who would prove to be a talented athlete in his own right, seven years after that. In 1976, Debbie was hired as a P.E. instructor at Salt Lake's Churchill Junior High, a job she held for 30 years until she retired in February. During all her time at Churchill she never stopped running the mile right alongside the kids.
"She'd run with them, she'd lift weights with them," says Gene Bechthold, who taught P.E. at Churchill with Debbie for 26 years. "She truly enjoys what she's doing. I don't think there's a kid around that doesn't like her."
But, then, running with the kids at school also served as training, since on weekends the Wagners would be off doing something exhausting.
"Our recreation," says Wendy, "was go to a race, put on your bib and get from A to B as fast as you can."
"All of our family vacations were like that," remembers Dave. "It wasn't until about five years ago we decided we needed a real vacation; we went to Cabo and laid on the beach."
The sedentary behavior did not last, especially not for Wendy, who spent 2002 and 2006 as an Olympian.
"I guess that qualifies as kind of the ultimate competitive vacation," says her dad.
Wendy has already been asked by the University of Utah to be an assistant nordic coach. The U. will get a two-time Olympian and Wendy will have the opportunity to pass along the positive influences she's been given by her parents — especially the fine art of suffering.
"That's pretty much all cross-country skiing is," she laughs, "the ability to suffer."
And when you really get it down right, the ability to enjoy it.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com.