cooks profile
SHIFTING GEARS
Four-time Olympian Katerina Nash relishes home-cooked meals.
WRITTEN BY ANN LINDEMANN
PHOTOS BY CHRIS HOLLOMAN
Fresh from a well-deserved après-training-session shower, competitive cyclist Katerina Nash is puttering around her sun-filled Truckee kitchen. Nearby, her devoted and exhausted canine training buddies, Rubi (short for Rubicon Peak) and Lola (Mt. Lola), are splayed out on couches, barely registering the culinary hubbub.
As a heady hit of Asian spices wafts from the kitchen, the small-framed Czech Republic native giggles under her breath when asked what’s on the menu.
“Green curry … an old Czech favorite,” she jokes while blending the cumin, coriander, cilantro, spinach, serrano chilis, garlic, and ginger into a vibrantly hued paste.
For 35-year-old Nash, cooking on her home turf is a delight, as she spends nearly half her life on the road competing in cycling events in the United States and abroad. It’s a lifestyle to which she’s well accustomed, as she has competed in four Olympic Games — two for cross-country skiing (1998 Nagano, 2002 Salt Lake City) and two for mountain biking (1996 Atlanta, 2008 London).
“People always ask me, ‘How can you train every day?'” Nash says. “I look at it this way: I work five hours a day training and, luckily for me, I like to train. I love my job.”
Nash moved to the United States from the Czech Republic in 2000 when she was offered a cross-country ski scholarship from the University of Nevada, Reno. She opted to settle in nearby Truckee, where she fell in love with the plentiful mountain-biking opportunities, as well as her husband, a fellow ski racer and Olympian, Marcus Nash.
Sports Switch
After the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, Nash waved goodbye to the world of competitive cross-country skiing and switched her athletic allegiance to mountain biking. Since then, she has been a top contender on the LUNA Chix Pro Team, a competitive cycling team sponsored by Clif Bar.
From September through January, Nash competes in cyclo-cross, which takes place on a varied outdoor course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills, and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount and remount. April through September finds Nash on the mountain-biking competitive circuit. All told, she competes 10 months out of the year.
“February is my month to take a break, hang out with friends, and backcountry ski,” Nash says, adding that ice hockey is her second-favorite winter sport. “This area is a hidden gem. It’s great here because instead of going out for a drink or coffee with my girlfriends, we’ll go skiing and for a group bike ride.”
Eating Well
While she probably can burn off just about anything that passes her lips, Nash is vigilant about fueling her body for competition and otherwise.
“Cyclists need to stay pretty lean for competition,” the 115-pound athlete explains. “But to expect good things from your body (competition-wise), you must put good things into it.”
For Nash, that means organic produce whenever possible, whole grains, and lean protein. And like most competitive athletes, she thrives on healthy carbohydrates. Nash admits she gets sluggish toward midday if she skips her daily serving of homemade granola.
Team Cooking
Although Nash comes from a long line of great cooks, she owes her culinary chops to fellow teammate Georgia Gould.
“She’s my culinary inspiration,” Nash says.
Gould tutors Nash on the finer points of cooking in kitchens all over the world. Nash says, typically, on a longer trip, the team will stay somewhere with kitchen facilities.
“We will cook together; it’s a great stress buster,” Nash says.
She notes that cooking one’s meals also helps assure food safety during competition periods. And forget about taking a cab to go grocery shopping; these women opt for their favorite two-wheeled transportation.
New Road Ahead
While Nash handles competition with grace and humor, she spies different challenges on the horizon.
“I’ve been a full-time competitive athlete since I was 18 and it’s been a good run, but I’m ready for something else,” Nash says. “I have a marketing degree from UNR and I’d like to see where that can take me.”
Nash believes her athlete’s mindset and discipline will serve her well in her next chapter.
“You don’t accomplish anything without a lot of hard work,” she says.
Lake Tahoe-based writer Ann Lindemann has never met a competitive athlete as humble and light-hearted as Katerina Nash.
Green Curry
(courtesy of Katerina Nash. Serves 4)
Curry Paste
In an immersion blender or food processor, blend the following ingredients:
1 cup cilantro
1 cup spinach
2 serrano chili peppers
1 tablespoon ginger
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
Lemon and lime zest
2 tablespoons peanut butter
Black pepper
Additional ingredients:
2 cans coconut milk (do not use “light” variety)
Vegetables of your choice (carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.)
Once paste is blended, put it in a large skillet and cook for 30 seconds. Add cans of coconut milk and vegetables of your choice. Cook until veggies are al dente. Don’t overcook. Nash serves her curry on a bed of black rice, but any rice is fine.
