Kris Freeman was born and raised in northern New Hampshire, in a rural house his father built off a dirt road lost among the hills. He started skiing by the age of 2 and had his first taste of competition at the age of six as a nordic combined skier. In his early teens he realized that his true passion was cross-country skiing.

He was given a full ride to the University of Vermont but decided to chase his dream of competing for the USA on the Olympic Stage.

There is only one way to get there, and that is to compete all over the world for the U.S. Ski Team. Soon after he moved out to Park City he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. His doctors told him he would never be able to compete at the Olympic level, but that never deterred Kris from finding out a way to make it happen. He takes multiple insulin injections a day and has proven his doctors wrong by being the first diabetic to successfully compete at an international level in an endurance sport.

Less than a year later in 2001, he had to have surgery for compartment syndrome, which caused abnormal growth of the muscles in his lower legs. He had surgery on both of his legs and has wasn’t able to skate until six weeks before the Olympics.

Athletes overcome a lot of obstacles in their path to victory but Kris has truly been one for the record books. With everything he has gone through, he has managed to compete in 2 Olympic Games, ski on 4 World Championship teams, and has won 10 U.S. National Titles.

He is far from done in the sport of cross-country skiing. He would love to make it to Vancouver 2010 and compete in the Olympics for a third time. After he is done competing he plans on returning to his studies to obtain his college degree.