Lex Treinen
Alaska skiing fans were surprised to recognize a familiar voice announcing the World Cup cross country pursuit race last Sunday in Ruka, Finland.
The voice belonged to Anchorage’s Lex Treinen, who was filling in for a European announcer on skiandsnowboard.live, a new streaming service in the United States for FIS, the governing body of World Cup skiing.
“I kind of reluctantly agreed to do it,” Treinen said of the paid gig. His primary hesitation was that the 10-hour time difference between Finland and Alaska meant the race would be happening in the middle of the night for him.
Nat Herz, Treinen’s friend and colleague at Alaska Public Media, initially received an email inquiring about his availability from a company called Spalk, which lines up the World Cup announcers. Herz, also a reporter for FasterSkier.com, was not interested but recommended Treinen.
Treinen had previously announced at the Tour of Anchorage finish line and at U.S. Nationals races both online and in person, but the World Cup assignment was a first. A former elite skier for the University of Alaska Anchorage and the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center, Treinen is knowledgeable about the top American skiers — his girlfriend Rosie Frankowski is a 2018 Olympian — but hadn’t actually watched World Cup races for a couple of years.
The West High grad set up a remote studio in his Anchorage home with a microphone he hooked up to his computer, multiple laptops for tracking race splits and doing research on the fly, and strategically placed pillows to prevent sound from echoing.
What Treinen hadn’t counted on was multiple race delays in Ruka due to cold weather that extended his assignment and created confusion when the entire Norwegian men’s team failed to show up at the start.
Treinen, who was up until 4:30 am., called the assignment “fun and stressful” and wished he’d had a commentating partner.
He’s noncommittal about filling in again when the opportunity arises.
“I’ll get to do it (again) if I want to,” Treinen said. “The late night, it was pretty rough.”
Photo by Nancy Tarnai