Only a couple of weeks into the nordic ski season, and Diego Schillaci and his teammates have been training since long before the winter’s first snowfall.

“There is a saying that the best skiers are made in summer,” said Schillaci, who grew up in Newburgh. “A lot of people only think of skiing when there is snow, but the best of the best are training all year round.”

A freshman at Paul Smith’s College, Schillaci competes in the biathlon. The event combines cross country skiing and shooting a rifle.

“It can be pretty tough putting in a lot of long hours over the summer, when the goal is so far ahead,” he said.

Fellow freshman Kaisa Bosek also competes in the biathlon for the college in the Adirondacks.

“I really love that it is a combination of two different sports,” said Bosek, who grew up in Minnesota. “It is a challenge and it is really unique. I like shooting a bit more because I think I am a little bit better at it.”

The pair was training with teammate Aidan Ripp, who specializes in the Nordic combined, which pairs cross country skiing with ski jumping.

“It’s really, really fun,” said Ripp, a sophomore who also grew up in Minnesota. ”In winter, it is really hard to get too far down, especially now after all of the snow here in Lake Placid. It’s been a blast.”

The teammates do a lot of training at Mount Van Hoevenberg, which is just one part of the Olympic complex in Lake Placid.

One year from now, the town and its newly revamped venues will host the World University Games, which will be the biggest competition in the town since the 1980 Winter Olympics.

“Having these high-scale events, it will be really cool to show that this wasn’t just a great thing in the '80s, it is a great thing now,” Ripp said. “It is kind of the place to be, in the East at least.”

Lake Placid last hosted the World University Games in 1972. Ripp, Schillaci and Bosek all hope to be among the 1,600 athletes who will be competing on behalf of 50 different countries and 600 universities.

“It is such a great opportunity to have it brought here to Lake Placid,” Bosek said. “Especially because I go to school here, I get to train on the course.”

“It is really exciting,” Schillaci said. “I am really excited to see all of the different students and athletes from around the world that are going to be competing and just have all of these different cultures and people interacting.”

With 12 months to go until the opening ceremonies, the athletes are confident their year-round training will pay off when it matters most.

“Even just coming to a competition like this is a big honor and awesome to represent your country and school,” Schillaci said.

“We will just keep training and see what happens in the future,” Bosek said.