From Mexico to Richfield to China, Jonathan Soto Moreno went around the world on two skis

BEIJING — During the first 12 years of his life, Jonathan Soto Moreno saw snow only once. It fell briefly one day in his hometown of Durango, Mexico, and was gone as suddenly as it appeared.

Then Soto Moreno and his family moved to Richfield. One day, it snowed. Then it snowed some more. And it didn't go away for weeks and weeks.

"It was shocking,'' Soto Moreno said. "All the snow, and it was so cold. But you can't hibernate. You need to find something to do in winter.''

That was all Soto Moreno expected from cross-country skiing when he took up the sport in high school. He certainly didn't see himself in Zhangjiakou, China, wearing a racing suit in Mexico's colors, edging up to the starting line for the men's 15-kilometer classic at the Beijing Olympics.

Soto Moreno, 28, was Mexico's lone representative in Friday's race on the Zhangjiakou course. It was a little more exotic — and a whole lot tougher — than the tracks at Theodore Wirth Park or Maple Grove's Elm Creek, his usual playgrounds during Minnesota's snowy season.

His long journey to the Olympic Games ended with a 94th-place finish. To get there, Soto Moreno put in hundreds of hours of training, raced all over Europe to earn his spot and spent upwards of $20,000 on travel and equipment. While most Olympic athletes receive funding from sponsors and their national Olympic committees, Soto Moreno paid his own way with help from family and friends.

Steve Mills, who lives next door to Soto Moreno's family and coached him at Richfield High School, organized a fundraiser last year. "We sold T-shirts, homemade ice cream, waffles, raffle tickets,'' Mills said. "It was very grass-roots. There's lots of excitement that Jon made it to the Olympics.''

Soto Moreno said he could hardly find words to describe his experience in Beijing, but he gave it his best shot.

"Amazing. Unreal. Incredibly exciting,'' he said. "When I go to the course here, I see the Olympic rings on the buildings. My room in the Olympic Village overlooks the flags of all the countries, and Mexico is the first one.

"Until I was in high school, I had no idea this sport existed. My 10-year-old self would have thought this was crazy.''

A dual citizen of the United States and Mexico, Soto Moreno was born in California but spent much of his childhood in Mexico. When he was 12, his mother, Bertha Moreno, moved to Richfield with sons Jon, Nelson and Andy to be closer to family.

In high school, Jon played soccer and ran distance events for Richfield's track and field team. Snow sports were not on his radar until a friend, Zak Beaudet, suggested Soto Moreno join the school's Nordic ski team to stay active in the winter and maintain his fitness for track season.

"The first weeks, it was a little bit of a struggle,'' Soto Moreno said. "It was weird to be out in the snow and cold, trying to stay warm. But I ended up liking it. It was a good fit for me.''

The idea of competing at the Olympics started as an offhand remark. Soto Moreno made big improvements in his junior and senior seasons with the Richfield Nordic team, leading Aaron Tepp — his biology teacher and ski coach — to suggest exploring the process for representing Mexico at the Winter Games.

Though Soto Moreno was intrigued, he also was eager to start college, and he decided the time and expense of pursuing an Olympic berth was too much. But he couldn't forget about it.

Soto Moreno attended the University of Minnesota, got his degree at Dunwoody College of Technology and started a career as a project manager. After college, he raced the American Birkebeiner — the largest cross-country race in North America — and started training seriously again, which whetted his appetite for something more.

"I was driving to work one day, and I thought, 'Why not do it? Why not try for the Olympics?'" Soto Moreno said. "The worst thing they could say was no.''

He called the Mexican Olympic Committee. It helped him get licensed with the International Ski Federation, allowing him to race and earn qualifying points. Soto Moreno connected with German Madrazo, a 2018 Olympian for Mexico in cross-country skiing, who began coaching him.

Soon, he had a four-year plan, and a goal to compete in Beijing.

Qualifying for the Olympics is a complex process. Athletes must earn slots for their country to participate in the Games, then they compete against each other to see who gets those berths. It's an expensive, stressful proposition, especially for athletes who don't have sponsorships or the resources provided by a national team.

Soto Moreno's support came from his friends, family, employer and neighbors, as well as the community surrounding the Nordic team at Richfield High School. Mills said the program is built on diversity, welcoming athletes whose families come from places far from the sport's Scandinavian roots. During Soto Moreno's time, the team also included skiers from Vietnam, Tibet, India, Iran, Nigeria and Cambodia.

The program is "a big point of pride in our community,'' Mills said. To help get one of their own to the Olympics, supporters contributed to several fundraisers and a GoFundMe account, pitching in almost $10,000 at one event.

At last year's world championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, Soto Moreno raced in the 15k freestyle and earned an Olympic berth for Mexico. He won two races at Mexico's national championships, held last December in Canada, then headed to Europe to compete for the country's only spot in cross-country skiing at the Beijing Games.

Soto Moreno raced in Turkey, Switzerland, Lebanon and Iceland, a nerve-racking pursuit that ended Jan. 16 when he beat the last teammate who could have edged him out.

"It was a long journey for just a few days here at the Olympics,'' he said. "I committed 100 percent to this. There were a lot of parties and other things I didn't do, because I needed to focus on training. But it's really satisfying when you put in all that work for all those years, and it pays off.''

Early Friday morning, Soto Moreno's supporters from Minnesota to Mexico gathered around TV and computer screens to watch him race at 1 a.m. Central time. Mills thought about all the mornings when he saw his neighbor drive off at 6 a.m. for workouts, no matter how hot or how cold or how rainy the weather.

"Jon is a very good skier, and he worked extremely hard,'' Mills said. "As a community, we helped him, but he has willed this to be. He made it happen.''

Friday's race was one of the hardest of Soto Moreno's life. From the moment he arrived at the course, he could feel the emotions building.

On his first lap through the stadium, he heard the Mexican delegation cheering for him. He thought about his family and friends, and all the people who helped him get to Beijing.

"That motivated me to give everything I had,'' Soto Moreno said. "At the end of the race, all my energy was gone. But it was the best sensation, to hear my name, saying I was finishing.

"It was a very emotional moment. I represented Mexico, my family and my community in Minnesota at the Olympic Games. It was really rewarding, to say the least.''