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Kicking, gliding and sharing her passion for skiing

Mur Gilman stands in a snow-covered forest surrounded by pines with one set of ski tracks behind her - her own
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Mur Gilman
Mur Gilman takes a selfie in a snow-covered forest as she breaks trail on her cross-country skis.

Muriel Gilman of Bemidji earned the Minnesota Nordic Ski Association 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.

BEMIDJI — Muriel "Mur" Gilman made skiing and wellness her career and lifestyle.

“I don’t know why someone would walk when they could ski,” Gilman said. “ ... It’s winter. Why don’t you just kick and glide?”

Gilman has skiied most of her life, sharing her love for the sport and the magic associated with it. Earlier this month, the Minnesota Nordic Ski Association commended her efforts with the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Vintage, black and white photo of Mur Gilman crossing the finish line of the 1984 MN Finlandia Ski Marathon while being cheered on by ski enthusiasts
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Mur Gilman
Mur Gilman crosses the finish line of the 1984 Minnesota Finlandia Ski Marathon.

A professor of physical education and kinesiology at Bemidji State University from 1975-2012, Gilman also served as coach and trainer for BSU’s cross-country ski teams. She has been involved with the Bemidji Area Cross Country Ski Club since 1991 and was instrumental in establishing its Sunday Ski School Program. Beyond shaping champions through instruction and encouragement, she was one herself, winning the American Birkebeiner in 1981.

Gilman designed BSU’s first physiology lab, where she studied data on a variety of activities, including the energy expenditures associated with powwow dancing. Over her career, she related her lab data to the training of her athletes.

"I don’t know why someone would walk when they could ski... It’s winter. Why don’t you just kick and glide?”
Mur Gilman

“Some of them, I think, questioned that I wasn’t training them hard enough, because they weren’t doing what other teams were doing, but they never burned out,” she said on the Wednesday, April 12, Area Voices segment on the KAXE/KBXE Morning Show.

Quick to remind folks she couldn’t have received the statewide recognition without her local ski community, Gilman said many moving parts of the Bemidji cross-country ski scene that allowed her to help others find their love of skiing.

Mur Gilman, leans in to hug her yellow lab Kate while adventuring on snowy cross country ski trails
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Mur Gilman
Mur Gilman leans in to hug her yellow lab Kate while adventuring on snowy cross-country ski trails.

“Yeah, I’m getting this award, but it takes a village,” she said. “ … And I think the ski club is the glue that holds it all together.”

Gilman noted the work volunteers do to make cross-country skiing happen in the area.

“Not that many people know that the cross-country ski club does all the trails. ...They don’t realize it’s a volunteer club that’s accomplishing all that,” she said.

Gilman said the ski community cultivates connections through its volunteer efforts.

“Cleaning trails is like a sentence, if you will, for a day to be out in the woods with someone. Maybe you don’t even know them, and you're running chain saws, and you’re throwing sticks, and you’re helping each other out,” Gilman said. “And you get to know these people, and so you make new friends.”

Listen to the full conversation with Gilman to hear how she started skiing as a child in the backyard and eventually made sharing the love of skiing one of her life’s missions.


Area Voices is made possible by the MN Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of MN.

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Katie Carter started at Northern Community Radio in 2008 as Managing Editor of the station's grant-funded, online news experiment Northern Community Internet. She returned for a second stint in 2016-23. She produced Area Voices showcasing the arts, culture, and history stories of northern Minnesota.