Williston Resident Ethan Childs Named to Top US Sports Team
From our friends at the Green Mountain Orienteering Club:
Williston resident Ethan Childs, 19, has been named to the 2013 US Junior World Orienteering Championship (JWOC) team. He is one of just six young men and six young women, age 20 and under, selected to represent the USA in international competition this summer in the Czech Republic. It’s the Olympics of orienteers age 20 and under.
Ethan is a first year student in the Honor’s College at the University of Vermont in Burlington. He started orienteering as a child following a string through the forest. He has developed his map and compass skills and athletic ability by competing around the U.S., Canada, and Europe. This will be his third JWOC; he previously represented the US in Poland and Slovakia. His achievements include winning the 2012 North American Championship for Junior boys in the Middle Distance, and a sweep of the Championships in the Sprint, Middle, and Long Distance races at the 2010 North Americans. At the 2012 JWOC in Slovakia, he was the top placing competitor for the United States. He is happy to have won, with his brother, the Wicked Hard Night-O race in 2012.
In his free time, he enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee, reading and writing.
About Orienteering
Orienteering is a navigation sport. Using only a map and compass, but no GPS, competitors navigate through the deserts, forests, mountains and some urban parks to locate and check in at electronic controls that are placed in advance in the terrain. The fastest competitor to find all the controls in the correct order and return to the finish wins. The sport started in Sweden in the 1800s as a military training exercise and came to the US in the 1960s.
About Orienteering USA
Orienteering USA is the national governing body of US orienteering. Founded in 1971 and comprised of 60 local orienteering clubs, it reports that approximately 55,000 orienteering entries were generated in the US in 2012. This is a result of almost 800 national and local meets. For more information: www.orienteeringusa.org.
About the Green Mountain Club
The Green Mountain Orienteering Club hosts meets throughout the year. For more information: http://www.gmoclub.org.