His father, John, a former cross-country skier, famously woke up at 4 a.m. to clear a homemade ice rink on a local pond using a John Deere lawnmower equipped with a custom-built Zamboni attachment to save his son the time wasted to go to town (or something similar) to get in his practice efforts on the local ice rink
Ensuring the ice was perfect for them, he engineered his own "Zamboni" system to smooth out the ice, a testament to the DIY spirit that supported Ben's athletic development.
Ben Ogden made Olympic history earlier this week, ending the United States’ 50-year medal drought in cross-country skiing. The two-time Olympian claimed silver in the men’s cross-country skiing sprint. He is just the second U.S. man to claim an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing since Bill Koch, also a native Vermonter like Ogden, did at the Innsbruck Games in 1976.
