Eliska Albrigtsen is in her first season as the Head Nordic Skiing Coach of the University of Denver after being named to the position on Sept. 8, 2025.
In her role, she leads the Nordic athletes while working in tandem with Otto Tschudi Head Alpine Skiing Coach Joonas Rasanen in guiding the men and women of the DU ski team.
Albrigtsen joined the Pioneers after spending the previous six seasons (2019-2025) as the head coach of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nordic skiing and cross country running programs. During her time at the helm of the UAF ski team, the Nordic-only program placed in the top 10 overall and in the top six in the Nordic standings in each of the five completed NCAA Championships.
At Alaska, she helped the Nanooks earn 23 individual All-American awards, including 10 first-team honors. Under her guidance, Joe Davies won the 2023 individual NCAA championship in the 10K freestyle interval start and Fairbanks local and U.S. Ski Team member Kendall Kramer claimed the 2025 national title in the 20K freestyle mass start.
At the 2022 NCAA Skiing Championships, UAF placed seventh overall, marking the best finish ever for the program at the collegiate nationals. Additionally, the team finished third in the Nordic standings at the NCAAs in both 2022 and 2023.
Albrigtsen was named the RMISA Nordic Co-Coach of the Year in 2023, and Alaska Fairbanks finished fourth in the conference's Nordic regular-season standings—the best finish in recent years for the program.
The former Czech national team member is the first woman to lead the Nordic squad in Denver skiing history and is the second active woman at DU that is in a head coaching role responsible for leading male student-athletes, joining DU men’s and women’s swimming and diving head coach Alicia Hicken-Franklin.
Albrigtsen first joined Alaska Fairbanks in 2018 as an assistant coach for both Nordic skiing and cross country running before being promoted to head coach in 2019. Prior to joining UAF, she served as the head coach and junior development coach for the Central Cross Country Skiing organization in Madison, Wisconsin, while also leading as the program manager and junior head coach for the Madison Nordic Ski Club.
From Jablonec, Czechia, Albrigtsen (then Hajkova) shined at the collegiate level at the University of Colorado. She helped CU win team national championships in 2011 and 2013, and she claimed her own individual national title in the 15K classical in 2011.
As a Nordic skier for the Buffaloes from 2010-2013, the 2011 CU Female Athlete of the Year recorded six All-American honors—four of them being first-team awards. Albrigtsen was named to the All-RMISA First Team each season, picked up three RMISA Championships and finished in the top 10 in 45-of-48 career collegiate races. Internationally, Albrigtsen started 24 FIS World Cup events and finished eighth in the 15K classic mass start at the 2013 World University Games in Lago di Tesero, Italy.
A two-time member of the National All-Academic Ski Team (2011, 2013), Albrigtsen graduated from Colorado in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in integrative physiology.
She resides in Denver with her son.
