How many huge Nordic-skiing names can you drop? I don't mean élite competitors such as Beckie Scott or Bjorn Daehlie, but the public figures who enjoy this winter activity-people from other sports, movies, and politics.  Let's see, there's Lance Armstrong, Demi Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Chris Evert, Harrison Ford, Robert Redford, and the late Pierre Trudeau.

Now add 38-year-old Emme, one of the world's best-known models and twice selected as one of People Magazine's “50 Most Beautiful People.” But she's about as far as you can get from the stereotypical bland, anorexic clotheshorses. She's not only the first full-figure supermodel, but is also stunningly attractive, energetic (she loves to swim, hike, and to ski 20 to 30 kilometres a day), and professionally accomplished.

Ask yourself how many famous people have the talents of an athlete, author, lecturer, television reporter and host, clothes designer, and  mother.
Born in New York City and raised in Saudi Arabia, Emme went to Syracuse University on an athletic scholarship (she was on the crew team and got her degree in speech communication), and was invited to join the U.S. Olympic rowing trials. She's also a
Nordic ski nut who has persuaded her publicity agent that it's a great sport. That's to be expected of someone who advocates for women to be fit and healthy.

Emme began skinny-skiing 10 years ago, and does it everywhere she goes; where there's snow, that is. This includes the hills and lakes of Sweden (the saunas are fine, too), the Rockies, in Utah when at the Sundance Film Festival, and throughout northeastern U.S. She's particularly fond of the trails and snow-capped pines in the Shawangunk mountains around New Paltz, N.Y.

How's this for enterprise and endurance? A couple of winters ago, snow closed the roads around her home, so she skied into town for groceries. Sarah Hall, Emme's friend and “skiing” publicist, says Emme will ski “about anywhere there is snow,” whether it's in a park a few miles' drive from home, in the fields that are nearby, or on the New Jersey trails that lie along the Hudson River.

Emme likes cross-country skiing because it's a healthy, inexpensive, great social sport-and an opportunity to enjoy peace and beautiful scenery, hot chocolate, and snowball fights with friends and family.