Denja Rand looks good—gorgeous—in ski boots and a bikini. You might think that’s enough to win the Local Lange Girl contest for 2010, but you’d be wrong. She finished with 63,395 “hot votes,” but it wasn’t enough to win the popular vote.

So what makes Rand the perfect girl for Lange? Consider this: She’s been skiing since she was two years old, when her mother pushed her and her twin sister, Janne, down the driveway on skis. A former racer whose career was ended by injury, Rand currently teaches English and history and coaches teenagers at the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid, New York. Then there’s her pedigree—her father, Jay, was an Olympian in ski jumping and her mother, Gun, grew up in Norway ski racing. Rand is also comfortable in the public eye, riding shotgun in a firetruck during her boyfriend Andrew Weibrecht’s parade down Main Street of their hometown celebrating his bronze medal in the super G at the Vancouver Olympics.

We caught up with Rand after a day of Nordic skiing.