CAMBRIDGE — Andy Shields wants to compete in the Olympics, but not in Vancouver.

Instead, the Cambridge cross-country skier has a world junior championship to handle first in two weeks. Maybe he’ll be ready for the 2014 games in Russia, or 2018 wherever it’s held.

“Olympics. Definitely that’s going to be the big goal,” the 18-year-old said.

Making the national team was a surprise for the soft-spoken teen.

“It’s been a goal for a long time. I’m pretty surprised it happened so soon. Next year was when I was going to make the team.”

Andy is a member of the Waterloo Region Nordic Sports Club.

Earlier this month, he competed in the World Junior Trials north of Quebec City. He placed second in the 20 km pursuit race, with a time of 57 minutes, 52 seconds; eighth in the 1.2km skate sprint, with a time of 1:46; and seventh in the 15km Classic with a finish of 48:08.

That earned him a nomination to the 18-member Canadian Junior team.

So he leaves Wednesday for training in Germany and Italy, before competing in the 2010 Junior and Under 23 World Championships , Jan 25 to Jan 31 in Hinterzarten, Germany.

It costs him $3,500 for the European trip, including accommodations. He’s borrowed the money from his dad but has to pay it back through sponsors — and relatives. While it’s no vacation, it gives him a chance to travel and socialize.

“I like being at the ski race, rather than the travelling,” Andy said.

He can’t remember when he first started skiing, but can say he’s been eager to compete since a young age. His father, Kevin, saw his son’s athletic potential after putting him on a bicycle at age four.

“We went out for a family ride and two hours later, he was still zooming along,” dad said.

The Preston High School student is on the track and cross country teams. He’s also taking cello lessons.

Andy has a part-time job in the kitchen of Golden Year’s Nursing Home. Eventually, he wants become a chef.

For now, he’s putting his nutritional smarts into work finding the right mix of food to find the 5,000 calories he needs daily to train for competition.

Andy lives in a house along the Speed River, where two hectares (five acres) of property and kilometers riverbank give him room to practice skiing in winter.

In summer 2009, he trained in a 1.25 kilometre-long “ski tunnel” in Finland, with artificial snow under his skis.

Usually, his off-season regimen includes “roller skis” — skis with wheels front and back — along with running, and cycling up to two hours a day. There’s also some work with a shovel and pitchfork. He helps out in a market garden covering the land behind the family house, where vegetables are grown to sell at local farmer’s markets.

Cross country skiing is more than striding across a picture-postcard winter landscape.

“It’s a pretty sophisticated sport — lots of variables,” Andy said.

Like all the hills. “Some are as tall as Chicopee,” he said. That’s where you have to turn your skis on an angle and skate up the incline as your legs protest.

Andy has short legs, so hills are his place to make up time. On the flats, he can’t compete with long-legged skiers gaining on every stride.

So he has to stay relaxed and not let other racers goad him into an open field sprint he’ll lose. At the same time, he’s trying to put others off their game, so he can power away on hills.

“In a mass start, you have to take a look at things in the whole race. You’re really playing mind games with competitors.”