Comments on: Skis, not Fitness, Doom Freeman in XC Opener

By: AxlRose

AxlRose — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:54:35 +0000

I remember, not too long ago in fact, when the conditions for the US Nationals classic distance race were incredibly terse. Everyone has off days, including wax techs, and that was one that was personal for me. I thought I’d be able to toss out a top result, but ended up with a horrible position because my skis were so horrible. Am I proud? Heck no! I was really pissed off at my waxing, and my coach for putting the wax on my skis. But I was up against some pretty steep odds, and with it snowing to beat the band I knew it had nothing to do with how I prepared. The skis, the flex, the grind, the wax, it was all wrong. I can’t really blame the guy waxing for me, first, because he’s my coach, and second, because I know I couldn’t do better myself. Granted, with as many wax techs as they have at the Olys you’d think they’d be able to get it right, but when they don’t we all have to realize we’re sitting a million miles away on the other side of the fence.

By: RebeccasRide

RebeccasRide — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:37:27 +0000

You are an inspiration! I am 17 and this summer my family and I rode across country on our bicycles. We rode over 4100 miles and I couldn’t have done it without a pump and a continuous glucose monitor. The continuous glucose monitor reads my BG continuously so I can see a trend of my sugars dropping or going high. It also can be set to alarm for a low and for a high range. I would love to talk to you about this technology. My friend just got one for a dog sled race she is competing in at Fort Knox. You are amazing and we look forward to watching you in the future. No matter what happens, you are a star in our book! Check out our adventure at rebeccasride.blogspot.com and after the Olympics maybe you can visit us in Bar Harbor. We do a walk for JDRF in the fall and would love to have you as our guest speaker…it would be truly motivating! Save the date…10.10.10 @10am!!! Go get ‘em Kris!

By: Cloxxki

Cloxxki — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:32:51 +0000

Funny that someone posts implicitly referring to me as aweful commenter, while remaining anonymous him/herself. My nickname is not anonimous at all, I’m well googlable for real name, with address, phone number and all. Nothing interesting there though, so spare yourself the effort.

Assuming indeed the ski flex was wrong (an not a story produced by Nathan to boost Kris’ confidence going into next races, which would have been exactly my action in his shoes), it’s an odd mistake to make. Like pointing your superstar skater into the wrong lane in speed skating. It just doesn’t happen.

If I had the same weight as the best skier in my country, I would do all to be able to test his skis, take that burden away. Especially as the guy has business to attend to, his health, all 20mins before the race.

That said, even with a great bike, and shooting for top-10, I’ve managed to battle it out with the usual backmarkers. Flat days happen. Sometimes it’s not “your” course, or “your” day. It even happens to the best, just much less so. And they bounce back from it (Bjoendalen, Neuner).

-The one and only Cloxxki, with the “k” in there.

By: Reese

Reese — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:19:19 +0000

paldesgn-

66.6 % percent of the mens podium was on Fischer skis… so the error was probably in the complicated mix of stucture and wax

By: paldesgn

paldesgn — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:53:31 +0000

I wish the the Olympics were not so emotional, but they are. Its regrettable that Kris had a such a bad day and/or bad skis. I feel for him and his team of coaches and techs!

With that being said, I wish somebody could explain the science behind choosing the right skis/wax for these conditions? For example, why do the skis from Team Sweden and France appear to be faster than the rest? Why did the US and Norway appear to have such slow skis? Are the teams bound by contract to use a specific ski/wax brand that may not of been a preferable choice for the given conditions? Does Sweden have a secret wax? Are Fischer skis slow in mushy snow? … etc.

Anyhow, I think it would be very interesting reading if anybody from Fasterskier or from this forum has any insight on this.

Thanks!

By: Kevin Cutts

Kevin Cutts — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:35:58 +0000

It would do the fasterskier community a lot of good if the ignorant posters (the majority, especially on this article) would just take 2 minutes to reread their posts and think for a minute as to whether their proverbial toilet bowl of words would actually do this discussion any good. Or as J-klister so elegantly put it.. shut up.

Freeman is world class, and has way more crap to deal with than any one else can possibly understand, and he had a rough day on the worlds biggest stage and things just didn’t happen to go his way. It happens… and to say that our wax techs need to step down? i’m sorry but i think some people forget how much of their own money they spend to go to the world-cups and the countless 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night they get only to be on their feet for 15+ hrs of the day.

Freeman did the best he could with what was given to him and i commend him for it.

By: skipow

skipow — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:08:11 +0000

Easy does it Jake and Nesbit… I’ve got bets going with several people, and my money’s on Freebird reaching the podium. I hear he races better pissed off, so I’m doing my part to make that happen.
Justin’s a hell of a skier, who apparently keeps quite a busy schedule. I’m pretty sure we all do. That’s why on race day you gotta bust people’s balls who say “I was flat today” or whatever.
Why bring your competitors down with that?
No excuses.
“You’ll never be as good as Freeman…?” Should we just give up at the start line because a Freeman showed up? I think we should go hard and celebrate leaving it all out there.
Aren’t we only as good as our last race? If not why would anybody race into their 50′s and 60′s?

By: the new cloxxi

the new cloxxi — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:19:04 +0000

‘Professionals’…. a word that in our society for some reason is a good thing. It’s a word associated with being the ‘best’…. or in my opinion losing the balance. Its a single mindedness or a one track road. Sometimes those roads leed to a medal …sometimes they lead to disillusionment. As a professional narrows their focus year after year, small parts of themselves are left behind all for the revered podium stand. Its the mindset of the overachiever, who is actually underachieving in their grounding balance necessary in life.
I see many of these athletes, as I was in my twenties, putting all the eggs in one basket, and its revered in our society to do it. It took me another 10 yrs to unwind this ‘professionlism clock”. I can look back and say , “glad I did it, but how glad I am that I dont do that to myself anymore”. We are not all meant to become Bjørn Dæhlie where professional success on the podium leeds to other forms of success. For most of us it becomes something that we did to ourselves, and hopefully move on from.

Nordic skiing has become in my opinion ‘a one track road’. Where we have lost sight of what is important…. and this is not a gold coin hanging like some sort of modern day bling from a chain around the neck. What is important ? To me a connection to athletics, nature, and the comradeship it brings. Instead, we have sold out and are sponsored by corporate entities, who make us spread toxic waste on our skis, require us to have two dozen pairs of skis, one day of use disposable ski suits, the carbon fiber pole of the year …and all at the eventual demise of our environment. We travel by car, or fly all over the place, to ski marginal contrived snow just to race other ‘single minded corporate pawns” contributing to the death of our ecosystem (a direct attack on why we Nordic ski)…And all for what…professionalism.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Johnny Klister.

By: stevephillips

stevephillips — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:22:45 +0000

I can’t believe some of the vitriol and depressing dung being flung around as comments here. Further, I can’t believe I keep reading these posts, but it’s like watching a gory train-wreck. It’s like a bunch of loser football fans sitting around Monday-morning-quarterbacking, ripping on the athletes/coaches as if they could do better; living vicariously through others as if trying to compensate for something. The U.S. skiers competing are professionals and have trained for this, and they will react and move on accordingly. Life happens, sometimes things go well, sometimes it hits the fan; you learn from whatever went wrong and move on. I’m sure the athletes, who are personally vested in the competition, have moved on- why can’t some of the fans?

By: Ian Nesbitt

Ian Nesbitt — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:52:27 +0000

Skipow,
I don’t know what entitles you to be so self-righteous. Clearly, Freeman has shown that he can compete with the best of the World Cup this year. Everyone has “flat” races. What are you hoping to achieve by posting angrily about some of our nation’s best racers? To be honest, I’m not sure what you’re blaming our skiers’ bad results on, but if you think you can do better, then go out there and do it yourself. This country’s nordic programs need a “can-do” attitude right now and honestly, sir, you and your joking master-blaster friends need to show some respect for that.
See you on the trails.