2010 May

How sweet is it to have a ski race in May?  Each year the Ski to Sea multi-sport relay race kicks off with a xc ski race on Memorial Day Weekend Sunday.  This year was one of the most competitive fields ever.  Ivan Babikov made the trip and he is one of the best climbers [...]

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pp class="MsoNormal"“It’s about access.span  /spanGetting to experience the speed and then getting used to it.” – emBilly Demong on improving in international competition./em/p p class="MsoNormal"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--/p p class="MsoNormal"One hears a lot about the gaps in US skiing.  There are gaps in how many athletes get taken into the sport as young people.span  /spanGaps across the country that are costly to move through en route to races.span  /spanGaps in training in the 16 y/o and over crowd.span  /spanGaps in the difficulty of our race courses compared to Europeans.span  /spanNo gap is greater, however, than the gap between the level of competition readily available to juniors and developing seniors in the United States and that available in Europe.span   /spanWhen Scottish-born skier, Andrew Musgrave took up residence in Norway, he explained it simply,span  /span“That’s where the racing is.”span  /span/p p class="MsoNormal"span            /spanCertainly, there is strong racing in the US, given the improved fields at junior and senior nationals as well as the FIS-U events in the West and Eastern College Carnivals.  The US provides possibilities for starts but they still all pale in comparison with European counterparts.span  /spanSimply put, to push skiing forward, more skiers from more programs need to get Americans to European races.span  /span/p p class="MsoNormal"span           That can happen a bit easier /span(almost by accident) this year with the revival of the National Cross Country Ski Education Foundation.span  /spanThe non-profit started by Reid Lutter in the earlier part of this decade had been on its last legs when a large donation came in the form of an inheritance gifted to skiing.span  /spanRenewed with money, NCCSEF jumped back to life and began supporting athlete trips, its origin mission.span   /spanPerhaps most importantly, the organization supported a two-week OPA cup trip populated with up and comers in the skiing world and set out a path that would help US skiers find improvement.  It’s a trip that will happen again this year.  APU will bring skiers over for almost 9 weeks, a similar trip as the one described above is schedule for 7 weeks of OPA racing.)  This is big.  NCCSEF gives financial hope to be able to emfeel/em the difference in European racing.spanbr//span/p p class="MsoNormal"span            /spanSylvan E. described the partially NCCSEF funded trip this way on TeamToday.org, “France has such an awesome history.span  /spanSkiing here feels different than anywhere else.span  /spanI don’t know why, it just does. This is a good different. Twenty-one coaches and athletes rocking it here in France for the next couple days.span  /spanCan’t wait to see what is to come.”/p p class="MsoNormal"span            /spanWith the growth and renewal of NCCSEF, we should all feel similar anticipation.span  Too often kids have been sent home with a large bill from European trips, with the growth and renewal of NCCSEF, 2010 became a year closer to the time when we won’t have to tell (read: lie) to a kid, “if you love the sport, you’ll find a way to pay for it.”/span/p p class="MsoNormal"             That’s something you won’t hear in basketball./p p class="MsoNormal"spanbr//span/p p class="MsoNormal"span        Donate at: a href="http://www.nccsef.org"www.nccsef.org/a  /span/p !--EndFragment--/p

Great time in Bend. Rest/Travel day and Ski to Sea tomorrow.  Good Times

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We dropped Scott off at the airport yesterday afternoon and decided to take advantage of being so close to Smith Rocks.  A beautiful area that has held a firm place in my memory after my junior coach ‘Flash’ took Sam, Chad, and I here when we were in Bend for J3 Championships back in the [...]

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pp class="MsoNormal"“I’ve never seen anyone like him before.span  /spanHe pushes himself to the limit every day of his life.” –em Lindsey Vonn/em/p p class="MsoNormal"!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-- !--[endif]--/p p class="MsoNormal"Billy Demong won a gold medal in Nordic Combined.span  /spanThe first ever.span  /spanPeriod.span  /spanspan /span/p !--EndFragment--/p