World Cup report First, let me tell you a little about myself to give you some
perspective on this article. I've always been a big sports fan when it comes
to traditional American sports- basketball, football and hockey especially.
While I started x-c skiing over 15 years ago, much of it was in the Midwest
where I did a lot of “shuffleskiing in state parks mainly to get outside and
away. It's only been in the past 5 years since I moved to Reno that I've become
more focused on x-c skiing, started racing (solid middle of the pack usually)and
began following the national and international x-c racing scene.
When I saw the 2003 World Cup Nordic Championships
where going to be in Italy, I thought it might be a
great opportunity to check out what this aspect of
sport is all about. My wife's parents both grew up in
the Friuli region of Italy, which it turns out is
about a 2-3 hour drive from Val di Fiemme. I
proposed a trip to Italy to my wife (who luckily
speaks Italian). Since she is quite cool, she agreed,
and we made plans to watch the first week having no
idea what we were going to experience.
The Dolomites are spectacular- many more steep,
jagged, exposed rock faces than the Sierra that I'm
used to. After a few days visiting my wife's friends
and family, the drive to Val di Fiemme took us through
Cortina and over Passo Pordoi. With the number of
people coming in for the games, we could only find a
hotel in Vigo di Fassa, about a 25-kilometer drive to
the stadium in Lago di Tesero. All along the entire
drive, hotel balconies had flags flying from countries
all over the world. (As an aside, Polish ski jumping
fans won the award for most enthusiastic group during
the events. Norwegians won the gold medal for the
most number of fans- the local Italian newspapers
commented about how the local villages had more
Norwegians than Italians).
The stadium at Lago di Tesero has a grandstand area
for VIP ticket holders (not us) complete with TV
coverage and current standings. We usually positioned
ourselves somewhere on the slopes of the first hill
where we also had a distant view of the finish. On
the recommendation of my friend and coach Nathan
Schultz, we packed our USA flag. With all of the
political tensions in Europe, at the start of the
competition we were somewhat nervous about waving our
flag around. Thus, we had our flag neatly tucked away
in my jacket, where we could pull it out as the US
skiers went by. This was in drastic contrast to the
numerous Norwegian, Estonian, Germany, Swedish, Swiss
and of course Italian flags flags waving all over the
place.
For the women's 15K mass start, there really wasn't much tension with Bente
Skari controlling the race and pulling away for a convincing win. The next day,
during the mens' 30K mass start, once again, the Norwegian flags were flying
high. The lead group stayed pretty closely together until Thomas Alsgard pulled
away near the finish and lead the Norwegian sweep. It was on day 4 that our
US flag really started waving. Based on his recent under-23 win, we knew Kris
Freeman had been skiing well. Like many of the other tifosi in the stadium,
we were a little shocked how well he'd do in the men's' 10K classic. With an
interval start, the skiers did 3 laps of a 3.3K course. Kris started after the
red group skiers, so he'd be able to compare his splits to the top racers. Once
again, we found our place on the first hill along with some Canadian and Australian
fans. While there was a sound system in the stadium, with the fans and their
various noisemakers, it was difficult to hear exactly what was occurring in
the race. After Kris' second lap, however, we knew something special was happening,
hearing the announcer shout his name. As Kris came around on his third lap,
the US coaches on the hill were encouraging him on, practically running up half
the hill as he skied up In a few minutes, after he crossed the line, we weren't
sure what we had heard over the sound system. Second place? Fifth place? It
was only after going down and looking at the board did we see his 4th place
finish. The US flag didn't get put away that day. Unfortunately, we did forget
the flag at the 10K awards ceremony where Kris did pick up his 4th place trophy,
hand carved from the " harmonious" local wood cut in the region.
The next day, the women's skiathelon took place.
For the first time, the pursuit went directly from
classic into skating technique with a transition
similar to triathlons. While we were still cheering
on our US skiers, we also helped our North American
counterparts cheer Beckie Scott on to her top 10
finish. The lead group stayed together for most of
what we saw during the race (although we were stoked
to see Beckie get a small lead heading up the hill on
the start of the last lap) and it came down to a
sprint finish. The format with the quick change was
pretty exciting. I wonder, however, how many skiers
are going to go out hard on the classic portion to try
and build a lead in future races. For both the men's
and women's races, it seemed like the strategy was too
keep it close for the classic and then win it during
the skate. It was also obvious that the skiers had
practiced their transition from classic to skate.
