An Inside Perspective of the US Ski Team

The amount of critisism that is directed at the US Cross Country Team is staggering. Many coaches around the country seem to feel that they have all the answers to why the ski team has sucked for the last 20 years and are not at all shy about telling Luke and Trond why. I think that the fact people around the counrty are concerned enough to come to the ski team with their ideas is a good thing. However most suggestions are abusive and uneducated rather than constructive and intelligent. In order to really help the Ski Team you have to understand the restrictions it works under and be willing to discuss a situation, not just condemn it.

Every year the most frequent complaint from the skiing community is that certain top athletes from the US are not named to the national team. No one would like to see the team expand more than my coaches but our budget can barely fund the six athletes we already have. To name more people would simply water down the team’s support to the point that being on the national team would be useless. To combat this problem, Trond and Pete have made summer and fall training with the team in Utah open to any athletes that want to attend. They waxed and supported top ranked non-national team skiers on the Super Tour and at US Nationals. Trond invited Lars Flora to attend world cups where our start quota was not full and has even put Lars in place of US Ski Team members when he felt that Lars had a better chance of getting a good result. There is no favortism to US Ski Team members from its coaching staff. Hard decisions have to be made and they are always based on making the US results the best possible. Past training, past races, and training plans are always taken into account. Decisions are educated they are not spur of the moment.

Trond has been willing to do things to help us succeed this season that I never would have thought of requesting. In period one of the World Cup, Trond drove a van from Germany to Norway, Norway to Finland, and from Finland to Italy while Carl Swenson and I flew. He drove because there was not enough money in our budget for him and the wax staff to fly. Either he drove or Carl and I didn’t race. No other coach of the US Ski Team in my lifetime would have been willing to do this.

Trond and Pete are not just our coaches. They are also our wax staff and travel coordinators. Other team’s have support staff that outnumber the dozen athletes they bring to World Cups. The US has four staff members, Trond, Pete, Chris Hall, and Roar Lilllefjell. These guys do the jobs that take other teams a dozen people to do every weekend. When Trond and Pete aren’t at race meetings they are planning our training and travel for the following week. When they are not planning they are testing ski grinds, wax, and individual athlete’s skis. When they are not testing skis they are waxing them. Trond considers 4.5 hours to be a good nights sleep and it is a good thing.

All of the effort that has been put into the US XC Ski Team program these past few years has enabled the US to get its best results in decades. In the first period of the World Cup alone, Carl and I scored more world cup points than the US XC Team has scored in the last decade combined. I had a top five finish which was the best result since Bill Koch was in his prime. I am the first US skier to be in the Red Group since it came into existence. Our sprint program has had its best season ever with Andrew Newell and Torin Koos both scoring world cup points twice. Newell qualified for the finals in the last Sprint of the year. He is the first American ever to quailify for the finals in a World Cup held in Europe. Two women, Rebecca Dussault, and Wendy Wagner took World Cup points. The team accomplished all this with a poverty level budget. I think that says a lot about the great people working for the team.