Anthony Evans is Australia’s most successful ever cross-country ski racer. He skied at three Winter Olympics and a number of World Championships. His results included a 34th in the 50km at the Albertville Winter Olympics and a 36th in the 10km classic at the World Championships in Trondheim in 1997. He is now retired from international competition but is still highly competitive on the domestic scene despite fitting in his new role as a father to baby daughter Zana. He talked to me about his career and his life ahead.
Aussie World Cup Star Looks Back
FasterSkier · July 17, 2004
, once joked that I probably had enough things wrong with me that I could qualify for the paralympics (I think Christer is the only guy I know who could say that in such a way that you actually think it is funny). Sometimes I felt like my body was like having a Ferrari engine inside an old 1964 model Volkswagen. At the time I was tested I think I had the highest V02 ever measured at the Australian Institute of Sport. A couple of months ago I ran into the head physiologist from the AIS and he told me that there was still only a handful of athletes who had been tested in over 20 years at the AIS who had a comparable VO2 max.<br />
But that wasn’t the main reason I gave it away. It was a fantastic time of my life and I gave skiing my best shot, having spent 9 out of the previous 11 Aussie summers in Europe. I had done everything I could, and while I was satisfied with many of my results, I always felt there was probably a bit more. But how long do you keep going? There isn’t much support (not that I’m complaining — you don’t take up XC skiing in a desert country and expect sponsors to go knocking your door down), and it is impossible to have a real job when you are skiing for 7 months a year. I probably had a few more years where I could have kept going, but there comes a time when you have to say “I have given this my best shot, time to move on†particularly when you can’t do much else due to the time commitments.</p><p><b>You are still highly competitive in domestic races with podium finishes in races like the Kangaroo Hoppet in recent years. How do you maintain your race fitness and is there something you have learnt now that you could have applied when you were on the international circuit? </b></p><p>I have a passion for sport and competition, which I will hopefully take to my grave. That’s why I have always done sport, not for accolades or money (thankfully), but because I love it. After quitting top level sport I needed a year or so to reset the subconscious goals that everyone carries into a competition, because the feeling that you are going slower than the last year isn’t all that nice.</p><p>I have a big base, so as long as I have been maintaining a base level of fitness, I can focus on a particular race for about 2 months and perform surprisingly well. When I do focus on a particular race, I tend to focus more on quality training instead of volume, due to time commitments. But if I had my time over again on the circuit I would focus more on quality training, as I think it suits me and some of my results since “quitting†in 1998 have surprised me. At the very least, my body would have held together a bit better</p><p><b>The topic of drugs is now common place discussion especially after recent doping scandals at World and Olympic cross-country ski championships. Was it something you were aware of and did it affect your decision to retire?</b></p><p>I was pretty naïve when I was skiing, but this was probably a good thing. If I knew back then what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have skied for as long as I did. It is disgusting what has happened, but the officials are as much to blame as the athletes for allowing it to happen. The world has been paid lip service while officials have turned a blind eye in order to avoid a scandal. In the past, I don’t think FIS couldn’t have managed this worse even if they had tried. They have been spectacularly unsuccessful and allowed our sport to be tarnished as a result. The sad thing now is that just about any impressive performance is met with suspicion, whether they are cheating or not, because so many people have tested positive and you just don’t know who is clean and who isn’t. It is frustrating to have busted my ass for more than 10 years and find that so many skiers — so many I respected, are cheats. I have no doubt the North Americans are clean — I saw how hard they worked and how difficult it was to get good results.</p><p>In the lead up to the 2000 Summer Olympics, the Australian Institute of Sport was instrumental in developing a test for EPO. To do this, they obviously needed subjects to be taking EPO under supervision. This was well after my retirement and I would have loved to have been a part of this study. As soon as I was loaded full of the stuff I would have headed straight out to my old time trial haunts, just me and the stopwatch, just to see what sort of impact it has. The stories I have heard are amazing. It would probably just make me more bitter and twisted than I already am about it! </p></div><div class=)
You finished 36th in the World Championship 10km classic at Trondheim, up in the top third of the field. Was that your greatest performance?
Probably not. I thought I skied terrible that day, until I saw the result. I think my best race probably goes back to 1992, my first Olympics and in my first year as a senior, when I had no real goals — I was just happy to be there. I headed off in my first ever 50km. I had eaten so much the previous few days I could hardly manage the first lap, but things started to happen after the first lap and I ended up 34th. From memory, I finished about 10 seconds behind some wierdo called John Aalberg, but he must have had a bad day!
The last World Cup before Nagano was also pretty good. Three minutes behind Alsgaard over 30km in an interval start race in Ramsau. I skied with Fredrikson for 20k and he ended up third. Unfortunately, I was a bit of a ‘one hit wonder’ when it came to results, particularly when spending 5 months in Europe away from home. I could put together one or two good races, but I found it difficult to hold on for the whole season. Don’t know if it is physical or mental.
How did you get into cross-country ski racing?
XC skiing is a great family sport. I got into it when I was about 10, when my dad, brother and sister used to head out touring for the day at Mt Buffalo. Dad was always into outdoors stuff. I did my first race when I was 15. Before that I was about as unsporty as you could imagine.
Some of your best international performances have been in classic technique (36th in Trondheim, 37th in a World Cup Race in Ramsau) yet you don’t seem to practise it that much. Are you just naturally good at it or what?
Ramsau was a skate race ! [oops! Sorry Anthony I will sack my researcher which would be…me ] My preference for either of the disciplines has wavered through the years, depending on which one was giving me the best results at the time. As a junior skating was my thing, then for many years it was classic, but towards the end my best results seemed to come in skating.
It isn’t true that I didn’t classic much. I classic whenever I could in Australia (probably about 40%), but with waxing down here so difficult and so often the classic tracks aren’t good it just isn’t possible to ski classic a lot. Skiing in bad conditions is OK for awhile, but in time I think it degrades your technique. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I still think that classic technique is what makes a skier.
In Australia in recent years you have often avoided tricky waxing conditions by using your Dad’s old Fischer crowns. These skis are so fast you even pass skiers on waxed skis on the downhills!. How do you do that?
I’ve only been using them since I quit with the international stuff, but I should have been using them long before. I believed that the more you wax in tricky conditions the better you become at it, so I tried to wax as often as possible. But with crappy tracks and changing snow the crowns would have allowed me to do a lot more classic training. I just wish I had them in my ‘quiver’ when I was overseas, because in glassy tracks around zero degrees I reckon they are just about unbeatable. They would have handled the freezing rain at the start of the 10k in Nagano (when it changed from powder snow to ice in minutes) like a dream. Unfortunately my Blue Extra didn’t.
You went to university and studied forestry whilst ski racing. How did you combine the two?
When you aren’t doing huge hours, university is a good place to be a skier. Lots of flexibility through the day, ‘summer’ holidays from November to March, and no one can accuse you of being a ski bum (that comes after finishing uni!)
 now have a beautiful baby girl Zana . How are you finding parenthood?</b></p><p>It’s funny. I sometimes get a bit nostalgic and like to think I have done a fair bit with my life, representing Australia at three Olympics and getting some OK results along the way. But none of this comes even close to becoming a dad. It is just the most unbelievable experience — to see this miracle in front of you which is your flesh and blood, and have helped create (although I’ll give you the drum, us blokes have the easy bit !).</p><p>I once read an article by Mikka Mylla, where he said that the birth of his child was a bigger moment for him than winning an Olympic gold medal. Now, he has shown why he probably wouldn’t be as proud for winning an Olympic gold as he could be, and I can hold my head proud even with my meagre performances, but I understand where he is coming from.<br />
Parenthood is massively overly documented, but no matter how much reading you do, or how many classes you go to, nothing can prepare you for it. The only bad thing about being a parent (besides the lack of sleep), is that Carla and I don’t get to train together anymore as one or the other needs to be minding Zana.</p><p><b>You give talks to young ski racers now. What advice do you give them?</b></p><p>I don’t talk to juniors as often as I should. It is a difficult thing to do. I’m not a teacher, so the best thing I have to offer are my own experiences, but I don’t want to sound like “this is what I did, so this is what you should do tooâ€. In Australia, getting a situation which allows you to explore your potential is the most difficult thing. And it is different for everyone. You need money to live and travel overseas so you need to work, but you can only work certain times of the year. You also need time to train as well as time to experience other things in life (yes, there are other things in life) and you need someone you can put faith in as a coach. Too many Aussies read a book that says Bjorn Daehlie trained 30 hours a week, so they think they have to do the same. A coach or at least an adviser and a good plan is essential. </p><p><b>Thanks Anthony for your time .</b></p><p>No worries</p></div></div></div><div class=)