November 19th (Hanover, NH): Thomas Alsgaard, who led the Norwegian cross-country ski team for the past ten years and earned 11 Olympic and World Championship gold medals during his career, trained last Friday with the Ford Sayre junior cross-country ski team, and later spoke at the Black Community Center, in Hanover, NH. On tour with his sponsor, Alpina/Madshus (based in Lebanon, NH), Alsgaard had already visited at Pineland Farms, in New Gloucester, ME, and after his Hanover visit, was bound for Glens Falls, NY and then W. Yellowstone, MT.Â
With so many questions to ask their hero, the Ford Sayre team members wrote down a list of questions for Alsgaard to answer later, so they could just watch and absorb the fact that they were ski bounding and striding around Oak Hill with a Norwegian icon – one who still smiled like a kid, loved being outside, even in the cold dusk of November, and kindly gave suggestions and advice to anyone who dared speak up and ask.
If they weren't convinced after their workout, by the end of Alsgaard' Powerpoint presentation of his life and the “salmon social” that followed at the Community Center Center, the star-struck teens, parents, coaches, and master skiers were finally grasping that hard facts – There is no magic key to skiing fast, no scientific combination of heart rate monitoring, no ideal anaerobic to aerobic ratio of training, no “one-size-fits-all” regimen. Instead, Alsgaard kept pointing out, answering kindly both the simple and the complex questions: “Hard work is Rule No.1” and “Keep it simple, enjoy it .. . . It's important to have fun.”
Young Alsgaard grew up in a village outside of Oslo, where he remembers spending every day outside, and every snowy day on skis, skiing the trail behind his house. At age three he screamed and yelled so hard the organizers of a youth race allowed little Thomas race against the five year olds. He won the race and kept on going. Along the way he found his teammates to be very important to the support and the fun that kept him focused 110% on racing for 30 years. He also pointed out that it was his focus, constant desire to improve, and the enjoyment he had in training and racing, that strengthened his resolve to continue through illness, his father's death, and two back surgeries. “There were many downs,” he said. “I turned those downs into ups”.
At age 14, when he changed coaches – from his mom to his dad – his dad told him these four precepts, which Alsgaard has followed ever since:
Honesty – with yourself. You always be able to know when something is not working for you and change it.
Patience – there are times when your results are not there, or you're injured, be patient; if you are a junior skier, put the time in and be patient that the results will come when you are a senior.
Evaluation – constantly. Always, every day, ask, “What can I do now to become a better skier?”
Well-being- aways look for and be sure you are motivated by the joy of your sport. Make sure that you are happy, healthy.
Alsgaard retired last year, when he found it was not motivating to race anymore. Anyone who meets him would say that he has motivated them.
Questions for Thomas Alsgaard from the Ford Sayre/Dartmouth Ski Team members
BACKGROUND
how tall are you?
190cm
how old are you?
– 32 years old