How will the US team do? Five World Cup races are coming up in Canada starting next weekend. We asked US Ski Team head coach Trond Nystad to comment on the US team’s recent training, preparations and expectations.
The US Ski Team and a number of US non-national team skiers are currently training on the World Cup courses at Sovereign Lakes in Canada. We asked US Ski Team head coach Trond Nystad to comment on the US team’s preparations following the West Yellowstone races, the recent training and expectations for the upcoming five World Cup races:
Trond Nystad:
Things are very good here at Sovereign Lake. The conditions and grooming have been outstanding. The courses have seen a pretty extensive face lift since the last time we were here. The venue will be a great place to host international races now and in the future.
The weather has been pretty good. We have gotten a little snow every day. Temperatures have been pretty steady around -10C. It seems like the weather will stay pretty steady until this weekend.
The team has been here since Sunday. Everyone is on slightly different schedules, but for the most part we have been training twice a day. 1.5-2.5 in the morning and 1-1.5 in the afternoon. We are following a pretty traditional training program with 1 OD per week, 2 intensity sessions and 2-3 strength sessions. We trained about 17-19 hours last week and will train about 13-15 hours this week leading into the race. We had a little time trial on Saturday. Kris Freeman and James Southam came in together, with Andrew Johnson about 30 seconds back. The nation’s group skiers have been trickling in steady. On the 7th everyone should be here.
Until now we have been busy testing athletes’ skis and getting logistics dialed in. We will have two service people from the Factory team, two from Rossignol, Chris Grover and Sten Fjeldheim take care of the nation’s group skiers.
Carl Swenson is the only one that is a little under the weather right now. He has gotten a cold, but I think he should be able to recover by the weekend.
It is hard to say what we can expect from these races, but historically the US has done very well when WC races have been held in North America. If all goes well we should see a few top 10 results and hopefully a handful of top 30 results as well.
The races in Canada are:
December 10 – Pursuit — Vernon/Sovereign Lake
December 11 – Sprint freestyle – Vernon/Sovereign Lake
For more info about these races go to http://www.sovereignlake2005.ca
December 15 – 10/15km freestyle – Canmore
December 17 – 15/30km classic mass-start – Canmore
December 18 — Sprint relay classic – Canmore
For more information about these races go to http://www.canmore2005.com
