By: Rick Halling, Atomic
Many of the top Worldcup racers switched to Atomic this past summer. One German coach made the remark, “It is like the other ski companies are the tired old husbands who take their trophy wives for granted and they are surprised when the wives leave them for some handsome young stud. The athletes are like the trophy wives and Atomic is the handsome young stud. All the top athletes are leaving the tired old husbands and they are switching to Atomic.†Claudia Kuenzel of Germany is one of the top athletes Atomic “took away†this past summer. The 28 year old native of Zschopau has earned Gold and Silver medals at the Olympics and the Nordic World Championships. She is recognized as perhaps the most versatile athlete on the Worldcup with victories in sprint and distance events in both skate and classic. She is also a respected artist whose paintings have received positive reviews by European critics. Claudia married former US coach Trond Nystad last summer. The following interview took place at the couple’s home in southern Germany.
 . In the beginning of September is the next team training camp. We then go 10 days to Ramsau to ski. </p><p><b>What role does your husband Trond play in your training? Does he work with your national team coach or does he stay out of it completely? </b></p></div><div class=)
Trond is the coach for our training group, so he is very involved with the day to day training. Trond and my old coach Lutz Haenel work together as a team with training planning and monitoring.
Is he able to work out with you, or is he no longer at that level of fitness?
Trond can run with us most of the time, but I hope this is not his best fitness ever. I do for instance not wish to say too much about his performance a few weeks ago in the uphill time trial.
Several of the athletes have gotten Audi’s, but it is not an automatic thing. Only athletes that are top 15 in the overall World Cup or have an individual medal from World Championships or Olympics are eligible to get a car. The athletes can only use the Audi for business purposes. When the car is used for personal use each athlete has to pay a huge amount of tax for the car. The German tax system does not allow for a free car, so normally the car ends up costing 500 Euros per month. Most of the cars you see are cars for coaches and other people in official functions with the German Ski Team.
You are married to the former US Ski Team coach. He raced for quite a few years in the US before he became our coach. Between conversations with your husband, and your own observations, you must have some idea what America can do to become more competitive. What would you suggest?
It is hard to say exactly what is needed as I do not know the system well enough to have a valid opinion. I have seen several Americans that train hard and compete well. When every skier in the US approaches the sport like what I have seen from the US Ski Team members then I think the results will come.
It was not that long ago that Germany had results similar to the US. Now Germany is a major Nordic power that could possibly be the medal leader at the 2007 World’s. Can you give a brief summary of what Germany did to become so competitive in such a short time?
Germany decided to create training centers for cross country skiing and to do everything as professionally as possible. Each training center had good coaches and several talented athletes to work with. The results you have seen the last few years are due to a lot of hard work and also some luck. We were lucky to have good athletes that wanted to work hard to become good. Lesson learned is that to become a good skier one must work hard and be in an environment that is supportive.
Atomic is very excited to have you on our skis and boots for this coming season. What made you decide to change to Atomic?
I was impressed with the service and commitment from Roman, Peter and the rest of the service staff. They work extremely hard and well to ensure that each skier gets the skis needed to achieve top results.
How do you like working with Roman Toferer and Peter Jurich? They can be pretty colorful at times. Some people on the Worldcup are a little frightened of our staff.
They are very nice people and great to work with. It is great from an athlete’s perspective when you know that your sponsor works as hard as you to achieve great results. I have no ideas why people are frightened by them — hard to find nicer and harder working people. I am looking forward to working with them and with Atomic in the years to come.
