PARK CITY, Utah (April 19) – U.S. international cross country results showed more major improvement during the 2007 season with the first U.S. woman's podium in World Cup history from Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK), a World Championships top-5 from Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) and his first top-10 in three years from a healthy Kris Freeman (Andover, NH).
“This was a good season. The impressive thing for me,” said U.S. Nordic Director Luke Bodensteiner, “is that everyone came to the end of the season and, by and large, they were fired-up to get training again for next season. They can feel there's something special going on with the Team.”
Said Pete Vordenberg, the two-time Olympian and no-nonsense leader who completed his first year as head coach, “It's a start. We had some good things going on, some athletes who saw the payoff for all their hard work…and we now know some of the things we have to work harder on, whether it's classic [technique] sprinting or something else. We're just getting started.”
With the largest Ski Team since 1998, Vordenberg and his staff laid out plans to compete at all levels, domestically on the SuperTour as well as the World Cup and the 2007 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Japan. Conditioning was the top priority, Vordenberg told his athletes in the preseason, noting “Fitness is our No. 1 goal. If we do nothing else, we will be fit.” But the team did other things besides achieve outstanding conditioning.
 produced back-to-back podiums in January – Randall finishing third in a skating sprint in Rybinsk, Russia, and Koos taking third place with Newell fourth in a classic technique sprint in Otepaeae, Estonia; it was the best U.S. result since 1983 when Tim Caldwell and Bill Koch went 2-3 in a World Cup 15K in Anchorage, AK.</p>
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