US Ski Team Sprint Coach Chris Grover answered a few questions about yesterday's Individual Sprint and has stong hopes for today's Team Sprint.
FasterSkier: How did you feel about the performances of Andy and Torin? From the results it looks like as deep a field as you’ll ever see on the World Cup.
Chris Grover: The field was extremely tough. I think there were many more athletes in
a high state of fitness here in Dusseldorf than there were last season.
Andy and Torin are both very fit, but everyone else has been training very
hard all summer as well. Joseph Wenzel looked extremely strong and seemed
to progress easily through the rounds.
FS: Both Torin and Andy skied extremely well last week in Sweden — was anything different today?
CG: The field in Sweden was pretty far from world-class. There were several
skiers that had been in World Cups before, but not more than 5-6 including
our guys. By contrast, everyone was in Dusseldorf. I also think that Torin
and Andy are a little stronger in classic sprint. Last season there were 6
classic sprints on the schedule, and 3 skate sprints. This season the ratio
is 5:4 I believe. We have prepared a bit more for classic sprinting than
skating in the past two seasons.
FS: What was positive about today, what are the areas that the sprint team needs to work on?
CG: Although it is not necessarily positive, Andy felt like he made several
key tactical mistakes in his quarterfinal yesterday. If he had not made
those mistakes, it is likely that he would have got through.
FS: Thoughts on today's Team Sprint? Does the team have specific goals?
CG: It will be interesting to see how Andy and Torin are racing today. We
have focused on developing aerobic capacity over the summer and fall. We
should see this in the team sprint. If not, we need to evaluate how we are
training and how we are resting at the moment.
