Nathan Schultz is working with the US Ski Team as a wax tech and athlete coordinator during the Canadian World Cups Jan 19-27. He will file reports throughout the week documenting his experiences in what will hopefully be a very successful week for the USST. Schultz is the owner of Boulder Nordic Sport, www.bouldernordicsport.com.
Sunday Jan 20th Canmore, Alberta.
The races do not begin until Tuesday, so while we had a lot to accomplish today, it was pretty calm. When we arrived at the venue today around 10:30AM, it was pretty cold and the snow was not very fast. The first race is the Pursuit on Tuesday and the courses were groomed impeccably for both skating and classic. It has been a while since I’ve been on World Cup tracks and it was a beautiful thing to drop the classic skis into those perfectly formed, rock-solid rails and kick around.
The classic course is a brutal trip around the new 3.75km “Olympic†loop with the skate course meandering around the mellower Centennial Loop (see course profiles at http://www.albertaworldcup.com/dyn/pages_coll22.php).
With women going 2 loops each of classic/skate and men doing 4, as I panted up the hills, all I could think is that it sure seems likely that it will be a fitness race that would shatter early due to the severe hills. Kris Freeman pointed out that the downhills that follow the brutal climbs tend to bring groups back together and while certainly the toughest skiers can create gaps going up, those gaps are easily close down on the descent. The pack tends to yo-yo back and forth, but ultimately the race sticks together until the last lap when the gauntlet is thrown down. Whatever happens, it sure will be impressive to watch a full World Cup field attack those hills.
We spent another day working with athletes to help dial in their skis. With so many of the country’s best coaches here, we have the luxury of being able to help every athlete a lot more than we are usually capable of at most races. Tonight we had a coaches meeting to work out logistical details and it really impressed me how the US Ski Team has fashioned a situation where every athlete here is given the resources to excel. While the World Cup athletes have earned the right to have these resources, the USST staff has worked hard to bring this level of support to every athlete here.
The tracks were busy today with hundreds of World Cup athletes preparing for the races. Service people were busily glide testing skis in the stadium while skiers weaved through the testers, cranking out their last intensity workout. It was great to see the incredible talent and fitness on display and it really made it apparent how young skiers need to train hard if they are going to succeed at this level. Watching Rochev do hard intervals up a very steep hill was astounding. The fluidity and power of his striding was so startling to me and that I literally stopped and gawked as he skied by me. The German women also looked impressively strong.
A few years ago I was in New Zealand and I recall being surprised by how much and how hard Claudia Kuenzel trained. It’s obvious when you see these people skiing that they are doing a lot more than most of us North Americans are. And while there are certainly some doped athletes here, that is not what I’m implying. They are simply taking it to a higher level and it shows when they ski easy, it shows when they ski hard.
I hope that with all that we are able to do this week that we enable some of our athletes to have breakthrough performances. I’m excited to be a part of this crew and I know that we all believe that our athletes can do it. US Skiing has a long way to go in many areas, but there is a lot that we are doing right. The system is in place to encourage people to succeed. Now we just need to continue to get a lot of talented skiers training hard and taking advantage of the opportunities that are available.
All photos by Nathan Schultz.
Stay tuned for updates. If you have any questions for any of the US Team staff or athletes who will be here at the World Cup, please send them by filling out the Information Request Form at:
http://www.bouldernordicsport.com/Contact/tabid/175/Default.aspx
I’ll do my best to track people down and get them to answer your questions. The best question we receive each day will receive a Boulder Nordic Sport T-Shirt.
