Andrew Johnson is a two time US Olympian in Cross-country skiing and an assistant coach at the University of Utah. He recently launched a personal coaching service. For more information, visit http://www.xccoachaj.com or email Andrew at info@xccoahaj.com When should I start doing intervals? When should I start adding level 4 intervals? How often should I do intervals? These are all questions I hear fairly often and they are questions that don’t have simple answers. Intensity,...
Following a remarkable Northern hemisphere winter, you may have wondered what the weather gods have in store for the Southern season. Early indicators for the Southern season pick up where the Northern one left off and are from good to excellent. In Australia, the autumn delivered unusually cold and windy weather and there were heavy pre-season snowfalls at the ski resorts. Sadly, the most recent precipitation has been all rain, but with man-made snow, enough...
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the events will bring an estimated $1 million into the Acnhorage economy each year. Conoco Phillips will pay $60,000 to be title sponsor of both events. It costs about $150,000 to stage the championships, said Joey Caterinichio of the Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage, and the cost will be covered by entry fees and sponsor donations. Read the News-Miner story:
Cross-Country Canada has released a draft of the 2008/2009 Schedule View the schedule in PDF form here
The following is USSA’s preliminary list of nominations for the 2009 U.S. Cross Country Ski Team. The nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria. USSA will announce the actual team roster this summer, naming those athletes who accept the responsibilities of being a part of the U.S. Ski Team and are planning to compete in the 2008-09 season. Team staff will now work individually with nominated athletes to provide education...
HAYWARD, WI (JUNE 15, 2008) Central Cross Country Ski Association is pleased to announce the 2008-2009 CXC Elite Team. CXC is extremely proud of this talented and dedicated group of athletes. Caitlin Compton (Minneapolis, MN) returns to CXC Team after a solid season of training and racing in Europe with the US Biathlon Team. While successfully racing with USBA Caitlin was still able to achieve a dominant win in the 5km skate race at US...
Roller-skiing is one of the best forms of ski training — and also one of the most dangerous. Unlike on snow, where a controlled fall can salvage many situations and a skilled skier can stop on a dime, skiing on the road can be unforgiving in the extreme, and bailing out should be used only as a last resort. But you should not feel as if you are putting your life on the line every...
The Times On-line of London reports that development for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia threaten to destroy one of the world’s last untouched eco-systems — home to more than 6,000 types of flora and fauna, more than 100 of which are on the “red list†of threatened species. The Olympic organizing committee’s plans are well advanced but construction has not begun on the site in Sochi National Park. Nearly $9 billion of capital...
The Mt. Mansfield Winter Academy is pleased to announce that it has established a Nordic program for the 2008-2009 academic year to compliment the existing alpine and snowboard programs. It is expected that 6-8 athletes will be enrolled in the first year applying the same mission, philosophies, governance and infrastructure that has contributed to the success of the existing programs. The program at MMWA will provide an alternative option to Nordic athletes wanting to take...
Flash interview with Lukas Bauer 30-year-old Lukas Bauer from the Czech Republic was the dominator of the Cross-Country season 2007/2008. He won the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear, the overall FIS World Cup as well as the distance World Cup title. The FIS Cross-Country News had the chance to interview the Czech ski star after his most successful season so far. CCN: Lukas, after such an outstanding season that included the...
Every season, Forum Nordicum, an association of Nordic sports journalists, makes an assessment at each Nordic and Biathlon World Cup venue and awards the honor of the most ‘media-friendly' World Cup host per discipline. This year's winners in the FIS Nordic disciplines are the two German World Cup venues Willingen – for Ski Jumping – and Klingenthal — for Nordic Combined – along with the Finnish World Cup host city of Lahti for Cross-Country. The...
Drew Gelinas, a World Cup Technician for the US Nordic Combined Team has left that post to become the new Nordic Product Manager for Rossignol. Said Gelinas, “It was a difficult decision to leave the U.S. Ski Team, however, the position of Nordic Product Manager will offer exciting opportunities. I have been on Rossignol for 23 years and believe it is the strongest line in the industry. I look forward to contributing to Rossignol's continued...
The second annual roller ski race around the Delaney Park Strip in downtown Anchorage was held on Saturday, June 7, 2008. Traffic was closed for the ROLL FOR THE WAVES, a skate-technique team sprint relay. The relatively small but highly competitive field (9 women teams and 11 men teams) included holders of 13 of the individual medals awarded at the 2008 Junior Olympics (plus 12 relay medals). In the women's race, the top three teams...
Every year I am reminded that cross-country skiing has an amazing potential that all of us know intuitively but find hard put into words. While FasterSkier is a website devoted primarily to news and information about competitive skiing at the highest levels, it is sometimes good to explore the many side streets of the sport. One of those is a truly amazing program in Crested Butte, Colorado that has its roots back in about 1988...
SALT LAKE CITY — Director of Skiing Eli Brown has added two new coaches to his staff. Former U.S. Ski Team athlete Andrew Johnson has accepted the position of assistant cross country coach, while Sean McKenna will join the team as an assistant alpine coach. Johnson spent five years on the U.S. Ski Team as a cross country skier. He competed in the 2002 and 2006 Olympics and at the Nordic World Ski Championships in...
The Anchorage Daily News reported that Amy Glen, Lex Treinen, and Sadie Bjornsen have all signed letters of intent to attend the University of Alaska, Anchorage next year. Glen and Treinen, both Alaska natives, skied for the Alaska Winter Stars club program last year. Glenn captured two Junior National Titles in 2008 and Treinen one. Bjornsen, coming off a successful 2008 campaign in which she produced three top-10 finishes at US Nationals, hails from Winthrop,...
The long-awaited envelope finally arrived in the mail. It was THE letter. You know the one from my top-choice Graduate School. I paused for a moment, my future momentarily in flux, the anxiety building as I tore it open. Then relief; I got in! I had about an hour of elated phone calls to Mom and Dad, but then the adrenaline rush abated and reality set in: if I went to Grad School, I would...
PARK CITY, Utah (June 4) – Olympian Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) could have easily given up his dreams when a doctor told him that he was a type 1 diabetic and would no longer be able to be an endurance athlete. “I was devastated and I was crying, but I also went out and trained that afternoon,” Freeman says of his diagnosis at the age of 20. “I wasn't going to give up after that.”...
Andrew Johnson is a two-time US Olympian, skis for the Fischer/Craft Race Team, and runs a personal coaching business – http://www.xccoachaj.com. Roller-skiing is by far and away the most important training tool Nordic skiers have at their disposal. However, it’s important to remember that more does not always mean better. My take on the early summer specificity question is that it’s not necessary and in many cases counter productive to start regular roller-skiing workouts in...
Success on the Nordic ski slopes continues to produce post-season honors. The Northern Michigan University Wildcats and Alaska Nanooks swept the NCAA Central Region awards as voted on by Central Collegiate Ski Association coaches at their annual meeting on May 27. Lauded were Morgan Smyth of NMU as Central Region Women’s Skier of the Year; Marius Korthauer of Alaska (Fairbanks), male skier of the year; Sten Fjeldheim of NMU, women’s team Coach of the Year...