After taking my first ski on the local trails yesterday, I quickly remembered how spoiled Anchoraguans are with free trails at Kincaid Park. But, a quick look at langrenn.com today offers an even better reminder of how it could be. From langrenn.com: Brazilian Jacqueline Mourão trains in a special way for the Olympics in Vancouver. This will be the fourth time participating in the Olympic games for Mourão. The was in Torino for cross country skiing and in Athens and Beijing for mountain biking. Last winter she raced in the 30Km in Liberec and finished in 55th place. Now she’s working towards the next Olympics by doing cross country training on the sand dunes outside Rio De Jeneiro. See the video from her training below.
6 comments
mattmuir
December 15, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Jacqueline Mourão won the 2009 Marchablanca in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, coming in third overall, as part of a Brazalian contingent of Nordic skiers that trained and raced in the region. Despite having no home snow, the whole group showed a lot of dedication and class while in Ushuaia.
Cloxxki
December 15, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Excellent!
I just recently posted elsewhere to ask about any details known about beach SKATING. Kill Koch used to do it all the time. Apparently, in the right conditions, it’s actually seriously fast. The trick is to aquaplane over the film of water at the shore line. I never did it, but want it desperately. Lakes, Sea beach, where to try? What kind of skis works best, soft flexed wide long skate skis? Classic wax skis without kick wax?
I just love it when outsiders, with no access to the typical conditions of their sport, manage to do well regardless. I rarely get snow myself, never skied within 600km of home. Still, I want to get good.
Alternative ski surfaces can only help us become stronger, and appreciate good snow more.
Tim Kelley
December 16, 2009 at 3:58 am
Cloxxki – I believe Bill would use skate skis that were a little shorter than normal, but longer than Revolutions or Tempos. I remember Bill talking about how the shape of the sand grains made a difference. He apparently found great sand at a location in Hawaii. In my opinion, THE COOLEST xc skiing picture ever taken was a telephoto shot of Kochie skating sand in Hawaii in front of a big breaking wave. The photo was used on an Alpina boot poster.
bigski
December 16, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Looks just like the midwest with people walking all over the trails, except I don’t see any rocks. On a cold day in the midwest, the snow is just like skiing on sand!
Nordic Gal
December 16, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Good Genes help, a good work ethic and good technique is how you can ski fast without snow.
Beth Reid is the former Miss Beth Heiden, I suppose if you’re under 40 years old you might not know about Beth and her brother Ecric Heiden. ’79 Beth won 4 golds at World Champs and ’80 Olympics won a bronze medal. Eric won 5 gold Olympic medals. Beth went on to UVM and learned to cross country ski and then won the NCAA’s in ’83.
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