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Gavin Kentch

Gavin Kentch wrote for FasterSkier from 2016–2022. He has a cat named Marit.
Approaching Final Season, Randall Looks Forward
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Approaching Final Season, Randall Looks Forward

Gavin KentchSeptember 29, 2017

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Kikkan Randall is approaching a season full of lasts: her final season as a full-time athlete, her final season on the World Cup, and, she hopes, her fifth and final Olympics. Her main focus these days is resolutely on the future, but she took some time earlier this month to speak with FasterSkier about her summer training and what comes next. Summer training Randall’s final summer of training was anchored by the same...

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Don’t Overfill Your Cup: APU Coach Erik Flora and the Complete Athlete
GeneralInterviewsNewsRegional / Local

Don’t Overfill Your Cup: APU Coach Erik Flora and the Complete Athlete

Gavin KentchSeptember 13, 2017

This week’s featured articles are made possible thanks to the generous support of Masters World Cup 2018. noted following the 2014 Man Camp at Eagle Glacier, “Flora has nailed the grooming. (It helps that he never sleeps.)”) Within a year, Erik’s parents, Sam and Berit Flora, had followed him to Bend. A period of athletic wanderlust and nomadism followed, as Flora fils “kind of bounced around to different places around the West.” There was a...

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Why 18 Months? Inside the Johaug Decision
DopingGeneralNewsOlympicsRacingWorld Cup

Why 18 Months? Inside the Johaug Decision

Gavin KentchAugust 31, 2017

As separately addressed the factual question of what happened that led to Johaug testing positive for the steroid clostebol. That article did not consider the question of why 18 months was the suspension chosen. This piece tries to fill in that gap, by exploring the legal analysis of the CAS decision and the principles that the court applied in reaching this decision. This analysis begins by looking at how criminal sentencing usually works, then applies...

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Masters Minds: From Texas to Eagle Glacier
CampsLifestyleMastersRacingTraining

Masters Minds: From Texas to Eagle Glacier

Gavin KentchJuly 21, 2017

By Jason Somers Introduction: Welcome to the jungle My quads were burning from too much snowplowing. My coach’s words were echoing in my head: “You are most stable when tucking.” I willed, begged, and pleaded with my legs to assume the position, but being in this aerodynamic position also meant I would go fast, too fast, because at the moment I had one small problem – I couldn’t see where I was going. This small...

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Over Before It Really Began: Burke and Sweetser Part Ways
GeneralJuniorsNewsRegional / Local

Over Before It Really Began: Burke and Sweetser Part Ways

Gavin KentchJuly 19, 2017

A recently promised revival of the nordic program at Vermont’s Burke Mountain Academy (BMA) now seems to be on hold, following a recent change in leadership and what appears to be the school’s subsequent decision to cut ties with its describes itself as “the preeminent ski academy” was bright. A a May 26 article on FasterSkier. “We felt really welcomed there,” Sweetser said of the Burke community. He dismissed concerns that the school’s nordic program...

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Inside the 2018 Olympic Selection Criteria with Chris Grover
GeneralNewsOlympicsRacingTeam nominationsUS Ski Team

Inside the 2018 Olympic Selection Criteria with Chris Grover

Gavin KentchJune 29, 2017

Note: This is the first of a multiple-part series on the 2018 Winter Olympic selection criteria for the U.S. cross-country ski team. A selection criteria and procedures for nomination to the U.S. Olympic team. Briefly put, what does it take to get to PyeongChang? And what factors will U.S. Ski Team (USST) coaches and (Lahti in 2017. First comes objective qualification via performance on the World Cup. Second comes the potential use of discretionary picks....

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DrylandGeneralNewsRacing

U.S. News Roundup: From Alaska to the High Sierra

Gavin KentchJune 13, 2017

Kikkan Randall leading the 2017 Alaska Run for Women with a smile on June 10. (Photo: Scott Broadwell)A little U.S.-based news to get your Tuesday going: — Watch out, World Cup, Kikkan Randall is feeling good. The longtime U.S. Ski Team (USST) and Alaska Pacific University (APU) skier took first place in the 25th annual Alaska Run for Women road race, held over Anchorage streets and bike trails this past Saturday. Randall led the field of several thousand...

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UNM Athletics Department Covered Up Boosters’ Golf Junket, Documents Show
CollegiateGeneralNews

UNM Athletics Department Covered Up Boosters’ Golf Junket, Documents Show

Gavin KentchMay 24, 2017

The finances of the University of New Mexico (UNM) athletic department are back in the news once more, this time with allegations of spending nearly $65,000 in public funds to pay for a 2015 golfing trip to Scotland and then actively hiding the trip and its participants, on top of a recent history of money-losing sports programs and expensive coaching buyouts. As FasterSkier pointed to a mitigation clause written into the quondam coach’s contract that...

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CollegiateGeneralNews

UNM Skiing Alive for at Least One More Year

Gavin KentchMay 11, 2017

This article has been updated with additional comments from UNM student-athlete Brenna Egan. * * * Skiing at the University of New Mexico (UNM) is officially alive again, at least for one more year, while the university and the ski team pursue viable long-term funding sources, school officials announced earlier on Thursday. Speaking at a regularly scheduled meeting of the UNM Board of Regents Thursday afternoon, Acting President Chaouki T. Abdallah told the board that “several...

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Inside the Numbers of the UNM Athletic Department Budget
CollegiateGeneralNews

Inside the Numbers of the UNM Athletic Department Budget

Gavin KentchApril 19, 2017

Football at the University of New Mexico (UNM) cost nearly as much in allocated expenses last fiscal year as 19 other sports combined, according to a new analysis of data provided to the federal government by the UNM athletic department. The financial context comes amid continuing suggestions by ski-team advocates that as elsewhere, football is king. The school reported total expenses for football, in the 2015 fiscal year (July 2015 – June 2016), of, in...

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UNM Lobo on the Human Cost of Cutting Skiing
CollegiateGeneralNews

UNM Lobo on the Human Cost of Cutting Skiing

Gavin KentchApril 17, 2017

UNM suggests that athletes who can compete for the podium will readily find another home. Where does that leave solid skiers who are realistically not yet podium contenders? “We have been informed about this so late that it is too late to apply to many scholarships,” UNM skier Brenna Egan says. “Of course I am going to do everything I can, but every indication is pointing to the end of my ski career.”

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University of New Mexico Cuts Ski Program
GeneralNews

University of New Mexico Cuts Ski Program

Gavin KentchApril 14, 2017

The men’s and women’s nordic and alpine ski teams at the University of New Mexico (UNM) will be defunded and cease to exist by the end of June, university administrators announced Thursday afternoon. While the death of the ski team is being presented as a fait accompli by the UNM athletic department, ski team advocates are nonetheless rallying support and preparing to make their case for continued funding to the Board of Regents. The threatened...

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O’Harra, Frankowski Claim Solo Victories in Tour of Anchorage
NewsRacingRegional / Local

O’Harra, Frankowski Claim Solo Victories in Tour of Anchorage

Gavin KentchMarch 7, 2017

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — There are several strategies for winning the Tour of Anchorage, the annual 50-kilometer freestyle marathon from one side of town to the other that is the unofficial citizens’ race championship for the State of Alaska. There is one obvious way to lose it: Go out too hard on the climbs of the first 10 k, only to lose steam and be swallowed up by a chase pack at some point in the...

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Myrseth, Madlener Win RMISA Mass Starts in Anchorage
CollegiateNewsRacing

Myrseth, Madlener Win RMISA Mass Starts in Anchorage

Gavin KentchFebruary 14, 2017

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — So how cold was it at Kincaid Park Sunday morning for the last of four Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) races held in the Anchorage area this week? “It’s f—ing cold,” said women’s winner Merete Myrseth of the University of Utah. “It was cold,” said men’s winner Moritz Madlener of the University of Denver. “Now we fly back to Denver and get warm.” [Unavailable for comment] were the two skiers who...

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