U.S. Nordic Combined's Bryan Fletcher was recently one of three new athlete representatives selected to the USSA Board of Directors. “For me the biggest thing that came out of congress was just knowledge of the positive development in our sport," he explains, adding that his sport's organizational structure is progressing forward each day.
U.S. Biathlon CEO Max Cobb says that it took four or five years for his organization to get on its feet after splitting from modern pentathlon in 1980 -- but that whatever route U.S. Nordic Combined takes, the good news for them is that they have proven success and that direct fundraising tools have entered a whole new realm in the past few years.
While you're tipping back a beverage of choice this Memorial Day weekend, here's a look at Sylvan Ellefson's new enterprise with the 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirit Company in Vail, Colo., which pays tribute to the members of the 10th Mountain Division in the form of locally sourced whiskey, bourbon, vodka, and cordials. Ellefson retired from full-time nordic racing this spring.
The U.S. Biathlon Association is focusing resources on the future: for the first time in years, there's a development team, a recruitment camp, coaches seminars and regional development efforts. Plus, High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler is now the Chief of Sport, and will also oversee development - that's "why I’m staying with U.S. biathlon," he said.
Twenty-two years ago, Colette Bourgonje was a grade-school teacher with a ticket to the Albertville Paralympics. But the school wasn’t about to let her take off for her first Paralympics. She went anyway and began an unprecedented streak of competing at seven Winter Paralympics -- 10 Paralympics in all.
Finnish skier Tero Similä has tested positive for the blood-doping drug EPO. While the case will likely put Finland back in the spotlight again after the 2001 disqualifications of six top athletes at World Championships for the same offense, Similä wasn't on the national team and one possibility is that he turned to doping to try to make the Olympic team (he did not).
Guri Hetland spoke with FasterSkier on Monday about how she and Swiss-Ski were at odds when it came to the direction of the team, a stumbling point that ultimately ended in the non-renewal of her contract. "I had planned to work longer in Switzerland and I hoped and I thought that we could agree on the proposal ... but my bosses in the ski federation wanted some changes," she says.
If you're familiar with Canada's junior-racing scene, you've probably heard of Coach Pav. After three years as Ontario Ski Team head coach, Pavlina Sudrich is moving back to the Yukon to work with a couple U23 athletes and continue her coaching education.
After a long and grueling Olympic season, the U.S. biathlon team's "A" athletes are getting back to training with a sun- and snow-filled camp in Bend, Oregon. "There's more snow than last year, to be honest – it’s really perfect," said High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler.
Last year, Casey Smith transitioned away from school at Montana State University and into full-time training at the Maine Winter Sports Center. His first season as a senior biathlete reaped big rewards: an appearance at Olympic Trials, podiums at the Czech Cup, and a top-30 finish at Open European Championships. As recognition, Smith earned a "B" team nomination.
"It's not about skiing," Shungnak School Principal Roger Franklin wrote in an email to FasterSkier about NANANordic, newly expanded and known as Skiku. "It's much more, and it's saving lives daily." This year, the program brought skiing to 27 villages in Northwest Alaska.
While Tor Arne Hetland is just starting as Canada's World Cup coach, his wife, Guri Hetland, is no longer head coach of the Swiss National Team. Swiss-Ski Sports Director Mark Wolf referred to negotiations that "ended in disaster" after Hetland and the association could not agree on team decisions. Dario Cologna had already committed to a new personal coach, Ivan Hudáč.
The Bridger Ski Foundation announced Monday that it named Kristina Trygstad-Saari, one of its former elite athletes, head coach of its elite nordic team. Trygstad-Saari, 29, will take over day-to-day coaching and race travel while Dragan Danevski continues as BSF program director and head coach.
In an interview on Friday, Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth discussed how he will work with Tor Arne Hetland in the coming year for Canmore-based World Cup athletes - "I’ve already had fun talking training with him" - and the other part of his new job, getting the national training centers aligned with the World Cup team to improve the development pipeline.
Anyone who follows U.S. racing closely knows the name Patrick O'Brien. He's been a staple at Craftsbury for the last four years, captained the Dartmouth ski team, and is now delving into a career as head coach of the Stratton T2 Team -- something he didn't necessarily anticipate but sees as a good fit and ideal transition.
Cross-Country Ski de Fond Canada (CCC) has changed its leadership structure in an effort to ramp up for the 2018 Winter Olympics, with Justin Wadsworth overseeing all national-team programs and training centres, and Louis Bouchard and Tor-Arne Hetland as World Cup Team coaches.
There could be such a thing as national-team walk-ons as a result of an upcoming US Biathlon tryout camp, a new format of its kind aimed at talented endurance athletes in the J1, OJ or collegiate age category.
One author's take on the whole Northug fiasco, including the consequences it could hold for the 28-year-old Norwegian skiing star.
Petter Northug, 28, totaled his Audi early Sunday morning while under the influence of alcohol in Trondheim, Norway. He was with another man, who was born in 1991, and later confirmed that man was the passenger and he was the one driving and fled the scene.
“When I look at a trail, I look at it as a big earth sculpture,” Thom Perkins says. It’s the old joke: what do you do with a fine-arts degree? For Perkins, who spent the last 38 years as executive director of the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation, degrees in sculpture and photography led to sculpting land.