They’ve been on four-hour runs through marshes, braved ‘mystery testing’ with the national team, and been featured in a Swedish newspaper. But when asked to describe their favorite aspect of their trip to Sweden, Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephen are in complete agreement: the people. For the two veterans of the US Ski Team, the trip was a unique chance to actually get to know the people they compete against all winter. “When you see...
(Note: this interview is the third in a series of profiles of USBA coaches. The first two were with Jonne Kahkonen.) When Patrick Coffey was hired by the United States Biathlon Association (USBA) as an assistant coach in 2008, he had only three years of coaching experience, making him an unusual choice for a national team position. But what he lacked in formal training and experience, he made up for in passion. In those three...
Three weeks after being flown out of Boulder Canyon with serious head trauma, Reid Pletcher is ready to head home to Sun Valley after his expected discharge from Craig Hospital in Denver this Friday. The
Every May, after storage wax has cooled and spandex has been washed for the first time since November, coaches, officials, and athletes from around the country descend upon Park City for four days to discuss scheduling for the following year and implementing new race rules and formats. This is the USSA Congress. FasterSkier caught up with John Farra, USSA Nordic Director, to get a run down of the most import developments to come out of...
Central Cross-country Skiing (CXC) is starting the summer with a bang, scheduling three elite training camps at their new home at Wisconsin’s fabled Telemark Resort. Yuriy Gusev, CXC’s Executive and Athletic Director, said, “We’ve been looking for a training center for awhile.” While considering other training venues near Duluth and Wausau, WI, CXC kept coming back to Telemark and the Birkie area. Gusev cited the huge ski tradition in the Birkebeiner region, but noted challenges...
The Canadian National Ski Team (CNST) has kicked off its training season with its second annual camp in Bend, Oregon. According to newly-minted CNST World Cup team member Len Valjas, the entire World Cup team was present for the 11 day camp, with the only exception being Alex Harvey, who is currently finishing up exams at home in Quebec. While the weather in Bend had been less than ideal – in a recent interview with...
United States Ski Association (USSA) Chief Executive Officer Bill Marolt took a five percent cut in base compensation and benefits in the 2010 fiscal year, according to federal tax forms recently released by the Internal Revenue Service. In both 2010 and 2009, Marolt received a $250,000 bonus from USSA and its affiliate organizations. In the last fiscal year, however–which ended April 30, 2010–his base pay decreased from $309,947 to $269,258, while his benefits and nontaxable...
At the end of the women’s relay at 2011 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, star biathlete Olga Zaitseva abruptly announced her retirement, sending the biathlon world and the Russian team into a tailspin. As FasterSkier wrote at the time, Zaitseva was fed up with the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU), the politics, and the pressure associated with representing her country. Since then, there has been much speculation about her possible return. Zaitseva initially stuck to...
Zach Caldwell, one of the premier ski technicians in the US has decided to leave Boulder Nordic Sport (BNS) and return to Southern Vermont to reestablish his own grinding and ski selection business with his wife Amy. Caldwell initially left Vermont to run a ski testing program for the US Ski Team in the Callaghan Valley as part of the lead up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, following Amy to the Whistler area after...
Stand on the side of a trail at an international cross-country ski race, and it’s easy enough to tell athletes apart as they pass by–you can just look at their spandex. But closing your eyes doesn’t make things much more difficult, thanks to the unique words of encouragement used by coaches of different nationalities. Using some auditory evidence from January’s World Junior and U-23 Championships, held in Otepaa, Estonia, FasterSkier digs into the phenomenon of...
Before the 2011 World Cup season was even finished, the ski community knew that the Italian team would be losing one of their biggest stars. Arianna Follis, who had been racing on the circuit since 1995, saved the best part of her career for last. She was the World Champion in the sprint in 2009, and in 2011 placed third in the overall World Cup rankings and second in the sprint standings. But at 33...
Torin Koos, 31, has his goals set on the 2014 Olympics in Sotchi, Russia. It will be his fourth Olympics. This time, he relies entirely on his own resources.
FasterSkier Performances of the Year The FasterSkier Performance of the Year Award is presented in three categories – cross-country, biathlon and nordic combined, with men’s and women’s in the first two. We will start with cross-country. XC Performance of the Year (women): Kikkan Randall (USA/USST) In some ways this is the easiest of the Performance of the Year awards – there is no question that it will go to Kikkan Randall. The challenge is picking...
“Hellner had a couple of beers and we all know how that went,” Northug said to the audience at a presentation in Oslo last week. Northug is already focusing on Sotchi 2014.
“It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to work with this caliber of athletes and coaches,” Trond Nystad said to Norwegian news agency NTB after accepting the offer to be the head coach for the Norwegian national men’s team.
When FasterSkier in an interview last week. “Pichler, because he’s had big success in Sweden and many years… maybe it was time for him to move.” Past Animosity with Russia While the challenge of coaching a supremely talented yet frustratingly inconsistent group of women may be appealing to Pichler, the move to Russia is puzzling given his past relationship with the RBU. For several years, Pichler – who is outspoken on many issues – very...
Former US Ski Team coach Trond Nystad becomes the new head coach for the Norwegian men's all-round team. He replaces Morten Aa Djupvik, who resigned after the 2011 World Championship season.
With Cross Country Canada (CCC) announcing selections for the Canadian World Cup and Senior Development Team last week, the Canucks are loading up for another season. There were no surprises on the World Cup Team, as six of the seven have been part of the squad in the past. The one new addition, Len Valjas, is no shocker, because ‘Big Tall Lenny’, as he has been nicknamed by his teammates, tore up the World Cup...
In the lead-up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Zach Caldwell led a much-discussed, multi-year effort to pin down the best stonegrinds and waxes for the challenging, variable conditions at Whistler Olympic Park. Caldwell’s months and months of hard work even drew the attention of National Public Radio, which Kris Freeman’s horrific skis in the opening 15 k freestyle in Vancouver. When the best skiers and wax techs in the world can be baffled by conditions,...