FS staff member Emily Schwing catches up with the voices and brains of NBC's commentary at the upcoming Sochi Olympics, Chad Salmela and Rob Whitney, who will likely cover nordic, biathlon and nordic combined at the 2014 Winter Games.
HomeCategory
Interviews
Interviews with racers, coaches and other relevant individuals within the Nordic ski world.
Heidi Widmer Rebounding After Third Concussion
Katie BonoNovember 6, 2013
At 22, Heidi Widmer's suffered three concussions in the last four years, with her most recent resulting from a rollerski crash this fall. "I’m super lucky,” the Canadian NST member says. “There’s no internal bleeding, I’m functioning, I’m fine, but I just have to be able to take care of this and come out of it with some lessons learned for sure.”
Colorado-based writer Matt Muir, who has spent the better part of the last decade summering in Argentina, studying the life and befriending local skiers, takes an inside look at the future of nordic in the Argentina and its quest for Worldloppet recognition.
Catching Up with Canada’s Former Head Coach Dave Wood
Nancy FiddlerOctober 31, 2013
During his recent visit to California for a training camp with his Black Jack Ski Club, former Canadian National Team Head Coach Dave Wood met up with FasterSkier's Nancy Fiddler and shared some intimate thoughts on the sport. "You can’t improve by just going to Europe to race,” Wood says. “You have to figure out a way to cut 45 seconds over 15 kilometers before going.”
Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess knows as well as anybody that falls is the time to up the intensity. "For the first time since the training year started in May, I get to play in the area of threshold - and threshold plus," he explains. "Wednesdays we hit the trails: pole bounding in mixed terrain."
Earlier this month, Devon Kershaw packed his bags for Europe, where he'll spend essentially six months between the World Cup, Tour de Ski and Olympic competitions. It was tough, he said, but an opportunity he couldn't pass up between seeing his girlfriend, Kristin Størmer Steira, and training with the Norwegian men's team in Val Senales, Italy.
A middle-of-the-pack skier who competed until 17, Simon Boisvert secured a national-team job this summer at age 21 as a Canadian World Cup wax tech. “When I got the call, I was really happy,” the M.S.A. native says. “It was one of my dreams that came true." Interview and article by Stéphanie Drolet, in both English and French.
Injury-Free This Fall, Randall Balances Training with Publicity Storm in Sochi Leadup
Chelsea LittleOctober 21, 2013
You saw what Kikkan Randall could do last season when hampered by a six-week injury that interrupted fall training. This time around, she’s healthy and ready to show the world what she can accomplish. Randall is doing just that in a blitz of media and commercial appointments.
Demong on Peaking and Final Push Through Sochi
Alex KochonOctober 13, 2013
Billy Demong’s in for a big weekend. A short detour to his old stomping grounds in Lake Placid, N.Y., for the US Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Championships this weekend will be followed by a Monday morning flight to Europe for his team’s final overseas training camp in Austria and Germany.
Feeling ‘Bigger, Better and Stronger’ Than Last Year, Nordgren Sets Up for Olympic Run
Chelsea LittleSeptember 17, 2013
A staple on the World Cup and the U.S. relay team, biathlete Leif Nordgren feels "more set" for the Olympics than last time around, when he was still a junior but trying the qualification process anyway. He told us about a good summer of training, changes in shooting, and navigating ski testing, boredom, and mashed-potato snow in the Oberhof ski tunnel.
Marathon Queen Seraina Boner, with Scandinavian Support, Eyes Unconquered Vasaloppet
Chelsea LittleSeptember 12, 2013
Seraina Boner, a former Swiss national team skier, has transformed herself into the best long-distance skier in the world. Whether training with Team Coop in Norway or jumping in with Dario Cologna in Davos, she’s working towards a Vasaloppet victory - the one big thing that's missing from her resume.
Changing of the Guard: USSA President Marolt to Guide Shaw
Alex KochonSeptember 10, 2013
Although the transition will be gradual, there will be a change in leadership at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. Incoming CEO and president Tiger Shaw starts Oct. 1 and plans to learn from current chief Bill Marolt, his former coach on the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, for the rest of the 2013/2014 season.
After hearing fantastical tales in the 1970s of what it was like to race in the Soviet Union, Bill Frank set out to discover why fans there were so biathlon-crazy. The answers have much to do with the debacle of the 1939 Winter War, where the Soviets were turned back by Finnish ski troopers, and that the biathlon relay was about as Marxist an athletic event as you could find.
Vice president of the nordic division at Fischer Skis for the last 18 years, Peter Ashley has had a ton of experience outside the retail industry, holding just about every job skiing offers and experiencing the evolution of the sport firsthand. "This is not an un-cool sport to be in nowadays," he says.
Six years ago, a back injury put a damper on Rosie Brennan's skiing, but she didn't let it get her down and finally addressed it this spring. Now training consciously and rehabbing the injury, the 24-year-old APU skier is hoping for another career-best season leading up to the Sochi Games.
After a three-year break from World Cup racing, Torin Koos returned to the international scene last year and picked up where he left off with a top 20 finish last March. As the 33-year-old prepares for what could be his fourth Olympic Games, he thinks of last season as a stepping stone to more progress in 2014. "I feel like I’m coming into this year with some momentum and still with a lot to prove as well, to myself," Koos says.
Jessie Diggins loves to ski. That's a good thing because it's her full-time job as a World Cup skier training with the Stratton Mountain School T2 and U.S. Ski teams. At the same time, the 21-year-old has learned to step back, have fun and try new activities to keep things light.
After two years, Corrine Malcolm is no longer on the biathlon national team. But as she said in a blog title, "that's okay." Now on the CXC roster and nannying to pay her bills while she lives in Bozeman, Malcolm feels fit and is trying to figure out if her Olympic goals are still possible without the financial means to attend both sets of biathlon trials leading into the winter season.
Fresh off a trip from France, where he trained with national team skiers and biathletes, Erik Bjornsen talks how he wants to build off last season's breakthroughs and the major lessons he takes away from training with foreign athletes. "In order to reach the top, you really have to live cross-country skiing at every hour of the day," he says.
It can feel like nordic sports don't have anyone in their corner when it comes to funding. But that's not true - former University of Colorado racer and coach Alan Ashley is now the Chief of Sports Performance at the USOC, and his strategy is informed by his past experience. We chatted with him about how he works to develop skiing and every other Olympic sport.