NENSA's Competitive Program Director Janice Sibilia interviewed US Ski Team athlete Liz Stephen. The complete interview can be found at NENSA.net. Liz Stephen (USST) (Photo Credit: TokoUS)
This is a bi-weekly column (well, most of the time) highlighting our ski coaches from around the country…. including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches, and ambassadors to our sport. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches/volunteers and recognize the people who are the backbone of today’s nordic community. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email rob@fasterskier.com. Please give...
Phil Bowen: You're in your second year as the US cross country ski team head coach. That seems like the top of the ladder for someone involved in xc ski racing. Does it feel like you've arrived? You raced from NCAAs to the international scene, were an assistant NCAA and assistant US coach and worked in the industry as a member of the Factory Team. What experiences have helped you or informed your philosophies as...
Last year’s SuperTour sprint champion Laura Valaas qualified for the U.S. ski team after working with the Midwestern “CXC†senior development program, and is now a member of the Anchorage, Alaska-based APU team. Fasterskier talked with the up-and-coming Washington native the evening of the awards ceremony in West Yellowstone after she placed 2nd (to Kristina Strandberg) in the season-opening distance race, an 8km classic. FasterSkier: So, first things first, what did you have for breakfast...
FasterSkier recently caught up with Dave Chamberlain during a training block between races in Yellowstone and Bozeman. For those that don’t know him, Dave is one of the most experienced racers on the SuperTour circuit who has been a frequent representative of the US in World Cup and World Championship races. Dave and his wife, biathlete Beth Ann Chamberlain, live and train with the Maine Winter Sports Center in Presque Isle. Dave kicked off his...
** Editors note: The Coaches Around the Country colum is back again for a second winter. This column will highlight our ski coaches from around the country… including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches and recognize the people who are the backbone of today’s skiers. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email...
Ulf Morten Aune, the long-term Coach of the Norwegian Sprint Team including the overall Sprint FIS World Cup winner 2006/2007 Jens Arne Svartedal as well as Tor Arne Hetland and Eldar Roenning, presented a coach’s perspective to the FIS World Cup TD Seminar. His presentation focused on the rules for sprint competitions. After the presentation, he took the time to speak with Sandra Spitz of FIS and provide an update on his team’s preparations. Sandra...
This is the second installment of a two-part interview. You can read the first installment http://www.fasterskier.com/news4585.html
Fasterskier.com is excited to announce that the 'Coaches Around the Country' column will be back again this winter! This will be a bi-weekly column highlighting our ski coaches from around the country…. including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches, and ambassadors to our sport. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches/volunteers and recognize the people who are the backbone of today’s nordic community. If you...
“Fast and Female is the beginning of a revolution. In 2005, riding high on Canadian World Cup fever and Olympic dreams, the women of Canada’s National Cross Country Ski Team were inspired to share their enthusiasm with the next generation Canadian female cross- country skiers. Designed to get more girls skiing, as well as make a difference in the state of fitness among today’s kids, the inaugural event was a tremendous success.” – www.fastandfemale.com. Moira...
Swiss Miss, K-Cam, or just Karin (not Karen!) — whatever you call her, she has been one of the fastest female skiers in the US for the past six winters. A native of Switzerland, Karin Camenisch came to the US to attend Denver University in December 2001. In her four years racing at DU, she was part of a team that won two NCAA National Championships. Her best individual result as a college racer came...
35-year-old Cristian Zorzi from Moena (ITA), the reigning Team Sprint World Champion and Olympic Relay Gold Medalist, talked to us about his status for the upcoming Cross-Country World Cup season and the Tour de Ski in his home region of Val di Fiemme. Newspower: The winter season is rapidly approaching. How is Cristian Zorzi training? What is his condition? Cristian Zorzi: “I've just come back from Ramsau, where we found 1.5 meters of fresh snow....
During one of my training sessions in 1996 at the Mt. Van Hovenberg biathlon range near Lake Placid, Kris Seymour, the New York Ski Education Foundation coach asked me if I would let these two young guys try shooting and talk to them a little about biathlon. Both Lowell Bailey and his best friend, Tim Burke, then 15 and 14 years old, didn’t say much and kind of looked down and pawed the dirt with...
Colin Rodgers is a 2004 Middlebury College graduate and a former captain of the Nordic Ski Team. Having skied full time since college, Rodgers is now a threat in any national race and has participated in many events throughout the country. He now makes Sun Valley home and skis for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF), the newly established Fischer/Craft Team and Alpina Sports. www.middleburyskiing.org. Andrew Gardner is the Head Coach of the Middlebury...
You’ll usually get a smile and a good-natured laugh when you see Tim Burke. At least if he knows you. He’s reserved in unfamiliar crowds. Mindful of his manners. Respectful. He gives a good solid handshake. He’s the kind of guy girls want to bring home to their parents and say, “we’re getting married.†Growing up the youngest of three children to the Vice President of Business and Finance at Paul Smith’s College near Saranac...
FasterSkier: So Sarah, we’ve heard you spent the summer in Norway. Was this ski related? We thought you had gone back to school. Sarah: Well quickly: yes, no, and yes! I just returned from Norway a week ago. I was in Tromso, in northern Norway, which is a beautiful city with midnight sun for most of my stay. But you’re right, I wasn’t there for skiing. I was on a school related exchange in surgery!...
Trond Iversen (Norway), second in last season’s sprint World Cup has decided to race for at least three more seasons. The 31-year old wants to fight in the sprint-top toward the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. More interval training is on the agenda. Sponsors have signed up His sponsors have committed to support him all the way through 2010, and everything is now up to Trond. – The package is there. I need to keep the...
Concluding our series of questions and answers with the FIS Council Members, this week we feature an interview with Jaakko Holkeri. Q. Finland can look back to a very successful 2006/07 season, especially in Cross-Country. What are the reasons for this newly-found strength? A. The most important reason concerns the extremely talented athletes who are beginning to have a sufficient number of training years under their belt. The other factors are hard training and solid...
Bill McKibben is to activism what Bente Skari is to classic ski technique. The uber-activist recently orchestrated the largest-ever global warming demonstration, Step It Up, a nationwide surge of actions urging congress to cut the emissions that cause snow depletion 80% by 2050. (www.stepitup2007.org ) In this time when skiing is being hit hard by warming temperatures, when dispatches from the head coach of the US Ski Team have strategies to combat Global Warming, its...