Last year, at a Canada Cup race in Calgary, somebody pointed out to me that I was the second oldest person in the Open Men category. The startling part is that I was, at that point, 26 years old! “How could this be?â€, I thought. “I don’t even have gray hair or a beer belly yetâ€. Then I wondered where all the skiers older than myself went. It is kind of sad, if you think...
As reported on FasterSkier, Unni Odegaard was recently involved in an accident in Norway. She was hit by car from behind while rollerskiing. She was in a coma for two days and is currently in the hospital recovering and waiting for the results of a CT scan. Unni studied and ski raced for five years in the US, as a collegiate skier for the University of Colorado and also as a member of the Subaru Factory Team. Unni...
Skiing Fast and Looking Good…Mutually Exclusive?? Steadily rolling my way along a stretch of immaculate pavement recently (while shirtless of course), the standard amalgam of gravel spewing semi’s and profanity spewing rednecks rumbling by, I had the rare (exceedingly so) pleasure of being the recipient of an exuberant “Holy Hotness!!†from a passing vehicle full of women. Now, before you get too excited, understand that the women were A.) all octogenarians on their way to/from...
Nordic racing, over the last ten years or so, has evolved significantly in terms of distances and formats. We have more mass starts, more sprints, all types of variations of the pursuit, and other events like sprint relays. While the question of whether or not these are positive developments has been the subject of fairly frequent debate, the question of how to confront it as a racer seems to surface less often. We have seen...
Fasterskier.com was founded right before the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. We saw a need for a web site with ambitions to create a broader interest for cross country skiing. We wanted to cover not only training articles, but also cover the people in the races and behind the scene, the personalities and psychology in racers of all ages, the events, the equipment, the preparations, the inspiration, the results, the success and failure and...
Pat Tillman Embraced Higher Calling (USA Today Story) My plan for Tuesday called for writing another cross country ski training article but that changed (to a day for reflections instead) after I had read USA Today’s “The Forum†article on page 13A by Dave Kindred (Tuesday, April 27, 2004). The article was called -Tillman embraced higher calling. I have followed sport since childhood but never seen an athlete ever make a choice like Tillman. In...
Today, as the FasterSkier.com staff was browsing the internet looking for the latest in cross-country ski news, we came across a poll on ESPN.com asking the question “Who Is The World's Greatest Athlete?” They gave a list of 64 athletes in an elimination bracket, and asked their readers to vote for the best athlete in each match-up. The eventual winner will be crowned 'World's Greatest Athlete.' We browsed through the names – full of football...
I am only 23 years old but I have spent a majority of my life involved with the US Ski Team. From the time I won my first Junior National Championship at 15, they have been involved in my development. The ski team has had its problems. The most obvious problem was the attitude that the US would never compete internationally. This stance was exacerbated by the Ski Team’s tiny budget, a slew of under...
Last fall I made the following (controversial?) statement in an article describing a skate rollerski interval session (To view this entire article see – www.torbjornsport.com selling the PRO-SKI Rollerski brand so my comments regarding skis from other brands are not (quite) objective. I still feel a need for commenting on rollerskis with pneumatic wheels as a training devise used to improve race performance. In short: It’s no way you can achieve the performance and quality...
It has been a very long time since the US have had skiers that can win a world cup, Olympics or a world championships. Today we have several skiers who have proven they can be competitive and contend for the win every weekend. We have not won a race yet, but it is close and it can happen any weekend. Not long ago, we were excited when an athlete scored world cup points. That has...
This past weekend was truly a great reminder of what many Olympic volunteers and Cross-Country ski enthusiasts pictured as the true Olympic legacy of Soldier Hollow. The venue was filled with 260 young junior skiers racing on much of the 2002 Olympic 5-km course (modified somewhat), starting and finishing in the Olympic stadium while their names were listed on the large scoreboards. At the same time, totally separated from the race venue, several hundred more...
Former US Ski Team Coach and World Cup skier Jim Galanes says regarding Fasterskier.com October 18 Editorial article Dopers Tarnish the Sport for all of us “Thanks for posting the good article on doping”. He continues: “In light of the recent scandal in US Track & Field it is clear that bigger penalties must be exercised. This last event has shown that not only are team leaders, coaches and athletes looking for an advantage, but...
On October 21st, Canadian Beckie Scott will get her Muehlegg stole other athletes’ glory and money They make a joke of the Olympics, turn the event into a scandal, and they are welcomed back!? The only real solution, as far as I'm concerned is jail time for the offenders, and not ever a chance to race international competitions again. Some skiers never got a fair chance Last week I translated an article about
This is meant to, among other things, be an attempt to start categorizing and recognizing those skiers who are really fit over the age of 40 (or maybe I should start at age 30?). I’m taking about skiers in the category that are not gunning for Olympic or National team status. It would be nice if someone representing US masters would take these ideas and develop some kind of nation wide point system and come...
The goal of the US Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) is very clear — “to be the best in the World” (USSA President Bill Marolt). This statement is also repeated on most every statement and communication from the USSA Office, including the USSA Cross-Country office. How can this goal be reached in Cross-Country, a sport where progress goes painstakingly slow, and where it is commonly known that it takes 10 years of hard, systematic and...
For years, I have been surprised when I have read articles in places like "Master Skier" where National Team skiers from the US and Scandinavia have been referred to as Masters Skiers just because they have just turned 30 years old. Olympic Champions like Bjorn Daehlie and Vegard Ulvang of Norway and US National Team members Justin Wadsworth, John Bauer and Patrick Weaver have all been categorized as master skiers — in my opinion they...
On Monday, January 6, I stood in the stadium at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine looking over the results from the day’s 10K Freestyle race at US Nationals. I had finished 59th. And even though the last time we had Nationals in Rumford (1999) I had finished 4th, 6th, 6th and 10th in the races, I was not upset about my 59th place. In fact, I was feeling pretty good about my day, until… I...