A slight reshuffling of positions at U.S. Ski and Snowboard and longtime coach Matt Whitcomb has a new title: Head Coach. Whitcomb held the title of World Cup Coach last season.
As the pandemic took hold in mid-March here in the U.S., Whitcomb holed up at his cabin in rural Vermont for a two-week solo quarantine. We caught up with Whitcomb via phone on April 23 from his cabin. This was a broad ranging interview. We discussed how teams monitor athlete health, recent U.S. Ski Team nominations and aged-based criteria, and how the team may modify its training in light of the pandemic.
If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact Whitcomb directlly via email or phone. Below is his contact information.
Email: Matt.whitcomb@usskiandsnowboard.org
Phone: 435.640.8543
-Thanks to Gavin Kentch and Rachel Perkins for help with this episode.
Timestamps:
00:00-11:00 Coaching roles on the USST
11:00-19:00 USST budget and athlete support
19:30-28:20 Training in the time of a pandemic and racing contingency plans
28:21:-9:45 Discussing how to monitor athlete health/wellness
39:46-51:50 Developing elite-level male athletes in the U.S.
51:51- 1:06:14 David Norris not being nominated to the USST, age-based criteria, Scott Patterson’s nomination to the USST
Jason Albert
Jason lives in Bend, Ore., and can often be seen chasing his two boys around town. He’s a self-proclaimed audio geek. That all started back in the early 1990s when he convinced a naive public radio editor he should report a story from Alaska’s, Ruth Gorge. Now, Jason’s common companion is his field-recording gear.
