The Australian National Team is hiring! Specifically, "the Ski & Snowboard Australia Cross Country Committee (SSA XC) is seeking expressions of interest for a Head Coach with the Cross Country Skiing High Performance Program. The intention is for this to be a full-time year-round position."
With a young daughter, Randy Gibbs decided to leave the World Cup circuit and his ski tech position with the U.S. Ski Team for more family time. But when the Australians offered him coaching work on a few trips a year, he was thrilled to say yes. He just returned from World University Games in Slovakia, where Australia notched best-ever results.
One year ago, Australian nordic combined didn’t even exist as a sport. But over the last few months, the country’s program has been gathering steam not just Down Under, but in both hemispheres. Ben Sim, the cross-country skier attempting to make the crossover to nordic combined, has been making consistent progress on ski jumps in Lake Placid and Park City. And in Australia, officials at two ski resorts responded “favorably” to a visit from an...
A few days before competing in the Engadin Marathon in Switzerland last March, Ben Sim stood atop a snow-covered hill in Germany. Sim, an Australian, was about to find out whether he could make the jump from cross-country skiing to nordic combined. Literally. Observing were Finn Marsland, the coach of the Australian cross-country ski team, and Fabian Mauz, a German coach who had assisted some Australian athletes at the Junior World Championships in the Black...