We often hear of the pipeline in Olympic sport. The path to the highest level of elite competition. The pipeline is not consistent in diameter: Wide-mouthed at its start, tapered to needle-wide at its terminus. There are many ways to identify talent within a pipeline. In the cross-country ski world, there are incremental benchmarks to progress to the next tier. Within U.S. Ski & Snowboard, for example, skiers in the pipeline begin in the club...
Bogus Basin Nordic Team (BBNT), based in Boise, ID, became a Paralympic Sports Club this year, the first cross-country ski team in the United States to do so. Paralympic Sports Clubs are partnerships between US Paralympics and community organizations across the country that, according to the US Paralympics website, “provide local sports programming for individuals with Paralympic-eligible impairments.” They are “designed to be implemented within an organization’s menu of programs,” thus bridging the gap between...
One skier is twenty years old, the other thirty four. Mia Zutter, the younger of the duo, and Kristina Trygstad-Saari, the eldest, exemplify interdependence on the ski tracks. One guides for the other. They met in Canmore in 2018 at a Para World Cup that served as a qualifier for the PyeongChang Paralympics. Zutter is a visually impaired skier. At the age of 12, having been a lifelong athlete immersed in gymnastics and figure skating,...
2018 Winter Paralympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): Mixed and open relays On the final day of the PyeongChang Paralympic Games, Canada was the only country to medal in both the mixed and open cross-country relays, and its mixed relay anchor, Mark Arendz, became the most decorated Canadian at a single Winter Paralympics with his sixth medal of the week. In the 4 x 2.5-kilometer mixed relay on Sunday, Natalie Wilkie, Emily Young, Chris Klebl, and Arendz...
2018 Winter Paralympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): 5/7.5/10 k cross-country races Saturday marked the last day of individual racing at the PyeongChang Paralympics, and as they have over the last week, the U.S. and Canadian teams did not disappoint, with the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Team adding a gold and two silvers to its medal count and the Canadian Para-Nordic Team notching two golds and two bronze medals in the middle-distance cross-country races. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Wilkie of...
2018 Winter Paralympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): 15/20 k visually impaired and standing races Make that record-breaking medal No. 14 for Brian McKeever. In his fifth Paralympics, the 38-year-old Canadian raced to the 11th gold medal of his career (and 14th medal total) on Monday at the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. He did so in the 20-kilometer visually impaired freestyle cross-country race with his guides Graham Nishikawa and Russell Kennedy, who traded guiding responsibilities during...
Matthew Perry Johnson was named the new head coach of the Montana State University nordic ski team following Kristina Trygstad-Saari's resignation from the position this spring after one year on the job. Johnson is the third head coach in two years for the Bobcats.
This week's Wednesday Workout comes from West Yellowstone, where skiers are adjusting to altitude in order to prepare for Friday and Saturday's SuperTour races. FasterSkier caught up with the Montana State University Ski Team as they did their first Level 4 workout since arriving in West Yellowstone.
Just a few months ago, the Bridger Ski Foundation elite and postgrad team was without a coach and down to two athletes. Today, the team boasts 14 high-level athletes led by 2014 U.S. sprint champion Jennie Bender.
Grethe Lise-Hagensen served as Montana State University’s Head Nordic Coach from 2003 to 2014. During her decade as head coach, Hagensen brought the team from a state of near non-existence to ranking third in the nation. In May of 2014, Hagensen’s contract was not renewed by the university’s administration. FasterSkier sat down with Hagensen in July to talk about her time at the helm of the MSU program and the accomplishments she achieved during her ten years as head coach.
Montana State University announced Friday that Kristina Trygstad-Saari will become the school's nordic ski team head coach starting in August. This is the second job announcement in recent months for Trygstad-Saari as she was reported to be the Elite/Post-Graduate Team Coach of the Bridger Ski Foundation in May. She has since resigned from the position.
A return to one’s roots can often lead to new opportunities. Such is the case with Kristina Trygstad-Saari, a Bozeman, Mont. native and Bridger Ski Foundation alumnus who has now taken the position as the ski club’s new elite and post-graduate coach for the 2014/2015 season.
The Bridger Ski Foundation announced Monday that it named Kristina Trygstad-Saari, one of its former elite athletes, head coach of its elite nordic team. Trygstad-Saari, 29, will take over day-to-day coaching and race travel while Dragan Danevski continues as BSF program director and head coach.
For Part II of the 'Part of the Team: The Impact of Female Coaches in the U.S.' series, Nancy Fiddler interviews five college coaches about the challenges and rewards of their jobs, how they achieved their respective positions, and what's kept them there so long.
Brayton Osgood (Bend, OR) and Kristina Trygstad-Saari (Bozeman, MT) skied to victory in the 5/10K classic races in the opening day of the Aspen Valley Ski Club SuperTour. The former Dartmouth College skiers each captured their first SuperTour title of the season, with Osgood winning a tight race over a competitive men’s field, while Trygstad-Saari opened up nearly a thirty second lead over a fairly spread out women’s field. In the men’s 10K classic race,...