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Maine Winter Sports Center

For First Time in a Decade, Freeman Left Off U.S. Ski Team in 2014

(UPDATED) Kris Freeman, three-time U.S. Olympian in cross-country skiing and member of the U.S. Ski Team since 2002, was not renominated to the national team roster for the 2013-2014 season. Freeman said USST coaches notified him this week of the news, citing limited medal potential at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. "For whatever reason the USST no longer believes in me," he said.

Last winter, a number of relatively young American athletes catapulted their way to top-ten World Cup results in nordic disciplines – often very much to their own surprise, and certainly to the surprise of European commentators. One of those was Stockholm, Maine’s Russell Currier, who, joining the biathlon circuit halfway through the season, had a breakout performance in his second race of that weekend. In a sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, 24-year-old Currier started...

Elite Team Preview: Maine Winter Sports Center

Note: This is the third preview in a quick-and-dirty series on U.S. elite teams. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order. Team: Maine Winter Sports Center Olympic Development Teams Coaches: Will Sweetser (cross-country), Seth Hubbard (biathlon), Amber Dodge (development), TBD (wax tech, intern) Roster:  Cross-country: Kris Freeman (U.S....

L.L. Bean Donates $1 Million to MWSC For Healthy Hometowns Program

On Tuesday morning at its headquarters in Freeport, Maine, L.L. Bean presented Maine Winter Sports Center with a $1 million commitment to its Healthy Hometowns program. The gift is part of the outdoor company’s 100th anniversary celebration, which also included a $1 million grant to the National Parks Foundation and $500,000 that has already gone towards the creation of new athletic fields in Freeport. The goal of all three gifts is to make enjoyment of...

Early Snow Opportunity in Northern Maine

Maine Winter Sports Center and Big Rock Ski Area are pleased to announce an opportunity for early season skiing during Thanksgiving week. The exact opening day will depend on weather but will occur as early in the week as possible. Big Rock will be making snow all around the base of their mountain, thus allowing cross-country skiers access to at least 1 kilometer of groomed trail. In addition, Maine Winter Sports Center coaching staff will...

Exclusive Interview: Nilsson, Head of U.S. Biathlon Program, Dishes About Coaching

(Note: this is first in a series of interviews with the coaches and staff of the U.S. biathlon team.) When Per Nilsson took over head coaching duties for the U.S. biathlon team after the 2006 Olympic Games, the U.S. men had already begun a slow ascent in the nations cup standings, climbing from 20th place in 2003 to 15th after Torino. With Nilsson’s help, the rise has continued: the men have now finished either 10th...

With just a few weeks at home in the county we are yet again preparing for travel, this time to Canmore, Alberta where the senior athletes have trials races for the December World Cups and IBU races. For the rest of the team it will serve as some solid on-snow (hopefully) training before heading to Minnesota in December for our first Nor-Am Cup races of the ’10-’11 season. October took us to Midway, Utah for...

In its continuing effort to aid the development of American cross country ski racers, the National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation (NCCSEF) will help send a contingent of U.S. athletes to Finnish Lapland in November.  Comprised of nine athletes from the NCCSEF subsidized trip, a Craftsbury Green Racing Program contingent and U.S. Ski Team athletes, over 20 Americans will test their fitness and speed against some of the strongest athletes from Finland, Estonia, northern Sweden, Russia, Belarus,...

More than 150 training days, countless kilometers of rollerskiing, and dozens of loads of dirty laundry: A summer and fall’s worth of preparation will be put to the test in just over two weeks, when the U.S. Ski Team (USST) makes its departure for Europe. All seven members will fly to Finland on November 7 for a weekend of tune-up racing north of the Arctic Circle in Muonio. From there, the squad will part ways,...

AUGUSTA, Maine – Presque Isle, Maine, will get a World Cup weekend of its own next winter, officials announced Wednesday morning. In a press conference at Maine Governor John Baldacci’s office, Nordic Heritage Sport Club Chairman Tim Vernon said that his organization would be stepping up to the plate to host a second World Cup weekend in Northern Maine, to go along with a previously-scheduled race in Fort Kent. The competition now set for Presque...

New Format to Enliven SuperTour Finals

Everyone’s excited about the three-day mini-tour at the 2010 SuperTour Finals, and why not? Featuring a mass start classic race, a classic sprint, and an uphill climb, the event has something for everyone: sprinters and distance specialists, climbers and all-rounders, fans, and the media. The only ones who might have reservations are the coaches, since they have to wax all the skis and tackle the logistics. But a survey of those here in Fort Kent...