Matt Whitcomb – FasterSkier

“We Wanted More . . .” Team USA’s Hard Look at a Low Day

FasterSkierNovember 30, 2024

BONUS ARTICLE: This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. In the early morning hours of any FIS World Cup race day, messages are bouncing back and forth among a team of diligent FasterSkier writers, doing their best to craft illuminating articles on the race coverage flitting across our screens. And on...

Feature News Racing World Cup

Ruka Preview: The World Cup Starts Here

Ken RothNovember 25, 2024

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. It’s hard to believe, but the start of the World Cup ski season is upon us. The weekend opener in Ruka, Finland begins November 29th. While many of us will be bemoaning our Thanksgiving excess and recovering from NFL binge...

Feature News World Cup

Bend Camp—Building the Team Dynamic: Part II

Ken RothMay 27, 2024

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. In part one of our interview with U.S. coach, Matt Whitcomb, about Bend spring training camp he told us about training regimens and the team building approach. In part II, Whitcomb talks more...

Feature News US Ski Team

Bend Camp—Building the Team Dynamic: Part I

Ken RothMay 23, 2024

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. May 4th through the 17th marked the return to the unofficial start of serious cross-country ski training for Team USA with their annual return to Bend, Oregon for their spring camp held at...

Feature News US Ski Team

Matt Whitcomb: Reflecting on a Special Season with Stifel U.S. Ski Team Head Coach

Ben TheyerlApril 15, 2024

Asked for a reflection on the 2023-24 World Cup season, US Ski Team Head Coach Matt Whitcomb pointed straight towards one place; Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a sunny February day, filled to the brim with 20,000 people cheering loud and clear. “We often talk about athletes peaking for big events,” he said. “But I’d never considered that our American ski culture could peak for an event.” The specific dynamics between performance and...

Feature News World Cup

Canmore World Cup Reporter’s Notebook: Signed Bib Edition

Nathaniel HerzFebruary 14, 2024

CANMORE, ALBERTA — The World Cup circuit, cross-country skiing’s top level of racing, has officially finished its visit to Canmore, and now heads to Minneapolis for the first events in the U.S. in more than two decades. A number of teams are on a direct, early morning flight Wednesday from Calgary to Minneapolis, while others are taking an extra day in Canmore and waiting to travel until Thursday. The events in Minneapolis are sure to...

Community Feature News

Home Team Energy—Head Coach, Matt Whitcomb

Ben TheyerlJanuary 23, 2024

Watching the Stifel U.S. Ski Team during the first half of the 2023-24 World Cup season has, at points, been a sublime experience. That feeling of overwhelming exhilaration when looking out from the mountain top has been something literal for American athletes on top of podiums—and literal Alpes too—as they’ve traveled week-to-week, race-to-race, across Europe this winter. From Jessie Diggins’ Overall World Cup lead and Tour de Ski win, to career firsts way into her...

Feature US Ski Team World Cup

Rosie Brennan isn’t a sparkle chipmunk. But “every human” can still relate to her hard-fought career.

Nathaniel HerzMarch 6, 2023

PLANICA, SLOVENIA — Anyone who knows Rosie Brennan, and the ups and downs of her professional cross-country ski racing career, can relate to her mother’s experience at the World Championships here. Walking among the crowds in U.S.-themed clothing, Wiggy Brennan heard the same thing, over and over, from European fans: “We love Jessie Diggins!” — a reference to Rosie Brennan’s gold-medal winning teammate. “And I say, ‘Okay. But what about Rosie?’” Wiggy said. That question...

News World Cup

“A Mix of Everything.” Rosie Brennan Reflects on Hard-Fought Battle for Podium, as Andersson Wins 30 k

Ben TheyerlMarch 4, 2023

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. On the final day of a World Championships defined by new highs in terms of results for the United States, Rosie Brennan (USA) delivered a performance that reiterated that—for Brennan and her...

Feature World Cup

After Olympic near-misses, Planica binding mishap postpones Brennan’s medal quest

Nathaniel HerzFebruary 25, 2023

PLANICA, SLOVENIA — From the stadium at this Slovenian ski venue, Wiggy Brennan watched on the jumbotron as her daughter, Rosie Brennan, raced with the lead pack in Saturday’s World Championships skiathlon race. Brennan, who trains with Anchorage’s Alaska Pacific University team, was feeling good and gunning for a medal against the best in the world. It’s easy to pick her out, Wiggy said, with her bright orange Rossignol skis. Then, someone crashed. “And I’m...

Feature US Ski Team World Cup

After Two COVID Winters, an Unusual Sight at World Championships: Parents

Nathaniel HerzFebruary 24, 2023

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. PLANICA, SLOVENIA – A year ago, Canadian cross-country skier Graham Ritchie had reached the pinnacle of his sport: He was competing at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. His parents? They...

Community Feature News US Ski Team

US Ski and Snowboard Coaches Symposium returns in Virtual Format

Ben TheyerlNovember 2, 2022

Convened for the first time since the pandemic, USSS’s biennial coaches National Coaches’ Symposium brings focus to US Skiing’s progress, and highlights the ever-evolving nature of the sport. Last held in 2019, the US Ski and Snowboard’s National Coaches’ Symposium has traditionally provided insight into program priorities and training philosophies of those coaches working directly with the US Ski Team. With in-person conventions having been interrupted by the Covid pandemic, this season’s re-convening of the...

Podcasts The Devon Kershaw Show

The Devon Kershaw Show: U.S. Ski Team veteran coach Matt Whitcomb

Devon KershawAugust 26, 2022

Matt Whitcomb has been a staple of the U.S. Ski Team coaching staff for a decade, seeing it through some of its most successful years. We hear from him about the coaching lifestyle, equal distance racing and other topics in another episode that we took a litttttle too long to post. You can email us at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.

Feature General News Racing

Men at Work: U.S. Ski Team Takes on Torsby Ski Tunnel

Gavin KentchAugust 21, 2022

If it’s August, it must be time to ski. Head Coach Matt Whitcomb and roughly half the men on the U.S. Ski Team, accompanied by a couple of well-known distaff guests, have spent the last week on snow in the Torsby Ski Tunnel in southwest Sweden. They raced in the nearby Inge Bråten Memorial rollerski race earlier today, and will compete in the Toppidrettsveka rollerski series in Norway starting on Thursday. It’s a multi-stage Scandinavian...

Community News World Cup

Trail to Gold Fellowship Wants to Put More Female Coaches on the World Cup

Ella HallAugust 3, 2022

While it’s difficult to get exact numbers, the general distribution of coaches and service staff on the World Cup level is largely male dominated. The recently announced Trail to Gold Fellowship aims to help change that. Following the publication of the Trail to Gold book in November of 2021, members of the book committee began discussing how to use the net proceeds generated by book sales. After bouncing around various proposals, they settled on the...

Feature Racing World Cup

Switching to Equal Distance and the “Trickle Down” Effect

Ella HallJuly 25, 2022

In most sports, the question of whether men and women would compete on equal playing fields, so to speak, was answered long ago. While gender inequalities remain- a recent decision by the IOC to maintain the exclusion of Women’s Nordic Combined from the Olympics comes to mind- the sport of cross-country skiing will now be joining the list of those in which competition is equal for men and women. In a press release issued on...

Camps Community News Places to Ski Resources Training Travel

Spring skiing: Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center hosts annual U.S. Ski Team camp

Rachel PerkinsMay 13, 2022

Believe it or not, it is mid-May. For those following a traditional cross-country calendar, this means the start of a new training year, building toward the 2022/2023 competition season. And, for many of the top American athletes, this means it’s time to make an annual pilgrimage to Bend, Oregon for the on-snow camp of the season at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center. The weather gods were kind to the camp attendees, with nearly a foot...

Racing World Cup

Jouve takes back-to-back classic sprint wins, earning France the 2022 World Cup sprint globe; Ritchie leads for North America with Top-20

Rachel PerkinsMarch 11, 2022

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. It’s the last hurrah, folks! The World Cup Finals kicked off in Falun, Sweden today with a classic sprint. While the season has been a wild ride for many reasons...

Racing World Cup

A full-circle moment, Johaug wins the 30 k classic at Holmenkollen, exactly 11 years after her first individual World Championship gold; Brennan leads the US in 7th

Rachel PerkinsMarch 5, 2022

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Eleven years ago to the day, racing the 30-kilometer mass start skate, a 22-year-old Therese Johaug won her first individual World Championship gold medal in a breakout performance at...

Community Feature News Olympics Racing

Rosie Brennan won’t take home medals from Beijing. She still helped change U.S. cross-country skiing.

Nathaniel HerzFebruary 20, 2022

ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — Jessie Diggins’ silver medal, the best-ever individual Olympic finish by an American woman, is what most people will remember from Sunday’s Games-ending cross-country ski race. Here’s why you should remember Rosie Brennan, too. Brennan, 33, may lack Diggins’ magazine covers and national endorsement deals. But she performed at ever-so-close to the same level in Beijing, and came heartbreakingly close to the medals. First, there was Brennan’s fourth place in the Games-opening individual...

Older Posts