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Nordic Nation Podcast

Nordic Nation: Author Peggy Shinn on the U.S. Women’s XC Ski Team

Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall won gold in the team sprint. Shinn’s book and what insights she gleaned during the writing process are our primary topics of discussion. From the roots of the women’s team when coaches Marty Hall and John Caldwell pulled the strings, to the modern World Cup where the U.S. women’s team has become a force, Shinn gives us a glimpse of how the women’s program went from deep grassroots to a...

Madshus USA, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — At the Olympics in PyeongChang, FasterSkier sat down with U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s longtime Vice President of Communications Tom Kelly. After starting with the organization back in 1986, Kelly will be stepping down a few months after the Olympics. Kelly, 65, is the nerve center to U.S. Ski Team’s media and communications outreach. Shepherding athletes through...

Nordic Nation: U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s ‘TK’ in the House (Part 2)

Madshus USA, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In this episode recorded at the Olympics, you’ll hear Part 2 of our conversation with one of the busiest people at the Games … Tom Kelly. Kelly is U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s longtime vice president of communications. After starting with the organization back in 1986, he will be stepping down a few months after the Olympics....

Madshus USA, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In this episode of Nordic Nation, FasterSkier sat down with U.S. cross-country skier, Kikkan Randall — known by some as Kikkanimal — to discuss her fifth and final Winter Olympics, as well as what lays ahead for the Anchorage, Alaska native.  On Wednesday evening earlier this week, Randall and teammate Jessie Diggins paired up to take...

Nordic Nation: Vordenberg’s Call to Action/Climate Challenge

Part 1, and here. Does your team already have a climate or climate activism project?  Let us know what it is and we can share it with our community! Contact Pete Vordenberg with questions, ideas and to register your team. pvatuphillskier@gmail.com (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Nordic Nation: Andy Newell on a Greener World Cup

A few weeks ago we released our interview with climate-justice activist and Vermont resident Bill McKibben. After the interview, we received a few comments that spoke to the perceived large carbon footprint of World Cup skiing and possible changes that might be implemented to curb that environmental impact. With that in mind, we called up Andy Newell, who himself is a climate activist to address some of the questions. We spoke to Newell on Jan....

Nordic Nation: Wadsworth’s Two Cents on Period 1

Justin Wadsworth.   A former U.S. Olympian and coach as well as Canadian head coach, Wadsworth will be doing on-air commentary during the 2018 Olympics for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). This season, there’s much to discuss with Wadsworth. Ten races into the World Cup, the racing so far has seen an unsettled women’s side and a lopsided men’s field. Charlotte Kalla has renewed the premise that Sweden can produce a formidable nordic-ski powerhouse as...

Nordic Nation: Biathlon Canada President Murray Wylie on Boycotting Russia

this more in-depth article on the open letter for some detailed context before listening to this podcast episode. Here’s some of the key info from that piece: On Dec. 10,Russia’s participation at the 2018 Winter Games. Despite the RBU’s less-than-full IBU member status, Russia is still scheduled to host the final IBU World Cup races of the season from March 20-25 in Tyumen and IBU Cup 7 & 8 in Uvat and Khanty-Mansiysk. In an...

Nordic Nation: Wax-Truck Road Trip with Tim Baucom (While Andrew Morehouse Pilots)

$600,000 dollars of precious wax truck (that amount includes the taxes on the truck), as well as something like 600 pairs of skis. That’s a lot of XC schwag. And a lot of eventual ski cleaning. (See below.) And just to be safe, we also dialed up Baucom on Day 2 of their three-day journey to Davos. It’s always a good idea to check back in — new pricey truck, irreplaceable skis and two of...

Nordic Nation: Straight Up Erik Bjornsen

they are strong shoulders. After a summer and fall of solid training, the younger of the two Bjornsens on the U.S. Ski Team (his sister Sadie is a teammate) has high expectations for this Olympic year. Rather than a product of stats and results, Bjornsen is a believer in himself. He studies the sports’ stars, analyzing what makes them technically efficient. He makes the hard workouts count. It’s a method Bjornsen hopes will serve him...

Nordic Nation: Joran Elias is the Statistical Skier

statisticalskier.com (which is more of a blog that has not been updated in awhile) and Gebhardt sportsmanship award his senior year in 2001 (and noted on his blog that “Graduate school taught me many things, among them that I hate academia and that I love wrangling data. Given the choice between wrangling awesome data and making tons of money, I’ll choose the former.  Hence this website.” Sport is rife with those trying to understand the winning,...

Nordic Nation: Max Cobb, US Biathlon’s Straight Shooter

nearly three decades, Cobb has been part of US Biathlon — first as an organizer of the domestic racing series and eventually as the executive director in March of 2006. Just over a year ago, he was elected like 2017 IBU World Championships medalists Lowell Bailey and Susan Dunklee. Cobb’s budget is the mighty mouse of the biathlon world, and on many days, the high-performance team (both coaches and athletes) can slay the Goliaths of...

Nordic Nation: The Pete Vordenberg Experience (Episode 1)

type 1 fun. Vordenberg is a keen and creative mind. When he’s not being a dad, he’s mastering his art as a photographer. His Instagram account is both stunning and eclectic. Have some time set aside before checking his account out, it can be a wormhole. Enjoy the ride listening to The Pete Vordenberg Experience. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation...

Nordic Nation: The Pete Vordenberg Experience (Episode 2)

  start there for some context. Pete Vordenberg, a two-time U.S. Olympic cross-country skier and former U.S. Ski Team coach, talks about his transformation since leaving skiing to dedicate himself to the hardest job he’s ever had: a stay-at-home dad. In Episode 2, he continues to reflect on how skiing impacted his life and how he would like it to be a part of his daughters’ lives, as well as what he thinks needs to...

Nordic Nation: Back on the Podium with Sweden’s Hanna Falk

Hanna Falk, 28, knows the top spots are tough to get and fleeting. In 2010, her first full year on the World Cup, she burst onto the scene and finished an astounding fifth overall in the final sprint rankings. That early success was hindered by illness. By 2015, Falk rebounded, and this past season finished as the third-ranked sprinter on the World Cup and 20th overall. Falk stuck with it, even with a podium drought that...