Sunday was the day. The day of all days when SuperTour Finals in Presque Isles, Maine witnessed the fastest 4 x 5-kilometer mixed relay team in the land. Over the last four years of the mixed relay competition at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard SuperTour Finals, also known as Spring Series, Alaska Pacific University APU won the first two iterations of the event, SMS T2 the two most recent. The foursome comprising APU 1: Rosie Brennan,...
Since Dec. 1, twenty-one-year-old Julia Kern (SMS-T2) has barnstormed the elite level domestic racing calendar. She qualified first and won the SuperTour freestyle sprint in West Yellowstone. The following weekend in the NorAm/SuperTour skate sprint in Sovereign Lake it was another win-win in the qualifier and final. In the next day’s 10-kilometer classic, Kern was third overall and the second American. Last weekend back in Vermont at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Kern swept the...
It’s back! In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at next week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2018 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships in Goms, Switzerland, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 20-year-old Julia Kern, of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team and U.S. Ski Team Development Team, who’s representing the U.S. at her first U23 Worlds (she’s been to Junior...
After scoring World Cup points in her first try as part of the U.S. Nations Group roster in Canada last season, Julia Kern is getting a crack at the European World Cup scene this winter. The 20-year-old Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team member, Dartmouth College student, and U.S. Ski Team D-teamer has been finding her place, surrounded by teammates who have racked up three sprint podiums so far this season. “The early season World...
This week, eight USST members returned to Lake Placid, N.Y., to kick off the fall with an intensity camp. They are joined by the SMST2 team, the Sun Valley Gold Team, the NTG and NEG, making for a large group of elite skiers. But because of the shortened camp, the USST will not participate in the Climb to the Castle.
Speed workouts make fast skiers in more ways that one might think, SMST2 Head Coach Gus Kaeding says. He lets us in on a couple of his go-to variations on a staple workout.
With new athletes headed to Craftsbury, Sun Valley, Stratton and Alaska, it looks like the SuperTour can expect a sizable incoming class next season.
The Stratton Mountain School T2 Team announced on Monday that Simi Hamilton will join its ranks this June. After a season of untimely bouts with illness, Hamilton said a big part of his decision to move to Vermont was the opportunity it gives him to train with Andy Newell on a daily basis and work on his speed at low altitude before an Olympic year.
After she finishes final exams this spring, Middlebury College sophomore Annie Pokorny will be headed to Stratton, Vt., as one of the newest additions to the SMS T2 team. Though the timing of her move to professional skiing is unusual, it's a step she's enthusiastic about. "I’m excited to go for it and to take a chance. It’s exciting, it’s new — it’s going to be fun," she says.
The U.S. Ski Team formally announced its 2013-2014 nominations on Monday, and seven women in total were named to the squad. In contrast to the men's team there were no cuts, and the addition of Sophie Caldwell reflects an expected expansion of the U.S. women's World Cup quota by one more spot in both distance in sprinting.