With the wrap-up of this year's World Cup season, many U.S. Ski team members made their way to Craftsbury, Vt., for the final races of the U.S. calendar. Noah Hoffman raced to his first win of the season in Monday's 15 k freestyle individual start. “Honestly, it’s nice to get to win a race every once in awhile,” he said.
Sophie Caldwell mainly had one tactic on Tuesday, and it put her in prime position for the best race of her career: “Push it over the tops, stick on Ingvild on the ups, and have a strong finish," she explained. The American ended up beating Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and another Norwegian, Heidi Weng, to achieve her first World Cup victory.
FasterSkier sat down with the youngest members of the U.S. Ski Team, the Stratton Mountain School's Julia Kern and Katharine Ogden, both 18, to talk about their training seasons and outlook, and Kern helped us preview the Sun Valley SuperTour classic sprint.
The Stratton Mountain School (SMS) high-school team recently wrapped up a mini camp, with the Vertical Challenge as its pinnacle workout. Program director Sverre Caldwell picked a "gnarly" combo of biking, rollerskiing and running with a lot of vertical gain. "We said, we want you to go hard," he explains.
This week’s workout comes from USSA's Domestic Coach of the Year, Sverre Caldwell of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) in Stratton, Vt. Caldwell shares a typical day in the life of a Stratton athlete in May, including general strength followed by an easy distance workout.
With the 2014/2015 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. We're kicking off the series by honoring the youngest skiers of the bunch with Junior of the Year, awarded to one outstanding male and one female in the U.S. and/or Canada.
With the help of U.S. Ski Team head coach Chris Grover and Canadian National Team Head Coach Justin Wadsworth, Tor-Arne Hetland and the Canadian World Cup Team ended up in Vermont last month. "Andy Newell can train here for many years … That’s the reason we are here," Hetland explained.
Anyone who follows U.S. racing closely knows the name Patrick O'Brien. He's been a staple at Craftsbury for the last four years, captained the Dartmouth ski team, and is now delving into a career as head coach of the Stratton T2 Team -- something he didn't necessarily anticipate but sees as a good fit and ideal transition.
Ben Saxton and Paddy Caldwell were two new names on the 2014/2015 U.S. Ski Team nominations released last Friday. Both with Stratton ties, the two were asked to join the D-team, an unfunded development squad back after a one-year hiatus.
SMST2 Head Coach Gus Kaeding, 29, came to the striking realization this winter that he couldn't see himself coaching in 10 years. With that in mind, he decided to plot a new future, which could include a master's in finance. His contract is up at the end of June, but Kaeding plans to help Stratton transition to a new elite-team coach.
Photos from Tuesday's 4 x 5 k mixed relay, a new event at U.S. Distance Nationals, which was held at 5 p.m. in Anchorage and included 26 teams, 18 of which were vying for a national title.
A questionable lane change fewer than 100 meters before the finish left jury members to decide whether or not Andy Newell's move in front of Reese Hanneman warranted a penalty in the men's classic sprint final at SuperTour Finals on Sunday -- thus relegating him from first to last. Hanneman ultimately won and Newell was demoted to sixth.
Gus Kaeding literally had one foot out the door and his vehicle running Tuesday morning, but he couldn’t draw himself away from what was unfolding some 3,700 miles away in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Two of his skiers were in their first sprint finals of their career, one of which was on his way to making U.S. history.
This is the third preview in our series on U.S. elite teams, which we’ve dubbed the “The 12.” With all six original members returning to Stratton Mountain's T2 squad and two promising newcomers (one of which is on the USST) in the mix, this Vermont-based team is feeding off last season's career bests to prepare for an Olympic year.
FasterSkier ventured to Vermont this week to see the entire Stratton Mountain School T2 Team working out together or one of the first times this summer. Video includes footage from bounding and strength sessions earlier this week, as well as interviews with Andy Newell, Simi Hamilton and Eric Packer.
At the top of a hill in Quebec City on Friday were the parents and brother of American sprint star Kikkan Randall; nearby was a retired ski coach on his "fantasy tour" of the World Cup.
Note: This story accompanies came to life under SMS Nordic Program Director Sverre Caldwell. Sophie’s father, Sverre dreamed up the team years ago, but seriously revisited the idea in a conversation with Kaeding last summer. Earlier this year, the two laid the framework to make it happen. Several months later in June, four SMS skiers and Sinnott strapped on their rollerski gear for a three- to four-hour skate in upstate New York. It was the...
With increasing camera affordability and the internet’s ease of distribution, the number of videos made about nordic skiing seems to grow exponentially every year. Where once you had to physically go and buy one of the few existing movies put out by national team members to be able to watch good skiers from the comfort of your own home, there is now an abundance of technique advice, World Cup footage and “here). FS: Are your...
SHAFTSBURY, Vt. – Andy Newell had been home in southern Vermont for just about a week – and he hadn’t had a ton of free time between
Back in early February, Stratton Mountain School (SMS), one of the country’s most successful ski academies, announced that it would be starting a new elite professional ski team in the 2012-2013 season. Gus Kaeding, who most recently coached at CXC, signed on as the head coach to join longtime Stratton nordic director Sverre Caldwell at the southern Vermont program. The announcement was subsequently buried by a busy period of domestic and international racing, but the...