Team Birkie – FasterSkier

Team Birkie Announces 2024-25 Regional Team

FasterSkierApril 24, 2024

(MINNEAPOLIS, MN) – Emma Stertz, Dolcie Tanguay, Connor Roberts, and David Ronnevik, will join Team Birkie’s Regional Team. The Regional Team is an opportunity for athletes to continue their development of high level ski racing, as post-graduate high school and post-graduate collegiate skiers. “It’s exciting to have a strong group of experienced post-collegiate skiers join Team Birkie’s Regional Team,” said Development Coach Jake Stiele. “All four of these athletes bring with them unique experiences...

Community Feature News

The Coach with the Voice: Conversations with Chad Salmela

Ben TheyerlJune 2, 2023

Chad Salmela has a gift for pinpointing the critical characteristics of a moment and building something special from it. See “Here Comes Diggins,” the emphatically shouted announcement of an historic performance in American skiing, one that defined the careers of Olympic champions Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall, and of Salmela, himself. When it comes to Nordic skiing, Salmela knows what to say, how to put analysis into a context that audiences will understand, how to...

Community Feature News Racing US Ski Team

New Faces on the U.S. Ski Team: A Q&A with Zak Ketterson

Ben TheyerlJune 2, 2022

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed...

Collegiate Continental Cup News Racing Regional / Local

It’s Ogden and Ketterson Again in the Craftsbury SuperTour Freestyle Sprint

Rachel PerkinsFebruary 4, 2022

SuperTour racing continued on Friday in Craftsbury, Vermont, as part of the Henchey Memorial Carnival, which also included Eastern Cup and collegiate racing. The three-day event is presented by the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, NENSA, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, and the University of Vermont (UVM), the EISA carnival host school. Racers were faced with snowy conditions for the opening 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint as a winter storm made its way across the Northeast. Friday morning’s grooming report...

News Racing Regional / Local

Ketterson and Ogden Take Classic Sprint Win on New Tracks at Mt Van Hoevenberg

FasterSkierJanuary 30, 2022

By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Ben Theyerl After a brief break, the SuperTour picked up in Lake Placid this weekend, with a fluoro-free Period III kicking off with a 1.5-kilometer classic sprint. The frigid forecast called for overnight lows of -5 Fahrenheit, with a wind chill as low as -23F. Highs during the day were only predicted to climb into the low single digits. Qualifiers were scheduled for 10/10:45 am, with quarterfinals for the open...

Camps Community News

Team Birkie at Altitude: Park City and Canmore for Camp

Ella HallNovember 25, 2021

At the end of October, Team Birkie headed west for three-weeks. Leaving the midwest in search of a higher altitude training venue and snow, they headed first to Park City, UT, then north to Canmore, Alberta, where winter has already settled in. Coach Caitlin Gregg had several objectives for the camp, primarily related to training time above sea-level. Her first goal for the team was to get in a three-week altitude block, in order to...

Community News Regional / Local

Elite Team Preview: Team Birkie

Gavin KentchNovember 19, 2021

Team name and location: Team Birkie; Minneapolis, Minnesota (also Hayward, Wisconsin) Coach: Caitlin Gregg (co-coach), Leo Hipp (co-coach), Jeremy Hecker (technique coach and wax tech) Current roster: For the men: Zak Ketterson, Christian Gostout, Andrew Millan, Tony Mathie, Brian Gregg; Women: Ingrid Thyr, Julie Ensrud, Jordan Schuster, Abbie Drach, Amanda Kautzer (focusing on biathlon) What’s new: “Everything,” Gregg writes. While elite teams have existed in the Midwest in the past, Team Birkie is new this year....

Community News Regional / Local

Domestic Teams Preview: Introduction

Gavin KentchNovember 14, 2021

We tend to highlight World Cup races on this website, but those results, and those athletes, don’t happen in a vacuum. Skiers are made in the summer, as the well-worn saying accurately has it, and summer training means time spent with a domestic ski club. So we’re going to be highlighting the athletes on several prominent American ski clubs over the next few weeks, only a small portion of whom will be starting on the...

Multimedia Nordic Nation Podcasts

Nordic Nation: Caitlin Gregg — Athlete, Mother, and Team Birkie Head Coach

Rachel PerkinsSeptember 1, 2021

In early July, the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation announced the launch of the Team Birkie professional racing team. The elite post-graduate training group would pull from the three primary midwestern clubs, the Loppet Foundation, Central Cross Country Skiing (or CXC), and the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation. While the midwest has a strong culture of cross country skiing with a breadth of strong youth and masters racing teams, it has been nearly a decade since the...

General News Racing

Team Birkie Launches (Press Release)

FasterSkierJuly 5, 2021

NEWS RELEASE Media Contact: Heidi Ledermann marketing@loppet.org TEAM BIRKIE LAUNCHES! Three of the largest cross country ski organizations in the Central Region combine forces to start a professional racing team Minneapolis (July 2, 2021) — Central Cross Country Skiing (CXC), the Loppet Foundation, and the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (ABSF) are teaming up to create a high performance racing team – so that the next Jessie Diggins can stay home to train, inspire...

News Other News

Team XC United (Formerly Team Birkie) Debuts

Team XC TeamNovember 21, 2012

Team XC United (formerly Team Birkie) is a Nordic race team comprised of master skiers that have come together to support elite skier Matthew Liebsch in his pursuit of the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.