In this episode, we connect with US Ski Team Head Coach Matt Whitcomb following the US Ski Team and National Training Group camp in Park City. Whitcomb answers a variety of questions to provide insight into the upcoming season leading up to the 2022 Beijing Olympics. A couple of notes: Firstly, you’ll notice some crackling in the audio on our end. We’re working out the kinks. Thanks for your patience. Also, if your interest...
On July 13th U.S. Ski & Snowboard held a virtual discussion titled “Discussing Racial Diversity In Snowsports“. The panel, moderated by Henri Rivers, CEO, President and Founder of Drumriver Consultants and President of the National Brotherhood of Skiers takes an unfiltered view of diversity and inclusivity across the snowsport disciplines. The voices represented are well worth the listen as we envision a safer and more inclusive sport. Courtesy of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, bios...
FIS recently signed an agreement with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that ceded its adjudication power in doping cases to the CAS Anti-Doping Division or ADD. The CAS ADD is touted as a body able to make independent decisions when reviewing suspected doping violations. Prior to the agreement in early May, the most basic process for adjudicating a FIS initiated doping violation progressed within the organization. Once evidence for...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, U.S. women’s team sprint Olympic gold medal and all. But now that we’ve had a little time to breathe, FasterSkier wanted to bring you the best of the interviews that didn’t make our initial race reports. (Don’t worry, plenty more on this historic gold to come!) Kikkan Randall, Team USA’s first-leg skier: “It’s an amazing feeling. This is something the American team has been working for...
As they may leave the organization and form their own union. Against this backdrop, the leadership of the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) organized a conference call earlier this month with athlete representatives from different national and international sports federations around the world. “It was actually a very last minute thing,” Brennan, U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s cross-country athlete representative, said in an interview. “It was unclear whether that was intentional or not, but...
ZURICH, Switzerland—Tucked at the top of U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s list of proposals for policy changes at the recent International Ski Federation (FIS) Technical Meetings here was this: “Independent Doping Panel.” The idea was developed along with the Norwegians, who submitted an identical proposal. U.S. Ski and Snowboard President and CEO Tiger Shaw explained that at the moment, FIS decisions made on doping may be made by individuals who also serve other roles in the...
While reporting regarding systematic doping by Russian teams has been building up for several years, like meldonium, is a metabolic modulator which combats angina. Another athlete tested positive for “phthalates”, plasticizers which are sometimes used in IV bags and are often assumed to indicate blood transfusions. They are also, however, present in other kinds of packaging. In all of these cases the results were reported to WADA’s anti-doping test management system, ADAMS, as negative tests:...
A closer look at the U.S. Ski Team's new selection criteria for 2017 World Championships, designed to reward the top performers in a given season and discourage points chasing. “Athletes who skied fast in the spring of the previous season no longer have a potential advantage over those athletes skiing fast in the current season," U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover wrote. "...The athlete that is winning races is most likely going to make the Team.”
USSA CEO Tiger Shaw explains how the Cross Country Sport Committee unanimously voted to reaffiliate High Plains, while making a task force to examine some of the issues over the summer: "It was democratic, it went to committee, all the major players were there and had their say."
Rebecca Watson, the board chair of the High Plains division, was surprised by an email saying that USSA was ending the affiliation agreement with the division - without warning or a probationary period to improve the weaknesses that USSA says it finds in Wyoming. Others on the Cross Country Committee, which is now set to discuss the topic at USSA Congress, said they were also surprised.
A group of Americans, including USSA president and CEO Tiger Shaw, explains why Switzerland's 42-kilometer Engadin freestyle marathon should be on your bucket list, and why you should do it sooner than later.
USSA CEO Tiger Shaw had never done a cross-country ski race before. But he went to Hayward, Wisconsin, for the American Birkebeiner, where he raced from Wave 9. "You can see that it’s really part of people’s lives,” he said of the event. Shaw highlighted how USSA is trying to work with regional divisions and provide more services to the nordic world.
Following the World Anti-Doping Agency's report on systematic doping in Russian track and field and the failure of RUSADA, the country's anti-doping agency, biathlon star Tim Burke and U.S. Ski Team head coach Chris Grover want their questions investigated.
USSA CEO Tiger Shaw admits he blew a chance to connect with the nordic community when he unintentionally failed to mention cross country in his Fall Quarterly Update. He regrets it - but having already befriended the national team, he wants to reach out to the rest of the nordic world too.
The following is a letter that Scott Johnston, the coach of the Methow Olympic Development squad that at some points included Sadie and Erik Bjornsen and Torin Koos, and who also coached Team Gregg, shared with FasterSkier. He addressed it to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association CEO Tiger Shaw after receiving Shaw’s Fall Quarterly Update, but says he has not received a reply. Some of Johnston’s concerns served as the basis of questions we asked...
Incoming U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association CEO Tiger Shaw promised this fall that he'd spend some time getting to know each of the many sports he'll soon oversee. He made good on that promise when he visited the cross country ski team in Davos, Switzerland, this weekend, witnessing their best day ever of World Cup sprinting.
Although the transition will be gradual, there will be a change in leadership at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. Incoming CEO and president Tiger Shaw starts Oct. 1 and plans to learn from current chief Bill Marolt, his former coach on the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, for the rest of the 2013/2014 season.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) today announced the appointment of Olympian Tiger Shaw as chief operating officer, effective October 1. A former U.S. alpine team member, Shaw will succeed Bill Marolt and take over after the Olympics in the spring of 2014.