Tor-Arne Hetland is officially part of the Canadian crew after wrapping up his first training camp with the Canadian World Cup Team in May. Onboard since April, he says he's eager to give the perspective and stability that Cross Country Canada wants. "It is asked for new ideas into the team and I’m ready to give this," Hetland says. "And also more stability in the World Cup."
Guri Hetland spoke with FasterSkier on Monday about how she and Swiss-Ski were at odds when it came to the direction of the team, a stumbling point that ultimately ended in the non-renewal of her contract. "I had planned to work longer in Switzerland and I hoped and I thought that we could agree on the proposal ... but my bosses in the ski federation wanted some changes," she says.
While Tor Arne Hetland is just starting as Canada's World Cup coach, his wife, Guri Hetland, is no longer head coach of the Swiss National Team. Swiss-Ski Sports Director Mark Wolf referred to negotiations that "ended in disaster" after Hetland and the association could not agree on team decisions. Dario Cologna had already committed to a new personal coach, Ivan Hudáč.
In an interview on Friday, Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth discussed how he will work with Tor Arne Hetland in the coming year for Canmore-based World Cup athletes - "I’ve already had fun talking training with him" - and the other part of his new job, getting the national training centers aligned with the World Cup team to improve the development pipeline.
Cross-Country Ski de Fond Canada (CCC) has changed its leadership structure in an effort to ramp up for the 2018 Winter Olympics, with Justin Wadsworth overseeing all national-team programs and training centres, and Louis Bouchard and Tor-Arne Hetland as World Cup Team coaches.
Alexey Poltoranin (KAZ) put forth an impressive show of strength to take the men's 1.5 k classic sprint on Saturday in Davos, Switzerland. Hometown hero and World Cup overall leader Dario Cologna (SUI) took second; Federico Pellegrino (ITA) secured the final podium position.
Nobody really knew what to expect when Québec City hosted its first World Cup last weekend. Between the spectators, course and conditions, everything was a bit of a surprise. International athletes and coaches sum up their experiences.
During the 2012 Tour de Ski, FasterSkier sat down with the head coach of the Swiss National Team, Guri Hetland. A native Norwegian, Hetland had 45 World Cup starts of her own between 1995 and 2001. She earned four top-10 results, all in sprints, but also scored World Cup points in seven distance races. Hetland was named head coach of the Swiss team in the fall of 2010, and is the only female head coach...
Switzerland Nations Cup Ranking: 9th (2013 pts) Men: 7th (1729 pts) Women: 15th (284 pts) 2010/2011 World Cup Team Men Dario Cologna Curdin Perl Toni Livers Remo Fischer Women Silvana Bucher Bettina Gruber Doris Trachsel What you may have missed last season: After going from zero to hero between 2007 and 2009, Dario Cologna took a step backwards in 2010, falling to fourth in the race for the Crystal Globe. While he was still undeniably...