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U.S. Ski & Snowboard

News Round Up:  Canada Will Host 2023 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships

2023 World Juniors/U23 goes to Canada Recently, Canada was awarded the right to host the 2023 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships. The hosting club is Black Tusk Nordic which runs much of its ski training out of Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley. The venue hosted nordic events that included cross-country, jumping, nordic combined, and biathlon at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.  “We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to bring this prestigious event for...

U.S. Ski & Snowboard Announces Restructuring of National-Level Competitions for 2020-2021 (Includes Interview with Chris Grover)

A clean slate cancelation of U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s cross-country national racing calendar. That’s a piece of the collateral damage in the niche world of domestic ski racing. The cancellation includes SuperTour, U.S. National Championships, SuperTour Finals, and the Junior National Championships. We’ll get to how these races may be replaced in a moment. First, U.S. Ski & Snowboard set forth a series of bullet points regarding the reasoning and considerations for the wholesale cancelation....

Luke Bodensteiner Talks New Potential and a Possible New Olympics in Utah

In the thick of the elite winter sport scene for more than 25 years. That would in part define Luke Bodensteiner. He strung together an Olympic cross-country ski career and ended his over two-decade stint at U.S. Ski & Snowboard as their Chief of Sport. For roughly the past year, Bodensteiner has worn two hats at the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation (UOLF): Chief of Sport Development and GM of Soldier Hollow (SoHo), the cross-country and...

A U.S. Ski & Snowboard Virtual Panel: “Discussing Racial Diversity In Snowsports”

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...

If you read FasterSkier, you are likely aware that elite cross country skiing in the U.S. has been steadily on the rise over the last decade. In the last four years alone, we’ve borne witness to medals at all levels, including a Diggins-Randall double podium in the freestyle sprint at the 2017 World Championships, a 10 k classic win for Gus Schumacher at the 2020 World Junior Championships, a bronze medals for Will Koch and...

Press Release PARK CITY, Utah (June 15, 2020)  – National Governing Body’s and National Sport Organizations (NGB/NSOs), and snow sport organizations from the United States and Canada today are announcing the formation of a Fluorocarbon Free Policy Working Group. With representation from U.S. Ski & Snowboard, USA Nordic, U.S. Biathlon, USA Para Nordic, USA Para Alpine, Alpine Canada, Canada Snowboard, Freestyle Canada, Nordiq Canada, Biathlon Canada, Nordic Combined Canada and Ski Jumping Canada in addition...

Fastenal Parallel 45 Festival and World Cup Cancelled (Press Release)

Official Public Statement Due to ongoing and evolving concerns surrounding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the International Ski Federation, U.S. Ski & Snowboard and the local organizing committee, working in concert with local health officials, have made the difficult decision to cancel the Fastenal Parallel 45 Festival, the Coop FIS Cross Country World Cup race, and all associated events scheduled for March 14-17, 2020 in Minneapolis. We are devastated to announce this cancelation. In keeping with...

As the Northern Hemisphere slowly tilts towards shorter days and colder temps … and hopefully snow… we spoke with Troy Taylor at U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Taylor’s official title is that of High Performace Director. What that means is he helps coordinate the multiple moving parts involving sport science for the portfolio of teams at U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Taylor has been in this role with U.S. Ski & Snowboard since 2015. He first worked for U.S....

After 23 Years, Luke Bodensteiner Exits U.S. Ski & Snowboard

Singularly focused on winning and the commensurate hardware that validates that supremacy, 48-year-old Luke Bodensteiner will leave U.S. Ski & Snowboard after a 23 year run with the organization. For the last 12 years, Bodensteiner has served as the organization’s Chief of Sport. His job description placed him at the helm of  US Ski & Snowboard’s teams. Bodensteiner was a cross-country athlete at the University of Utah, a U.S. Ski Team member, and a two-time...

Following the 2017 World Cup Finals in Canada, John Munger, executive director of the Loppet Foundation, received a phone call from a fellow Minnesotan. Jessie Diggins had just completed her 2016/2017 season, and she had a question for Munger. If Quebec could host a World Cup, why couldn’t Minnesota? “She was really jealous of her colleagues in Canada,” Munger recalled in a phone interview on Sunday. The North American home crowd in Quebec City had...

Minneapolis to Host 2020 FIS Cross Country World Cup

(Press release) The International Ski Federation (FIS) today officially confirmed that Minnesota will host a World Cup cross-country ski event in Minneapolis in March 2020.  U.S. Ski & Snowboard and the Loppet Foundation will serve as hosts of the World Cup event, taking place at the new ‘The Trailhead’ facility in Theodore Wirth Park. “A Minnesotan who brought home a gold medal has now helped us bring home the World Cup,” said host committee co-chair RT...

Nordic Nation: All Criteria Considered with Grover and Kaeding

In late August, U.S. Ski Team (USST) Head Coach Chris Grover broke his own news, releasing three new sets of criteria on behalf of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the national governing body for cross-country skiing. The three separate documents discussed by Grover and linked in his blog disclosed the selection criteria for World Cup and World Cup Period 1 team selection,  2019 World Ski Championships (WSC) in Seefeld, Austria, and the 2019/2020 national team. Grover...

Fish on Promoting the U.S. Development ‘Pathway’ vs. the ‘Pipeline’

JACKSON, Wyoming — Last last month, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced that Bryan Fish had been promoted to cross country sport development manager. FasterSkier sat down with Fish on Sept. 14 at Jackson Hole’s Center for the Arts, where he was leading a Level 200 coaching clinic, to learn more about this transition and how his new position will support the national development program. He also provided insight into the development program’s philosophy and goals...

Summer of 2018: Coaching and Industry Moves (Updated)

(Note: This article has been updated to include the hiring of Miles Havlick as the University of Utah’s head nordic coach, which was announced Monday afternoon.)  There have been several notable career changes in North American nordic skiing this summer. Here’s a quick look at who moved where: Robert Lazzaroni: from U.S. Ski & Snowboard to Salomon. Last week, Salomon announced via a press release that Lazzaroni, of Park City, Utah, will join its staff as...

Kaeding on Shepherding the U.S. D-Team and Crunching Data

The newest hire to the U.S. Ski Team (USST) coaching ranks is 34-year-old Gus Kaeding. Kaeding is a newly minted MBA as of 2017 and is fresh off a gig with the U.S. Olympic Committee based out of Colorado Springs. Kaeding was a junior skier at the Stratton Mountain School (SMS), skied collegiately at Northern Michigan University, and coached at Central Cross Country and went on to become head coach of the SMST2 Team prior...

Nordic Nation: U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s ‘TK’ in the House (Part 2)

Madshus USA, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In this episode recorded at the Olympics, you’ll hear Part 2 of our conversation with one of the busiest people at the Games … Tom Kelly. Kelly is U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s longtime vice president of communications. After starting with the organization back in 1986, he will be stepping down a few months after the Olympics....

U.S. Olympic XC Team Selection: An Initial Look

If you read FasterSkier, two aspects of our coverage generates the most reader comments: doping violations and their adjudication, and team-selection criteria. Although here we are, two days away from the PyeongChang Olympics’ Opening Ceremony with At the time, U.S. Ski Team Head Coach told FasterSkier that the small team was by design. “With seven women and seven men, we have our start positions filled,” Grover said in 2014. “Seven and seven was the magic number...