It can feel like nordic sports don't have anyone in their corner when it comes to funding. But that's not true - former University of Colorado racer and coach Alan Ashley is now the Chief of Sports Performance at the USOC, and his strategy is informed by his past experience. We chatted with him about how he works to develop skiing and every other Olympic sport.
Universal Sports Network, which offers exclusive year-round coverage of Olympic sports programming, made an announcement on Thursday that could help more U.S. ski fans watch their favorite winter athletes. Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable system operator in the country, will start carrying the Universal Sports channel later this summer as part of a new multi-year contract.
The 2013 World Championships begin on February 20th in Val di Fiemme, Italy, and if you think this has been an exciting season so far, think again. With the U.S. selection period now closed and team naming expected by the end of the week, we consider criteria, rankings and results.
If you watched last weekend’s Québec World Cup live via the USSA website, you’ll be happy to know that there’s more where that came from – potentially close to 20 more. In the immediate future, USSA will stream live footage from the Canmore World Cup, which includes races Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
A World Cup cup race in the United States? Not impossible, but significant logistical and perhaps more importantly, financial barriers stand in the way. Still, Central Cross Country has been exploring the possibility, and there is also the dream of a Central Park sprint.
After supplying U.S. Ski Team (USST) A-Team athletes with free cell phone service for the past few years, Sprint will not provide the service in the coming season. According to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) Chief Marketing Officer Michael Jaquet, the termination of the athlete phone program does not affect the rest of Sprint’s current sponsorship agreement with USSA, which extends through the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018. “[Sprint] has been a great partner...
The Auburn Ski Club in Truckee, Calif., is currently working towards being officially named to host the 2013 SuperTour Finals and Distance Nationals. U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) Nordic Manager Joey Caterinichio said in an email on Tuesday that Truckee is the “tentative site” to host and should be closer to confirmation within the week. The event is scheduled for March 28/29 through April 5. “Due to the timeframe of this event, finding a place...
Athletes who buy U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) membership and compete in National Ranking List (NRL) events throughout the season will face higher race and membership prices this winter than in previous years. Due to an increase in its own administrative and insurance costs, USSA has raised the price of some of its services, which has some coaches and regional coordinators concerned about pricing entry-level skiers out of the sport. The head tax that...
Following up from last time, we’re still discussing the recent USSA rule changes for qualifying for WJC/U23s. Now, it’s not like USSA has a ton of options here, but I would like to point out a few difficulties with pre-qualifying an athlete using only a single result. Being a stats guy, I always think about [...] Related posts:
Anyone unfamiliar with Michael Jaquet might be a little puzzled as to why he’d leave CBS after five years as a senior executive. A native of Sun Valley, Idaho, he spent seven years in TV, first at College Sports Television in national broadcast sales. Two years later, CBS took over and Jaquet rose to vice president of television and properties sales at the cable sports network. But New York City just wasn’t for him. Jaquet’s...
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) has released its preliminary list of athletes on the 2012 U.S. Ski Team. The nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria. The USSA will announce the actual team roster this fall, naming those athletes who accept the responsibilities of being a part of the U.S. Nordic Combined and are planning to compete in the 2012-13 season. Team staff will work individually with nominated...
One week after announcing
original announcement that the job title had been changed from Program Director to Program Manager. The context of the new hire (namely, the position’s vacancy for an entire season and the nordic program’s recent budget problems) next led to more questions about the reasoning behind the shift in staff hierarchy, which all ultimately boil down to: What does this actually mean? The difference between the directorship and the managerial position replacing it mainly involves USSA’s...
After operating without a Director for an entire season, there is a new leader at the helm of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s (USSA) nordic operations. On Thursday the governing body revealed Joey Caterinichio as its Nordic Program Manager. As the founder and head coach at Alaska Nordic Racing in Anchorage, Caterinichio has built up a wide breadth of experience in the sport. She was a chief organizer for U.S. Nationals when they were...
All American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. To this day, Luke Bodensteiner, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) vice president of athletics, said people don’t believe him when he talks about what happened at the 1988 American Birkebeiner. Seventeen at the time and coming off a Kortelopet victory in ’87, Bodensteiner had registered for the 29 k in an attempt to defend his title. Everything seemed to be going...
A sprint qualifier can be defined as the preliminary stage of a sprint race in nordic skiing. In a race against the clock, competitors leave the starting gate at intervals and go as hard as they can for anywhere between 1 and 1.8 kilometers. The top 30 in most internationally sanctioned competitions, and sometimes a lesser number in other events, move onto the quarterfinals to face off against five other athletes at a time for...
After crossing the finish line in first in the U.S. Nationals classic sprint A-final, Torin Koos (BSF/Rossignol) was disqualified for moving into a lane in front of Ryan Scott (MSU/Team HomeGrown) before completely clearing Scott’s skis, which resulted in contact between Koos’ tails and Scott’s tips. A course controller saw the pass, and after the conclusion of the race, reported a violation to the jury. Per International Ski Federation (FIS) rules, the competition jury deemed...
The 2nd annual Facebook/NCCSEF wall (and if possible post a picture of the camp) then ask their friends and team back home to “like” them. Top 3 Liked vote getters by the end of Camp will be awarded USST BD jacket or race suit and Toko HF wax. You must Like NCCSEF to nominate yourself and to vote. www.facebook.com/Nccsef during the camp to like (vote for) your athletes.
Thursday, August 4th 1:00 to 3:00 PM White Clouds Golf Course. Sun Valley, ID White Clouds is just off Sun Valley (Trail Creek) Road across the street from Sun Valley Golf Clubhouse/Nordic Center, Sun Valley, ID The L100 Coaches Certification clinic is free to all USSA licensed coach. The clinics include dryland technique drills as well as drill progressions on classic and skate rollerskis. All ages and levels of coaches are welcome. The...
If you’d asked John Farra a few months ago what he’d be doing in 2014, he would have told you, “Going to Sochi and kicking some butt.” He still plans on doing just that, but not with the team he would have expected. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) announced Thursday that Farra is leaving his post of the past three years as the Nordic Program Director for a position as Director of the...