Nordic Nation (FasterSkier.com)

In this episode, we have Sydney Palmer-Leger, Sophia Laukli, and Novie McCabe. Each is a member of the U.S. Cross Country team, and they are also all teammates at the University of Utah (UU), where they are coached by Miles Havlick and Fredrik Landstedt. 

Laukli and McCabe were recently named to the 2022 Olympic Team and are soon headed to Beijing, while Palmer-Leger will race in the RMISA collegiate circuit for the next few weeks before flying to Norway for the FIS Junior World Championships in Lygna. Laukli and McCabe were named to the FIS U23 World Championships, but declined their spots due to scheduling conflicts between the Olympics and the NCAA championships, which will be hosted by UU in early March.

Each already accomplished in her own right, these women discuss their experiences so far as they set their sights on long-term goals for what they hope will be long careers in the sport. 

While each had strong performances as they progressed through high school, the trio perhaps first made their names more widely known in March 2020 when they earned a silver medal in the women’s 4 x 3.3-kilometer relay at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Oberwiesenthal, Germany with fourth teammate Kendall Kramer. This historic result improved on the 2017 bronze medal earned by a team of Julia Kern, Hannah Halvorsen, Hailey Swirbul and Katherine Ogden – not too shabby. 

The day before the relay, Laukli had taken 5th in the 15k mass start freestyle, a top individual result which she repeated in February 2021 by taking 5th in the 10k freestyle at U23s in Vuokatti, Finland. McCabe also has two top-10 finishes at World Juniors/U23s; she was 10th in the 15k classic in 2019, and 9th in the 15k free in 2020. Currently 19-years-old, this is Palmer-Leger’s final year racing at World Juniors, and she expresses her hope for peak performances during these events. (Due to positive test results on the team and subsequent quarantines for close-contacts, Palmer-Leger and McCabe were unable to compete in the 2021 World Junior Championships.)

Going further back, McCabe is the daughter of two-time Olympian Laura McCabe (‘94 and ‘98) who maintained a competitive career after having Novie and her younger sister, Dashe. Bringing Novie along both for training and to sessions she was coaching instilled a love of the sport in her daughter from infancy. Growing up in the Methow with her mother and close family friend Leslie Hall, a three time Olympian (‘88, ‘92, and ‘94), as her coaches and mentors fostered both her passion for cross country skiing and her talent, eventually leading her onto the World Cup and soon to the Olympics. (For more on the McCabe family, read this beautiful piece on integrating family into the lifestyle of a competitive skier and coach written by Laura McCabe for Enjoy Winter.) 

Laukli also grew up in a family with deep roots in the sport; her father is originally from Norway and raced for the University of Colorado Boulder, though she grew up in Yarmouth, Maine. With dual citizenship and family connections in Norway, Laukli has had the opportunity to train and race overseas, including some FIS and Norwegian National Championship racing in January, 2021 where Laukli finished 13th in the 15k skiathlon and 16th in the 10k freestyle. These results earned her World Cup starts, allowing her a whirlwind of international racing in the 2021 season which she had not foreseen when facing season cancellation and tight COVID-19 restrictions through the fall 2020 semester at Middlebury College. (Laukli transferred to UU in Fall 2021.)

Perhaps their most noteworthy result this season, Laukli and McCabe were fifth and seventh, respectively, in the final stage of the Tour de Ski, the infamous hill climb up the Alpe Cermis. 

Originally from Park City, UT, Palmer-Leger was also raised in an active family, enjoying the myriad of outdoor activities available in the Park City region as a kid. Eventually, two sports moved to the forefront of Palmer-Leger’s focus: cross-country skiing and mountain biking. She found success in both through high school, earning five national titles in mountain biking before deciding to focus solely on her skiing. After racing period 1 on the World Cup, Palmer-Leger headed back to Utah to race at the U.S. Cross Country Championships, where she was third in the freestyle sprint, 7th in the 20k mass start freestyle, and 6th in the 10k interval start classic; she was the top collegiate athlete in each race. 

Thanks for listening. 

In this episode, we have Tara Geraghty-Moats, a trailblazer in women’s nordic combined who made the switch this season to biathlon. As we discuss in this conversation, women’s nordic combined could be put on display as an example of gender inequity in sport. Despite the fact that men have competed in nordic combined at the Olympics since the first Winter Games in 1924 and the FIS has organized a men’s World Cup season since 1983, the women’s counterpart is still not included in the Olympics and only saw its first World Cup season last year. 

The original 2020-2021 World Cup schedule included four venues, plus the World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, but due to COVID cancellations, only one event took place. As Tara won this event in Ramsau, Austria, she was later named the overall World Cup winner and took home the first ever women’s World Cup crystal globe. 

While she has goals remaining in nordic combined, Tara feels the move to biathlon was the right one, which you’ll hear about conversation. Tara also discusses her background in winter sports, the state of women’s nordic combined in the U.S., what her training and travel looked like during the transition, and her goals for the upcoming season.

Thanks for listening.

In this episode, we connect with John Munger, Executive Director of the Loppet Foundation in Minneapolis and Garrott Kuzzy, former U.S. Ski Team member who grew up near Wirth Park. From impressions of Wirth back-in-the-day to exploring how the World Cup ended up in Minneapolis, we drill down on most (but not all) things Minneapolis World Cup. That event goes down on March, 17. 

We cover the cost of hosting, infrastructure demands, and how the pieces are coming together a few months out from the event. Thanks for listening. 

In this episode, we have Jim Galanes to discuss some guiding training principles for masters athletes. If you enjoy the endurance athlete lifestyle, or are juggling a career and family, but still enjoy trying to get fitter and faster as in this fickle sport, this interview has plenty of exercise physiology insight to chew on. 

Galanes may need no introduction -- he’s been a noteworthy member of the cross country ski community for more than four decades now.  He is a three time Olympian, first in the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics where he competed in nordic combined,  then again in the 1980 Lake Placid Games and the 1984 Sarajevo Games competing in cross country. 

After retiring from his athletic career, he spent six years as a coach of the national team, followed by a few years with the program at Stratton Mountain School. He then moved to Anchorage to start and coach the now-thriving APU program. Originally from Brattleboro, VT, Jim now lives in Frisco, CO where he coaches online and in-person through his business EPOC Performance Training. On his coaching platform, Galanes regularly weighs in on the latest research or trends in exercise science, and provides examples from his athletes and self-experimentation into the effectiveness of his training programs, making it clear that his finger remains ever on the pulse of best practices in endurance training.

Traveling through the decades and development of professional cross country skiing is a fascinating topic in its own right, and Galanes has been there to see it all. If you’d like to learn more about this history, his time as an athlete, and the interplay between global events and life on the World Cup circuit, Galanes did an in-depth interview on these topics with Toko US Brand Manager Ian Harvey on his podcast, which can be found here or on Apple Podcasts. 

Quick reminder: This episode is brought to you by the Alberta World Cup. To all masters skiers out there, the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the Masters World Cup 2022 are calling.  This coming March, masters skiers from around the world will come together in Canmore, Alberta to celebrate a shared passion for cross country skiing.  This event will be a great opportunity to race in Canmore at the world renowned Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park.

Go to MWC2022.COM for details.  There you can find COVID Plan information, and airline and rental car promotions. If you register before Dec 31st, you’ll also get a free pair of commemorative socks.

Thanks for listening. 

As far as teams go on the cross-country World Cup, Great Britain arrives at the show with perhaps the smallest team roster and staff. Somehow, they often roar when considering the results. We know British Nordic from the sharp end skiing of Andrew Musgrave, and sprinters Andrew Young and James Clugnet.
 

Like all teams on the circuit, the human capital behind the Lycra-clad skiers make the travel, training, and race grind happen. In this episode of Nordic Nation we speak with the two coaches leading the British team - Hans Kristian Stadheim and Jostein Vinjerui. The two coaches are Norwegian and are based in Norway full-time. Which makes things easy considering the three thoroughbreds of the British team - Musgrave, Young, and Clugnet - live in Norway as well.

The organizational model premised on elite athletes living abroad, in this case Norway, outside their home country might not be for every team. In the case of Britain, so far, it appears to have worked. The athletes and coaches are able to capitalize on their personal and professional relationships to tap into Norway’s cross-country ski know-how and arguably overreach when it comes to the expectations of a non-traditional ski nation like Britain.

We should note that Vinjerui and Stadheim, as well as their skiers, host a podcast that’s a fun and informative listen. You can find their podcast, Inside Cross-Country Skiing, wherever you get your podcasts. 

Thanks for listening and we hope your spring is going well.

Last weekend, roughly 200 intrepid skiers lined up at the base of the Mount Crested Butte ski resort, awaiting a midnight race start that would send them 40 miles north through the rugged Elk Mountains to Aspen, Colorado. Among the masses, most of whom were on lightweight ski mountaineering or alpine touring setups, was a pair looking to return the Grand Traverse ski race to its cross country ski roots. The pair was Simi Hamilton and Ben Koons, wearing Fischer skate skis that had seen World Cup air time. 

For those unfamiliar with the Grand Traverse, it’s an iconic backcountry ski race put on by the Crested Butte Nordic Center with deep routes in local cross country ski lore. You’’ hear more about the race, its history, and how the night went down during the conversation, but those new to the “backcountry cross country” concept want to check out the show notes on FasterSkier for a closer look at the route and some photos that will inspire you to take up the challenge in future years.

Thanks for listening.

In this episode, we have U.S. Ski & Snowboard cross-country program director Chris Grover on to discuss the tumultuous last two years of navigating the pandemic, including the many ways in which it created strain for the team, particularly as Omicron variant surged during the months leading into the 2022 Beijing Olympics. It’s been a hard two years, but this conversation extends well beyond the impacts of the pandemic. We also discuss equal distance racing, the 2022-23 roster for the U.S.Ski Team, which features a number of talented young men, team selection for World Cup, World Championship, and a new gender equity initiative proposed to the FIS by US Ski & Snowboard which incentives nations to invest in developing women ski technicians and utilizing them at World Cup events. 

This proposal was recently accepted by the FIS cross country committee, and should it be officially accepted at FIS council meetings, it would mean a new set of course bibs would be available beginning next season only to female techs.  Therefore, a country could increase the size of its service staff by investing in the development of women techs and utilizing these women at World Cups. 

Thanks for listening and thanks to Boulder Nordic Sport for their support of this podcast.  

In this episode, we’ve got Chad Salmela and Kikkan Randall on to discuss the experience of calling the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games, live from a booth in Stamford, CT. The duo worked as cross country analysts, alongside long-time NBC play-by-play announcer Steve Schlanger. While Chad is a veteran in the role, this was Kikkan’s first Olympics inside the booth. 

During this conversation, Kikkan and Chad field a variety of questions on their experience – everything from staying fresh while calling races in the middle of the night for two weeks straight, to maintaining professional composure while watching your former teammates and long-time friends win Olympic medals - or come up short - and even, why are you suddenly pronouncing the Norwegian distance champion’s name “You-haug”? 

Full of insights and laughs, this conversation was a treat, and it’s clear that both Chad and Kikkan are deeply invested in growing and serving the cross country ski community in the US.

Thanks for listening, and thanks to this week’s podcast sponsors Boulder Nordic Sport and New Moon Ski & Bike. 

In this episode, we have Jake Adicoff and Sam Wood, calling in from Lillehammer as the duo races as athlete and guide at the Para World Championships. Jake is a visually impaired athlete from Sun Valley who grew up racing with the SVSEF cross country program and now trains with the Gold Team. He has raced at both the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, and the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, where he won a silver medal in the 10k classic, as well as placed 4th in the classic sprint and 5th in the 20k free. 

Meanwhile, Sam is also a member of the SVSEF Gold Team, balancing his own training and race goals with his support of Jake this season. Sam finished in the top-10 twice in the opening SuperTour weekends this season, and was in the Top-25 in both distance races at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Soldier Hollow. (Jake also raced, independently, at U.S. Nationals 

While it has included career best results, this year of racing was not originally in Jake’s plans. He retired from professional skiing in 2018, heading to San Francisco to work as an engineer for Uber, having graduated from Bowdoin College that spring with a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. When the pandemic hit, he began to work remotely from his parents’ house in Sun Valley (thinking it would be just for two weeks – remember that?) and ended up “casually” hopping into training with his friends on the Gold Team. With a few nudges from US Para Nordic and teammates like Sam, Jake began to realize he was still passionate about ski racing and quite fit again, and he began to set goals for the upcoming 2022 Paralympics. 

At the time of the call on Friday January 21st, Jake had already earned a World Championship gold medal in the 10k classic on Sunday the 16th, and a bronze medal in the 15k skate on Tuesday the 18th. The morning after the call, the pair raced to second place in the 1.5k classic sprint. Three races, three medals. This week made it clear that Jake is in top form and will be a medal contender in Beijing. 

In this conversation, we get into the dynamic of the athlete-guide partnership, as well as how being long-time friends and teammates has contributed to their success racing as a pair this season.

To follow along with Jake’s racing this season, you can find race recaps with athlete quotes on the US Paralympics Nordic Skiing tab on the Team USA website, or follow the team on Facebook and Instagram.

A quick heads up on the audio, you’ll notice a bit of crackling and some poor connection toward the end of the podcast. Thanks for listening. 

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 area has had a consistent robust training group that could support athletes at the elite level. In their words, this program fills this gap to allow “the next Jessie Diggins [to] stay home to train, inspire future generations, and win Olympic medals.”

Team Birkie will be based from the Trailhead at Wirth Park in Minneapolis, headquarters of The Loppet Foundation, and led by Head Coach Caitlin Gregg, who has spent her own career training in the area alongside her husband and fellow professional ski racer Brian Gregg. The duo -- known as Team Gregg -- forged their own path to the upper echelon of the domestic and international cross country race scene, gaining experience in writing their own training and supporting their careers along the way. [Find Team Gregg on a 2017 episode of Nordic Nation here.]

For those unfamiliar with Caitlin, her resume spans more than a decade of elite level ski racing; Caitlin earned her first World Cup starts in Vancouver in 2009 and was slated to start at the Minneapolis World Cup and Canmore World Cup finals in March 2020 before they were cancelled because of the impending pandemic. Those recent starts would have been just over a year after the birth of her daughter, Heidi, who is now two and a half years old and can regularly be found tagging along for her parents training. 

She is a 2015 World Championship Bronze Medalist, a 2010 Olympian, and a 5 time winner of the American Birkie. Caitlin was also a member of five World Championship teams and won eight National Championship titles, with several more podium finishes. Gregg is also no stranger to disappointment; there have also been near misses for team selection, as was the case for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and when the 2016 US Ski team nominations rolled out.

While she does not yet consider herself retired as an athlete, this transition to leading the charge and growing Team Birkie does mark a shift in the focus of her overall ski career, as we discuss in this conversation. Caitlin also speaks to the evolution of the concept behind Team Birkie and the structure of the training group for the upcoming season. She is now one of only two female coaches at her level in the US -- alongside Pepa Miloucheva of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project -- and the only mother. Caitlin discusses the support this requires, and how her career as a whole has provided ample insights that allow her to be a role model for her athletes. 

You can find Caitlin on Instagram @Caitlincgregg (with two G’s) and follow along with Team Birkie at @teambirkie. Thanks for listening.

In this episode, we discuss the topic of maternal mental health with Holly Brooks and Calisa Kastning. On Mother’s Day, the partners announced the launch of their passion project, Moms Matter Now with the aim of supporting and empowering women as they transition into motherhood. 

For those unfamiliar with these names, Brooks is a two-time Olympian and U.S. Ski Team alumn who became a licensed professional counselor after retiring from professional skiing in 2016. After struggling with infertility as a result of RED-S, Brooks successfully conceived and became the mom to twins, born in August, 2017. Kastning moved to Anchorage from Montana ten years ago, just a few weeks before the birth of her first of three children. She and her husband, Andrew, were led to Alaska by the job as head coach of University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), which Andrew ultimately accepted. Kastning is now the executive director of Skiku, a nonprofit which brings cross country skiing to children in remote towns in the far reaches of the Last Frontier. 

As we discuss, there is so much more to this topic than clinical postpartum depression and anxiety. The transition to motherhood is a time in many women’s lives where it is common to experience feelings of identity loss, isolation, resentment, body frustration, and sadness, despite also feeling excited and happy to be a new parent. Brooks explains that endurance athletes are perhaps especially primed for these feelings. 

Through the Moms Matter Now platform and the online courses they are building, they hope to provide women with the tools to prepare for the emotional and psychological changes they might experience surrounding pregnancy and into motherhood, and to empower each participant to prioritize their own well-being in order to be the mother, partner, athlete, employee, and more, that she wants to be. 

To follow Moms Matter Now, you can subscribe to email updates via their website, momsmatternow.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram @momsmatternow. If this conversation resonates with you, you can also support Moms Matter Now by becoming a startup booster. Donations can also be made through Venmo with the handle @momsmatternow. Thanks for listening.  

In this episode, we speak with Kris Freeman. For those unfamiliar with Freeman, he skied in four Olympics from 2002 to 2014, placed fourth on two occasions at the World Championships in the 15 k classic, and stayed at the sharp end of American distance skiing until retiring in 2018. After leaving the ski realm, Freeman -- now 40-years old -- switched his focus to long distance triathlon and has now completed IronMan Lake Placid twice, first in 2019 and second this summer, where he qualified for the Kona World Championships. 

All the while, Freeman has managed Type 1 diabetes, which he has explained is inseparable from his training, racing, and day to day life. Now an advocate and role model for athletes with Type 1 diabetes, Freeman has fastidiously documented his own methods of balancing synthetic insulin and glucose in alignment with his training and racing throughout his career and is an expert in the area of blood sugar management in sport. 

In this conversation, Freeman explains the evolution of his own use of continuous glucose monitoring, the vital importance that blood sugar management has for him compared to a non-diabetic athlete, and his thoughts on the launch of Supersapiens, which is propelling continuous glucose monitoring into the athletic space. Freeman references this recent article on Gus Schumacher and his experience as a member of the Supersapiens pilot group of athletes.

For more with Freeman, you can listen to this 2017 episode of Nordic Nation, or through FasterSkier’s deep archives. Thanks for listening. 

If you have the good fortune to spend time in the Gunnison Valley of Colorado, perhaps on Crested Butte Nordic’s extensive trail system, exploring the Elk Mountain backcountry on mountain bike or skis, or taking laps on Mount Crested Butte, you may cross paths with a friendly red-haired resident who is likely moving faster and breathing easier than you are. Known locally as an aerobic machine, 25-year-old Cam Smith embraces all mountain sports as training to support his burgeoning development as an elite ski mountaineering (SkiMo) racer. 

Originally focused on running, Smith moved from Illinois to study exercise science at Western Colorado University in Gunnison. Embracing everything the school’s mountain sports program had to offer, Smith began trail running, mountain biking, cross country skiing with the USCSA program, and was convinced by his older sister, who was also attending Western, to be her teammate for the 40 mile Grand Traverse ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen. 

Flash forward through a few years of dedicated skill development and steady progress: Smith was a member of the 2019-20 US Ski Mountaineering Association National Team and won two events at the 2020 National Championships, the uphill only vertical race in just under 20 minutes and the longer individual race which lasted 3 hours 48 minutes. (Because of the pandemic and a lack of qualifying events, a national team was not selected this season.)

Smith was selected to compete in the World Championships in 2017 and 2019, racing in additional World Cup races in the 2018-2020 seasons. His best international finishes to date include an 8th place finish in the team race at the 2019 World Championships in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland with partner John Gaston, and a 7th place World Cup team finish racing with Rory Kelly. Individually, he’s taken 18th in the vertical race at the 2019 World Championships, and 20th in a 2020 World Cup vertical race in Jennerstier, Germany. 

Alongside his 20-plus hour training weeks (often with astounding amounts of vertical gain), Smith plays a variety of roles within the Crested Butte community, including coaching the masters' performance groups and youth programs at CB Nordic, assisting adaptive athletes on the mountain through the Crested Butte Adaptive Sports Center, and teaching strength and conditioning classes at a local gym. 

In response to the pandemic, Smith shifted his focus to the well-established local racing opportunities. Instead of chasing a World Cup top-15, he made a goal of setting a new course record on what he calls “The Elk Mountain Classics”: the Gothic Mountain Tour in Crested Butte, the Power of Four in Aspen, and the Grand Traverse. Smith also hopped into two of the CB Nordic town series interval start skate races, winning each. 

At the time of our call, Smith had checked two of the three course record boxes: dropping the Gothic Mountain Tour record by over ten minutes to 3:37:06, and the Power of Four record by thirteen to 4:15:21 with World Championship partner John Gaston. As cross-country skiers well know, conditions on the day impact the possibility of chasing these records, but the results are nonetheless a testament to fitness and strength. Smith was lucky enough to have the two factors align symbiotically on the day.

Given his humble and easygoing nature, he probably wouldn’t tell you about any of this unless you knew to ask.

Smith also looked outside athletic development for his season goals. Dedicating his training and race performance at the Grand Traverse to Living Journeys, a local nonprofit that holistically supports individuals with cancer and their families during treatment, Smith set out to raise $15,000. This goal has already been exceeded; however, if you’d like to support his cause, you can donate here. 

It also turns out Smith and his partner for the Grand Traverse, Tom Goth, set a new course record in 6:06:24. 

In this conversation, Smith shares more about his development from mountain-sport-newbie to national champion. We also discuss how he still includes nordic skiing to support his SkiMo training, and how a versatile approach to yearly training paired with some sport-specific blocks could serve masters athletes focused on premier races like the Birkie.

Thanks for listening. 

In this episode, hosted by FasterSkier contributor Rachel Perkins, we dive into the issue of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). This condition was formerly known as the female athlete triad, which was described as inadequate energy intake, the loss of menstruation (amenorrhea), and decreased bone mineral density. The name was changed to include males, who are also affected, and to expand beyond the three symptoms originally included. Though not quite the same, the condition is closely linked with eating disorders.

This topic has seen a lot of buzz following a November opinion piece in the New York Times where former high school running phenom Mary Cain shared her story of abuse by her coach, Alberto Salazar, at the Nike Oregon Project. While trying to get down to the weight he deemed optimal for her, she lost her period, her performance decreased, and she was littered with stress fractures.

Further concerns arose a few weeks later when Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg and Frida Karlsson were pulled from their World Cup starts after not meeting team health standards for BMI and bone density, presumably due to under eating. 

We speak with licensed professional counselor and two-time Olympian Holly Brooks, registered sports dietician and author of “Finding Your Sweet Spot: How to Avoid RED-S (Relative Energy Deficit in Sport) by Optimizing Your Energy Balance” Rebecca McConville, and long-time coach turned voice of World Cup cross country skiing and biathlon, Chad Salmela. 

This panel unpacks the misunderstanding that RED-S is an exclusively female phenomenon and how the climate in sport influences the prevalence of this condition, and offers suggestions to shift from a results focused climate in sport to a positive, informed, healthy, and athlete centric program. 

Here are links to the resources and articles mentioned in this episode:

Jessie Diggins Eating Disorder Activism

Lauren Fleshman’s New York Times Opinion Piece “I Changed My Body for My Sport. No Girl Should.” and letter to her younger self, which was posted to MileSplit.

The WithAll Foundation and the "What To Say" campaign, which  offers suggestions for talking to food and body positive phrases to include in conversations with kids and athletes. 

HBO Documentary “The Norwegian Way” which details the Norwegian development program, in particular the omission of results in youth skiing before the age of 12.  

The IOC Periodic Health Evaluation statement regarding more regular health screenings, including bone density measurement and blood laboratory work. 

The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) “Coaches & Trainers’ Toolkit”

The Opal Treatment Center and Podcast

In this episode, we have Ben Ogden, Gus Schumacher, and JC Schoonmaker, members of the new generation of American men who have found success at the junior level internationally, and are now transitioning onto the World Cup as athletes to follow. In this conversation, we explore this transition from a variety of angles, along with goal setting, team dynamics, and navigating the challenges of competing for very limited and selective Olympic spots without compromising the friendship and culture the team has developed. 

For those unfamiliar with these athletes before they became a presence on the World Cup, each athlete is 21-years-old. Both Schumacher and Ogden were members of the World Junior relay team that won back to back gold medals in 2019 and 2020, building upon their silver medal performance in 2018. Both athletes also have top-10 results at World Juniors, with Schumacher winning the 10k Classic, the first gold medal at World Juniors for American men. Ogden earned two Top-10 results in 2020, with Schoonmaker finishing just outside the top-10 in 13th during the freestyle sprint. 

Each has taken slightly different paths in their transition from junior to senior level racing. Ogden stayed close to his hometown of Landgrove, VT by enrolling full time at the University of Vermont. Schoonmaker also went the NCAA route, but traveled much further, from his home of Tahoe City, CA to the University of Alaska Anchorage. Schumacher opted to prioritize skiing, choosing part-time college in Anchorage while sticking with his junior coach Jan Buron, with whom he’d made steady progress. 

As Devon Kershaw has explained many times on his podcast, success at World Juniors does not directly correlate with success on the World Cup. The trajectory is often non-linear, with exceptions like Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Alexander Bolshunov who immediately began dominating the World Cup circuit upon arrival. The task of making this transition is coupled with pressure and attention as American ski fans closely monitor, and perhaps critique, these men as they attempt to build upon the results of leaders who came before them, to carry the stars and stripes to results that consistently mirror those of the women’s program. 

While it remains to be seen what kind of results these men will have in their senior racing careers, it is evident from the laughter throughout this conversation that they are enjoying the ride. Separate from skiing, as individuals, these men are academically motivated, supportive of their teammates, and genuinely charismatic, making them easy to root for regardless of World Cup or Olympic outcomes. 

Related Reading:

The Phenom Next Door: A January, 2019 Interview with Gus Schumacher

2020 World Juniors Relay Gold Medal (Photo Series)

2020 World Juniors 10k Classic: Gus Schumacher 1st, Ben Ogden 9th, Luke Jager 10th

2020 World Juniors Freestyle Sprint: Ben Ogden 6th, Gus Schumacher 7th, JC Schoonmaker 13th

Last June, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced the hiring of Greta Anderson as Development Team Coach, supporting Cross Country Program Manager Bryan Fish in “all aspects of leadership and logistics surrounding the U.S. Development Pathway, including National Training Group camps, U.S. Nationals and Junior/U23 World Championships, Europa Cup, select SuperTour and other national-level competitions, as well as working on Coaches’ Education and Certification.” (Read an in-depth interview with Anderson following the announcement here.)

As she described it, joining the U.S. Ski Team staff during an Olympic year while the COVID-19 pandemic raged on was a bit of “trial by fire”. Nonetheless, Anderson thrived in her new role, approaching the position with humility and open-mindedness as she learned the ropes. With a holistic view of athlete development, which emphasizes the importance of creating an environment where the athlete can be both happy and supported, Anderson had the opportunity to support athletes from the U16 to U23 level across the spectrum of international and domestic clubs and races. She played key roles during the 2022 FIS Junior/U23 World Ski Championships in Lygna, Norway, and had her first experience as the primary trip leader during the Opa Cup Finals pre-camp and competitions in Sappada, Italy.

In this conversation, you’ll hear more about Anderson’s contributions to the development program thus far, and she shares insights into the philosophy, projects, and initiatives the U.S. Ski & Snowboard staff are working on to continue the growth and support of athletes ascending the pathways from junior to senior racing. We also discuss standout performances of the World U23/Junior Championships, and some of the athletes who have been recently named to the 2022-23 U.S. Cross Country Team.

Thanks for listening, and thanks to Boulder Nordic Sport for supporting this podcast. 

A few weeks back, we featured an excerpt from a new book titled Nordic Warrior? A Midlife Crisis in Biathlon. Written by Ithaca, New York, based biathlete, Craig Wiggers, the book explores his love affair with biathlon which began midlife.

Wiggers' path to biathlon is as circuitous as they come. Raised in the deep south, Wiggers attended school at Auburn University and spent a full career hopscotching around the globe as a U.S. Marine. He was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a safe bet to assume sliding on snow was a new and eventually welcome prospect when Wiggers and his family settled in Ithaca for a position at Cornell University.

What is refreshing about Wiggers is his joy in finding a new passion and being welcomed into the biathlon community as a newbie. There's no pretense about having learned to ski at a young age or having Olympic aspirations. His is a down to earth tale - he simply wants to improve.

You can find his book on Amazon for less than a dollar. All proceeds are donated to U.S. Biathlon.

U.S. Biathlon Team and Craftsbury Green Racing Project biathlete Kelsey Dickinson conducted this interview. 

As we all know, the COVID-19 global pandemic has left the world scrambling to adapt to the many challenges of slowing the spread of the virus. In the world of Olympic sports, the ripple effect has disrupted the efforts of anti-doping agencies worldwide to conduct the athlete testing normally relied upon to hold athletes accountable to abiding by the rules surrounding banned and controlled substances. Most international antidoping agencies have halted testing since mid-March as the invasive and close-contact nature of collecting samples posed a threat to both athletes and testers. 

This causes concern that athletes inclined to cheat might abuse the situation, taking advantage of the opportunity to use illegal substances to improve their performance potential when competition is able to resume. 

To address the lack of testing, the US Antidoping Agency (USADA) rolled out a pilot virtual testing program called Project Believe 2020 where athletes could provide a urine sample and blood spot test with an antidoping agent present on a zoom or FaceTime call.

For further insight into this topic, FasterSkier connected with two-time Olympian and long-time US Ski Team Member Noah Hoffman, who has become involved with USADA’s antidoping education program since retiring from skiing. Hoffman also recently wrapped up his second year at Brown University and we discuss his academic interests and the experience of being a college student during the COVID shutdown. Thanks for listening.

It’s been a minute! With the arrival of host Rachel Perkins’ second baby in July and a subsequent job shift, Nordic Nation has been on pause, but we are excited to relaunch now with the hope of producing these regularly over the coming months!

Our first guest of 2023 is the one and only Ben Ogden, who’s had a standout season of racing on the World Cup. Ben has cracked into the semifinals in four sprint races, while posting breakthrough results in distance racing also, like a 6th place finish in the 10k classic in Oberstdorf during the Tour de Ski. He finished the overall Tour in 13th, which is an historic result for the American men’s team. Following the Tour, he headed back home to Vermont, where he hopped into two EISA Carnival weekends – winning four for four – while wearing his UVM Catamounts kit for the final time. He returned to Europe in time for the Les Rousses, where Ben qualified in 7th for the classic sprint, finishing 11th after a quick trip outside the V-board in the semis. 

In this conversation, we discuss the factors that have contributed to his development as a professional skier, from mindset, to training, to an effort to make the World Cup lifestyle sustainable long term. We also discuss his recent trip back to the Northeast, what has made collegiate racing “special”, and more. 

Thanks for listening!

Thirty two years old and wise as wise can be. Clare Egan brings a calm intellect to the sport of biathlon. Speaker of many languages and head of the International Biathlon Union's athlete committee, Egan is respected by her peers for on-snow performances as well as her leadership in the IBU board room.

We spoke to Egan earlier this month as she was training in Antholz, Italy with U.S. women's head coach Armin Auchentaller. The real gist of the conversation was to determine how she had been coping with the pandemic and making a go of it as the race season nears. Like many of us, there have been ups and downs...but mostly ups. You can hear more on the podcast.

If you’ve been following along with the global ski scene and wax, you know this: perfluorinated waxes have been a hot button topic. From issues with importing into the U.S., stories on potential health and environmental risk, and new “green” wax products coming on-line...it’s been hard to keep up with trends. The International Ski Federation announced last month that it would move towards a fluoro-free race series next year. That caught the surprise of many — it was expected that any potential fluoro ban would come down after the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Perhaps the most wide-ranging series on fluoro use in the cross-country world was published this fall by Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. The series was multi-faceted. It explored fluoro use and personal stories about illness and even death, and industries response to upcoming EU regulations on C-8 chemistry.    

We spoke to one of the lead journalists involved with the project, John Rasmussen. He’s based in Oslo and among his beats, is covering the World Cup. 

Here's a link to the story series. But keep this in mind: Google Translate often offers rough approximations when translating Norwegian to English. 

With a kowtow to Zach Caldwell and Noah Hoffman, we are repurposing their recent video conversation about anti-doping reform. On Nordic Nation, you'll find just the audio. If you are more visual by nature, you can find the video here.

In this conversation, you'll get solid details about anti-doping policy in the U.S. and abroad. Think of this as an advanced level remote learning opportunity to up your game when discussing anti-doping affairs. From Noah's involvement with Global Athlete, to details on the Rodchenkov Act, USADA, and efforts to magnify athlete voices via labor unions, Caldwell and Hoffman cover lots of ground. 

For those that have followed Hoffman's career, this is an opportunity to hear him as he emerges as a nascent expert in anti-doping policy. It is easy to envision Hoffman leading international clean sport efforts in the years ahead.

This podcast is part of a series on female athlete specific physiology and sports nutrition. With the help of experts and novel research in this area, this series unpacks how the menstrual cycle might influence training adaptations and provides female athletes and coaches with the information to help optimize fueling and training schedules accordingly.

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Maddie Alm is the face of Fueling Forward, a sports nutrition business helping athletes of all levels improve their nutrition in and out of training to help optimize their training adaptations and health. In addition to being a registered dietician with a masters degree in nutritional sciences, Alm is a professional track athlete specializing in the 5k. Alm is a member of the Team Boss running team. She is currently working toward the goal of competing in the Olympic track trials. 

After joining the renowned team at Colorado University Boulder as a walk-on, Alm was introduced to a nutritionist who helped her improve the quality of her diet and add in additional fuel between workouts to help her get more out of her training. By fueling herself properly, Alm developed into an All American, sparking her own interest in sports nutrition and her desire to help others optimize their own athletic performance through proper fueling.

To Alm, this means developing and sharing an “all foods fit” philosophy which makes eating a high quality diet that matches your training load simple and sustainable. Collaborating with other experts in the area, Alm has also recently taken on a side project in the area of female athlete physiology and nutrition. 

In this episode, Alm breaks down how hormonal fluctuations during each phase of the menstrual cycle impact nutritional demands and offers specific suggestions on how athletes might tweak their diet accordingly to ensure their body gets the fuel and hydration it needs. She also discusses how athletes who are negatively affected by PMS symptoms might experiment with their nutrition to reduce the severity of these effects, thereby lessening the extent to which they take away from training or performance. 

For more from Alm, you can follow her business account on Instagram @fuelingforward or her athletic profile @madsalm12. The specifics of her sports nutrition services and her “Simple Start: 28 Days to Fueling Better” program can be found on her website: https://www.fuelingforward.com/. 

Live, from Vermont, it was Ben Lustgarten of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project -- we spoke to Ben about his recent retirement announcement from full-time training and racing at the elite level. Lustgarten's name is synonymous with the SuperTour's sharp end. He's also known to throw down burly strength workouts. He qualified and raced in two World Championships and claimed a 30 k classic National Championship in 2017. 

In this episode, we discuss the reasons why Lustgarten stepped away from full-time training and the key aspects of the training-racing he's embraced along the way. He's honest and earnest as he ruminates on the difficulty of cracking into the World Cup top-30, and missing out on the 2018 Olympics. 

Lastly, Lustrgarten is a grinder and we applaud his dedication and fidelity to the sport. Onward Ben. 

This past fall, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center (COC) updates its wax use policy. The New England institution was one of the first and among the largest cross-country ski centers to implement a policy curbing the use of per-fluorinated wax on its premises. The Craftsbury Outdoor Center supports values and practices that try to minimize its impact on the environment while still providing recreational opportunities for visitors.

This was no cold turkey move away from fluoros, when the SuperTour came to Craftsbury this winter, teams were allowed to apply and use fluoros in well ventilated ares. However, the day to day ethos at the COC was clear: fluoros use was frowned upon.

We spoke with Ollie Burruss in March to discuss the policy and how it played out over the winter. Among his many duties, Burruss is the nordic race director at the COC. He's in the hot seat when it comes to piloting fluoro free policies and practices. Burruss was also the head of the organizing committee and the Chief of Competition at the 2019 US Cross-Country Nationals.  

Background reading on the topic:

• FasterSkier piece on wax policies in New England
• FasterSkier piece on the EPA and ski wax regulations
• Outside Magazine piece on the EPA and ski wax 

In this episode, we talk with Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS T2), who is coming off of her fourth consecutive victory at the American Birkebeiner in Hayward, Wisconsin. But the path between these victories, especially over the last two seasons, has not been smooth or direct. 

Alayna has had standout results on the SuperTour, but that has not directly translated into consistent results on the World Cup, leaving her navigating the tricky waters of being what is often dubbed a “bubble athlete”. Last season, her reach goal was to make the Beijing Olympic Team, which would require putting all of her eggs into whichever race-pathway-basket was most likely to get her there. Ultimately, she was not named to the team, and a positive COVID test shortly thereafter rubbed salt in the wound. She also ended the season one FIS point shy of making the objective criteria for National Team selection in 2022.
 

Alayna has been open about all of these setbacks both on social media and her blog - in particular, how difficult they can be to process in the moment. However, on paper, she has translated this journey into a career-best season. She’s cracked into the heats of two World Cup freestyle sprints, finished 26th in a 20k skate in Davos, and clocked the 5th fastest time of day in the same event during Stage 4 of the Tour de Ski in Oberstdorf, GER. She even beat SMS T2 teammate Jessie Diggins on a downhill segment.  

Alayna talks through these experiences, where she’s at now, and of course, the Birkie during this episode. We also chat about her new podcast project, Extra Blue – which is well worth a listen – and who her dream guest and conversation would be. The answer is surprising.

Just a heads up – we did have a few connection issues which caused a few audio bumps. Thanks for listening!

Mid-Summer and mid-fishing session, we connected with Great Britain's Andrew Musgrave near his home in Trondheim, Norway. Musgrave underwent surgery on both Achilles tendons recently and is on the mend.

In this episode, we discuss his comparatively down season last year, his plans to remain healthy, and how excited he was during the interview to spot what he described as a weasel swim past.

 
If you are new to the podcast, FasterSkier, or Musgrave...here's some background. Musgrave is 30 years old, hails from Scotland but spent part of his youth in Alaska, and took a big leap in ski performance when he moved to Norway. He came oh so close to a medal at the 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland -- he placed 4th in the men's 50 k skate in a tight race to the finish for the top-six spots. (Canada's Alex Harvey pulled out the win.)

He regularly contests the Norwegian National Championship races, which are packed with talent, and remains a podium threat.

Thanks for reading and listening.

In this episode, we chat with Hailey Swirbul, who took an alternate path to the World Cup this season, prioritizing her own mental health and aiming to rediscover her love for cross-country skiing along the way. Listen in to hear her discuss the challenges she's faced in transitioning into a professional athlete, along with how the Olympic experience contrasted the Olympic fantasy. She also discusses difference in summer training this year, highlights from domestic racing in period one and two, including a sweep of US Nationals in Houghton, and more. Thanks for listening. 

In this episode, we have U.S. Ski Team members Hannah Halvorsen and Hailey Swirbul along with development team coach Kate Barton. The original idea behind the conversation was to discuss a variety of challenges female athletes of all levels experience during their careers based on an infographic posted by the organization Voice in Sport, found in our show notes. 

As the conversation evolved, it became clear that this conversation will resonate with athletes of all genders, ages, and level of competition. Yes -- being one of the fittest women in the world and getting to travel the world is a wonderful privilege that many of us might fantasize about, however, we often only see the highlight reel. From social media to pressure, and “balance” to competition between teammates, these women shared powerful insights into their lives as athletes and coaches at the highest level of our sport. Hopefully, this perspective helps listeners recognize and support the whole person inside the lycra, on days where the pieces come together on the World Cup, the days they fall short of the goal, and all the days in between.

Some related reading that is discussed:

Hannah Halvorsen With a New Plan (details her story of being struck by a car and early recovery; find a follow up story here)

I Don’t Have a Six Pack, But a Car Hit Me and I Survived by Hannah Halvorsen

Hailey Swirbul’s Instagram Post on Mental Health and Letter to Her Younger Self

Brave Enough by Jessie Diggins (Reviewed on FS here, with more on her recovery and advocacy here.)

Heading into the Olympics in February, Jessie Diggins received more media attention than ever before, landing on the cover of Sports Illustrated and having her profile featured on major news outlets like the New York Times. There was an entire category for her career highlights on the Olympic cross country ski tab on NBC’s Peacock streaming platform. 

From all of the coverage focused on Diggins surrounding the Games, one comment in particular received attention and push back from the athlete community. The line in a February 8th story in the NY Times suggested that Diggins looked “like a sprite in her racing suit,” comparing her body to her competitors’ who had “massive shoulders and thighs.” It was seen as inaccurate, inappropriate, and potentially harmful to those reading it. 

To discuss the topic of body comments in sports journalism and why they might be harmful in the broader scope of athlete mental health, the Nordic Nation podcast recently hosted a discussion among the panel of Rosie Brennan, Corrine Malcolm, Brian Metzler, and Nat Herz, who span the breadth of athlete and media representative. Following the conversation, FasterSkier received feedback that the topic had already been given enough attention, and it remained clear that there was not unanimous understanding of why commenting on athletes’ bodies was deemed problematic. 

Seeking to add clarity to this side of the story, along with her own perspective as someone who has experienced an eating disorder and since become an advocate for awareness and support in that realm, Diggins reached out to FasterSkier asking to add her voice to the conversation. To be clear, neither Diggins nor FasterSkier aims to “cancel” NY Times author Matthew Futterman, nor to attack the NY Times for running the comment. The purpose of this discussion was to consider how a comment on an athlete’s body might be triggering to a reader who is primed to fall into the eating disorder trap, and how writers, parents, coaches, and teachers can be mindful of the impact and importance of what they say. 

Diggins also reflects on the 2021/2022 race season and what was an historic string of Olympic appearances. She discusses the success of the US Ski Team as a whole, in particular, the younger generation of athletes like Novie McCabe, Sophia Laukli, Ben Ogden, JC Schoonmaker, and Gus Schumacher, who have transitioned onto the World Cup over the last two seasons and earned spots on the 2022 Olympic Team.  

Thanks for listening.

Additional Resources and Related Reading & Listening:

WithAll Foundation and the What to Say Campaign. As discussed in the episode, Diggins and Gus Schumacher participated in a live discussion with this organization on March 31st titled “What America’s Top Athletes Know About Health & Performance”, which can be viewed here.

The Emily Program: A leader in eating disorder treatment and outreach, and partner of Diggins'

Nordic Nation Podcast: A Discussion on the Media’s Portrayal of Endurance Athletes with Rosie Brennan, Corrine Malcolm, Brian Metzler, and Nat Herz

Nordic Nation Podcast: Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) and the Climate in High Performance Skiing

Brave Enough by Jessie Diggins (Reviewed on FS here, with more on her recovery and advocacy here.)

FasterSkier also shared two OpEd pieces surrounding this topic, one from our own contributor Ben Theyerl and a second from reader Ivy Spiegel Ostrom, highlighting individual responses to the NY Times comment and underlying issues of body comments in the media, and another by Rachel Bachman Perkins on the prevalence of eating disorders and disordered eating in sport. 

In this episode, we have Matt Whitcomb back to debrief the 2021/22 Tour de Ski, including highs and lows, overcoming setbacks, and managing a circulating head cold. We also discuss the cancellation of the Les Rousses World Cup, covid safety in a critical window before the Olympics, and the racing happening in Soldier Hollow during the 2022 US Cross Country Championships. 

You can find athlete interviews from throughout the Tour de Ski in our race coverage at FasterSkier.com.

Thanks for listening. 

Last fall, FasterSkier spoke with former Williams Ski Team member Jordan Fields after his impressive effort on the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains of Northern New Hampshire. This classic point-to-point route leads travelers over eight summits in roughly 18 miles, including Mt Washington, which clocks in at 6,288 ft as the highest elevation peak in the Northeast. Over the years, many have raced the clock against the storied challenge of traversing the range as fast as possible, and the fastest known time (FKT) has slowly been whittled down from roughly five hours in 2010 into uncharted territory. 

Stopping his watch at the bottom of Crawford Path 3 hours and 42 minutes after leaving the northern trailhead in Appalachia last September, Fields smashed the previous record by an astounding 22 minutes. 

“One of the silver linings of COVID was that it maybe left me with a little too much flexibility,” Fields laughed as he discussed the steady stream of impressive days he spent in the mountains this summer.

Despite also being fully plugged into a graduate program in Geology at Dartmouth College studying the impact of climate change on the ecology of rivers, he set a new FKT each month beginning in June on the Kinsman Ridge Traverse near Franconia, NH, followed by Mt. Katahdin in northern Maine in July. From there, Fields turned his focus to two other iconic White Mountains routes: the 29 mile Pemigewasset (Pemi) Loop and the 45 mile Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) Hut Traverse.

Like the Presi Traverse, the Pemi Loop has been a test piece for hardy New England mountain runners, boasting 9,100’ of climbing with ample scrambling up and down the rocky granite peaks above tree line. (Jessie Diggins ran this as her “Big Stupid” birthday adventure in early September.)

 
As Fields explains in the interview, his Pemi Loop FKT on August 1st was a bit impromptu. The day started as a scouting mission with a friend, but when he realized at the top of the first major climb 8 miles in that they were on record pace, he decided to leave his friend behind, go for it, and see what happened. Woefully unprepared for a race effort, Fields went on to experience the most epic of bonks. He had packed food that was appropriate for a casual jaunt, but wouldn’t sit while chasing a record. Because the route stays high along the ridge line there is only one reliable opportunity to fill water, and it was a 90 degree day, Fields found himself wishing he had packed more than two 500 mL soft flasks. Nevertheless, he made it back to the trailhead in 5 hours and 27 minutes for a new record. Though he feels he can significantly drop the time, he opted not to return to the Pemi Loop this fall and began piecing together the Hut Traverse. 

For those who have spent a season working as AMC “Hut Croo”, or even perhaps stayed at one of the huts, this pilgrimage likely gives you goosebumps. With records dating back to the 1930’s, connecting the eight huts beginning at Carter and finishing at Lonesome Lake has long been a right of passage for Croo and trail stewards in the rich lore of the White Mountains. 

And get this: the route encompasses the Presidential Traverse, though you get to skip a couple of the peaks, and roughly a third of the Pemi Loop, racking up over 16,000 ft of climbing and ending on a steep climb out of Franconia Notch. 

Chasing former Greenleaf Croo member Jeff Colt’s 2018 record, Fields dropped the time to 10 hours 24 minutes. With the FKT on the Presi Traverse and the Pemi Loop, this also finished out the “Triple Crown” of the Whites, and Fields became the first person to hold all three records simultaneously.  

During the interview, Fields discussed the role community played throughout his attempts, particularly with the hut traverse. Though he missed out on the baked goods and encouragement normally offered at the huts because of a combination of COVID and seasonal closures, he had the irreplaceable support of family and friends, and beta from the previous record holder.

Fields explained that he contacted Colt for advice, sheepishly apologizing that he was trying to best his time. Colt was happy to pass on the torch, saying, “That’s what it’s all about: a shared history of experience in the mountains.” 

This phrase stuck with Fields as he put his head down and powered his way through the Whites, encompassing why he enjoys such arduous pastimes. 

In this conversation, Fields shares a deeper look into his FKT attempts and discusses his perspective on the likely COVID-induced  increase in use seen in the White Mountains (and many other mountain regions) this summer. He also talks about his goals for the seasons ahead. Thanks for listening. 

We’ve all heard the phrase: “These are unprecedented times.” And it is true. What the world is facing during the Covid-19 pandemic is something that none of us have experienced before. We are all feeling it. 

Uncertainty is ubiquitous and caused by a myriad of factors. We may be concerned about the health of ourselves and our families, or about the financial impacts of our country coming to a halt. We might be attempting to work from home without access to childcare, leaving little time to care for ourselves, or we may be struggling with isolation while distancing ourselves from others. 

On March 21st, licensed professional counselor Holly Brooks shared the following on her practice’s FaceBook page:

“While the primary discussion revolves around physical health issues, my professional lens is set to think about people mentally and emotionally. This pandemic is going to be a marathon, but right now it feels like a sprint. Yes, we absolutely need to do everything possible right now to flatten the curve, but if we've flattened ourselves (burnt out, physically sick, emotional break down/panic attacks) then we cannot help ANYONE. 

Here are three steps that I feel are crucial to help you survive (and even thrive) in this pandemic marathon:

1) Release the energy stored inside of you. This could come in the form of crying, a "thought download" aka journalling, dancing or exercise.

2) Engage in some form of safety/soothing technique. Work on your inner dialogue. Combine it with some diaphragmatic breathing. Use one of the many meditation apps.

3) Practice gratitude and VISUALIZE the FUTURE. Right now our minds are full of "what ifs" and literally worst case scenarios. Sure, we need to prepare and be smart about our preparation but make sure you're balancing it with positivity. The same goes for the media. Balance the bad news with the good.”

For those unfamiliar with Brooks, she is a licensed professional counselor based in Anchorage, Alaska. Before starting her practice, Holly Brooks LLC, she was a U.S. Ski Team member and competed in the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Games. 

In this episode, Brooks unpacks the many sources of grief and anxiety that people are facing and expands on the steps she recommends to identify and manage the challenges of the times. She discusses the idea of naming and acknowledging feelings to help release energy around them and shares a practice she uses with her clients using painted rocks labeled with specific emotions. 

She leaves listeners with a meditation that can be used daily to soothe and ground themselves as we collectively settle in for the long haul. 

For further information about Brooks’ practice or services, contact holly@hollybrooks.com or visit her FaceBook page. 

Resources mentioned:

Brené Brown on “FFTs” in the Unlocking Us podcast

“That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief” by Scott Berinato, Harvard Business Review interview with David Kessler

If you're an avid reader of The New York Times sports section, you've most likely read the work of writer-journalist Matt Futterman (50). Futterman is the Deputy Sports Editor at the NYT, a fan of nordic sports, and an avid runner who was slated to run the Boston Marathon this past Monday.

Futterman's love for endurance sports, running in particular, is evident as he peppers readers with in-depth running stories. He helped cover the recent downfall of Alberto Salazar and continues to keep on eye on anti-doping efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Futterman also released a well-received book titled: Running to the Edge.

The book, rendered down to its basics, is a meditation on Bob Larsen, a running coach Futterman asserts resurrected U.S. distance running. That premise is hard to argue with as Larsen jolted the San Diego running scene into national relevance, coached UCLA to NCAA titles, and ultimately honed his training philosophy in Mammoth, California as the coach of Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor. Both of these athletes were guided to Olympic marathon medals under the tutelage of Larsen.

Futterman's treatment provides a close up look into how Larsen changed the landscape of training methodology for distance running - and on his way left a legacy of grit and championships in San Diego as he rose through the coaching ranks.

The book is a great read during this time of exercise containment. Futterman will help you dream big, even if for now, our sporting ambitions are reigned in.

In this episode of Nordic Nation, we talk to Futterman about his book, his own running, and how the NYT covers cross-country skiing at the Olympics. We also mention two recent pieces from this past week. They are linked below.

Berlin Marathon canceled.
What will endurance races look like when they come back?

Some of Futterman's coverage on Alberto Salazar: For Salazar Whistle-Blowers, a Long Wait for a Satisfying Outcome, Nike to shut down Salazar's Oregon Project.

Many of the World Cup race photos featured on FasterSkier come from NordicFocus, a European bases photo agency. NordicFocus, as the name suggests, features images from the world of nordic sport: cross-country, biathlon, nordic combined, and ski jumping.

If you have buzzed around the media center at any big cross-country event, it's likely you have seen Federico Modica. Modica wears a mountain endurance-fit look as if he's just descended from some alpine climb; there's a veneer of a beard, a sinuous build, and the commensurate technical fleece hoody. Out on course shooting World Cups, Modica matches his fitness and ability to be here and there with a master's eye at the young age of 30.

Modica is based in Northern Italy, and when we spoke on March 24th, he was still quarantined in his home. Now, a few weeks later, he is able to have limited movement, he is no longer shut inside. 

We discuss his life on the World Cup, what he carries in his camera bag, and why women are asked to jump for their podium shots. All controversy aside, we get a straight answer.

Beyond the World Cup, Modica rambles in the big peaks of Europe shooting adventures for commercial clients. You can find his work on Instagram @modicavisual. 

Something a bit different on the podcast today. In the spirit of high mountains and the autumn season which is often the time many seek any iteration of mountain film. During normal times, we flock to touring mountain film festivals to celebrate. You know, solid storytelling and vibrant images to help us dream a bit bigger. 

Some of you may have already watched LHOTSE, a film featuring ski mountaineers Hialree Nelson and Jim Morrison as they complete the first descent down the steep and scratchy Lhotse Couloir in the Nepal Himalaya. It’s a film that featured at the upcoming Banff Virtual Mountain Film Festival. Let’s just say the film has it all: A compelling tale to tell, lovely mountain backdrops, the thinnest of air, and two athletes in Nelson and Morrison living in the moment.

With all this in mind, I followed my curiosity. I wanted to know more about who captured the footage and crafted the film. That led me to filmmakers Dutch Simpson and Nick Kalisz. Both are spirited creatives who also happen to be mountain savvy. We spoke to Simpson and Kalisz to learn about their experiences on the project and how they captured a now storied ski descent. We should note, the scale of the climbing and ski expedition, which went down in September 2018, was by all measures minimalist. The typical climbing season on Everest, which is close to the summit of Lhotse, is in April and May. By September, these mountains are ghost towns by comparison. If you are looking for more information on the ski descent, National Geographic provides. 

Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoyed this small diversion from talk associated with the skinny skis. 

At 24-years-old, Julia Kern is quickly becoming a seasoned veteran in her 7th year on the U.S. Ski Team. However, her career trajectory has been stepwise, not exponential. 

After making breakthroughs during the 2019-20 season, including her first World Cup podium in a skate sprint in Planica, Slovenia, she faced injuries and setbacks heading into the following season in 2020-2021, leaving her walking away from that season feeling disappointed in both her World Cup and World Championship racing. Reflecting on her takeaways in an interview that summer, she said “Progress isn’t linear from season to season.”

Recently named the recipient of the US Nordic Olympic Women’s Gold Rush Award for her grit and grace as a professional skier, Julia has demonstrated what it takes to rebound, reframe, and move past these challenges. As she describes in this conversation, the start of Julia’s 2021-22 race season happened in fits and starts – some strong early-season results with promising body sensations followed by a series of untimely mild illnesses. After catching a cold midway through the Tour de Ski in early January, she suddenly was faced with the reality that she would not have any opportunities to race until arriving in Zhangjiakou for the Olympics over a month later – the longest race break of her career. 

Her first Olympic appearance took place in the opening event, the 15 k skiathlon, where Julia finished 53rd. The individual freestyle sprint three days later was her goal race; Julia qualified in 14th and raced a gutsy quarterfinal, ultimately finishing fourth in the heat and 18th overall on the day. A myriad of factors left her wanting more from this first Olympic experience, though she approached it without placing high expectations on herself. 

Rebounding once more after the Games, Julia began a tear of World Cup sprints in Period IV. She was 8th in the freestyle sprint in Lahti, 7th in the classic sprint the following week in Drammen, and finished just off the podium in fourth in the World Cup Finals in Falun. From there, she headed to Whistler to finish the season at the joint Canadian National Championships and US SuperTour Finals, where she took second to Jessie Diggins in Jessie’s signature 5 k freestyle event, and won the remaining three races.

During this conversation, Julia discusses the highs and lows of the season, as well as how she has been able to compartmentalize and move past setbacks over the past few years of navigating the transition to the World Cup. We also discuss her start in the sport, why the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team has been a good fit for her, and how leaning into other creative outlets, passions and work helps energize her for the long haul.

Thanks for listening and thanks to New Moon Bike and Ski for supporting this podcast. 

A slight reshuffling of positions at U.S. Ski and Snowboard and longtime coach Matt Whitcomb has a new title: Head Coach. Whitcomb held the title of World Cup Coach last season.

As the pandemic took hold in mid-March here in the U.S., Whitcomb holed up at his cabin in rural Vermont for a two-week solo quarantine. We caught up with Whitcomb via phone on April 23 from his cabin. This was a broad ranging interview. We discussed how teams monitor athlete health, recent U.S. Ski Team nominations and aged-based criteria, and how the team may modify its training in light of the pandemic.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact Whitcomb directlly via email or phone. Below is his contact information.

Email: Matt.whitcomb@usskiandsnowboard.org

Phone: 435.640.8543

-Thanks to Gavin Kentch and Rachel Perkins for help with this episode.

Timestamps:

00:00-11:00 Coaching roles on the USST

11:00-19:00 USST budget and athlete support

19:30-28:20 Training in the time of a pandemic and racing contingency plans

28:21:-9:45 Discussing how to monitor athlete health/wellness

39:46-51:50 Developing elite-level male athletes in the U.S.

51:51- 1:06:14 David Norris not being nominated to the USST, age-based criteria, Scott Patterson's nomination to the USST

In this episode of Nordic Nation, we speak all things trail design with John Morton. Based in Vermont, and global in perspective, Morton provides insights into the literal ups and downs of trail design and how full-blown nordic centers and small scale trails can bring a modern vibe to an old-school sport. He runs Morton Trails locally but has a global reach with projects based in China.

His most recent trail work at Paul Smith's College in the Adirondacks earned rave reviews. As Morton describes site location we learn how he envisions a trail catered to simply sliding on snow through the woods for the recreational skier or imagines an entire competition complex able to host elite level events and challenge World Cup stars.

Morton's ski resume is lengthy. And true to form, Morton stuck to trail design during our conversation. He failed to mention he is a two-time Olympic biathlete, served a tour of duty in South Vietnam, coached collegiate skiing, and remains an all-around ski enthusiast. This is really just the tip of the iceberg.

You can find more about Morton at morton trails.com.    

Thanks for listening.  

In this episode, we hear from a familiar voice - someone, in fact, we’ve heard from recently on the podcast, former elite cross-country skier Noah Hoffman. Post-race career, Hoffman has been deeply involved in the anti-doping movement as an educator, lobbyist, and content creator. This conversation is from Hoffman's content creation side. A few months back the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA) posted a six-plus minute video interview between Hoffman and Dr. Edwin Moses - a famed track and field athlete, anti-doping reformer, and voice for equity in sport.

This episode features the full unreleased 30 plus minute interview - one where Moses discusses how best to empower athletes and build racial equity. This is an opportunity to hear one of the most fearless voices in sports. Along with his activism, Moses is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 400 m hurdles. Those are a few of his storied athletic accolades. He's an icon.

Off the track, Moses speaks for the rights of athletes. His is among a rarefied list of athletes who have chosen to challenge the power brokers in Olympic sport. He served on and chaired WADA's Education Committee. He held true to his values while serving WADA as an outspoken critic seeking institutional reforms from within. He was a key figure in developing drug testing protocols, and he served on the IOC's Athlete Commission, Medical Commission, and Ethics Commission. Today, Moses holds an Emeritus Chair with USADA where he continues his fight.

Below are two Op-eds by Moses:

WADA's Credibility Rides on Its Russia Decision

Challenge to WADA

Independent of one another, Brian Gregg and Matt Liebsch are always to be feared as they line up for a ski race. Now in their mid-thirties, their lives have transitioned to other responsibilities that include partners, children, and full-time work. Yet, in the highly competitive world of elite level ski racing, these two have maintained a healthy friendship and are fast and furious training partners.

We could spend time noting their accomplishments on the ski tracks - but that would be another story. They are accomplished. But when speaking to them both, it is clear that each wants the other to succeed and in fact, they understand their friendship and training have made them both faster. Although defining themselves as 'master-blasters', Gregg was second overall and Liebsch third in last season's American Birkebeiner. Gregg lost out by a toe to Akeo Maifeld-Carucci, while Liebsch faded slightly down Main Street in Hayward to place third 8.5 seconds back. So 'master-blaster' or not, these two are still fast and competitive. 

So maybe get inspired, find your own best bud, become a better person and get faster together too. 

Though the FasterSkier team would select other highlights from the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, one of the most read articles we produced featured the responses of members of the ski community to a story published on February 8th by the New York Times, which included the following quote:

“In a sport that has so many women with massive shoulders and thighs, Diggins looks like a sprite in her racing suit, and it’s not clear exactly where she gets her power. But the power is there, as she flies up hills, and comes off climactic turns with a burst. On the downhills, she tucks low and cuts through the air.”

Following the initial backlash sparked by the quote has prompted a number of insightful conversations – and questions – on how athletes, men and women, are portrayed by the media, whether there is room for descriptions or comparisons of athletes’ bodies to narrate a scene for a reader, and how the landscape of sports media has shifted with time.

For this discussion, FasterSkier brought together a panel that spans both the athlete and media perspective on the issue.

Perhaps needing the least introduction for this audience, the first voice you’ll hear belongs to Rosie Brennan. In addition to her role as one of the top American cross country skiers for more than a decade, Brennan is also an advocate for the organization Voice in Sport which provides mentorship for developing female athletes across all sports. And she was a member of the women’s Olympic skate sprint final in Zhangjiakou, taking fourth place just behind Diggins, the race which sparked the discussion in the first place.

The second belongs to professional trail and ultra runner Corrine Malcolm, whose first go at professional endurance sport was in biathlon, from which she retired in 2014 after experiencing overtraining syndrome, likely coupled by relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S). Alongside her athletic career, Malcolm has become a coach for other endurance athletes, while also becoming an advocate for women in sport, and has also engaged with this topic from the media side of the coin while calling some of the top ultra running events worldwide, including the Western States Endurance Run in California and the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) which begins and ends in Chamonix, France. She’s also the co-host of an engaging podcast called Trail Society, which dissects challenging topics in the trail and ultra-running space.

We’ve also got Brian Metzler, an award-winning veteran journalist and author in the endurance space who currently writes for a number of publications including Outside, Competitor, Women’s Running, Triathlete, and Trail Runner magazines. Writing with perspective from his own athletic career, Metzler is Colorado Running Hall of Fame inductee (2015) who adventures on foot, ski, and sometimes alongside a burro, throughout the high country of Colorado. 

Lastly, you’ll hear a cameo from our own Nat Herz, on lunch break from his “real job” as a full-time reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. Having written for FasterSkier from 2009 through 2015 before making a return this year as our 2022 Olympic Correspondent and co-host of the Devon Kershaw Show, Herz shares insights from his time covering cross country skiing paired with those from behind a very different desk.

Some of the talking points discussed include: 

• Initial responses to the NY Times story
• A writer’s responsibility to be informed on the sport being covered, in addition to the physical and/or mental health challenges that may be pervasive in that setting
• Differences between American and European media, and shifts in focus, norms, or trends in sports media
• Differences, or lack thereof, of covering athletes of different genders

Thanks for listening, and to this episode’s sponsor, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. 

Please note that the Craftsbury Green Racing Project Ski and Biathlon teams and U23 summer programs are currently accepting applications for the upcoming training year, which will close on April 10th. Click here for more information.

A lack of on-snow opportunities. Although a major first-world problem, that's been on the mind of some this offseason. Here and there, we've published stories about a strict dryland diet for elite skiers this season. Meaning, no on-snow training. Mostly, that strict diet has applied to North Americans who normally access snow in late spring and summer at a variety of venues.

The Haig Glacier and its Beckie Scott High Altitude Training Center have been a Canadian go-to for years. The same can be said for APU's Thomas Training Center on Alaska's Eagle Glacier. In Europe, where glacier infrastructure is more common, access to higher altitude snow in summer has been part of the elite cross-country skier training plan for decades. Austria's Dachstein Glacier and it's groomed nordic trails are a world-class benchmark for those seeking summer snow.

Which brings us to 83-year-old Marty Hall. For those who a new to ski racing, Hall was both a U.S. and Canadian head cross-country ski coach and groundbreaker. He was and still is keen on expanding his knowledge. That was the case in the mid-'70s when Hall began taking U.S. skiers to the Dachstein as part of his plan to expose athletes to European training methods.

In this episode, we speak with Hall to learn about the first trips to the Dachstein and how it all came about. It's part history lesson, part walk down memory lane.

Thanks for listening and stay safe out there.

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 has been piqued, FasterSkier has an upcoming article providing a deeper look into the pace project that Whitcomb discusses here. 

Time Stamps:

• (0:35) A look into the National Team camp in Park City; gender balance with coaching staff
• (9:45) Tiger Shaw’s departure from U.S. Ski & Snowboard, with Sophie Goldschmidt moving into his role. 
• (13:30) Whitcomb’s cross country road trip and seeing various junior club programs
• (15:30) The generational shift happening on the U.S. Ski Team following several notable retirements, and its implications for leadership and team dynamics
• (19:30) Outlook for the men’s program as the crop of athletes successful at the junior level moves into the Olympic season
• (25:00) Altitude training camps leading into Beijing: the when, where, and why.
• (30:15) Olympic team selection and athlete quotas
• (35:00) Season planning: decisions around competing at the Tour de Ski and other World Cup weekends
• (40:30) Managing athlete and personal wellbeing and holistic health, in the wake of Simone Biles decision to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics
• (52:00) What to say to Matt Whitcomb of 2010
• (54:30) NNF Fundraising Campaign: Drive for 25
  
  

The Olympic Dream. 

Perhaps the pinnacle of sport would not be as valued and revered were it not for the inherent scarcity of opportunities to achieve it. This year, only eight women and six men were able to represent the United States in cross-country skiing in Zhangjiakou, down from a total of twenty who were selected for PyeongChang in 2018. 

Among those who came up just shy was 30-year-old Rosie Frankowski, who has spent the last eight years training with APU. Frankowski is a 2018 Olympian and 2019 World Championship competitor, finishing inside the top-30 in both places – 21st in the 30 k classic in Korea and 24th in the 15 k skiathlon in Seefeld. 

After strong early season results that included two wins and three third place finishes in early season SuperTours, Frankowski lined up in Soldier Hollow for a two-week stretch of racing that felt like it was for all the marbles. As many women had already met the objective criteria for team selection via results on the World Cup, it was only the final one or two spots that remained open for domestic racers; in the hungry pool all fighting for these spots via some combination of U.S. Nationals, Sun Valley SuperTour, and Tour de Ski results were Frankowski, Caitlin Patterson, Alayna Sonnesyn, and Katharine Ogden. 

As Frankowski describes in this episode, her opening races – the freestyle sprint and the 20-kilometer mass start skate – of U.S. Nationals went remarkably well; despite being known as a distance specialist, she won the sprint qualifier and finished sixth in the final, then won the race for second place in the 20 k skate, behind Rosie Brennan who had dropped the field from the start. From there, Frankowski faced a series of challenges – slick skis and variable klister conditions in the 10 k classic, a fall in the classic sprint, and a sublexed shoulder in the opening race in Sun Valley. 

The official team nominations for the 2022 Beijing Olympics were released the following week, and Frankowski was named as the second alternate for the women’s team. Five months later, Frankowski finds herself at a transition point in her career. It’s not a cut and dry retirement as she has earned Period I starts on the World Cup and has other race objectives next winter, but it’s a shift in focus as she and her partner prepare to relocate from Anchorage, AK to Durango, CO. 

In this conversation, Frankowski shares the highlights and challenges of the 2021-22 race season, and provides invaluable insights into the experience of spending her career as a “bubble athlete”, fighting for international race opportunities and team selection, while juggling the financial realities of supporting her professional ski racing career. She reflects on her time with APU, and discusses defining success when surrounded by “more-accomplished” teammates, and how she expects the ratio of mountain running to ski-specific training to shift after this transition.

Thanks for listening and thanks to Concept2 for supporting this podcast. 

Bryan Fletcher (U.S. Nordic Combined) jumping to 20th on the normal hill at 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

Nordic combined is exactly that: a combination of the two discrete nordic-sport disciplines. There’s the cross-country side, which if you read FasterSkier regularly, you’re pretty comfortable with in terms of technique, gear, and the nuts and bolts of race dynamics. If you’re like me, the jumping side is a bit more foreign. I took the opportunity in this podcast episode to explore ski jumping.

For nordic combined competitions, it is the ski jumping portion that dictates the start order for the freestyle pursuit-style race. So to fully understand the discipline, and know why, for example, a skier starts one minute back from the morning’s ski-jump winner, I reached out to Bryan Fletcher, a 30-year-old old U.S. Nordic Combined Team veteran (he’s also a new dad), and Clint Jones, a former U.S. Ski Team jumper and currently a jumping coach and team director for USA Nordic, which encompasses nordic combined and ski jumping.

From those two we get a jumper’s perspective of a massive ski flying hill in Planica, Slovenia, and firsthand knowledge of jumping technique. Jumping may not be for the faint of heart, but understanding how it sets up the cross-country ski race after the jumps is critical to following nordic combined.

And when you listen to the podcast, you’ll hear Bryan Fletcher say this: “For me, I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie. I’ve done a lot of stupid adrenaline things in my life. And one of those is base jumping off of the bridge in Twin Falls, [Idaho]. And typically they recommend you have 100 sky dives before you ever go base jumping. Instead I spent two months learning how to pack a parachute, and then went and took six jumps off the bridge. And to give you perspective, base jumping I didn’t know anything about … However with ski jumping, you kind of have those rumors and commentary from other jumpers, I was more nervous getting on the bar of a ski flying hill for the first time than I was crawling over the railing of a bridge to base jump for my first time.”

You’ll also learn the difference between a ski flying hill — the type of jump Fletcher refers to in his base-jumping quote — and a regular, Olympic-style ski jumping hill. It’s always a good day to learn something new.

Click the play button to listen below.

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Liz Stephen has earned her stripes. For the last 11 years, the 29-year-old Vermont native has been part of the US Ski Team (USST). After veterans like Kikkan Randall, Stephen has become an anchor on the women’s team, which now carries with it expectations of top-20’s, top-10’s and podiums. At the age of 15, the Burke Mountain Academy alpine skier and runner switched to the skinny skis for good.

With her high energy and drive, she became a force on the U.S. junior cross-country ski scene. What followed were a string of results commensurate with her high turnover. In both 2013 and 2014, she was the 15th-ranked distance skier on the World Cup. A year later, that ranking was more than halved — she concluded 2015 ranked seventh in the Distance World Cup.

Liz Stephen (U.S. Ski Team) leads Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) and the rest of the chase pack during the women’s 30 k classic mass start at 2016 U.S. Distance Nationals in Craftsbury, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

Then, due to possible overtraining and some shaken confidence, Stephen’s results regressed to 28th on the distance list in 2016. Still good enough for an U.S. A-team nomination, but not what she expected.

“It’s not as though you worked any less hard, generally that’s not the case, sometimes it’s the opposite,” Stephen said during the podcast interview. “You feel like you worked really hard and none of it is paying off. It’s like a two-sided sword. Your results are going down. And instead of being, ‘All right, I can do this,’ gaining confidence, it’s the opposite. Every time you are getting a result you’re not proud of, your confidence is sinking a little bit lower. And for every percent your confidence sinks, that’s at least a place on the World Cup, if not two.”

In a world-championship year, Stephen is hoping to rebound individually and in support of her teammates on a medal-winning relay team. All that doesn’t seem so far fetched. Stephen skied the third leg in last season’s 4 x 5 k in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, in which the U.S. women skied to their historic-best second place in a World Cup relay.

The U.S. women placed a historic second for their best-ever relay finish at the 2016 World Cup 4 x 5 k in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. From left to right: Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell, Sadie Bjornsen, and Liz Stephen. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

Time for more high-turnover Stephen — click the play arrow below to listen to the podcast. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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It’s worth asking this question: could an entire continent having a love affair with a sport that combines skate skiing and shooting be wrong? There’s the raw, heart-thumping power of the skiing mingled with the laser-focus almost the zen-like quality of shooting at a quarter-size target. Throw in a few thousand fans with cowbells, horns,and a long winter night’s worth of libations, and you’ve got a sport that either live in person or broadcast on a screen has captured the wintertime sport scene in Europe.

For the diehard nordic ski fan, International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cups have for sometime been easily streamable on the Internet. If you were disinterested in the shooting, there’s obviously the skiing. But understanding the shooting process — where athletes immerse themselves in a mind-body flow shooting at small targets sandwiched between full-throttle ski laps — broadens one’s appreciation for the sport.

Rosanna Crawford (Biathlon Canada) skiing the second-fastest course time of second-leg relay skiers in the Oslo World Cup relay in February 2015. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus.com)

In this episode of Nordic Nation, Biathlon Canada veteran Rosanna Crawford brings listeners into the shooting range — in fact she debriefs her world champs personal-best race at the 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway.

Hear those cheers roar after a target flips black with a direct hit? What’s not to love? Click the play arrow below to listen to the podcast. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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It may be hyperbole, but “faster than a speeding bullet,” is a good place to start when thinking about biathlon at the World Cup level. Sure, race pace is slower than a speeding bullet, but watching masterful biathletes clean their shooting rounds on the way to victory deserves statements bordering on the hyperbolic. Most of us can imagine stumbling across a finish line, lungs burning. It’s a whole other realm of precision like suffering to pound out the kilometers while intermittently trying to hit a small target.

Clare Egan (US Biathlon) racing at an IBU World Cup last December in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

This episode of Nordic Nation is the second of our two-part series on biathlon. The first segment featured Biathlon Canada veteran Rosanna Crawford. Up now, it’s US Biathlon’s Clare Egan. At 28, she’s now a full time International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cupper — and she picked up her first rifle at the age of 25. From Egan, we’ll learn what it’s like coming to the sport as a novice shooter with Olympic aspirations. From developing muscle memory to learning new coping strategies for when those bullets down exactly hit the bullseye, Egan fills us in. 

Clare Egan: Screen shot from the IBU World Cup. Egan shoots clean.

Click the play arrow below to listen to the podcast. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Yes, it’s that time of year and depending on who you are, it means two things: the World Cup is about to start and Noah Hoffman’s Fantasy Cross Country is live. In this episode, as with most things, Nordic Nation goes deep. We scour our digital rolodex for insider information. With the first weekend of racing soon upon us, we looked for the beta on who to pick for a fantasy team and who to leave on the proverbial sidelines.

We speak with the Hoff and the Oz of his Fantasy League, Adam Mahar. And we track down a winning player from last year who resides in Sweden. We also connect with FasterSkier’s resident gear tester savant, Jon Schafer — he’s a man of many names too, think Fast Big Dog and/or FBD. And finally about thirty minutes into the episode, we strike gold with two players from the Midwest; Kristor and Dean are their names. Seriously, we dug deep to find these guys. With their insights, we might just be onto breaking the European dominance in Hoffman’s Fantasy League. Last year 11 of the 13 prizes went to players on the other side of the Atlantic. 

• Some of Adam’s data analysis referenced in the podcast

Click the play arrow below to listen. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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For non-traditional cross-country ski nations like the U.S. and Canada, bringing home Olympic hardware is the benchmark for success. The World Cup, although prestigious among fans and athletes, doesn’t share the same fanfare. And just below Olympic success, and again, off the general public’s radar are World Championship results. Canada has Olympic nordic sport hardware: Beckie Scott’s 2002 gold, Chandra Crawford’s 2006 gold, and the duo of Scott and Sara Renner winning silver in in the team sprint also in 2006. Recent World Championship awards include Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw winning team sprint gold in 2011. Harvey followed that up with more world-champs hardware: a sprint bronze in 2013, a sprint silver in 2015, and bronze that same year in the 30 k skiathlon.

Shane Pearsall will take over as CEO of Cross Country Canada starting Jan. 1, 2017. (Courtesy photo)

Canada’s cross country scene is not lacking for international medals. Yet in recent years, the sport has received a smaller piece of the sports funding pie from government entities like Own The Podium (OTP), and from independent sponsors. Canada is now emerging into the women’s World Cup ranks again, Dahria Beatty recently advanced to the sprint quarterfinals in Davos, Switzerland — she finished 25th on the day. But for many years as the men’s team was loaded with Harvey, Kershaw, and Valjas, on and off the record the sense was that the women’s side of the equation languished. The responsibility for developing the sport in Canada ultimately falls to Cross Country Canada (CCC), the national governing body for the sport.

CCC’s most recent CEO, Pierre Lafontaine, remained in the job for a year. Starting Jan. 1, 2017, the CEO role will belong to Shane Pearsall.

Sound like a new name in cross-country ski circles? It is. Pearsall, 58, does come to the job with administrative experience in sport, for three years he served as Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton’s (BCS) chief operating officer. In terms of connection to potential sponsors, Pearsall also worked in the oil and gas industry for 25 years including a long stint with AltaGas, a primary sponsor of CCC and its World Cup team. As an athlete, Pearsall was an elite hockey player and was a member of the 1980 Canadian men’s national team.

In this Nordic Nation episode, Pearsall answers questions about his vision for CCC and how he’ll measure success.

Have a listen by clicking play below or subscribe on iTunes here.

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Norway still dominates the World Cup. With both Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Heidi Weng wearing yellow bibs as overall World Cup Leaders, it seems not much has changed besides Weng supplanting Therese Johaug on the podium’s top step.

Norwegian Journalist John Rasmussen is our guest on Nordic Nation (Courtesy photo)

This past summer and fall, Norway’s cross-country community — which is arguably the entire nation — took a hit when both Sundby and Johaug were linked to doping. Much has been written about the technical aspects of their cases.

Nordic Nation reached out to Norwegian ski journalist John Rasmussen at Dagbladet, one of Norway’s leading newspapers. Rasmussen’s beat is the international and Norwegian ski scene. And since Google translate is not the most effective tool to go from Norwegian to English, we thought it best to get things straight from someone in the know.

“Doping in sport is so not on in this country,” Rasmussen said on the phone from Norway when we spoke on Dec. 15. “It’s considered such a shameful act, and particularly in cross-country, which is the national sport… If you’re caught cheating doing that, it’s probably like stealing from your neighbor. It’s not good.”

There’s more in this episode from Rasmussen. We talk of Johaug in the broader context of Norway’s sporting culture and the next steps in her doping case to be adjudicated late next month. There’s also some real world talk on what a parent says to a child who idolizes Johaug in a country where skiing is the sport of the people and the gods.

Click play to listen below or subscribe here on itunes.

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Render it all down, it’s about the human element of competition on the World Cup. In this episode of Nordic Nation, we first speak with U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover and then with one of the team’s athletes crushing right now in the Tour de Ski, Jessie Diggins. The topic at hand: breaking down an International Ski Federation (FIS) document sent to coaches after each race called a “Competition Analysis”.

These are not publicly posted where one might expect to find them (with results and World Cup standings) on the FIS site, unlike the International Biathlon Union (IBU), which publishes similar competition analyses (but with a lot more information, like shooting speed and time spent on the shooting range). While Grover wasn’t sure why FIS doesn’t link to these, one thing’s for sure: these analyses can be tools for coaches and athletes in dissecting races beyond the televised checkpoints.

Jessie Diggins racing to fourth in the women’s 15 k freestyle at the World Cup in Davos, Switzerland, on Dec. 10. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)

Specifically, we’ll discuss the competition analysis from the women’s 15-kilometer freestyle on Dec. 10 in Davos, Switzerland. Diggins placed fourth in that race. The FIS Competition Analysis is a tool coaches and skiers can use to see exactly where they skied effectively, and where they may have lost time. In Davos, pretty much Diggins skied fast.

Here’s a link to the Davos competition analysis. It’s useful to check it out a bit before listening to the podcast, but not totally necessary … but it does help.

And just to remain timely, here’s a FIS Competition Analysis from the Tour de Ski’s stage 4 women’s 10 k freestyle pursuit in Oberstdorf, Germany; Diggins placed fifth and her U.S. teammates had an impressive day as well.

Other references: 2016 FIS Cross-Country Homologation Manual

Time for the podcast. Thanks.

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At 26 years old, Andrew Musgrave, or “Muzzy” as the Eurosport commentators call him, of the British National Ski Team is a top-20 ranked distance skier on the World Cup. The down-to-earth, self-deprecating Scotsman placed sixth in the 15 k freestyle World Cup on Jan. 21 in Ulricehamn, Sweden. And let’s not forget, Musgrave burst onto the scene when he won the Norwegian skate-sprint national championship in 2014 before the Sochi Olympics. Then last year, Musgrave busted out a fourth place at 2016 Norwegian nationals in the 30 k skiathlon. That’s downright cheeky.

Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave racing in the 10 k freestyle at the December 6th, 2014 Lillehammer, Norway World Cup — he placed 13th on the day. (Photo: Go Media)

Did we mention he’s from Britain (Scotland actually)? We did.

He’s an outsized presence on the World Cup despite hailing from a land of kilts, bagpipes, and golf links. Musgrave balances out that lack of nordic heritage with a hardy work ethic and a willingness to wend to where the snow and competition is — in his case, that’s been Norway. He’s based out of Trondheim where he is taking the extended-stay plan when it comes to earning his engineering degree and training for international competition.

Nordic Nation caught up with Musgrave on Jan. 24 when he was in Livigno, Italy, for a pre-World Championships high-altitude camp.

(Here’s a link to a FasterSkier article explaining how the British National Team gets Norwegian assistance with its waxing — the waxing help is mentioned in the podcast. Musgrave also gets wax and ski selection help from Salomon service techs.)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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U.S. Ski Team Development Coach Bryan Fish celebrating with (from left to right) Hailey Swirbul, Julia Kern and Hannah Halvorsen after their bronze-medal performance with Katharine Ogden (not pictured) in the 4 x 3.3 k relay on Feb 5 at 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

On Feb. 5, the U.S. women’s team of Hailey Swirbul, Julia Kern, Hannah Halvorsen, and Katherine Ogden placed third in the 4 x 3.3-kilometer relay at Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. The following week, Nordic Nation jumped through some scheduling hoops to reach all four skiers and their lead coach, U.S. Ski Team Development Coach Bryan Fish. (Swirbul was back at school in Anchorage, Alaska, Ogden home in Vermont, and Halvorsen, Kern and Fish reached in Park City, Utah.)  

In this podcast episode, you’ll hear Fish describe how the team was selected as well as each athlete describe this career highlight. Scroll all the way to the bottom, below the photo gallery, to play.

Relay splits and results

In this episode we put the elusive Fast Big Dog, known in the business world as Jon Schafer, in front of the mic for his answers to the 17 Questions for 2017. It brings a conclusion to the FasterSkier interview series run last fall before the start of the 2016/2017 cross-country, nordic combined and biathlon race seasons.

Schafer is knee deep in the nordic scene as high performance director for USA Nordic Sport, a supporter of many aspiring skiers, and a huge Evel Knievel devotee — note Schafer’s race suit.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

FBD in action. But really, this photo needs no caption. (Photo: Fast Big Dog/Instagram)

(Is this for real?)

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In this episode of Nordic Nation, we feature U.S. Ski Team physician Dr. Larry Gaul. We caught up with Gaul back in late January while he was in Utah for U23/Junior World Championships.

U.S. Ski Team Doctor Larry Gaul with Liz Stephen (l) and then-USSA Communications Director Margo Christiansen (r) at 2013 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy. (Photo: Sarah Brunson/U.S. Ski Team)

Gaul has a long history working with the U.S. Ski Team’s cross-country athletes as the chief medical officer at the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA). And on the international side of things, Gaul serves on the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) Medical Committee. It was part of his FIS duties that brought him to this year’s U23/Junior Worlds at Soldier Hollow near Midway, Utah, where he served as the FIS medical supervisor during the weeklong competition.

Listen up to hear about Gaul’s role with the U.S. team and FIS.

Here’s a link to the FIS Medical Guide

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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We are nearing the end of the Winter Olympic quadrennial as we run up to the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. With that marquee event on the horizon, a few things are certain: athletes will attempt to peak for specific events, nordic sports will garner more mainstream media coverage and funding for national teams will get a bit more scrutiny. With that in mind, in this podcast episode, we have Canada’s Tom Hall as a guest. If you’re into elite canoe and kayak, Hall may be a familiar name: he’s a 2008 bronze medalist from the Beijing Olympics in sprint canoeing and represented Canada internationally for twenty years — he retired from competitive sports in 2012. Today, Hall is a journalist and editor as well as the interim executive director for for a Canadian athlete advocacy organization called AthletesCAN.

Tom Hall is a journalist/editor and Interim Executive Director of AthletesCAN. Hall earned a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games in canoe sprinting. (Photo: Greg Redman)

Hall’s work has been featured in a Canadian publication called The Walrus. What caught our attention here at FasterSkier was an article Hall penned about Canada’s sports funding program Own The Podium, titled ‘The Wrong Track’. It’s a good read and poses the basic question about how taxpayer money should be spent when it comes to sport. Whatever side of the issue you come down on, Hall’s points are food for thought.

Here’s a breakdown from Own The Podium (OTP), (Link to the full OTP Winter Historical Comparison) that reflects a winter historical comparison of OTP funding for cross-country skiing during the last three Olympic quadrennials.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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May 1 marks the symbolic start of the annual training cycle for many year-round nordic skiers. With that in mind, we recently spoke with Stephen Seiler. A Texas native, Seiler, 51, is a professor of sports science at the University of Adger in Kristiansand, Norway.

Stephen Seiler, a professor at the University of Adger in Kristiansand, Norway, specializes in exercise science. (Photo: uia.no)

Seiler has researched, written and spoken extensively about physiological adaptations as it relates to endurance athletes. Seiler’s mantra — the 80/20 Rule — the easy to hard intensity ratio when it comes to training sessions, has been well publicized. Seiler believes easy days should be truly easy, meaning walking the hills may be mandatory. If the easy days are easy, then the hard days are hard. He espouses a fidelity to training models with little, if any, in-between efforts; that means no middle-of-the-road intensity. And his observations come straight from Norway.

“… They know what gets you on the podium,” he said of the Norwegians’ tried-and-tested training principles. “And they know that there are no shortcuts. They don’t fall for the latest trend, the latest trick because they know how you get there. The magic is there is no magic in Norway.”

But we’ll let Seiler speak for himself.

Here’s a link to the video referenced several times in the podcast.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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BEND, Ore. — At 35 years old, U.S. Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey is the consummate veteran: he’s been racing on the World Cup since 2002. And this past winter on one day in mid-February, Bailey was perfect. On Feb. 16, he won the 20-kilometer individual race at the 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships Hochfilzen, Austria.

Lowell Bailey celebrates after crossing the line to win gold in the 20 k individual at IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: Glen Crawford)

Ten days ago, FasterSkier sat down with Bailey in Bend. The US Biathlon team was in town for an on-snow camp up at Mt. Bachelor. Bailey, of Lake Placid, N.Y., is a biathlon lifer,  a husband and a dad. He plans on racing one more season through the 2018 Winter Olympics and them moving with his family to Bozeman, Mont.

And yeah, if you heard rumors of Bailey pursuing a career as a bison rancher, you’ll hear Bailey set the record straight when it comes to his post-World Cup career. 

Bailey = renaissance man.

He’s clearly a world’s best biathlete. He’s also a musician. As a bit of a bonus, Bailey allowed us to include one of his songs in the podcast titled Shores of Horicon. Here are Bailey’s notes on the song and the album.

“It’s the title track of my solo album, ‘Songs of Logging’ (2005),” Bailey wrote. “This album was a historical theme album dealing with the history of logging/forestry in the Adirondack Park region of upstate NY.  This particular song deals with the history revolving around the Battle of Lake George during the French and Indian War (1755).  In that battle, Sir William Johnson, fighting on behalf of the British, fought in alliance with more than 200 Mohawk warriors led by Chief Hendrick Thianoga (various spellings).  Hendrick died in what was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. William Johnson was one of the first landholders in the region and one of the first white settlers to become friendly with members of the Iroquois people.”

Listen to more of Bailey’s music here.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Nordic Nation heads north and more than a few time zones away for this episode. On May 22, we spoke with Swedish ski star Charlotte Kalla. The five-time Olympic medalist will turn 30 on July 22. She remains a motivated athlete willing to work hard to improve as she turns an eye toward the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Her resume is long. In what seems like a different era, 2006 and 2007, Kalla hauled in a bronze, a silver and three golds during her two appearances at Junior World Championships. And more than a decade ago, in 2006, Kalla began her World Cup career. Between 2009 and 2017, she’s earned 12 World Championship medals to go along with those five Olympic medals. It’s quite the curriculum vitae.

Kalla’s performances also trend towards the dramatic. She bested the field to win the 10-kilometer skate at 2015 World Championships at home in Falun, Sweden and came from behind as the anchor leg at the 2014 Sochi Games to secure an unlikely gold for Sweden. During an era when the Norwegian national team has remained a consistent podium lock, Kalla is an omnipresent spoiler for Sweden’s neighbor to the west. Think of her as a 10 k skate specialist? She earned two bronze medals this year in the 10 k classic and 15 k skiathlon at 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland. 

Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla racing to a third in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle race at last season’s World Cup in Ulricehamn, Sweden. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

Give the interview a listen and you’ll hear Kalla describe those races, her decision to train separate from the Swedish national team, and recovering from an uneasy start to the 2016/2017 season. Additionally, she talks about how male and female athletes are treated differently at the highest level of her sport, and her admiration for the Norwegian and U.S. women’s teams.

“I think it’s really fun to see and meet the American girls and think of what a journey they have been going through,” Kalla says. “It’s so amazing to see what position they have today in the women’s World Cup. [They have] so many good athletes and really nice attitude and very welcoming to other nations, and the way they develop sports, it’s really impressive.”

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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This Nordic Nation episode has some old and new content. From the start until just after 33 minutes in, our interview with Kris Freeman, of Team Freebird and Ski & Snowboard Club Vail, was conducted last August. The after part, from 33 minutes on — that’s all new. It’s from an interview with Freeman last Wednesday, June 14.

Here’s what we wrote about Freeman when we originally posted his audio interview:

“Few athletes remain at the top end of endurance for five years, let alone a single decade. New Hampshire native Kris Freeman, at 36, has been chasing fast times and fast skiers around cross-country ski loops for 16 years as a professional.

For much of that time, Freeman was a staple on the men’s US Ski Team (USST). He posted the best results for a US skier in over two decades when he was fourth twice, in 2003 and 2009, at World Championships. (Both results were in the 15 k classic.)

Type 1 Diabetes is not something one associates with four-time Olympians. Yet Freeman has dispelled the physiological odds of a diabetes diagnosis at the age of 20. Flagged for blood sugar anomalies as a U.S. Ski Team Development skier during a routine blood test, Freeman and his tight-knit cadre of coaches and endocrinologists have been managing his disease ever since.”

Kris Freeman (Team Freebird) out on course during the men’s SuperTour 10 k classic individual start in February 2016 in Craftsbuty, Vermont. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

None of that has changed. At the end of this May, Freemen penned an op-ed for FasterSkier, in which he expressed his thoughts about the USST team-nomination process. In addition, since the 2017/2018 USST national-team announcement, U.S. Cross-Country Ski Team’s Head Coach Chris Grover spoke to FasterSkier and later wrote a blog post about this year’s nominations. The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association also recently published its selection criteria for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Always a straight talker, our new interview with Freeman gets his take on the Olympic selection criteria and the response he received for his op-ed.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Back in the spring of 2013, NCAA champion Joanne Reid was at the proverbial fork in the road: pursue academics after graduating with an Applied Mathematics degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU) or compete as an elite-level nordic skier? Reid was coming off a collegiate season where she won the 15-kilometer freestyle and helped the CU Buffs win outright at NCAA Skiing Championships.

Joanne Reid celebrates her win in the 15 k freestyle at 2013 NCAA Skiing Championships at the Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton, Vt. (Photo: flyingpointroad.com)

It turns out, Reid, who turns 25 on Wednesday, is near completion for a master’s in engineering. And as it turns out, she also pursued skiing as a biathlete at the highest level.

Last season was Reid’s first shot at a full World Cup biathlon schedule. And on the first World Cup weekend, she placed 29th in the individual 15 k individual in Östersund, Sweden, helping her earn an US Biathlon A-team nomination for this season.

In this episode, we’ll hear Reid explain why she chose biathlon over straight-up cross-country skiing (one hint: there’s no kick wax), and why she’s willing to forgo the doctorate for the time being. Reid appears to be a mover and shaker: when not based at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center, this desert lover doesn’t shy away from high temps, cacti or sweeping sandstone vistas. For the time being, Reid, who grew up in Houghton, Mich., and Palo Alto, Calif., lives and trains in western Colorado’s mesa country. From the sound of it, she says the desert is set up quite nicely for target practice.

US Biathlon A-team member Joanne Reid during target practice — desert style — in western Colorado. (Courtesy photo)

And a heads up for those listening on headphones, due to a small technical error the audio sounds best on a speaker.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Reid and one of her three canine training partners. Reid will spend much of the summer training in western Colorado. (Courtesy photo)

Reid getting some air with her guitar. (Courtesy photo)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Let’s face it, nordic ski racing is about the most physically taxing of sports. Pre-race, mid-race, post-race, it’s easy to come up with excuses and to complain. My tech missed the wax, I’m overtrained, I’m undertrained, sore muscles, no muscles … there’s a lot to whine about.

But in this episode, we’re focusing on moxie.

A young Jesse Knori in the skating zone: no pole style = moxie too.  (Courtesy photo)

Mostly the sport is rife with teeth-grinding athletes seeking the sufferfest. One of those athletes is 23-year-old Jesse Knori, a 2017 University of Colorado-Boulder (CU) graduate and native of Jackson Hole, Wyo.

On the spectrum of sufferfesting skiers, Knori is an outlier. For a young adult, Knori has already dealt with more than her fair share of physical and emotional pain. (For all the details, you’ll have to listen to the podcast episode below.)

Jesse Knori (University of Colorado-Boulder) leading Estonia’s Anette Veerpalu during their quarterfinal of the women’s classic sprint at U23 World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. Knori finished third in that heat (while Veerpalu was sixth). While she didn’t advance to the semifinals, Knori was the top U.S. woman in 15th on the day. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

As a middle schooler, Knori was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis. Knori skied at CU and notched 15th in the classic sprint at this year’s U23 Nordic World Championships in Utah. Clearly, Knori didn’t let her autoimmune condition dictate her goal setting.

Bottom line, Knori  is as tough as they come. And she’s a sixth-generation Jackson Hole native and new coach at the Bend Endurance Academy in Oregon. She’s the guest on Nordic Nation’s first edition of its “Moxie Episode”.

Jesse Knori (University of Colorado-Boulder) representing the U.S. at 2017 U23 Worlds at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. (Photo: Bernie Nelson)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Way back it seems now, in 2012, an op-ed appeared in The New York Times. Titled “The ‘Busy’ Trap,” the op-ed is a serious and somewhat comical riff on how ‘busy’ we all are. If your day’s schedule is defined by overscheduled, then you too are ‘busy’.

In this episode of Nordic Nation, we interview Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen. At 30 years old, Jacobsen is a longtime member of the venerable Norwegian national ski team — and she’s truly busy. Her career on the World Cup has spanned a decade, bookended by her first World Championship medal in 2007 in Sapporo, Japan (a sprint), and three 2017 World Champ medals in Lahti, Finland. There, Jacobsen placed third in the 10-kilometer classic and 30 k skate and was part of the winning 4 x 5 k relay.

Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen on her way to bronze during the women’s 10 k classic at the 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/lazenbyphoto.com)

Jacobsen also hasn’t lost sight of her longer-term goal of becoming a doctor. She’s currently a medical student at the University of Oslo and a bit more than halfway through her six-year course of studies. Life, racing, and training at the highest levels, serious professional ambitions, along with placing her name in the pool of candidates to become an International Olympic Committee Athlete Representative, Jacobsen keeps a tight schedule.

If you’re too busy for this episode of Nordic Nation, hook up the headphones, go ahead and multitask — carve out 51 minutes and 51 seconds for the Astrid chronicles.

The all-Norwegian women’s 30 k freestyle mass start podium at 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland, with Marit Bjørgen (c) in first, Heidi Weng (l) in second, and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen (r) in third.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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John Caldwell with his three sons. (From left to right) Sverre Caldwell, Tim Caldwell, John Caldwell, and Peter Caldwell. (Photo: Sophie Caldwell)

Flashback to 1964. That’s six years after the mega-fad of hula hooping, and five years before the psychedelic haze of Woodstock. A time when the country teetered towards war protest and Tricky Dick … (as in, “I am not a crook.” — Richard Nixon).

What could possibly supplant hula hoops and pending cultural disruption? You guessed it, cross-country skiing.

In 1964, John Caldwell wrote the first edition, of eight editions in total, what’s now considered a classic, The Cross-Country Ski Book.

While not quite on the scale of hula hooping, Caldwell’s book spawned a cross-country ski boom. The book popularized the sport that offered skiing as a path to enjoying the outdoors in silent-sport mode.

John Caldwell and the art of flexing skis. Here, he’s helping his granddaughter Sophie Caldwell, a U.S. Ski Team member, pick skis. (Photo: Sophie Caldwell)

That’s not to say Caldwell doesn’t come with serious racing street cred. He was a 1952 Olympian and coached the U.S. Cross-Country Ski Team from 1965 to 1972 and was an Olympic coach in ’68, ’72, ’80, and ’84. He’s coached hallmark U.S. cross-country skiers like Martha Rockwell and Bill Koch.

At 88 years old, Caldwell lives in Putney, Vt., his hometown since 1941. He’s looked to for sage advice or a spicy quote on how the power brokers at the elite levels of U.S. skiing need to change and up their game.

One of Caldwell’s rules of engagement for the following “Nordic Nation” interview was no discussion of his grandkids. That brings us to the fact that his grandkids are still in the World Cup ski game. Granddaughter Sophie Caldwell and grandson Paddy Caldwell are current U.S. Ski Team members. (Note to listeners: Like any good grandparent, Caldwell did indeed mention his grandkids during the interview.)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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It’s certainly not all glory on the World Cup. With rare exceptions, the fields are always stacked. Yeah, maybe the Norwegians miss the wax with the frequency of a total solar eclipse over your zip code, or a freak storm of molasses-like snow falls just as the top end of the Red Group tips the wand for the 10-kilometer interval start race. Statistically speaking, it’s a rare day when an outlier stands atop a World Cup podium.

Sweden’s Hanna Falk (r) races with U.S. Ski Team member Jessie Diggins (6) during a World Cup freestyle sprint in Davos, Switzerland, last December. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)

Swedish National Ski Team member Hanna Falk, 28, knows the top spots are tough to get and fleeting. In 2010, her first full year on the World Cup, she burst onto the scene and finished an astounding fifth overall in the final sprint rankings.

That early success was hindered by illness. By 2015, Falk rebounded, and this past season finished as the third-ranked sprinter on the World Cup and 20th overall. Falk stuck with it, even with a podium drought that lasted from Jan. 15, 2011 to Feb. 12, 2016.

World Cup rankings for Sweden’s Hanna Falk (Photo: FIS)

If you’ve ever had a doubt that the nosedive is terminal, give this episode of Nordic Nation a listen (found at the bottom of this article).

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

Hanna Falk is all grins on this run in Sweden. Yes, Liz Stephen (U.S. Ski Team), bombed the photo when she was recently in Sweden to train with the Swedish national team. (Photo: Hanna Falk/Instagram)

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Not exactly a mystery man in nordic-ski circles, former U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Pete Vordenberg has been admittedly reclusive when it comes to staying in the XC ski game. In this two-part episode, Nordic Nation chats with Vordenberg in Bend, Oregon, and connects the dots in terms of what he’s been up to. Vordenberg raced in two Winter Olympics and was a forerunner in a third. (You’ll have to listen to Episode 1 to learn about that forerunning gig.) After skiing with the U.S. Ski Team (USST) for six years, he began coaching for the USST in 2002, retiring as the USST head coach in 2012.

Former U.S. Ski Team Head Coach and current dad, husband and photographer:Pete Vordenberg. (Photo: Pete Vordenberg)

This was a wide-ranging interview with numerous digressions: both the interviewer and Vordenberg were easily distracted. Serious attempts in the editing process were made to overcome the interviewer’s deficiencies. And make note, this interview was recorded outdoors at two local Bend breweries, with a brief intermission on bikes.

In Episode 1, Vordenberg speaks about his book Momentum: Chasing The Olympic Dream, how he started skiing in Boulder, Colorado, and how the USST began to turn it all around on the World Cup.

But in between all of that, good old type 1 fun.

Pete Vordenberg unwinding in Lahti, Finland 2017. Riding the saddle at an underground Lahti karaoke session. (Photo: FasterSkier)

Vordenberg is a keen and creative mind. When he’s not being a dad, he’s mastering his art as a photographer. His Instagram account is both stunning and eclectic. Have some time set aside before checking his account out, it can be a wormhole.

Enjoy the ride listening to The Pete Vordenberg Experience.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Here it is … Episode 2 of Nordic Nation’s “The Pete Vordenberg Experience”.

If you missed Episode 1, you’ll want to start there for some context. Pete Vordenberg, a two-time U.S. Olympic cross-country skier and former U.S. Ski Team coach, talks about his transformation since leaving skiing to dedicate himself to the hardest job he’s ever had: a stay-at-home dad. In Episode 2, he continues to reflect on how skiing impacted his life and how he would like it to be a part of his daughters’ lives, as well as what he thinks needs to happen globally for the sport to continue.

Pete Vordenberg, former U.S. Ski Team head coach, as seen in 2012. (Photo: USSA)

You’ll also hear Vordenberg, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, discuss selection criteria, decompression from the full-immersion XC-ski life and how he began falling back in love with the sport. And yes, no joke, in Episode 2, you’ll hear how reggae star Matisyahu is — if the math is correct — only two degrees separated from the mythical cross-country deep state.

Enjoy the ride listening to “The Pete Vordenberg Experience, Episode 2”.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Team Gregg, consisting of two halves that constitute a podium-threat whole, is featured on the latest episode of Nordic Nation. Caitlin (formerly Compton) Gregg, 36, and husband Brian Gregg, 33, the two members of Team Gregg, are based along the border of Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Yes, the two skiers are highly accomplished; both are former Winter Olympians and Caitlin earned a bronze medal in the 10-kilometer freestyle at the 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. But their partnership has become a model of independent professional ski team viability.

The sum total of Team Gregg: Brian Gregg (left) and Caitlin Gregg (right). (Courtesy photo)

They are also a model of two hyper-driven people able to moderate their own personal goals for the collective greater good of the team. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to see the Greggs at a race venue, this much is clear: they have got each other’s back. Brian can be seen helping test skis, handing Caitlin feeds along the course and screaming encouragement. The same can be said of Caitlin. Neither is above doing the menial tasks to ensure the other has the best opportunity on race day.  

Nordic Nation caught up with Caitlin and Brian Gregg on Sept. 13, a few days after their return from an on-snow camp at New Zealand’s Snow Farm. Along with the usual “how’s the training going”, questions, you’ll hear about the unique way the Greggs financed their house and what the future holds.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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In this episode, we speak with the president and CEO of the US Biathlon Association (USBA), Max Cobb. For nearly three decades, Cobb has been part of US Biathlon — first as an organizer of the domestic racing series and eventually as the executive director in March of 2006. Just over a year ago, he was elected Vice President for Sport of the International Biathlon Union (IBU), becoming the first American on the IBU Executive Board.

Lowell Bailey (USA) celebrates with Max Cobb after winning the gold in the 20 k individual at the 2017 IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria.. (Photo: NordicFocus)

Cobb, who lives with his family in Maine, likens USBA to a humming, quick-to-evolve startup. What that means is USBA can nimbly recruit and identify talent as well as shepherd along veterans like 2017 IBU World Championships medalists Lowell Bailey and Susan Dunklee.

Cobb’s budget is the mighty mouse of the biathlon world, and on many days, the high-performance team (both coaches and athletes) can slay the Goliaths of the sport. It’s a testament to Cobb’s leadership and his ability to hire and retain gurus like German native Bernd Eisenbichler, US Biathlon’s chief of sport.

A 2016 photo of Max Cobb, the president and CEO of U.S. Biathlon. (Photo: Nordic Focus)

Cobb, who spoke with us on Sept. 8, is also a leader when it comes to anti-doping — He’s unafraid to comment on systemic failings and he’s unabashed in calling for reforms.

Raking leaves? Scraping off the storage wax? Then it’s a great time to hear Cobb out.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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In this episode of Nordic Nation, we tread into the world of analytics with data-analysis guru Joran Elias. You might know him as the Statistical Skier. Elias runs two websites: statisticalskier.com (which is more of a blog that has not been updated in awhile) and statisticalskierdata.com … and that site — which offers data analysis apps using FIS data —  is currently updated seasonally during the World Cup. And if you need a more regular fix of stats and skiing during the race season, Elias is active on Twitter; his handle is @StatSkier.

Elias is 38 years old and has settled in Missoula, Montana. His Missoula day job is for the University of Montana, crunching numbers for the school’s administration. He’s also a lifelong nordic skier. Originally from Maine, Elias started skiing in the Bill Koch League and raced for Dartmouth, earning the Gebhardt sportsmanship award his senior year in 2001 (and most improved award in 2000). According to his website, he was, “at times, not entirely slow.”

With a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, master’s in algebra and doctorate in applied statistics, Elias noted on his blog that “Graduate school taught me many things, among them that I hate academia and that I love wrangling data. Given the choice between wrangling awesome data and making tons of money, I’ll choose the former.  Hence this website.”

Joran Elias is the Statistical Skier. He’s shown here with his son Ciaran, now 5 years old. (Courtesy photo)

Sport is rife with those trying to understand the winning, the losing, the fast and the slow — using numbers. Elias gives us insight into how useful data analysis can be in cross-country skiing as he highlights both its limitations and benefits. Below is a snapshot of Elias’ mind craft.

La Clusaz World Cup, Dec. 17, 2016 data snapshot: Women’s 10 k freestyle mass start. (Photo: @StatSkier screenshot)

Have a listen.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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No longer the young guy on the U.S. Ski Team, at 26 years old, Erik Bjornsen often carries high expectations on his shoulders. And frankly, they are strong shoulders. After a summer and fall of solid training, the younger of the two Bjornsens on the U.S. Ski Team (his sister Sadie is a teammate) has high expectations for this Olympic year. Rather than a product of stats and results, Bjornsen is a believer in himself. He studies the sports’ stars, analyzing what makes them technically efficient. He makes the hard workouts count. It’s a method Bjornsen hopes will serve him well in a tightly packed World Cup men’s field.

Erik Bjornsen leads fellow U.S. Ski Team member Noah Hoffman during the men’s 15 k freestyle pursuit at Stage 4 of the 2015 Ski Tour Canada in Quebec City. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com/NNF)

Bjornsen jumps to Europe on Nov. 15. He won’t be dipping his toe into the race season — his first races of the season will be the World Cup’s Ruka Triple mini tour in Finland from Nov. 24-26.

Erik Bjornsen (Photo: Toko/NordicFocus)

Nordic Nation spoke to Bjornsen on Oct. 25 from his home in Anchorage, Alaska. The discussion covers sprinting and distance, his growth as a skier, and yes, how he’d like to see FasterSkier improved. Who would have thought the youngest Bjornsen would like to see a bit more nordic gossip on the FS site? With that in mind, old news we know, Bjornsen was engaged this summer.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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In more than a decade with the U.S. Ski Team, women’s coach Matt Whitcomb has picked up a few lessons about how to connect with athletes and how to nudge them in the direction of their best possible performance on race day. In this episode of Nordic Nation, we connected with Whitcomb while in western Massachusetts on Nov. 10. Whitcomb has now jumped the pond and is in Europe, prepping his team for the first World Cup on Friday in Kuusamo, Finland.

U.S. Ski Team Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb (r) reviews video with Sadie Bjornsen on some climbing technique Wednesday at a training camp in Bend, Ore. (Video: FasterSkier Vimeo)

Whitcomb, 39, began his career with the U.S. Ski Team back in 2006. Along the way, he appears to have developed a reputation as a team builder — one who can be inclusive when it comes to embracing the many types of personalities the sport attracts. You’ll hear Whitcomb discuss how he’s learned to build team unity and how he deals with the stresses of the World Cup.

Whitcomb also dives headfirst into the realm of anti-doping stances with a passionate statement of how the sport should move forward before the PyeongChang Olympics in February 2018.

Standing between Chelsea Marshall and Matt Whitcomb, Liz Stephens waves as she is introduced to the crowd at Fenway Park. In the background, her smile is seen on the bigscreen.

On a lighter note, those who follow the sport know Whitcomb rocks a Red Sox cap whenever possible. Unabashedly, as we learn in the short audio clip below that did not make the final podcast edit farther down the page, the Red Sox hat has become one of Whitcomb’s hallmark cultural exports — having to do with his “disgust” with Yankees hats all over Europe. If you see a Swedish coach sporting a Red Sox hat at the World Cup, you’ll know who is responsible.

Whitcomb and his anti-Yankees crusade:

(Note: Although the podcast host grew up on the Massachusetts border, he is not a Red Sox fan, and in fact, cheered loudly with his dad in the Shea Stadium stands during Game 6 when the baseball dribbled under Buckner. Acknowledged are the Red Sox recent World Series rings.)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

Full podcast:

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It’s been eight long months, but finally, the International Ski Federation (FIS) Cross Country World Cup season is upon us and with it, the Noah Fantasy Hoffman Fantasy Cross Country League. Both the real-world and online competitions kick off this Friday with the Ruka Triple World Cup, three days of racing in Kuusamo, Finland.

If you’re playing, you need to pick your team by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Even if you’re in a post-Thanksgiving tryptophan-haze … it’s time.

Noah Hoffman, a U.S. nordic racer and founder of Noah Hoffman Fantasy Cross Country, which is entering its fourth season, after finishing 25th in last weekend’s 15 k freestyle FIS race in Beitostølen, Norway. He’ll be starting his season in earnest on Friday, Nov. 24, at the Ruka Triple World Cup in Finland. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)

In this episode we get a quick rundown from Noah Hoffman on how he got involved with FasterSkier and Adam Mahar, the coding brawn behind the world’s premier XC fantasy league, briefs us on the new rules. We connected with Noah Hoffman while he was training in Sjusjøen, Norway, and Adam Mahar, the Minneapolis-based website administrator and head programmer for Noah Hoffman Fantasy Cross Country. 

To start the conversation off, you’ll get a bit of insight into what drives Hoffman and why he’s so productive when it comes to creating ski related projects. He’s got a blog, a great podcast, and the eponymous fantasy league.

Last year at this time, we did a full-blown analysis of Hoffman’s ski league, exploring the origins of the league, hearing how Adam got involved and then falling into a serious wormhole learning how some fantasy league experts pick their teams. Here’s a link to that episode. 

Strategize, log in and pick you team. For this long weekend of racing, you have to have your team registered before midnight (EST) on Thursday. Choose wisely: the races are classic sprints (Friday), 10/15-kilometer classic individual starts (Saturday) and 10/15 k freestyle pursuits (Sunday). And if you need some pointers or at least some direction, listen closely to this episode.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Not exactly planned, and on a whim, it’s the wax-truck road trip — otherwise known as the Bon Voyage episode.

A full crew cab in the USST wax truck. Presumably on the way from Kuusamo, Finland, to Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: Tim Baucom)

Nordic Nation dialed up intrepid wax-truck driver and navigator … and U.S. Ski Team Wax Tech Tim Baucom to check in on the new wax truck’s first big Euro-trip. We caught up with Baucom on Day 1 of a three-day trip a few hours after the duo left Lillehammer, Norway, where last weekend’s World Cup races were held. The two techs were headed to Davos, Switzerland, site of this weekend’s World Cup.

Waxing World Cup fast skis and backed up with a CDL is not their only gig: Tim Baucom (right) and Andrew Morehouse (left) play the Newell-Flowers wedding outside Bozeman, Montana. (Photo: Jeremiah and Rachel Photography)

Baucom and Morehouse were responsible for $600,000 dollars of precious wax truck (that amount includes the taxes on the truck), as well as something like 600 pairs of skis.

That’s a lot of XC schwag. And a lot of eventual ski cleaning. (See below.)

USST wax techs go beyond the call of duty. Tim Baucom is responsible for Simi Hamilton’s and Ida Sargent’s skis throughout the season. Here, Sargent leaves a note for Baucom (with graphics) detailing the cleanup. (Photo: Tim Baucom)

And just to be safe, we also dialed up Baucom on Day 2 of their three-day journey to Davos. It’s always a good idea to check back in — new pricey truck, irreplaceable skis and two of the finest wax techs on the circuit — who doesn’t want the whole package to be safe?

Putting the CDL to good use: truckin’ along in the USST wax truck with the big rigs in Europe. (Photo: Tim Baucom)

For the record, Baucom and Morehouse are safe, legit and well trained. Don’t believe Nordic Nation? Here’s online proof of their CDL’s.

Listen to Baucom unbound.

USST wax tech Tim Baucom testing wax and skis in the early a.m. in Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: Zach Caldwell)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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On Wednesday, Nordic Nation reached Biathlon Canada President Murray Wylie to discuss an open letter he signed on behalf of his organization and sent to the leaders of the International Biathlon Union.

We encourage you to read this more in-depth article on the open letter for some detailed context before listening to this podcast episode.

Here’s some of the key info from that piece:

On Dec. 10, the Executive Board of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced that the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) had been relegated to “provisional membership” for the 2017/2018 competition season.

The IBU’s decision comes on the heels of the International Olympic Committee’s recent actions on Russia’s participation at the 2018 Winter Games.

Despite the RBU’s less-than-full IBU member status, Russia is still scheduled to host the final IBU World Cup races of the season from March 20-25 in Tyumen and IBU Cup 7 & 8 in Uvat and Khanty-Mansiysk.

In an open letter sent to IBU President Anders Besseberg and IBU Secretary General Nicole Resch dated Dec. 8, 2017, Wylie stated Biathlon Canada will not be sending athletes to the IBU-sanctioned events in Russia in March.

In the letter, Wylie included the following reasons for this declaration:

•  “The occurrence of high-level IBU events in Russia is inconsistent with the IOC decision of 05 December to disallow participation by the Russia Team in the PyeongChang Olympics:”
• “the integrity of anti-doping procedures in Russia is still very much uncertain, given the current situation in which RUSADA remains non-compliant with WADA.”

Listen for more from Wylie, as told to FasterSkier on Dec. 13:

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In this episode of Nordic Nation, we review November and December racing on the World Cup with Justin Wadsworth.  

A former U.S. Olympian and coach as well as Canadian head coach, Wadsworth will be doing on-air commentary during the 2018 Olympics for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

This season, there’s much to discuss with Wadsworth.

Ten races into the World Cup, the racing so far has seen an unsettled women’s side and a lopsided men’s field. Charlotte Kalla has renewed the premise that Sweden can produce a formidable nordic-ski powerhouse as she leads the overall World Cup standings by 98 points over a quartet of Norwegians — specifically, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Heidi Weng, Marit Bjørgen and Ragnhild Haga, respectively. Americans Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen follow in sixth and eighth.

Former Canadian national team head coach Justin Wadsworth (Photo: FIS/NordicFocus)

Kalla remains a beacon of blue-and-yellow Swedish hope as she won the Ruka Triple, the Lillehammer skiathlon, and the 10-kilometer freestyle individual start in Toblach.

On the men’s side, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is the story. The upstart Norwegian has entered eight races and won seven — a record number of races won by a male World Cup skier before Jan. 1. Early on, it appears to be Klæbo’s Crystal Globe to lose in a season where it might just be in with the new and out with the old.

Yup, the Tour de Ski is about to begin on Saturday, Dec. 30, time to brush up on what went down during World Cup Period 1.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

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Bill McKibben — author, educator, environmentalist as stated on his personal website. He is one of us, too: an individual dedicated to the sport and culture of human-powered skiing. Back when he was 37, McKibben penned a great book titled “Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously“. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to train like an Olympian in the body of a burgeoning masters skier, it’s a great read. It’s also the real deal type of book from a writer who actually left a job at the New Yorker — not many people give up that gig — for the greener pastures and colder ski tracks of Vermont.

Bill McKibben: Climate activist, educator, and lover of all things xc skiing. (Photo: BillMcKibben.com)

Twenty years after he wrote that book, McKibben, who just turned 57, is a Middlebury College professor and perhaps the foremost political organizer when it comes to the issue of climate change. He helped start the climate justice organization 350.org.

The author of many books, McKibben released his first novel this fall titled “Radio Free Vermont“. Let’s just say it has all the hallmarks of a good tale with some cross-country skiing and biathlon thrown in for good measure.

Nordic Nation connected with McKibben back about a month ago on Dec. 4, 2017. It’s pretty much an all-inclusive interview: climate change, World Cup, Simi Hamilton as an undergrad skier, and some discussion of “Radio Free Vermont“.

Enjoy the interview before we get sucked into the Olympic vortex here on Nordic Nation.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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In this episode of Nordic Nation, we discuss the recent U.S. Nordic Combined Olympic Trials, which were held Dec. 30 in Park City, Utah, with U.S. NoCo’s leading man, Bryan Fletcher. Nerves, pressure, the flying and skiing — those all played a role on Fletcher’s day at Olympic trials. After the jumping portion of the competition, things weren’t so certain for the eventual winner, as Fletcher began the 10-kilometer ski race nearly a minute and a half behind the first starter, Ben Loomis. We connected with Fletcher, a 31-year-old dad, from his home in Heber, Utah, last week on Jan. 3 as he reflected on sealing the Olympic deal.

https://twitter.com/usskiteam/status/947229892751499265

Fletcher also discusses the prospects of U.S. Nordic Combined fielding a team of four skiers at the upcoming Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. For now, the U.S. is guaranteed two spots. And as Fletcher explains, hope remains for two more athlete spots to open up.

Trials results: Jumping | Final results

Note: Since Fletcher’s interview, he and his brother Taylor competed at the first Nordic Combined World Cup of the new year, which took place on Friday, Jan. 12 in Val di Fiemme, Italy. There, Bryan finished 32nd (up from 39th in the jump) and Taylor placed 43rd (up from 49th). Full results here

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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The Sadie System, as in the Sadie Bjornsen system, is the topic in this episode of Nordic Nation. That system involves a basic understanding of how hard and long to train and how to recover effectively, a question many athletes struggle to answer. But Bjornsen, a U.S. Ski Team all-arounder, has overcome chronic foot injuries and arrived on the World Cup scene this year poised for podiums. She has three World Cup podiums so far in the 2017/2018 season and she’ll be competing at her second Olympics this February. And she does have some bronze bling from last year’s World Championship team sprint with Jessie Diggins.  

When asked about interesting media exposure she’s had during the run up to the Olympics, Bjornsen mentioned a Twitter exchange the U.S. Ski Team’s women had with Paula Poundstone of NPR’s Wait Wait. Rule of thumb: it’s a bad idea to dis World Championship medalist.

U.S. Ski Team member Sadie Bjornsen (4) racing to fifth in the women’s 10 k freestyle pursuit at Stage 3 of the 2018 Tour de Ski in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. She went on to finish ninth overall in the Tour. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

We caught up with the 28-year-old Bjornsen on the phone on Jan. 18, a few days before last weekend’s World Cup races in Planica, Slovenia. The skier originally from Washington’s Methow Valley, who trains with Alaska Pacific University (APU) in Anchorage, Alaska, is a model of perseverance, goal setting and getting things done.

Sadie Bjornsen (l) catches her teammate Jessie Diggins after they placed third in the women’s classic team sprint on Feb. 26 at 2017 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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In this episode, we’ve got 34-year-old Andy Newell for you. He’s a longtime staple of the U.S. Ski Team and another proud Vermonter. A few weeks ago we released our interview with climate-justice activist and Vermont resident Bill McKibben. After the interview, we received a few comments that spoke to the perceived large carbon footprint of World Cup skiing and possible changes that might be implemented to curb that environmental impact. With that in mind, we called up Andy Newell, who himself is a climate activist to address some of the questions. We spoke to Newell on Jan. 4 while he was in Seefeld, Austria, prepping for last weekend’s World Cups.

American Andy Newell (l) follows Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (r) and Finland’s Iivo Niskanen (c) during their classic-sprint quarterfinal at the World Cup on Jan. 20 in Planica, Slovenia. Klæbo went on to win that heat, ahead of Niskanen in second and Newell in fourth. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

Newell will soon be in PyeongChang, South Korea, for his fourth Olympics. After traveling the globe for 14 years as a member of the U.S. Ski Team, Newell has had time to think about energy use and change on the World Cup.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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Taking a day or two adjusting to the time warp of flying to South Korea, we decided to give former U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Pete Vordenberg a ring to get some vital details on a climate-activism project he’s devised for the cross-country ski community.

Former U.S. Ski Team Head Coach and current dad, husband and photographer: Pete Vordenberg. (Courtesy photo)

But first things first, if you don’t know Pete, go back and listen to an older episode of Nordic Nation — here’s the link to Part 1, and Part 2.

Back to the more critical task at hand: getting the details regarding Pete’s letter-writing campaign to curb climate change. Here’s the cool thing, so don’t tune out just yet, this is a bipartisan project. Pete’s cross-country climate challenge in this instance jives with building consensus.

So yes, Nordic Nation is delving into the political realm. As Vordenberg would say, we cannot be cross-country skiers without snow.

Below is Pete’s appeal to the cross-country ski community. It’s also a ripe time for this challenge. You’ll note Pete mentions the U.S. Ski Team’s success is in large part due to a nationwide “community focused effort”. That effort just might result in an Olympic medal in the next two weeks. Putting that in perspective, we should have no problem with Pete’s challenge.

Dear Cross Country Skier,

The cross country community is a highly motivated, educated, and energetic group of people connected both literally and figuratively through our sport. Sixteen years ago we seldom reached the top 30 on the international result sheet. Today we have won World Cup and World Championship medals, and even won the overall World Cup. This progress is a result of our nationwide, community-focused effort. It is time for us to apply our cross country power to make our planet and our sport sustainable.

Climate change is a global threat that is directly affecting our sport, our way of life, and life on earth. It is time for us to add our collective voice to a climate change solution that is already underway. Through the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a swelling of voices and non-partisan action is already leading to a solution to global climate change.

Here is a two-minute video of the problem, the solution, and the overall plan.

This is a video made by our own XC Olympians: Olympian Climate video

Now you and your ski team can put muscle behind the solution.

Join the XC Climate Challenge (#xcclimatechallenge). Here’s how:

*First, you and your team members will write and sign the Constituent Comment Letter (link and attached).  Please make it positive and solution-oriented.  The goal of these letters is to lead our leaders by showing them that the people in their districts demand strong climate action. Letter comments can be general or, preferably, specific.  We are asking our representatives to join the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, which at this time has 68 members—half Republicans, half Democrats. And also to support CCL’S carbon-fee and dividend proposal.

*Second, send your letters to me, Pete Vordenberg. The Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) and I will count them and the CCL will hand deliver them to your congressional representatives. These letters are the key element of this project. This strategy has been proven effective!

*Third, nominate youth skiers from your team to take the lead in this effort. Representatives will be selected from all participating teams to represent the cross country community at a Citizen Climate Lobby National Conference in June. Prizes from ski-industry businesses will also be given to teams based on the number of letters they get signed, taking team size into consideration.

That is the challenge.

When: Now. This contest begins now and will end April 30th. Please do not delay! Start now and keep going.

A good team strategy to get as many letters as possible:  

1.  Create a Climate Activism Event or add Climate Activism to an existing event for your team and community.
2.  Show the movie “Saving Snow” and have all the constituent comment letters ready to be personalized, signed, put in a large mailing envelope, and sent to me.

How to sign up for a showing of “Saving our Snow”.  Click here.

Does your team already have a climate or climate activism project?  Let us know what it is and we can share it with our community!

Contact Pete Vordenberg with questions, ideas and to register your team.

pvatuphillskier@gmail.com

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FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Madshus USA, Concept2, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — At the Olympics in PyeongChang, FasterSkier sat down with U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s longtime Vice President of Communications Tom Kelly. After starting with the organization back in 1986, Kelly will be stepping down a few months after the Olympics. Kelly, 65, is the nerve center to U.S. Ski Team’s media and communications outreach. Shepherding athletes through the mixed zone or writing up a press release about Lindsey Vonn’s (make that Jessie Diggins’s and Kikkan Randall’s) latest win — yes Kelly oversees all the sports at U.S. Ski and Snowboard — are just some of his responsibilities.

Long after the fans are gone, U.S. Ski & Snowboard communications director Tom Kelly soaking it all up after the U.S. women’s team, with Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins, won gold in the freestyle team sprint at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

Kelly, who goes by “TK”, is a pro’s pro. (He also usually has a trademark hat on.) With to without the hat, TK has mastered the combination of respecting both the athletes’ needs and being an open communicator with the snow-sport community. In Part 1 of this two-part interview, Kelly discusses his early career and how the nature of his position with the U.S. Ski Team has evolved. For Part 2 on his contemporary experiences, click here. 

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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The post Nordic Nation: U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Tom ‘TK’ Kelly in the House (Part 1) appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Madshus USA, Concept2, 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. Kelly, 65, is the nerve center to U.S. Ski Team’s media and communications outreach. Shepherding athletes through the mixed zone or writing up a press release about Jessie Diggins’s and Kikkan Randall’s latest win — yes Kelly oversees all the sports at U.S. Ski & Snowboard — are just some of his responsibilities.

Tom Kelly of U.S. Ski & Snowboard literally in the back of a bus in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Kelly, who goes by “TK”, is a pro’s pro. He’s mastered the combination of respecting both the athletes’ needs and being an open communicator with the snow sport community. Again, this is a two-part interview. Part 1 explores the early years of Kelly’s career; Part 2 explores his more contemporary experiences including this nugget: how he came to be known as “TK” and where his hallmark hat came from. Kelly also discusses the good work of The Speedy Foundation.

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The post Nordic Nation: U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s ‘TK’ in the House (Part 2) appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Madshus USA, Concept2, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In this episode of Nordic Nation, FasterSkier sat down with U.S. cross-country skier, Kikkan Randall — known by some as Kikkanimal — to discuss her fifth and final Winter Olympics, as well as what lays ahead for the Anchorage, Alaska native. 

On Wednesday evening earlier this week, Randall and teammate Jessie Diggins paired up to take the win in the team sprint, earning the U.S. women their first Olympic cross-country medal in gold.

Kikkan Randall racing during her leg of the women’s team sprint on Wednesday at the at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

The day after her gold medal performance, Randall learned that she had been elected by her peers to serve on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes’ Commission. Consider, she’s also a mom.

Randall will serve an eight-year term as one of 20 representatives on the IOC Athletes’ Commission. Her primary role will be to represent the athletes’ viewpoint within the decision making bodies of the IOC. Randall has served as a leader within Fast And Female. She has also worked as an athlete representative in the International Ski Federation (FIS).

News also broke on Friday that her gold-medal team-sprint teammate Jessie Diggins was selected to carry the American flag for Team USA at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday.

Kikkan Randall (l) and Jessie Diggins after being awarded their gold medals from the freestyle team sprint at Thursday night’s Olympic medal ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

We met up with Randall in the U.S. pop-up training room called ‘The Haven’. You may notice the recording has the ambient echo of a gym; a fitting setting for a conversation with an athlete as powerful as Randall. With her characteristic cotton-candy pink colored hair let down, Randall detailed to us her final Olympic moments and her future role with the IOC as an athlete rep.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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Bob Woodward. Not the journalist associated with Watergate, but the Bob Woodward, outdoor writer and journalist who was arguably the first to report on the international cross-country racing scene way back in the day. Our Bob Woodward goes by the name of “Woody”. And Woody had been living in Bend, Oregon, since 1978. In fact, Woody lives a few blocks away from me here in Bend.

Woody is a local’s local who also helped define outdoor-sports writing. Before the internet, before things like mountain biking, skiing and climbing were branded as lifestyles, Woody was covering adventure sport and passing on his observations to readers. Yes, Woody also covered nordic sport. From Oslo to races here in North America, Woody reported on the gear, the lycra and the personalities.

Finnish ski legend Juha Mieto (r) with outdoor writing legend Bob “Woody” Woodward (l) in Lahti, Finland, back in 1979. (Photo: Bob Woodward collection)

We met up with Woody on Dec. 1 of last year to discuss his writing career and what he learned along the way covering the nordic world. (Here’s a link to Woody’s piece on Juha Mieto.)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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In this episode of Nordic Nation, we talk with author Peggy Shinn. She recently wrote a book titled “World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women’s Cross-Country Ski Team”. The book was released before Shinn jetted off to PyeongChang, South Korea, to cover the Olympics in person. Not one to miss a good show, she was on hand to see the U.S. Ski Team come full circle as Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall won gold in the team sprint.

Peggy Shinn, author of the new book “World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women’s Cross-Country Ski Team” (Photo: Peggy Shinn collection)

Shinn’s book and what insights she gleaned during the writing process are our primary topics of discussion. From the roots of the women’s team when coaches Marty Hall and John Caldwell pulled the strings, to the modern World Cup where the U.S. women’s team has become a force, Shinn gives us a glimpse of how the women’s program went from deep grassroots to a medal contender.

Our interview with Shinn took place in the main press center in PyeongChang after three weeks in Korea. Admittedly, FasterSkier’s Gabby Naranja and I, as well as Shinn were feeling brain dead. So pardon any giddiness or digressions.

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The cover of Peggy Shinn’s new book World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women’s Cross-Country Ski Team. (Photo: Peggy Shinn collection)

FasterSkier will have a review of Shinn’s book in the near future. Thanks for reading and listening.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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It’s the first of our “so long for now” episodes. In the code speak of sport, that means retirement. No North American nordic sport athlete has been as prolific blogging about their life as recently retired skier Noah Hoffman. He’s also been a willing participant on this podcast in the past, exploring the realities of making a go of it as an American on the World Cup. At 28, Hoffman enters a brave new world beyond cross-country skiing. In this episode, we discuss what’s next with Hoffman and of course, we dive into what he’s learned as a pro athlete. 

American Noah Hoffman racing in the 15 k freestyle at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where he finished 48th. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

We connected with Hoffman while he was in Cleveland on his first transcontinental road trip. For an athlete that has lived the life of training plans for as long as he can remember …. Hoffman’s future looks wide open. It should also be noted that the sport will have lost a kind and worthy personality. That is until Hoffman shows up some years from now and crushes some master’s race. 

American Noah Hoffman with his dad after finishing the Holmenkollen 50 k freestyle mass start in Oslo, Norway, on March 10 for the final race of his pro skiing career. (Photo: Liz Stephen)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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Post-PyeongChang, post-World Cup, it’s been a whirlwind tour for Jessie Diggins. Where hasn’t she been? As a recent Olympic gold medalist, her time and attention have been in high demand. Just a few of those commitments have involved the following: an appearance at the Minnesota State Capitol where she advocated for a Minneapolis World Champs. And just last Wednesday, April 25, Diggins was in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Protect Our Winters (POW), lobbying members of Congress about the effects of climate change on winter snow sports.

Jessie Diggins (U.S. SKi Team) after placing fourth in the women’s 10 k classic mass start at Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de Ski (TdS) in Val di Fiemme, Italy. She went on to finish the Tour in third overall to become the first non-European woman to finish in the top three of the TdS. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)

Reflecting on her ski season, here’s the no-nonsense: Diggins simply crushed it. Lots of firsts. The Tour de Ski podium. The gold with Randall in the Olympic team sprint. Her second overall on the World Cup and third in the distance standings. More than $110,000 dollars in World Cup prize earnings alone. And all that face-time and the front-row seat as she led much of the Holmenkollen 30 k skate this year. You’ve got to love that midwestern chutzpah on the Oslo holy ground.

We reached Diggins on April 26 while she was sitting in a Boston park enjoying some spring sunshine. In this interview, we run the gamut of topics from how she’s using her new post-Olympic gold platform to her thoughts on an outstanding World Cup season.

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Even in the way northern latitudes, there is no denying the earth’s 23.5-degree tilt on its axis and our relationship with the sun. Spring has sprung. In the spirit of holding onto winter just a little bit longer, we struck up a conversation with newly minted Olympian, Alaska Pacific University (APU) skier and Alaskan native, 27-year-old Tyler Kornfield.

Tyler Kornfield (tall skier on left) and Rosie Brennan (adult to right of Kornfield) during a Skiku on-snow session this spring. (Courtesy photo)

On the competition side of things, Kornfield set the domestic scene abuzz back in 2012. At U.S. nationals that year in Rumford, Maine, he won the classic sprint and placed third in the freestyle sprint. This past January at 2018 nationals in Anchorage, Kornfield skied to seconding the classic sprint and third in the skate sprint. The experienced skierâ€s most He also won the 30 k classic to cap off a stellar championships week.

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APU’s Tyler Kornfield celebrates after winning the men’s 30 k classic at U.S. nationals on Jan. 7 at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska.

But maybe, more importantly, Kornfield has helped bring cross-country skiing to rural Alaskan villages through Skiku. Kornfield is not alone in this endeavor: many skiers and coaches have volunteered their time to “to foster the health and recreational benefits of skiing, biathlon and running through sustainable programs across Alaska”.

All smiles. Olympian Tyler Kornfield (l) and Rosie Brennan (r) with a young Skiku skier. (Courtesy photo)

We spoke to Kornfield on May 3 to learn more about his commitment to Skiku and get the rundown on his year.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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Now 65, Alison Owen-Bradley was once the American skier to chase to the top of the podium in North America and on the highest tier of international cross-country ski racing. Long before Kikkan Randall, Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell, and Sadie Bjornsen attracted a wave of attention to high-performance skiing with regular World Cup podiums and ultimately an Olympic gold, Owen-Bradley made the U.S. women’s nordic team relevant when considering podium and medal potential. (You may also remember her as Alison Kiesel, as she was married to the late U.S. Ski Team coach Rob Kiesel at one time.)

Heading out in bib #1: Alison Owen-Bradley at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. (Courtesy photo)

In this episode of Nordic Nation, in light of all the success of the U.S. Ski Team’s women’s side over the last eight years or so, and of course the icing on the cake with the Randall-Diggins PyeongChang gold, we wanted to take a step back and reflect on one of the original U.S. Ski Team’s building blocks: Owen-Bradley.

Alison Owen-Bradley (Courtesy photo)

We connected with her on June 4 while she was at home in Bozeman, Montana. And although you won’t find it in the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) database, Owen-Bradley won what many considered to be the first-ever women’s World Cup cross-country ski race. Her career highlights include a seventh overall on the World Cup and second place at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway

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Alison Owen-Bradley racing to first in the inaugural women’s World Cup event in 1978 in Telemark, Wisconsin. (Courtesy photo)

For about an hour here on Nordic Nation, we’ll get the privilege of learning more about the early years of women’s cross-country ski racing in the U.S. and about one of the sport’s real pioneers.  

The first U.S. women’s World Championship cross-country team on the way to Czechoslovakia in 1970. From left to right: coach Marty Hall, Coach, chaperone Gloria Chadwick, Trina Hosmer, Martha Rockwell, Barbara Britch, and Alison Owen. The U.S. team took four skiers as the relay at that time was a three-person format. (Courtesy photo)

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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Avid readers of FasterSkier know her as the voice of reason and evidence when it comes to reporting on all things doping in nordic sport. Chelsea Little, a force here at FasterSkier for eight years, is stepping down from her editor-at-large position. Based in Switzerland as she wraps up her Ph.D. in aquatic biology, Little took some time last week to talk about her tenure at FasterSkier and what her plans are for the future.

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Chelsea Little and Jessie Diggins in the Davos media mixed zone in 2016.

Little’s coverage also included non-doping related pieces and race reports from both cross-country and biathlon. Asked about some of the work she is most proud of, Little referenced a story on the connection between birth control pills and athletic performance. Here’s a link to that piece.

Chelsea Little interviewing Susan Dunklee after her silver medal at the 2017 IBU World Championships. (Photo Max Cobb)

Most recently, she drilled down into the nitty gritty details of the Sochi doping scandal and WADA’s subsequent investigations.

Chelsea Little skiing at Seiser Alm in Italy last February. (Courtesy photo)

Come along for the audio ride as we dive into the world of reporting with FasterSkier’s Chelsea Little.   

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BEND, Oregon — In this von Ballcap episode, we sit down with newly retired pro-skier Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess in his hometown of Bend. At 32, Dakota, or “Dak” as he’s most often called, had been on the scene for over a decade. In that time, Blackhorse-von Jess won the support of his peers and fans as a skier’s skier. The man is nothing but energy and intellect wound into a 5-foot-9-inch body that ultimately became a sprinting force.

Andy Newell (near) and Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess during official training at the 2016 Ski Tour Canada in Gatineau, Quebec. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

His story resonates because Blackhorse-von Jess’s story is the one you might want to tell the kids: stick to your goals, stay true to your values, and although you might achieve some of your dreams, some will be left unfulfilled. He raced at the 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden, he won skate-sprint national titles in 2013 and 2015, and a classic sprint title in 2015, too. Beyond the titles, he landed on the national sprint podium four times: placing second twice and third twice. However, an Olympic birth eluded him.

Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess in bib 1 (as the day’s top qualifier) leads Bend Endurance Academy teammate Akeo Maifeld-Carucci (10) in the classic sprint at the 2016 Auburn Ski Club SuperTour in Truckee, California.

We’re talking about a person who gave up a full ride to the University of Washington, that brought with it a postgraduate job/internship at the “JPL”, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in favor of the ski-racing chase. Never look back and work for what you earn. Blackhorse-von Jess took a gap year, landed at Dartmouth where he skied for four years, and the rest is sifted through in the podcast. Not all of it, of course, but we sift through a whole bunch.

Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (30) off to a quick start in the quarterfinals at 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden.

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The stats are simply mind-boggling. Essentially, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen has the mostest. The most decorated Winter Olympic medalist: 15 total medals, eight gold, four silver, and three bronze — over five Olympiads from 2002 to 2018. The most World Championships bling: 26 total medals, 18 gold, five silver, and three bronze. Bjørgen won 114 individual World Cups and podiumed 184 times on the World Cup.

Take a bow. Marit Bjørgen of Norway winning the 30-kilometer classic mass start at 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. (Photo: Nordic Focus/Fischer)

Maybe something more sentimental for the core Norwegian fan, this past March, Bjørgen won a record seventh Holmenkollen 30 k. And she won that in un-Bjørgen like style by coming from behind to reel in a speedy Jessie Diggins.

Norway’s Marit Bjørgen celebrates her seventh Holmenkollen 30 k victory in Oslo, Norway, ahead of American Jessie Diggins, Norway’s Ragnhild Haga (not shown) and Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

This brings us to the point that this is the 50th episode of Nordic Nation. So, we wanted to go big. Really, no one is bigger than Bjørgen in the sport. In this ‘Take a Bow’ episode with Marit, we cover motherhood, training, racing, the media, and growing up in a small Norwegian club with three racers. The newly retired Bjørgen, 38, was interviewed last Tuesday, July 10.

Enjoy.

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Here on Nordic Nation, we’re featuring back-to-back interviews with notable Norwegians. We previously connected with Marit Bjørgen and focused on the athlete side of the performance matrix. This time, we spoke with wunderkind sports physiologist, Øyvind Sandbakk. If you are new to his name, he is one of the key reasons Norway has remained ahead of the sport-performance curve in nordic sport.

Dr. Øyvind Sandbakk (Courtesy photo)

If there’s an interesting question to answer with regards to things like double-poling efficiency, Sandbakk or one his students is on it. Yes, Norway has strength in numbers when it comes to cross-country athletes, but they also have a Sandbakk and a cadre of graduate students who keep Norway a step ahead.

Sandbakk serves as managing director at the Centre for Elite Sports Research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. And as if he is not busy enough, he’s also head of research and development at the Norwegian Olympic Sports Centre (Olympiatoppen).

Sandbakk discusses how he became involved with research and how his research group has become one the premier nordic-sport think tanks.

Here’s a link for a comprehensive list of Sandbakk’s research.

For another interesting read, Sandbakk, along with PhD. student Guro S. Solli (Solli is the first author on the paper) explored Bjørgen’s training during and after the birth of her son.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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Nathaniel Mah, a 22-year-old Canadian, isn’t someone we would normally liken to an endangered species. That’s perhaps the best analogy for Mah, who describes himself as the last remaining nordic combined athlete in Canada. He currently trains in Canmore with the Alberta World Cup Academy and jumps when he can — most often in the U.S. at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) jumping facility in Park City.

That defining characteristic, the last Canadian NoCo skier, hasn’t deterred Mah from his international competition ambitions. He’s been able to weave a tapestry of training opportunities and support to pursue his athletic goals.

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In this Nordic Nation episode, we speak to Mah about how he’s been able to train and compete while Canada’s nordic combined and jumping scene struggles to remain viable. Mah is coached in cross country by Chris Jefferies and Allison Macardle from the Alberta World Cup Academy. Currently, Mah is without an official jumping coach. 

Nathaniel Mah racing in 2017 in Planica, Slovenia. (Photo: Nathaniel Mah/Instagram)

Most pressing for Mah and his constituency of avid ski jumpers is the prospect of Calgary’s ski jumping complex at Canada Olympic Park (COP) shuttering this coming October. WinSport is a nonprofit that owns and operates the COP as well as the Beckie Scott High Performance Training Centre on Haig Glacier and the Bill Warren Training Centre at the Canmore Nordic Centre. According to several news reports, WinSport claims the jumps require a costly upgrade and the $500,000-dollar annual cost to operate is not sustainable. (Read more: March 27 CBC article and March 23 article in Canada’s Global News)

Ski Jumping Canada posted a press release detailing its position on the likely closure of the jumping venue.

Making matters more complex, it appears Calgary is preparing a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. In a study (full report) commissioned by Ski Jumping Canada, data suggest a majority of respondents desire events involving ski jumping to be held specifically in Calgary rather than Vancouver. (It has been reported that Vancouver is a possible ski-jumping venue for a proposed Calgary 2026 Winter Olympic bid.)    

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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In this episode of Nordic Nation, we spoke with Dan Cnossen, who, at 38, has much to celebrate. This past winter, he raked in six medals (one for every race he competed in) at the Winter Paralympics — three in biathlon, three in cross-country — in PyeongChang, South Korea. But as he discusses in this podcast, the winning does not define him. Raised on a fifth-generation family farm outside Topeka, Kanasa, Cnossen went on to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy and now holds masters degrees in public administration and theological studies — both from Harvard.

Biathlon gold medalist Dan Cnossen of the U.S. celebrates his win in the men’s sitting 7.5 k biathlon sprint on March 10, the opening day of competition at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Mark Reis)

On his path to the Paralympics, Cnossen served as a Navy SEAL platoon leader. He lost both his legs in an explosion in 2009 while on patrol in Afghanistan, and became a recipient of both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with Valor.

In the 42 minutes we have with Cnossen, we learn about perseverance and how a curious mind meshed athletics with theology.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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He’s another skier who bleeds maple syrup. Raised in Putney, Vermont. Skied at the Statton Mountain School (SMS), Dartmouth, and post-collegiately with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project — take a breath — and yes, still in Vermont as the SMS T2 Team head coach is Pat O’Brien. Thirty years old this summer, O’Brien has been at the helm of one of the dominant elite level programs in the U.S. since 2014. As he begins his fifth year leading the program, he has had the unique opportunity of guiding emerging athletes, like new SMS T2 skier Alayna Sonnesyn, along with a newly minted Olympic gold medalist, Jessie Diggins.

Aviators? Check. Hi-vis attire? Check. Five o’clock shadow from a gruelling dryland camp? Check. SMS T2 coach Patrick O’Brien on the last day of this year’s Lake Placid summer training camp. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)

In this episode, we spoke with O’Brien on Aug. 15, shortly before his departure for an on-snow camp in New Zealand. He discussed how he entered the coaching game and how he navigates working with skiers who have found success on the World Cup to those just breaking into the world of SuperTours and post-collegiate skiing. Bonus info from the interview, O’Brien claims to have once beaten Simi Hamilton at something.

Patrick O’Brien at the 2018 SuperTour Finals in Craftsbury, Vermont. (Photo: Reese Brown/ U.S. Ski and Snowboard)

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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.

U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover (front) with (from left to right) Simi Hamilton, Paddy Caldwell, Erik Bjornsen, and Ian Torchia on top of the Roc Cornafion above Villard-de-Lans, France, during a training camp this summer. (Photo: Chris Grover)

Grover and new USST development coach Gus Kaeding spoke with FasterSkier for its podcast on Sept. 11 to highlight some of the updated criteria and provide context for the modifications.

(A lightly edited conversation with Grover and Kaeding is available on the Nordic Nation podcast. Warning: you may want to time your listening for a 1.5-hour road trip or dish duty after a crowded dinner party. It’s a lengthy discussion.)

New U.S. Cross Country Development Coach Gus Kaeding. (Photo: Sarah Brunson/U.S. Ski & Snowboard)

World Cup Selection Criteria

Considering World Cup Period 1 starts, Grover stated in the following interview and in accordance with the selection criteria, the discretionary picks were made in consult with a larger working group. That group is comprised of four national-team staff coaches — Grover, Matt Whitcomb, Jason Cork, and Kaeding — as well as Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (athlete rep), August Teague (chair of the cross-country coaches sub-committee), and eight senior club coaches: Chris Mallory (Sun Valley Gold Team), Erik Flora (Alaska Pacific University), Joe Haggenmiller (Central Cross Country), Pepa Miloucheva (Craftsbury Green Racing Project), Austin Caldwell (formerly of the Bridger Ski Foundation, now assisting the University of Colorado-Boulder Ski Team), Dragan Danevski (BSF), Pat O’Brien (Stratton Mountain School T2 Team), and Dan Weiland (Ski Club Vail).

According to Grover, this 14-person working group was tasked with helping develop WSC and World Cup selection criteria. Further, this group, which again includes the four USST staff coaches, remains responsible for nominating the discretionary picks for each World Cup period this season.

Once those World Cup Period 1 nominations were made, they were sent to a three-person discretionary selection review group with the authority to approve or disapprove those nominations.

The language in the World Cup selection criteria, as it refers to this smaller group, reads as follows: “All discretionary selections will be reviewed by a discretionary selection review group comprised of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Nordic Program Manager, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief of Sport, and the athlete representative from that sport who is a member of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Board. If the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Board Athlete Representative is also a currently competing athlete then another athlete, who is not actively competing, will be selected by the Athletes’ Council to be the representative in this group.”  

In a follow-up email, Grover clarified who serves on the discretionary selection review group. “This would normally be Bryan Fish, Luke Bodensteiner, and Rosie Brennan. Because Rosie is an active athlete, Dakota has replaced her,” Grover explained.

The other changes to World Cup selection that Grover cited in his original blog post are as follows and discussed in the podcast:

• The standard by which men advance from one World Cup period to the next from top 30 to top 40 to reflect the greater depth in the men’s WC field.
• Addition of SuperTour leaders as guaranteed starts to the Tour de Ski.
• Addition of language to the past criteria for selecting a World Cup Finals team in Quebec City, including:
  • Top-30 individual performance at the Seefeld World Champs (the previous standard was top 25).
  • Created a best 11 of 14 SuperTour results selection to round out the World Cup Finals team, to encourage athletes to continue to race in Europe mid-season, rather than feeling the need to attend every SuperTour competition.

World Ski Championships Criteria

Come late February, the World Championships begin. In a personal blog published on FasterSkier, Grover noted the key changes to the current WSC selection criteria.

The World Cup remains the most direct path to meeting objective criteria for WSC team nomination.

Discretionary selection is divided into two phases: Phase 1 and Phase 2. The phases refer to the use of coaches’ discretion once ...