Author: Matthew Johnson

We had a fun last day here in Ostersund. It started off with getting up at 8:15 to say good bye to the Alaskans. Things were hectic and it was not pretty around Camp Sodergren. Needless to say they made it out fine and everyone went back to bed. We decided to go for a short ski and had a good time laughing at Dylan trying some tricks on the “jumps”. Our next stop was the famous swedish vintersportcentrum. Its basically this sick place where they test all the best athletes from all over Sweden. This place was off the charts! They had a treadmill for both skating and classic equiped with like ten 3d cameras for technique. They even had a place to warm up the rollerskis so each pair is the same temperature when you use them. Just the treadmill alone cost $100,000! We got a tour from the worlds most famous ski researcher HC Holmberg and he was very welcoming. We said bye to HC and decided to go for a little last trip shopping. Kate and Matt found this sweet retro ski store and we scored some cool new gloves and hats. After a delicious Amercan meal of tacos, were back in our rooms trying to pack for the early flight out tomorrow. Its a difficult task because we all have about double the gear we came with. We are living by our motto “When in Rome” and heading down to the sauna now. Its been a great trip and we are all sad to leave this wonderful country!! See you back in the States!!—- Jack

Yo yo from Ornsköldsvik! Second day of racing here and lets be honest USA rocks. Black uniforms were flying out there on the course today eating up the track! The day started off with the women’s 5km freestyle followed by the men’s 10km freestyle race. It was a deceivingly challenging course with little rest, well suited for the skiers from the land of the free. Conditions were pristine with a side dish of ice and some speedy corduroy to top it off. American spirits were through the roof at the venue and the American flag evoked a strong feeling of patriotism and pride. Our boards were off the charts fast. We left large pools of water behind us on the course where our skis burned through the snow. Thank you to the coaches for their superb work on skis and cheering. Norwegian women were awed by the burly and handsome American men [editors note: this may be an exaggeration] and the Swedish boys stared endlessly at the beautiful American women. Without a doubt the most stunning team in existence. After the races we all came back to the Scandic hotel for an all team banquet and meeting. The food was phenomenal and everyone enjoyed themselves. We had a USA team meeting later and are all ready for the relays tomorrow. The races start early and will be killer. Its mullet time baby! Jack and Paddy. Out.

Its worth noting that Paddy absolutely rocked the socks off of today’s race- 8th place and only 34.2 seconds off the podium! These are the fastest people in the world in this age range, so that is a pretty serious result. We have been really happy with how everyone has been racing overall, and how positive these kids have made this experience in general! Parents and coaches back home are owed a huge thanks from us over here, now its off to bed before a new round of wax testing begins bright and early tomorrow morning. -Matt

Today was a pretty chill day all in all. After breakfast the team hung out and got some homework done which was pretty successful. Almost all of the team went for a run before lunch. Then at about 3 we were out the door and headed to the venue. We went for a ski later today in hopes of getting adjusted to the late skiing for the night sprint tomorrow. The team is definitely pumped and excited for the race on Friday! It’s gonna be a good one for sure. Our ski was pretty crazy with all of the snow that was coming down on us. The snow was very powdery at first but once the tracks were skied through a couple times, the skiing became pretty well packed down. The race course was sick and consisted of a big hill at the beginning an then rolling hills and downhills from there on. Including some sharp turns, which will make the course all that much better. I think it is safe to say that we are all really pysched for our first race.

Tonight was the first night that other teams started to roll into the hotel. Right after dinner Dylan got right to work fulfilling his trip goal of getting 100 new facebook friends. Nothing held him back. He went on to introduce himself to the Finnish team sitting in the hall, close to our rooms. His vocabulary also increased when he added a couple new Finnish words. All of the teams are staying in the same hotel so the next couple days should be fun!

Until tomorrow, we are in race prep mode and thinking about the next few days. There will be some fast skiing for sure! -Marion

Sorry there aren’t any pictures today- lots of organizing to do before the races, but we will be back tomorrow with lots of race pictures (and podium pictures!) from the Classic Sprint!! The event website, in case you haven’t found it yet, is http://www2.idrottonline.se/HagglundsIoFK-Skidor/Vara-arrangemang/NordicJuniorSkiCompetition/NordicJuniorSkiCompetition2011/

We will be reporting back tomorrow!

Ornskoldsvik: Day 1. After a buffet-style breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the ski trails. The
walk was maybe 10 minutes to the venue (a bit longer than the 10 steps at Camp Sodergren) but
temperatures were nice and the day promised to be sunny.

The team walks the streets of Ornskoldsvik from the hotel to the race-venue.

The view from the parking lot includes a soccer field, the ski stadium, and a bridge that leads to the trails beyond.

Team USA girls: Cam, Stella, Annie, Sharmila, Marion, Hannah

At the race venue, athletes toured the skate course and dialed in their klister zones in preparation for the sprint race on Friday. The trail in the trees is narrow and windy, with some exciting downhill turns that will be a spectator favorite in the heats. The qualifiers don’t begin until 4 in the afternoon… Night racing here we come!!

In the afternoon, we did the tourist thing and shopped some more. We found our favorite store (Intersport), a giant mall unlike anything in Ostersund, and a massive thrift-store.

Todays Installment: Sharmila and Hannah…

Wad up! We’re in Sweden! Today we said goodbye to Ostersund and left on our trek for Ornskoldsvik. The packing turned out to be quite an ordeal and may have taken longer than the actual car ride. We had to fit eighty-some pairs of skis into the decked out minivan with two DVD players. Too bad there wasn’t room for us; we were stuck in the Minibus. After chugging the rest of the yogurt and fighting over the odds and ends of the bread left in the cabins, we were on our way.

The drive was eventful – we experimented with Buff trends,taught Marion, Hannah, and Cambria how to Tic Tac Toe, fought over the tunes, and toured a Swedish gas station. We were weary of the sandwiches that had been chillaxin there on the shelf all day, but lo and behold, those sandwiches were good stuff! Turns out even Sweden’s sandwiches are classier than ours. Chicken and pesto, and the guy heated them up for us so they were all melty. Yum, yum. Later in the ride we got to meet the Swedish po-pos. Apparently we were driving too slowly on the icy two-lane highway, and after riding our bumper, the Po Po made the move to pass not one, not two, but all three of our vehicles. He didn’t care about the terrain, he didn’t care about the speed, he didn’t even care about oncoming traffic. He was going to pass us, and pass us he did.

We knew we had arrived as we drove into Ornskoldsvik. This city is hoppin. Everything is lit up, even the ski jump that curves underneath a highway for landing. We were pumped about the hotel until we opened the doors to our three-person rooms. There was one European twin bed (2/3s a normal twin) and a couch. “Are you for real?” we thought. But yet again, Sweden surprised us. They pack a lot of room into these little rooms! There are two beds in the couch and secret drawers in the bench. Our towels are even nice and warm because they are hanging on fancy hot-water pipes. Although Sweden has everything, Dylan says they are lacking one thing, but if you want to figure out what that is, you’ll have to visit the pool.

We check out the race trails tomorrow!

Another day in paradise. It was again slightly above freezing for the better part of the day with a slight breeze. The trails were recently groomed and quite fast. It was overcast for most of the with a little sun peeking out now and again.

Today was easily the hardest ski of the trip. Our coaches devised a course for our time trial meant to “shake off the cobwebs”. It was a 2.7 kilometer lap with girls skiing two laps and boys skiing three. Each lap consisted of one major climb that wound up through the woods until it finally leveled off for a flat section and then dropped back into the stadium. Everyone seemed to have benefited from the push, but no one seemed to enjoy it

Afterward, we ventured back up into the water tower for lunch. We laid low for most of the day to recover and complete homework while the coaches went to pick up waxing supplies and groceries. When they returned we all went back into the city for an hour or so to have one last evening in Ostersund.

Tomorrow we have a 3 hour drive to Örnsköldsvik where we will be racing! -Forrest

There’s your athlete report of the day! Kate, Pete, and I just got back from our nightly “coach ski” on the long lit-up out and back around town. Great skiing, and tons of old guys powering past us looking straight out of the 70s. Hopefully all the athletes are packing tonight, we are picking up our third car tomorrow and hitting the road for Ornskoldsvik! Cam and Paddy are hopefully meeting up in the morning with Paddy’s Grandfather’s old friend Ola (e?) which should be a cool adventure for them. Cam really ripped it up in our little time trial this morning, thats her pounding a hill up top here. Its about time for us to start packing too- you’ll hear from us tomorrow on the Baltic. -Matt

them’s some good lookin’ coaches
Marion getting focused

Pmams Grippin’ and Rippin’

Today started out on a high note with pancakes made by Matt, Pete, and Kate. We topped them with nutella, strawberry jelly, pineapple, grapes, raspberries, kiwi, and bananas, along with a drizzle of yogurt (from a carton) on top. In a word they were… delectable. Dylan said he felt like he had eaten a chocolate bunny after his first pancake; they made for a bit of a heavy stomach I guess.

The report from BigLogs:
So today, day three in this truly amazing place, started off with a non-traditional skiing activity.
Us boys in room 12 “Rodins” decided to show off to the whole team by making breakfast for some of the gang. Breakfast so far has consisted of the team trying to come up with crazy combinations of food that Matt supplies us with. This has led to some interesting creations, grilled cheese in the morning with some sketchy Swedish cheese, and chunky milk-like stuff with blueberry soup on top. But this morning was different. This morning, a revolution was started. Us men in room 12, created the best French toast ever in the history of man! Now the ingredients were compiled from all over the place. The Cinnamon was retrieved from the dinner stand, and the syrup was discovered in the store here with the help of locals. The toast was a hit, although it made all of the boys late for the team meeting.

Although this trip is all about skiing fast, it also gives us the opportunity to sample very awesome food. For example, we athletes eat at the top of this massive and trendy water tower that is just a hop, skip, and a jump away. The restaurant on top is one of the nicest restaurants many of us have ever been in. We often show up for lunch in our relaxing clothes, and dine along side of the local Swedes, who are usually there for business or something. But whatever, the food is great.

The skiing here is simply amazing. There are endless amounts of trails here. Literally, we keep finding new trails every day. Although this morning, the warm snow from yesterday froze, so the trails were very firm. Tomorrow there is a 43km race going on, so it will be very fun to watch the racers rip around.

We finally got our last stranded traveler tonight. Now we are really up and running. The weather got even warmer today which led to some seriously fast skiing. Some of the boys crossed paths with Robin Bryntesson doing some intervals after his recent world cup weekend. He recognized Jack Hegman from when he was in Sweden a couple summers ago on Pete Phillips’ Sweden training trip. He chatted with the boys for a bit, they seemed a little star-struck after! Tomorrow the Alaskans who have been here a couple days are going to do some intervals, hopefully not needing to dodge the tiny Swedes who have a race tomorrow! We ate lunch again in the restaurant on top of the water tower next to our apartments (see pictures) and tomorrow we are planning on venturing into town for some shopping and dinner. We will have kids update the blog starting tomorrow so you can get their take on the action!
matt

The lights above are our apartments

The tower at night

‘

Almost everyone got here on time despite the east coast storms coming through. Pete and Hannah were stuck in Newark for an extra 24 hours, and Stella was in the same situation in D.C. but they should be on their way and will arrive tomorrow afternoon to some really amazing skiing! I went out with Logan, Forrest, Peter, Annie, and Marion this morning and we were all really impressed with the trail system, snow conditions, and fast skiers literally right outside our doors (the picture above is the view from all our apartments here.) The guys found a cool trail that goes straight down a huge hill with a really big roller on it.. I probably shouldn’t post any pictures, but I’m going to anyway. Everyone is getting some good sleep right now, and (almost) the whole group will be out together tomorrow morning. Easy skiing on the schedule, lots of hydration, and a chance to walk around downtown Ostersund. The energy level is high here despite the exhaustion of traveling. More tomorrow, its past my bedtime too.
matt

It’s been a long day for both the athletes and coaches over here in Kuopio. We learned this morning at the coaches meeting that the last time Kuopio accumulated any significant amount of snow was sometime in November, but of course it decided to start snowing on us just to mix things up a little bit. Fortunately the wax didn’t change for us significantly and we were pretty confident with our selection going into the prelims. With temperatures staying around -17C and a relatively strong headwind into the long uphill finish, complete with drifts of new snow to catch and slow down skis, it was not a day for fair-weather skiers.
The Americans went into the race a little intimidated by what they saw- Big, Fast Swedes and Norwegians (and Estonians for that matter!) Mike Vigers told us after the race that before his prelim he thought he was going to be late to his start because as he was warming up on the far side of the stadium he saw a line of Huge kids getting ready to start, but as he got closer he realized that it was the start of the girls race. The girls’ race got swept away by a fast Swede, 4 seconds up on the rest of the pack, but the boys’ race was close despite the intimidating scandos- Bridger and Logan ended up in 15th and 17th and were both less than 7 seconds off the pace!
Bridger was the only American to make it past the quarterfinals today, but he did it with style- skiing straight through a pack of guys twice his size to get second in his heat. After he told us that he was able to slip right behind a Swede going out of the stadium and then they just pushed the pace from there. As they came back into the stadium a Norwegian attacked even harder and he decided to give it all he had, which paid off! He then skied a solid Semi-final but wasn’t quite able to hold on so he cruised in to save some gas for the B-Final. In the start pen he told Tim that he was going to really go for it and try to lead the pack all the way around the course. The gun went off and he did just that, leading the hoard up the section of climb and around which was really exciting and inspiring for us all to watch. He ran low on energy by the end and a very strong finish by a Norwegian put him in 12th place overall. Bridger showed the team today that there is NO reason they can’t ski through the scandos, and I think everyone is excited to kick some butt tomorrow.
Beyond the races, the crew is still having a blast over here. Although we are all really focused on the races at this point and aren’t really sightseeing anymore, the kids are now best friends (or at least Facebook friends) with the Finnish athletes staying down the hall from us. They have formed an alliance against the Swedes (who rather condescendingly asked us what we were doing at these races earlier) and both teams are cheering loudly for each other on the course.