a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/S3RNWKwt1II/AAAAAAAAA0k/ZdM8bEDs0xo/s1600-h/18177_320291586046_598881046_5143789_6573805_n.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 283px; height: 400px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/S3RNWKwt1II/AAAAAAAAA0k/ZdM8bEDs0xo/s400/18177_320291586046_598881046_5143789_6573805_n.jpg” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437055693384176770″ //abr /br /My grandmother, Rusty Hovey McKenna, was a well known artist in Lake Placid. Her pen and ink drawings are found all throughout town, but recently my mom recovered this particular one from the Olympics. Pretty cool, huh?div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1362992899157556571-2407518705727758245?l=comeskiwithme.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
Category: XCFeeds
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More Tomorrow…..
div class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”A HUGE blog post to come tomorrow. It’s been a SUPER busy day… while I would love to stay up and write but training, health and rest must take precedence. nbsp;Thanks so much for reading – thanks for the continued support and “talk” to you all tomorrow!nbsp;/divdiv class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”br //divdiv class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”And, this is a cool website if you want to watch events. nbsp;I haven’t checked it out, but sources tell me it’s awesome:/divdiv class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”br //divdiv class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”http://p2p4u.net/sports/winter-olympics.html/divdiv class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”br //divdiv class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”
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Bend Junior National Qualifier Challenging and Fun
From February 4-7 the MVNT traveled to Bend, Oregon with 20 racers aged 12-18. Saturday brought challenging conditions, with 4″ of new, wet snow, which was ungroomed before the race started. The skating race was a mass-start 5 or 10km course, with several large hills. The J2 boys started first, and packed out the trails for the rest of the racers. Kelsey Dickinson (J1) and Jacqueline O’Keefe (J2) won their divisions, Sage Abate (J2) was 2nd, Nina Ekblad (J1) was 3rd, Casey Smith (J1) was 3rd, and all skiers pushed themselves through the tough conditions to ski well.
In contrast to Saturday, Sunday’s classic tracks were perfect, and skiers were surprised to be able to wax with VR40 rather than klister. The MVNT skiers used their good technique to stride up the hills, and notable finishes included Kelsy and Jacqueline, again first in their divisions, and Sage and Nina also holding onto their division places in 2nd and 3rd.
The MVNT celebrated Flash’s birthday with cake and a ‘birthday girl’ crown, and the Team returned energized to continue on to its last JO Qualifier race in Spokane (Feb. 20-21st).
For full results see: http://www.mbsef.org/results/crosscountry/index.cfm?page=09-10
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Bend Junior National Qualifier Challenging and Fun
From February 4-7 the MVNT traveled to Bend, Oregon with 20 racers aged 12-18. Saturday brought challenging conditions, with 4″ of new, wet snow, which was ungroomed before the race started. The skating race was a mass-start 5 or 10km course, with several large hills. The J2 boys started first, and packed out the trails for the rest of the racers. Kelsey Dickinson (J1) and Jacqueline O’Keefe (J2) won their divisions, Sage Abate (J2) was 2nd, Nina Ekblad (J1) was 3rd, Casey Smith (J1) was 3rd, and all skiers pushed themselves through the tough conditions to ski well.
In contrast to Saturday, Sunday’s classic tracks were perfect, and skiers were surprised to be able to wax with VR40 rather than klister. The MVNT skiers used their good technique to stride up the hills, and notable finishes included Kelsy and Jacqueline, again first in their divisions, and Sage and Nina also holding onto their division places in 2nd and 3rd.
The MVNT celebrated Flash’s birthday with cake and a ‘birthday girl’ crown, and the Team returned energized to continue on to its last JO Qualifier race in Spokane (Feb. 20-21st).
For full results see: http://www.mbsef.org/results/crosscountry/index.cfm?page=09-10
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Bend Junior National Qualifier Challenging and Fun
From February 4-7 the MVNT traveled to Bend, Oregon with 20 racers aged 12-18. Saturday brought challenging conditions, with 4″ of new, wet snow, which was ungroomed before the race started. The skating race was a mass-start 5 or 10km course, with several large hills. The J2 boys started first, and packed out the trails for the rest of the racers. Kelsey Dickinson (J1) and Jacqueline O’Keefe (J2) won their divisions, Sage Abate (J2) was 2nd, Nina Ekblad (J1) was 3rd, Casey Smith (J1) was 3rd, and all skiers pushed themselves through the tough conditions to ski well.
In contrast to Saturday, Sunday’s classic tracks were perfect, and skiers were surprised to be able to wax with VR40 rather than klister. The MVNT skiers used their good technique to stride up the hills, and notable finishes included Kelsy and Jacqueline, again first in their divisions, and Sage and Nina also holding onto their division places in 2nd and 3rd.
The MVNT celebrated Flash’s birthday with cake and a ‘birthday girl’ crown, and the Team returned energized to continue on to its last JO Qualifier race in Spokane (Feb. 20-21st).
For full results see: http://www.mbsef.org/results/crosscountry/index.cfm?page=09-10
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Bend Junior National Qualifier Challenging and Fun
From February 4-7 the MVNT traveled to Bend, Oregon with 20 racers aged 12-18. Saturday brought challenging conditions, with 4″ of new, wet snow, which was ungroomed before the race started. The skating race was a mass-start 5 or 10km course, with several large hills. The J2 boys started first, and packed out the trails for the rest of the racers. Kelsey Dickinson (J1) and Jacqueline O’Keefe (J2) won their divisions, Sage Abate (J2) was 2nd, Nina Ekblad (J1) was 3rd, Casey Smith (J1) was 3rd, and all skiers pushed themselves through the tough conditions to ski well.
In contrast to Saturday, Sunday’s classic tracks were perfect, and skiers were surprised to be able to wax with VR40 rather than klister. The MVNT skiers used their good technique to stride up the hills, and notable finishes included Kelsy and Jacqueline, again first in their divisions, and Sage and Nina also holding onto their division places in 2nd and 3rd.
The MVNT celebrated Flash’s birthday with cake and a ‘birthday girl’ crown, and the Team returned energized to continue on to its last JO Qualifier race in Spokane (Feb. 20-21st).
For full results see: http://www.mbsef.org/results/crosscountry/index.cfm?page=09-10
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Bend Junior National Qualifier Challenging and Fun
From February 4-7 the MVNT traveled to Bend, Oregon with 20 racers aged 12-18. Saturday brought challenging conditions, with 4″ of new, wet snow, which was ungroomed before the race started. The skating race was a mass-start 5 or 10km course, with several large hills. The J2 boys started first, and packed out the trails for the rest of the racers. Kelsey Dickinson (J1) and Jacqueline O’Keefe (J2) won their divisions, Sage Abate (J2) was 2nd, Nina Ekblad (J1) was 3rd, Casey Smith (J1) was 3rd, and all skiers pushed themselves through the tough conditions to ski well.
In contrast to Saturday, Sunday’s classic tracks were perfect, and skiers were surprised to be able to wax with VR40 rather than klister. The MVNT skiers used their good technique to stride up the hills, and notable finishes included Kelsy and Jacqueline, again first in their divisions, and Sage and Nina also holding onto their division places in 2nd and 3rd.
The MVNT celebrated Flash’s birthday with cake and a ‘birthday girl’ crown, and the Team returned energized to continue on to its last JO Qualifier race in Spokane (Feb. 20-21st).
For full results see: http://www.mbsef.org/results/crosscountry/index.cfm?page=09-10
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Processed.
I arrived in Vancouver for the first time this season on November 1, 2009—barely three months ago. My arrival was completely uneventful and anonymous, getting off the plane, picking up my duffel and ski bag, and walking through customs. That trip was spontaneous and a big risk, taking my chances that there was going to be enough snow to ski in Silver Star and get a couple of weeks on snow before the start to the racing season. I exited the Vancouver airport and took the subway, ski bags and all, to the Greyhound station, where I took the 6 hour bus ride from Vancouver to Kelowna, BC. My teammate Matt Liebsch and I met up in Kelowna and spent the night at the youth hostel in Silver Star, before clipping into our skis for the first time of the year the next morning.
About the only thing similar between my Vancouver arrival last November and my arrival yesterday was the total lack of snow on the ground. Besides that, the story couldn’t be more different.
The 2010 US Olympic Cross Country team arrived in Vancouver yesterday afternoon, on Tuesday, February 9. We had a short, direct flight from our pre-Olympic World Cup races and training camp in Canmore, Alberta. We flew with the Swiss Alpine Team and the Dutch Speed Skaters and received an ovation from the passengers when the pilot announced our presence. At the gate in Vancouver, we were met by several delegates from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and didn’t even need to go through customs, as we were on a domestic flight within Canada. Immediately, we were handed our temporary IDs and got a team photograph with the Air Canada staff.
morgan getting credentialed
The Olympic experience really set in for me when I traded my temporary ID for my Olympic credential: “Athlete.” Sweet! At the baggage claim, the only thing I had to do was take my bag off the carrousel before my bag was taken from me, tagged, and send immediately to our hotel. We sent our skis last weekend directly from Canmore so we would have less gear to travel with in Vancouver.
as matt whitcomb demonstrates: no smile, no teeth for credential photos.
Team USA Cross Country – even Kris is smiling!
We spent our first 24 hours of the Games in Vancouver, getting many of our obligations out of the way. The first thing we did after arriving in our Vancouver hotel was what many people probably find the most exciting: processing. Processing was best described to me by one of the volunteers as, “Christmas shopping without a credit card.”
james signing posters
it's official!
Each athlete went through a series of small rooms, getting photos taken and picking out our Team USA gear. Our Team sponsors this year are Nike and Ralph Lauren. Sweet! We each got a clipboard with a checklist and went around the room getting checked off for each piece of merchandise we were set to receive, including Opening, Closing, and Podium Ceremonies gear. No sense describing all the swag, you’ll get a chance to see us sporting most of it in upcoming photos!
kikkan shows off her new nike gear
kikkan and liz
After a quick trip to the tailor from Ralph Lauren, where we were shown exactly how to wear our new duds and some team photographs, we got some well needed time to relax.
compton and kuzzy pre-press conference
In the evening, we enjoyed a nice buffet dinner with the women’s Alpine team and Snowboarders, before getting some brief media training and listening to the “Athlete Ambassador” program, presented by Wisconsin’s own, speed skater Bonnie Blair. The presentation was meant to get us excited about the Olympics and ready to earn some medals—like that wasn’t already the case! The presentation was pretty cool, especially with the likes of Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso, and Kikkan Randall in the room. Even though I was exhausted after the long day, it still took a while to fall asleep with all the excitement in the air.
The alarm woke Newell and me up at 7am sharp. While I was still a bit tired, I was also thankful that I didn’t have to get up at 5am like Kris Freeman to go on the “Today Show” this morning. Instead, we packed our bags and dropped them off on a truck that brought all our new swag up to the Whistler Athlete Village. While our bags were making the two hour journey to Whistler, we were making our way across town to the Vancouver Press Center for the Cross Country Team Press Conference.
2010 US Olympic Cross Country Team press conference
The formal Press Conference was a totally new experience for me. Fortunately, guys like Andy, Kikkan, and Torin are pros at that and had some great things to say about our team. Afterwards, we broke out individually and were interviewed more personally by the media—especially locals like the Star Tribune and Kare 11.
simi in the vancouver athletes village
The athlete bus runs between Vancouver and Whistler every two hours. After the press conference, we had some time to kill before the bus ride. We got to spend the time exploring; actually, we were mostly just eating, in the Vancouver Athlete Village. The Vancouver Village is pretty cool, located right on the water front and consisting of a number of new high rises. However, it doesn’t feel much like a Winter Olympic Village, as there’s no snow on the ground and the temperature is at least 45 degrees F and rainy. I’m psyched to be staying in the Whistler Village (although I haven’t even been there yet!) as it should feel a little more like winter up there!
US HQ in VAV
like a kid in a candy shop
Make your own pizza in the Olympic Village. Almost as good as the “Kuzzy” at the Ideal Market in Cable, Wisconsin. For the next two weeks, you can buy my favorite pizza, the Kuzzy: chicken, bbq sauce, cranberries, and apple, at Ideal Market. $1 of each pizza sold helps support yours truly. Stop by Birkie weekend and check it out!
Newell, Grover, and Compton. Thirsty?
We’re riding in the bus as I write this update. We’re about halfway between Squamish and Whistler and there are finally hints of snow on the ground!
enterance, including airport style security, to the vancouver athlete village
Stay tuned for more!
Please remember: all images on garrottkuzzy.com are property of Garrott Kuzzy and cannot be reproduced.
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Like a Thunderbolt,
the Olympics are almost here!br /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qy8LpbgYOag/S3OfKOHTrzI/AAAAAAAAATA/3YnjQ9wAW0g/s1600-h/thunderbolt.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 386px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qy8LpbgYOag/S3OfKOHTrzI/AAAAAAAAATA/3YnjQ9wAW0g/s400/thunderbolt.jpg” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436864173102575410″ //adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2691525267872963085-6808148779716316092?l=in-the-arena-torin.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
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The JK Media Files: Keeping Shit Real
pSince Johnny Klister started about a year back, there have been a few imitators- some good, some short lived, some just awful. So while perusing the web for tidbits of nordic detritus, one can’t help but notice that thievery is all the rage. Fasterskier has obvious shortcomings that JK has poked at before. (You reading this Cloxxi, you bigoted douche?) But the bottom line is, no one in the anglophone world of skiing is going to deny that FS has improved their game tremendously. (They iwere/i
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Fasterskier- The James Brown of Nordic News: Sure they screw…
img src=”http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxmvzp1L6m1qzt3xbo1_500.jpg”/br/br/pFasterskier- The James Brown of Nordic News: Sure they screw up occasionally, but hey they’ve got some soul and they’re the hardest working in the game./p
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Ski Trax: The Milli Vanilli of Nordic News.
img src=”http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxmvvyuBQ71qzt3xbo1_500.jpg”/br/br/pSki Trax: The Milli Vanilli of Nordic News./p
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Thrills at Bills
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MXhFo5cAI/AAAAAAAACVg/d1q7yZzK5vM/s1600-h/IMG_2817.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 373px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MXhFo5cAI/AAAAAAAACVg/d1q7yZzK5vM/s400/IMG_2817.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436715032383156226″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MWQKkgLBI/AAAAAAAACVY/TOdCvjhWGIU/s1600-h/IMG_2794.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MWQKkgLBI/AAAAAAAACVY/TOdCvjhWGIU/s400/IMG_2794.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436713642137496594″ //aWe skied up at Bill Koch’s house this morning. Bill has a network of trails that is constant turns, dips and jumps. It is all single track and most of the trails wind through the woods. It is a great way to improve your skiing and your balance. br /Pictured above is Bill, checking out Mac getting a little air off the low entrance on the big jump.br /We had lots of fun, thanks Bill!br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MWAmxyCJI/AAAAAAAACVQ/L_ZqYwFchAM/s1600-h/IMG_2797.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MWAmxyCJI/AAAAAAAACVQ/L_ZqYwFchAM/s400/IMG_2797.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436713374831478930″ //a Drop in…br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MVyWyju2I/AAAAAAAACVI/m1241nJ8P-0/s1600-h/IMG_2796.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MVyWyju2I/AAAAAAAACVI/m1241nJ8P-0/s400/IMG_2796.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436713130021600098″ //a …through the dip…br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MVkZtoMHI/AAAAAAAACVA/ffWLeA7h49w/s1600-h/IMG_2801.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 376px; height: 324px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MVkZtoMHI/AAAAAAAACVA/ffWLeA7h49w/s400/IMG_2801.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436712890288058482″ //a …and pop out!br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MVWJSwa-I/AAAAAAAACU4/ZCC7K1qdNBk/s1600-h/IMG_2804.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MVWJSwa-I/AAAAAAAACU4/ZCC7K1qdNBk/s400/IMG_2804.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436712645362215906″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MU0273tgI/AAAAAAAACUw/mp4XMgfuma8/s1600-h/IMG_2806.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S3MU0273tgI/AAAAAAAACUw/mp4XMgfuma8/s400/IMG_2806.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436712073498703362″ //adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-7130983875053961424?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
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stuff, stuff, more stuff, and Bonnie…….
Hey all,br /br /I’m going to try and be brief. It’s been a long day and we’re getting up early tomorrow to get to the village – and to go train. Todaynbsp;consistednbsp;ofnbsp;driving,nbsp;flying,nbsp;credentialling,nbsp;(isnbsp;thatnbsp;anbsp;word?)nbsp;gettingnbsp;THREEnbsp;dufflesnbsp;ofnbsp;schwag,nbsp;havingnbsp;anbsp;briefingnbsp;onnbsp;ournbsp;pressnbsp;conferencenbsp;fornbsp;tomorrow,nbsp;andnbsp;endingnbsp;withnbsp;annbsp;introductorynbsp;meetingnbsp;co-hostednbsp;bynbsp;Bonnienbsp;Blair!nbsp;nbsp;Enjoynbsp;thenbsp;photos……..br /br /It’s my turn for the Ralph Lauren shot:br /br /div class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”
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Fast and Female Urban Style Downtown Canmore Feb 6, 2010
It’s been an amazing and busy week in Canmore. With tons of press conferences, interviews and team meetings followed by tremendous racing action and Sara Renner’s fabulous bronze medal in the classic sprint here at the best stop on the world cup circuit: Canmore. The town celebration included putting snow on two blocks of main street for the whole weekend and so so many good times were had on that snow by many people and it looked really magical.
Fast and Female jumped at the chance to ski in town and we had 100 girls out for a very unique and fun event. Our sponsor COLD-FX sponsored the live performance by international group “Drum Cafe” was really cool and we boogied hard with our local Zumba instructor, Maria, leading the way. A great warm up! Check out our zany instructors in the photos below.
Brooke Gosling, Sara Renner, Rhonda Jewett, Sarah Daitch, Madeleine Williams, Mallory Deyne, Sekwan Trottier, and Sarah Murphy were rock star BBFF’s (Best Buy Fast Females) and our great friends Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephen, American Olympians who are spreading the F&F love across North America brought their amazing energy. The BBFF’s are what make the events so memorable and the girls get to meet some incredible role models.
Special thanks to the BBFF’s, volunteers, Best Buy, COLD-FX, The Lambert Bros, The Jocabecca Foundation, Lululemon, Buff, The Canmore Rotary Club and everyone who made this event possible. Dan Roycroft’s time and images are much appreciated – check them out below.
I haven’t had that much fun since… the last Fast and Female event!
Friday I’m off to the Opening Ceremonies and my first race will be Wednesday, February 17th in the classic sprint.
Spread the Love, Dominate the World!
