Tag: 2012/2013 canadian world cup team

Crawford Declines Nomination to NST in Effort to Bring Out Her Best

Chandra Crawford racing to 37th in a classic-sprint qualifier at the Kuusamo World Cup in Finland on Nov. 30. Midway through a tough season last year, Crawford, 29, decided to stop racing in February and returned home to Canmore, Alberta, to recharge before the 2014 Olympics. In April, she declined her nomination to the national team and will work with personal coach Peter Larsson this summer. (Photo: CCC/Nordic Focus)

And then there were two.

That’s how many women are on Canada’s World Cup Team after Chandra Crawford recently decided to train on her own with personal coach Peter Larsson for the next several months.

Dasha Gaiazova is back in eastern Canada for the second-straight offseason, which makes Perianne Jones the lone World Cup female at the national team’s base in Canmore, Alberta, where she’ll work with women’s coach Eric de Nys.

Crawford, a 29-year-old Canmore native and 2006 Olympic gold medalist, will be there, too, working independently with her technique and tactics coach of the last four years, Larsson, a Swedish sprint specialist who won six World Cups. Technically, she declined her nomination to the 2012/2013 national ski team (NST), but in an email last week, Crawford reiterated that she’ll be back onboard once the World Cup season starts in November.

“After a solid burn out and overload I’m re-charged and keen to make the most of the days until Sochi,” she wrote of the pre-Olympic training phase. “I have to manage my energy and do things in ways that work for me so while it’s financially sketchy it is the best option.”

Last season, she ended her season in early February after the World Cup in Sochi, Russia, citing the physical and mental toll of 13-plus years of international racing.

“I’m just preparing to go into the Olympic year so rested and so calm from this time I took to step back and center myself and become so healthy and energized,” Crawford said at the time. “The system is overtaxed now and I need to be more honest about my skiing level and listen to my body better.”

She spent the next few months recharging and catching up with family, friends and loved ones, “something I’ve missed for so long I didn’t even know to miss it,” Crawford wrote.

“My weekdays were usually spent on self-improvement and appointments for all aspects of my physical and mental health,” she continued. “Weekends were enjoyed with friends – skiing in the mountains and dance parties. … April I made my decision early about my plans for the year and got to work communicating that out with everyone involved.”

She based the move on her needs in an Olympic year. “I always give at least my best on race day and love big events so it’s a question of how good my fitness and ‘best’ can be on that day,” she wrote.

The news didn’t necessarily surprise de Nys, but it was one that slightly complicated his team’s training plans.

“I thought it was definitely conceivable,” de Nys said Monday on the phone. “I didn’t think she would choose that, but at the same time I totally understand why and totally support her in her decision. We wish her all the best in her training.”

On Monday, he spoke with Crawford and other independent racers, Amanda Ammar, Zoe Roy and Alana Thomas, about the upcoming NST camp in Bend, Ore. Jones will be there, and de Nys invited them to coordinate workouts from May 19-29.

“I’m not writing her plan or anything like that,” de Nys said of Crawford. “I’m just keeping the door open.”

Canadian World Cup teammates Perianne Jones (second from left) and Chandra Crawford (second from right) go head-to-head at a time trial last October in Canmore, Alberta. (CCC photo)

As for Jones, he’s in the process of lining up training partners for the 28-year-old Canmore-based skier. So far, he has mostly aligned schedules with Gaiazova, who trains with NST assistant men’s coach Louis Bouchard at the Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre in Quebec and B2ten in Montreal.

De Nys will also invite foreign training partners to Canmore and explained that Jones has talented biathletes around town as well, like Zina Kocher, Megan Imrie, and Crawford’s younger sister, Rosanna.

“I’ve also made the commitment to start to become in better shape so I’ll make her feel really good about herself as she drops me on the hills,” he joked.

Looking at his team of three (technically two until Crawford proves she’s capable of racing internationally again in the fall), de Nys stressed the importance of end results – not how one gets there.

“I don’t view it any different than how it works in the U.S. with Gus Kaeding coaching [national-team members] Andy [Newell] and Simi [Hamilton] in Vermont,” he said, referring to America’s elite-team system.

“There’s more than one way to the top and the national ski team is one way and there’s other ways we can do it,” de Nys explained. “The important thing is you have a team that’s willing to work with each other. We do have a group of women, albeit a small one, that do want to work with each other.”

He likened Crawford’s situation to that of an NHL player going down to a farm team. It’s unusual that one would do so by choice, but the athlete still has to show they’re worthy of playing at the highest level before getting bumped back up.

“Chandra will have to undergo some testing and some evaluation,” de Nys said of her anticipated re-entry to the national team. “It’s one thing if you want to go off and do your own training, that’s all fine, but before we take someone to Europe, we want to make sure they’re physically healthy. … We’re not going to take somebody to Europe for vacation.”

In Crawford’s case, he doesn’t expect that will be a problem.

“Sometimes the environment or the pressure in whatever team you’re on doesn’t necessarily suit everyone,” he explained. “I think that’s the point Chandra is at in her life. … While we can’t necessarily support that, I understand why she chose that.”

In July, Crawford plans to train in Alaska, he said. Meanwhile, Gaiazova and Jones will join the Canadian men’s team in New Zealand and also in Hawaii this summer. Separated for the first time last year, the men’s and women’s World Cup teams previously held camps at different venues. This year, de Nys said it made sense to combine overseas trips and share resources (i.e. physical trainers).

With two women on its current World Cup squad, it raises the question what Canadian women’s skiing could look like in the future. De Nys expects some changes.

“We anticipate that perhaps Dasha, Peri and Chandra will be done after this year so we have to start grooming the younger crowd as well,” he said. “There’s a fairly large gap from the World Cup level to the younger levels. … We have to make sure we keep building up this castle.”

He pointed out talent in the junior- and senior-development ranks, especially with skiers like Anne-Marie Comeau, who made the top 50 in two debut World Cup races last season at the age of 16.

“You just don’t show up and pull races out of your hat like that,” de Nys said. “Now we just have to make sure that we do the right things … bring in some of those girls, work with some of them.”

After Bend, the NST will host a women’s camp on Canmore’s Haig Glacier with its World Cup, junior and senior development teams.

May 14, 2013
Canadians Welcome Season’s End, Already Moving On: ‘We’ll Be Better’

Canadian World Cup Team member Devon Kershaw (l) hugs teammate Lenny Valjas at the end of last year’s World Cup season in Falun, Sweden. There, Kershaw captured second in the World Cup with the 10th-fastest time, Alex Harvey (not shown) skied second fastest for sixth overall, and Valjas posted the 33rd-best time for 28th.

Sunday finally came.

Seventeen weeks and 120 days after the World Cup season started in Gällivare, Sweden, it ended in the same country with final pursuits in Falun.

While the big winners at World Cup Finals shed some tears and smiled for the cameras, the rest of some 50 men and 50 women clicked out of their race skis for the last time – for a while anyway.

For the six Canadians in Sunday’s freestyle races, the moment couldn’t have come soon enough.

“I felt like garbage warming up,” Kershaw said after finishing 4:27.4 minutes behind Norway’s Petter Northug, who won the 15-kilometer pursuit in 35:48.3 and wrapped up the overall World Cup title. “I was struggling with motivation, I’m not gonna lie.”

A year ago, Kershaw stood atop the podium on the last day of the 2011/2012 season as the overall World Cup runner-up. It was both a career best and a historic achievement for Canada, and it came with heightened expectations in the year that followed.

When Kershaw wasn’t winning, or at least living up to what he thought he was capable of, it made for some frustrating races.

Canadian Alex Harvey celebrates his bronze medal in the 2013 World Championships 1.5 k classic sprint on Feb. 21 in Val di Fiemme, Italy, two years after he and Devon Kershaw won the classic team sprint at 2011 World Championships. (Photo: Glen Crawford)

The 30-year-old wasn’t alone. A bronze medalist in the 2013 World Championships classic sprint, Alex Harvey seesawed between podiums and placing outside the top 30. Lenny Valjas came down with strep throat right before World Championships, and Ivan Babikov caught something similar not once, but twice, ultimately leaving him a “little flat,” as head coach Justin Wadsworth put it, at the end of the season.

On the women’s side, three members dwindled to two in February when Chandra Crawford cut her season short to recover leading up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Just before she left Europe, Perianne Jones and Dasha Gaiazova teamed up for bronze in the classic team sprint at the pre-Olympic World Cup in Russia. The medal gave them energy, but the two struggled in the World Championships sprints that followed.

At World Cup Finals last Wednesday through Sunday, Canada’s two Continental Cup leaders – Emily Nishikawa and Michael Somppi of the Alberta World Cup Academy –added some strength in numbers, but they were also feeling the wear of the season.

Nishikawa, 23, had done most every race at World Championships and been in Europe for more than a month. Somppi, 24, had been there since early March and was still pushing for his first World Cup top 30.

He didn’t achieve it Sunday in 47^th (+9:28.6), but Somppi wrote in an email that he was getting close with the 37^th fastest time.

“I felt OK, though certainly not great, as it’s been a long season with a ton of racing and it’s wearing on me,” Somppi explained. “The pace with the pack I skied with didn’t feel unreasonable and I felt pretty strong climbing.”

However, his best pair of skate skis – suited for cold weather – weren’t running well Sunday afternoon with temperatures above 6 degrees Celsius. That made him slow on the downhills.

“Unfortunately on the 3rd lap I was dropped pretty badly on the downhill coming into the stadium and I didn’t have it in me to close the gap,” Somppi wrote. “It was a tough experience being on the World Cup. I’ve learned some valuable lessons and become more comfortable with the racing environment so the next time I have an opportunity to race on the World Cup I will be better prepared.”

Canadians Perianne Jones and Dasha Gaiazova celebrate their first bronze of the season, and together, in the Sochi World Cup classic team sprint on Feb. 3. (Photo: Chandra Crawford)

Somppi was the fourth-best Canadian in the 15 k pursuit after Harvey in 25^th (+3:40.5), Kershaw in 31^st, and Babikov in 41^st (+5:39.9). Valjas finished last in 48^th (+10.02.9). In the women’s 10 k, Nishikawa as the lone Canadian was 46^th (9:56.4 behind Norwegian winner Marit Bjørgen). Gaiazova did not compete.

“She felt like she couldn’t race,” Wadsworth explained. “That’s her decision.”

As for the rest of his athletes: “They definitely went out there and skied hard,” he said. “Like I told them the last couple days, ‘I don’t care about the result, I just want to see you executing and focusing,’ and they did that and it was good.”

Good, not great, and certainly not what the Canadian World Cup Team had dreamed about before the start of the season. Given their starting positions on Sunday, with Harvey going earliest in 32^nd, 3:16 behind Northug, the team knew miracles weren’t quite within reach. But as Kershaw pointed out, anytime you put a bib on, you have to go out there with some gusto.

“You’ve got to try to get yourself in the best possible frame of mind to give it your best shot,” Kershaw said. “Sometimes your best shot is 20 percent of what you’re capable of or what you’ve shown in the past.”

Regardless of where you end up, whether it’s first or 31^st, Kershaw said that’s what motivates you to improve. However, at this point in the season, it was a matter of finishing it out. To add some lightheartedness to Sunday’s race, the Canadian men wore casual sunglasses.

“We still went hard, but we’re trying to find ways to still keep it fun,” Kershaw said. “It’s a beautiful life and ski racing is still a passion for everyone on the team, but it’s challenging. It’s not nearly as fun when you’re the one wiping the floor.”

Wadsworth believes that feeling is what will drive them in the year to come. Coming off an outstanding 2011/2012 outing, in which Kershaw was second and Harvey placed sixth overall and Valjas notched two podiums at World Cup Finals, he thinks the team might have been too ambitious to raise the bar higher.

“I think we came out of last year feeling like we could do anything, and that’s how we approached the whole training season and into the early part of race season,” Wadsworth said. “We were just like, hitting every World Cup and just plowing ahead. … We felt that we could train harder and do everything like more, more, more and we can’t.”

One of many Alex Harvey cheering sections at the Canadian World Cup in Quebec City from Dec. 7-8, 2012.

In the past, he said one of his program’s biggest strengths is its ability to carefully select races and get the most out of training camps and blocks throughout the year.

“It’s my fault for not skipping Kuusamo and Gällivare and just staying in Canada and preparing for the Canadian World Cups and then going on,” Wadsworth said. “Even I got sucked into it. We tried to go and do every race and it was just too much.”

In early December at the Quebec World Cup, Harvey was the only Canadian who qualified for the heats and ended up 21^st in the individual freestyle sprint. The next week in Canmore, Alberta, Harvey and Kershaw placed outside the top 50 in the skate sprint qualifier and skipped the skiathlon the next day.

“We’ll be better. Canada will be better next year,” Kershaw resolved. “Five podiums just wasn’t what we were looking for this year. I think we all learned a lot this year and at the end of the day, that’s what skiing’s about.

“You’ve got to learn from your mistakes and move forward,” he continued. “We’re bummed that we’re not skiing well, but everyone is just so motivated to be better next year, and at the end of a long, tough season if everyone is still motivated, that’s a really good place to start.”

While the team had yet to debrief and set new intentions in its season-ending meeting, Wadsworth said they would look to change a few things next year, including their approach to testing skis.

Waxing woes were one reoccurring theme on the Canadian World Cup Team this year – with tough races at Holmenkollen and in the 15 k classic mass start in Falun last Saturday. Wadsworth said his small staff of five wax techs (eight at World Championships) shouldn’t bear the weight of the blame.

“We need to review our race-day testing,” Wadsworth explained. “I think the athletes realize, too, they need to take a little more ownership. A lot of times skis get tested for them, especially on skate days, so they can just kind of show up and focus on their warmup and whatnot, but I think they need to start testing and feeling the skis a bit more on their own and having more input on that. That will be something we do differently next year.”

Wadsworth would also like to hire another core technician, someone who could work more closely with his skiers and test right up until the start.

“You have to be pretty fit to ski even their warm-up speed,” he said. “The athletes need to take responsibility and come out earlier and take more time. You see a lot of the other countries doing that with their athletes, they’re out like an hour and a half before the race.”

After weathering a steep learning curve in 2013, Wadsworth’s confident it will bode well for the upcoming Olympic season.

“I think it will be really good to be flying under the radar because I know one thing and that’s both the men and the women on this team can win medals at the Olympics,” he said.

“We’re at such a high level that we feel like this year was kind of a failure, but at the same time, we got a medal at the World Championships and two fourth places, a near miss for another medal, as close as you can basically be and not get a medal,” he added, referring to Kershaw and Harvey’s fourth-place finish in the team sprint, three-hundredths of a second off the podium.

Wadsworth also pointed out the team’s four Tour de Ski podiums and the women’s team-sprint bronze on the Olympic course in Sochi.

“Those are solid and we need to remember those and remember the results from last year, too, and hold those in our pockets on the days when it gets hard training,” he said. “We learned a lot about the different athletes on the team and we’re going to use that to our advantage.”

The Canadian World Cup Team flew home Monday and most of its athlete will compete at Canadian Nationals in Whistler, B.C., this week. Kershaw planned to attend, but in need of some time off the skis, said he wouldn’t race. Harvey will not be there as he rehabs a shoulder injury from earlier this season in Sochi.

***

Sunday’s pursuit results: men | women

March 26, 2013

Tag: 2012/2013 canadian world cup team

Crawford Declines Nomination to NST in Effort to Bring Out Her Best

Canadians Welcome Season’s End, Already Moving On: ‘We’ll Be Better’