In some very sad news, we learned recently that Inge Braten passed away rather suddenly. It is difficult (and probably slightly foolish) to try to quantify a coach’s impact on skiing results, so let’s consider this post a rememberance, rather than an analysis.
Perhaps most famously, Braten coached the Norwegian men during their “Golden Era”:
(My records only go back to the 1991-1992 season.) Norway has certainly continued to enjoy success since then, but I will always remember that period as one of extraordinary depth, as indicated by the number of top thirty results per race.
His next two major coaching stints were much shorter, first with the Swedish men:
And then with the Canadian men basically just in time for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics:
What do Vegard Ulvang, Bjørn Dæhlie, Marcus Hellner, Charlotte Kalla, Alex Harvey, and Devon Kershaw have in common? Aside from gold medals from the Olympic Games or World Championships?
All of them, at one point or another, were coached by Inge Bråten, a fixture on the World Cup circuit who died last week at the age of 63.
Bråten led his country’s national team from 1990 to 1994—a period in which Norway collected no fewer than 15 Olympic and World Championship gold medals. After a hiatus, he worked with the Swedish national team from 2005 to 2007; the country won three gold and two bronze medals in the 2006 Games in Torino. Then, Bråten coached the Canadians during their home Olympic year, in the winter of 2009-2010, with several athletes finishing just off the podium in Vancouver.
Inge Bråten, who died at age 63 last week.
Bråten didn’t coach last winter, but he was still a presence on the World Cup, as a commentator for Eurosport. According to Sweski.com, he made his last broadcast on March 18th, and was admitted to the hospital four days later with an aggressive form of leukemia. He died less than a month afterwards, prompting an outpouring of grief from his former athletes and colleagues around the world.
On Monday, FasterSkier talked with Canada’s Devon Kershaw about the year that Bråten spent with his team.
The interview has been edited and condensed.
FasterSkier: Did you know much about Inge before he was hired? Was your initial reaction to hearing the news?
Devon Kershaw: My initial reaction was, ‘Jesus, we go through a lot of coaches.’ That’s a joke…but, I knew of Inge, of course. His palmares are pretty long. Recently, before he coached us, he worked with the Swedes, and I heard nothing but great things about him, like from [athletes] Peter Larsson and Mats Larsson. Of course, being a kid growing up in Canada and loving skiing, Norway was just crushing it, with Vegard Ulvang and Bjørn Dæhlie. Inge’s a big personality, so even back then you knew he was the coach of the Norwegian National Team, and the Norwegian National Team was probably at its strongest—at least, the men. I was keen to get to know him when I knew he was hired. Excited to work with a legend, really. My initial reaction was, ‘Wow, this is going to be pretty interesting—to get to know somebody who when I was 12 years old, I knew his name.’
FS: Had you met him before?
DK: I knew Inge a bit. We’d talked on the World Cup, and he was always really friendly. We chatted and stuff, even before he was coaching. He was friends with [former Canadian national team leader] Dave Wood, so I knew who he was.
FS: What was he like, as a coach?
DK: Inge was an amazing big picture person, and he had amazing belief in me, and leadership. As a team leader, he’s probably the best I’ve ever worked with. Anything you needed to get done, he was happy to get it done. Nothing was out of the question. I remember him doing things—for example: We didn’t have any sports drink. We were in Europe, so he called one of his friends that worked at [a sports drink company], and then, next thing, boom, you have sports drink and energy bars for the year. He’d just make things happen.
FS: One of your teammates tweeted something about how Inge had the ability to light a fire under an athlete like nobody else.
DK: I just remember him telling me, not, ‘You can be,’ but ‘You are the best skier in the world, if you want to be.’ It was a deep, deep belief. And we got to become pretty good friends too. I work best when my coach
Devon Kershaw racing in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
relationship is like that, so I got a lot out of him, for sure.
The way he could instill belief in you was pretty unbelievable. And disarm you. If you were too nervous, he could disarm you completely. I’m the kind of athlete—I always think it’s the end of the world, but it’s just skiing.
I remember him, throughout the summer, if [I] had a good workout—him looking me in the eyes, and saying, ‘Now you’re there.’ ‘You’re at the level of the best skier in the world.’ And you believe it. He had a real way of instilling belief in you.
FS: What did you take away from working with him?
DK: The biggest thing I took away from it was confidence, and that was pretty instrumental in having that shift—to go from being on the results sheet…[being] a good skier, to really believing that I belonged at the top. And [feeling] more comfortable. My year with Inge made me feel a lot more comfortable in my own skin on the World Cup circuit. He legitimized Canada. I feel like he really legitimized Canada.
FS: Is there a difference when you hear someone with Inge’s background, someone from Europe telling you that you can be the best in the world, versus someone from the U.S. or Canada?
DK: It’s sad to admit, but it is true. Especially if you’re a type of athlete, like me, that doesn’t believe it himself. It made a big impact, absolutely—it makes a huge impact.
FS: Do you know why he left after a year? It sounds like there was some tension within the program at that time?
DK: It’s no secret—for sure, I think there were some serious changes within Cross Country Canada after the Olympics, after that season. I guess there hadn’t been that many changes over [the previous] 12 years. We had a new executive director coming in, just some serious changes. Dave [Wood] decided that he didn’t want to stick with the program in the role that was offered. My sense of it was, we didn’t know what our budget was, and…[Bråten] wanted to coach another year, but I don’t know if his commitment was deep enough to coach to 2014. My sense and understanding, from the outside looking in, was the program was looking for somebody to lead the program into the next quadrennial, going into Sochi.
Where I think Inge could have been the most beneficial was as a head coach, team leader, that type of thing—and then had trainers around him. At least in Canada, he wasn’t the best trainer I’ve ever had, [with] programs and technique and that sort of side. But on the leadership role, team manager, head coach-type thing, he was phenomenal. That’s where his strength really was.
It can’t be easy for Inge—he was [61] at the time, and his [family is] in Norway, his life was in Norway. For sure, that must have factored into it as well, not just money and direction of the program, but Inge, he’s no spring chicken at that point. He was interested to coach for 2011, and for whatever reason it didn’t work out.
FS: Did you know he was sick? Had you heard anything before last week?
DK: It was a total shock. It came as a complete shock when I heard—I didn’t even know he wasn’t feeling well. In Oslo [in March], he’d mentioned he wasn’t going to make it up [to] Holmenkollen. That was the last I heard, and then after the season he got ahold of me—just a short e-mail, just one line, really, saying, ‘I knew you could always be one of the best in the world, and congrats on an inspiring year.’ And then, next thing I heard, he’d passed away.
Alex Harvey (R) and Devon Kershaw (L) celebrating their World Championships gold in 2011 in Oslo.
He’d lived a big full life. I know that gets thrown around a little easily, but he had lived that life.
FS: Anything else you’d want to add?
DK: I’d just want to thank him, many times…look into his eyes and say ‘thank you so much,’ because he really touched me as a person, and changed my confidence, for sure. Changed the way I believed in myself, and how I do business on the World Cup. For sure, it’s just very sad to hear skiing has lost someone with so much experience. And, really, personality. There’s not a party or conversation that Inge wouldn’t be in.
He loved it. He really just embodied the passion of our sport. He could never step away from it. He just lived and breathed it. There’s not many of us that can really say that they truly and deeply, 100-percent-felt, through-and-through, that they loved the sport. And I think Inge really embodied that. He just has a true passion for the sport. That’s not lip service. He lived it.
FS: So, it sounds like it’s been a pretty tough last few days for you guys. First Inge, and then today, Toronto Star amateur sports correspondent Randy Starkman—who covered cross-country skiing—also passed away.
DK: I can’t believe it. I just thought he had pneumonia. 2012, and he’s a really fit 51-year-old. Who dies of pneumonia at 51? That’s super-tragic.
He interviewed me when I sucked. I was awful. I wasn’t being interviewed by anyone. He was just passionate about sport. I feel like he was behind me all the way, and I feel like that’s pretty unique. If you’re not in Quebec, I think that’s pretty unique. With the skier cross guy, Nick [Zoricic], and Sarah Burke, 2012’s been rough on many fronts.
After going from zero to hero between 2007 and 2009, Dario Cologna took a step backwards in 2010, falling to fourth in the race for the Crystal Globe. While he was still undeniably one of the strongest men in the World Cup field, as his bronze medal on the Tour de Ski and gold in the Olympic 15 k show, Cologna’s leg injury in the fall slowed him at start to the season. He failed to crack the top 10 until December 19 in Rogla, Slovenia, and his first medal came during the fifth stage of the Tour de Ski, during a slightly awkward sprint finish with Petter Northug and Marcus Hellner.
But more importantly, Switzerland wasn’t just the Dario Cologna show last year. Curdin Perl was a solid-if-not-spectacular distance skier, and more
Curdin Per's FIS profile picture
importantly, looks like he really loves life. Toni Livers and Remo Fischer were similar, and after the first race at the Olympics, where all four skiers finished a Canadian-esque top 17 on the day, hopes were high for the relay. But they were unable to pull off a Czech-like upset there.
As for the sprinters, Eligius Tamborino was the best after Cologna. His chief problem is his abysmal classic sprinting, in which he failed to qualify for a single set of heats, while in skate he made the cut.
As for women, things are a little light. Silvana Bucher was the best of the lot, collecting all her points in just three stops on the circuit – most notably finishing sixth in the competitive skate sprint in Oslo, Norway. Meanwhile Bettina Gruber, currently nursing a shoulder injury, skate sprinted well, although like Tamborino, her classic technique could use some work.
In other news, longtime women’s team stalwart Laurence Rochat has decided to end her career. At the same time, sprinter Seraina Mischol, who scored over 500 World Cup points in 2008, was pegged to retire after collecting just one point last season. But she’s still training hard.
What You Should Know For This Season
Despite finishing fourth and taking a large hit in World Cup points in 2009-2010, Cologna is nowhere near finished. He is arguably the third best all-around skier on the World Cup, after Northug and Hellner, and is a good bet to finish in the top 10 no matter what race is on tap.
While he may have the worst nickname on the circuit (Super Dario – really?) Cologna does have a massive fan club, with nearly 6,000 fans on Facebook. In comparison, FasterSkier has a paltry 600.
If you thought the Canadians had a confusing and convoluted coaching history, check out Switzerland. The Swiss briefly picked up Canadian castoff Inge Braten this spring, but he failed to stick, and after dismissing him this fall, they opted instead for Guri Hetland (wife of former Norwegian sprint star and current Swiss sprint coach, Tor Arne Hetland) to lead their distance team, with Fredrik Aukland, Dario Cologna’s personal coach, in a support role. Still not really sure who is coaching whom in Switzerland? Yeah, us neither.
For immediate World Cup success, Silvana Bucher is the best bet. She has the speed, obviously knows the sprint course in Oslo quite well, and won two distance races plus the sprint at Swiss National Championships last year.
OSLO, Norway – Dario Cologna and his Swiss teammate Curdin Perl are familiarizing themselves with the terrain for February’s events and training on the courses for the Oslo 2011 World Championships. But although Cologna was in town, he sat out the uphill race called “Oslo’s Steepest” last Saturday – an event that has lactic acid gushing through every muscle fiber for about 15 brutal minutes of running.
“Dario didn’t want to risk anything. He is suffering from a minor leg injury,” said his personal coach Fredrik Aukland, who accompanied Cologna. However, Cologna hung out at the finish to greet his teammate Curdin Perl as he hauled into a respectable fourth place.
“Petter Northug will be the guy to watch at the Worlds. The pressure is on him after the last season and the Worlds being on home turf,” Cologna said to the Norwegian TV station TV2, and he also mentioned Marcus Hellner (SWE) as a serious contender. While Cologna admits that a gold medal at the Worlds is one of his season goals, he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.
Taking notes at Holmenkollen
Cologna and Perl just finished their five-day stay in Oslo with their coach Fredrik Aukland, where the Swiss skiers spent their days studying the courses at Holmenkollen down to the smallest detail.
Dario Cologna won the 15 k freestyle at the 2010 Olympics, the opening event for the cross-country skiers in Whistler. He was also third at the 2010 Tour de Ski last season, while he won that event the previous season. He also won the overall World Cup in 2009.
Curdin Perl could be an outsider contender. He was second at the U-23 World Championships mass start in 2004 (behind Cologna), and he has won the massive Norwegian marathon event, the Skarverennet – a race that is capped at 12,000 participants and filled up within an hour after the online registration for the 2011 event opened last week. Perl feels particularly at home in Oslo now that he is dating the Norwegian national team racer Astrid Urenholdt Jacobsen.
From Langd.se, October 4, 2010 By Kjell Erik Kristiansen, translation by Inge Scheve
Dasha Gaiazova racing in the Canmore World Cup in February. Photo, Win Goodbody.
Dasha Gaiazova exploded onto the North American cross-country scene this past season. She dominated the Nor-Am Cup Circuit, earning seven victories, and never once did she step off the podium in her 11 starts in North America.
Gaiazova also made her mark on the international arena, collecting 63 World Cup points. After being an alternate at the Turin Games in 2006, she earned her first Olympic starts for the Canadian team in Vancouver in the sprint, the pursuit and the relay.
Gaiazova did not take the most conventional route to skiing success. Born in Moscow, the daughter of state microbiologists, Gaiazova and her family were settled in Russia until the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the following economic uncertainty. At that point, the family decided to move.
“My dad always wanted to retire in the USA. That was his dream,” said Gaiazova in an interview on Wednesday. Instead, her father found a job in Montreal, and in 1999 the family immigrated to Canada.
The move from Russia to Canada was not easy. Gaiazova described it as “hard and shocking.” However, she credits skiing as helping to smooth the transition. In Russia, Gaiazova was part of a club, and entered a few races for fun. Soon after she moved to Canada, she saw someone roller skiing in Montreal. “I’m going to ask him for the phone number for his club, because I miss skiing,” she remembered.
The club ended up being Skielite, and she skied and trained with the Montreal-based group for five years. In 2003, Gaiazova moved to Canmore, Alberta, to train and live at the hub of Canadian National Team activity, but still remained a member of Skielite.
Now 26 years old, Gaiazova has established herself as one of the top female skiers in North America after a trip to World Juniors in 2003, 14 Canadian National Championships medals, and appearances at World Championships in 2007 and 2009.
Unlike many other North American athletes, Gaiazova has opted for a more gentle climb in her quest for the top, racing in significantly more Alpen Cups and other European Continental Cup events. Since 2004, she competed in 24 such events, including a two-week stint in 2008 that included five races in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
Gaiazova racing in the individual sprint at the 2010 Olympic Games.
These European events are of similar caliber to the Nor-Am or Supertour competitions in North America, but with significantly deeper fields.
“Racing those races, if anything, made me more comfortable with racing in Europe. Just because it’s a lower-key event and naturally, you’re not as freaked out about it,” said Gaiazova. She credits these competitions, as well as the experience traveling and racing away from home, as easing her transition to the World Cup level.
For Gaiazova, “successes you get in Europe are huge, and a huge confidence booster.” Her goal at those Continental Cups was merely to prove that she could race fast, and earn World Cup starts, rather than win the European circuit outright.
Despite a stellar campaign in 2008-2009, in the spring of that year, Gaiazova was not named to the Canadian National Ski Team. However, in April of 2009, the International Ski Federation announced that Natalia Matveeva had tested positive for EPO. The Russian sprinter’s results from the latter part of the season were stricken from the record books, which bumped Gaiazova’s World Cup points up enough to place her on the Canadian Development Team last year.
While Gaiazova was not actively supervised by Inge Bråten, the coach of Canada’s World Cup Team, she did have the opportunity to train with that group on a regular basis. Bråten invited her to most workouts, which Gaiazova described as “new and exciting.” In one session in particular, she remembered, “Inge was big on one-skating (V2) and two-skating (V2-alternate) up steep hills, and I’m like, ‘I can’t do this! I have to offset (V1)!’” The first few times she found it really hard, but eventually, Gaiazova improved, and she said she felt it was these new training experiences that helped take her racing to the next level.
It seems to have paid off. Besides her success on the domestic circuit, Gaiazova started 11 World Cups, finishing 12th twice in classic sprints in Canmore and Otepää. She was named to the Canadian Olympic Team, and skied to 22nd in the classic sprint at the Vancouver Games.
When the Canadian Senior National Team announced their roster of the 2010/11 season, Gaiazova had earned a spot on the World Cup Team.
Gaiazova attributed much of her success to quality and consistent training in the dryland season. “I looked back…in my training log, and I realized I did quality work, and I didn’t miss any critical training due to sickness or illness,” she said. “I think that was key to my good racing last winter—really good preparation.”
One particular piece seems to stand out.
“Every day in the back of my mind, I remembered why I was out there and why I was pushing hard: because I wanted to be racing in Whistler,” Gaiazova said.
Despite her success last season, Gaiazova is intent on pushing herself forward for her 2010-2011 campaign. “I’m going to try to do better in sprints,” she said. “I always thought of myself of as distance racer, and now I’m loving sprints, and I’m doing well in them.”
The sprint and the sprint relay are her two big goals for next season’s World Championships in Oslo, Norway—Gaiazova said she hopes to make it to the semi finals in the individual sprint.
What does she think will push her to the next level? “I need to work my starts,” she said. “Need to be quick out of the gate.”
Dave Wood served as team leader for the Canadians for the last two years, and worked with the athletes at the 2010 Olympic Games.
Following his resignation last week, longtime Canadian coach and team leader Dave Wood said that he was leaving to take a coaching opportunity with a club closer to his girlfriend, and that his parting from Cross Country Canada (CCC) had been amicable.
Current and former CCC athletes all praised Wood’s contributions to the organization over the last dozen years. But in interviews, they also acknowledged that Wood’s last year with the program was marked by tension.
At the Olympics, one athlete said he noticed a strained relationship between Wood and Inge Braten, the head coach at the time—who left his position at the end of the winter. And later this spring, according to a former national team member, CCC athletes pushed for changes to Wood’s role in the organization.
Wood denied that any tensions existed, and insisted that his decision to leave had been personal. But in an interview with FasterSkier, CCC Executive Director Davin Macintosh acknowledged that his organization conducted an “extensive review” of the High Performance System—which includes the National Team, and Wood’s position—after the Olympics.
The resulting plan for the next year, he said, “did include slightly different roles for people.”
“We invited the parties to fill the roles that we’d defined, and Dave took a long, hard, think about his future, and I guess he’s decided that other things are pulling at him, and that the best way forward for him is not to continue in the role he had,” he said.
Olympic Tensions?
A last-minute addition to the Canadian Olympic team, Gord Jewett was named to the squad in late-January. In Vancouver, Jewett raced in the 15 k freestyle, finishing in 52nd, just over two and a half minutes behind winner Dario Cologna.
During the Games, Jewett said, Braten and Wood did not seem to be on the same page. Their answers to logistical questions were sometimes different, which left Jewett feeling like he had to make a decision to talk with one or the other “to confirm details around training or preparation.”
“In my view, the relationship between Dave Wood and Inge Braten was strained at the Olympics, and the lack of communication between the two marginalized the ability of the team to be prepared,” Jewett said. “They weren’t communicating well, and that affected the overall organization of our team.”
Reached on vacation in Tunisia, Braten denied any conflict existed.
“I thought it was okay always with Dave,” Braten said. He added that the reason that he left his job at the end of the winter was unrelated to Wood, “or anybody else.”
Asked whether there were problems with communication between Braten and Wood at the Olympics, CCC Director of High Performance Tom Holland—who oversees the National Team—said that the two were “very professional.”
“We had very clear roles, all of us, going into the Games,” he said. “People delivered on their roles. We had some hard decisions to make—we made those decisions as a team.”
While Braten was the second straight Scandinavian coach to leave Canada after one year, Holland said “it’s difficult bringing people in from a different country—particularly overseas.”
“What we’ve discovered in the past four years is that we have something unique in Canada,” he said. “People have to be able to fit into that. We can’t be changing the system every two, three, four years in terms of the way we operate.”
Interest in Change
When Wood left his position at the national team last week, he told FasterSkier he had made the decision unilaterally, in order to take a job with a club in Rossland, BC.
But according to a former Canadian National Team member, CCC athletes had pushed for changes in the High Performance System at the end of the season—especially to Wood’s role.
“The athletes are always accountable for their performances based on results, and they haven’t felt as though there’s been that same level of accountability towards the administrative side of the High Performance [System],” the former National Team member said.
At the end of the four-year Olympic cycle, the former team member continued, the CCC athletes felt that it was time to “push forward on what they needed out of the national team program, and create a stronger system.”
When contacted by FasterSkier, four different National Team athletes declined to comment on the details of Wood’s departure. But Drew Goldsack, the national ski team representative to CCC, acknowledged that “there had been some tension” in the program.
“I don’t think the athletes were pushing for Dave to be fired,” he said. “But there was interest in change—in some major changes.”
Wood denied that there had been conflict or tension between him and the team, saying that “athletes are always unhappy.”
“They always want more—they don’t like to get pushed. That’s normal,” he said.
Macintosh, the CCC executive director, said that the post-Olympic review conducted by his organization was “extremely engaging” for the skiers. The resulting plan for the next year, he said, “responded to the concerns raised by athletes.”
“The organization firmly believes that there’s a role for Dave in that, and we’re sad to see him go,” said Macintosh. “We came up with the best structure from the organization’s perspective, but we can’t force people to work with us.”
Tasha Betcherman, the athlete representative to CCC’s board of directors, told FasterSkier in an interview that in the past, Canadian athletes have felt “that they have not had a direct contribution to some of the decisions on leadership.”
“But that is definitely changing,” she said. “After the Olympics is a really good time for reflection, and I think that the athletes were definitely heard.”
In a press release on the CCC website posted Wednesday, Macintosh said that Wood will continue with the organization doing “contract work.” As of Monday, the organization had not yet determined how it would fill the void created by Wood’s departure.
As much as anyone might begrudge Team Canada coaches Dave Wood and National Inge Braten’s decision to sit Brian McKeever in Sunday’s 50 k classic, it’s hard to disagree with the fact that the two were presented with an agonizing choice.
While starting McKeever would have meant making history—the Canadian would have been the first athlete to compete in both the winter Olympics and Paralympics—it also would have meant holding a potential medal contender out of the race. Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, George Grey, and Ivan Babikov are all skiing well, and each has a legitimate—if small—chance for the podium in the 50 k.
Wood said that he expected for one of those four to be run down by this point, two weeks into the Games—that’s why there was a reasonable belief that McKeever would get a start in the first place.
“Normally, that happens,” he said. “Since 2003, I don’t think we’ve ever made four guys in the 50 k. There’s always something [that] happens—guys run out of gas, they get sick, they get hurt.”
But with those four all healthy and fired up to compete, Wood said that there’s no holding them back. And at this level, the only kind of history coaches get credit for making is when they win.
“It’s quite hard for us to put guys that are skiing, you know, they’ve all been top-ten—to put them on the bench,” he said. “It’s nothing against Brian, but they’re better.”
While McKeever may have won the 50 k at the Canadian Olympic team trials in December, none of the four starters for Sunday’s event competed in that race.
Wood downplayed the significance of the whole situation, saying that all the attention turns it into a “sideshow,” and distracts from the team’s main focus.
“It’s not really making history—he’s been at World Championships, he’s been on the World Cup,” he said. “It’s something that I think [is] difficult to manage in the team, too, because we’re here to race at the Olympics.”
While a start for McKeever would hold significance for the media, he added, “tomorrow that’s gone—and we can’t sell that to anybody.”
The Canadian men's team surrounding Ivan Babikov at the finish of the 30km pursuit.
Entering these 2010 Olympic Games, the top result by a Canadian man was a 14th by the legendary Pierre Harvey in 1988. Ivan Babikov bettered that with an 8th place in the 15km, but the best was yet to come.
Pierre Harvey’s son, Alex topped his father’s result, finishing 9th today. And he was the just the third Canadian across the line.
Babikov set yet another new record, finishing 5th, and in medal contention until the last 2 kilometers. And George Grey did Harvey one better, taking 8th, in what he described as “the highlight of my career.”
Devon Kershaw rounded out the impressive Canadian quartet, taking 16th in what he termed a “disappointing” race.
George Grey leads Ivan Babikov in the skate leg.
Said Kershaw “To have three Canadians in the top-10 is pretty inspiring. Hopefully we can hold this form and will see bigger and better things. I’m so proud of my teammates.”
Silver medalist on the day Tobias Angerer was impressed with the host team. “Ivan and Alex and George, they were really really strong and had fantastic skis. They are a strong team and I think for the relay they have great chances.,” the German veteran told media.
The Canadians were right in the race from the start, much to the delight of the large crowd. With temperatures climbing toward 50 and the sun bright once again, it was a great day for both racing and spectating.
Lukas Bauer (CZE) and Dario Cologna (SUI) pushed the race early, trying to break up the large pack. They were unable to get away, and Canada’s finest had no trouble maintaining the pace.
“I felt so comfortable in the classic,” said Kershaw. “I felt like I was in zone 3 – skiing fast, skiing smooth.”
That seemed to be the case for all four men. Grey slipped off the leaders for a short time, but was able to climb back aboard and recover in the draft.
“It seemed like people were skiing a bit slowly, or maybe I was feeling good,” described Grey. “So I thought ‘hey I’m going to the front, I’m not going to try any kind of superman move here, but I’ll lead it for a bit and ski my own pace, not skiing on people’s tails.’”
Four years ago in Torino, Grey was at the front of the 50k early in the race. At that point he didn’t belong there, and his result proved it as he finished 44th. Today was obviously different as both he and his teammates once again confirmed that they are as good as anyone.
“That went well [moving to the front],” continued Grey. “I got some energy back and had a solid skate race.”
Grey was right about the pace – when his early attacks failed, Bauer slowed up, and no one else took over. This continued until the transition to skate, when Johan Olsson of Sweden attacked hard out the stadium. He immediately got a gap and his Swedish teammates controlled the chasers to give him a chance to pull away.
The Canadians stayed in good position in this group, working off each other, and not trying anything foolish – like attempting to bridge up to Olsson.
According to Grey, the Canadians did not play the tactic game like the Swedes, but having four teammates around cannot be discounted.
“It helps to have your team around you. We train together, we race together…so we know if one our teammates pulls up beside us and we have a moment of weakness, you jump on their tails and ski with them – you can relax mentally and get back in your race.”
Kershaw going for it.
The pack continued to shrink as the race went on. Kershaw and Harvey both appeared to be struggling to hold on at times, and when he took a fall midway through the race, Kershaw’s chance to join his teammates in the top-10 evaporated.
“Personally I’m disappointed in myself today. I fell apart a bit in the skate leg, pretty disappointing for me. I must be a little tired personally. I didn’t have the snap in the skate, but we trained hard and prepared well.”
The last was in reference to the tough training the team did leading up to the Canmore World Cups. They didn’t perform well there – “terrible results” in the words of Kershaw. But those races were never the focus.
“Maybe I overdid it a little [with the pre-Olympic training]. But time will tell. We still have eight days left in these Olympics.”
The fall put Kershaw in a tough spot, just out of direct contact with the leaders. He was off on his own for some time, though several times he almost regained the pack.
“I hoped for four top-10’s,” Canadian coach Inge Braten said laughing. “But Devon had a fall midway through the race, or else I think he could have been there too.”
Harvey skied to a remarkably quiet 9th. With Babikov toward the front at the end, and Grey, skiing at a new level, Harvey, while not forgotten, seemed to fly a little under the radar.
He did not look as solid as the other two, and he confirmed that after the race.
Harvey putting the hurt on Petter Northug.
“I was at the limit 5k into the race. I was feeling ok, but I was lacking a bit of snap at the top of the hills and I was always trailing at the back of the pack. The pack was narrowing down a little bit, but I was always at the back.
Harvey was glad to see the early attacks by Bauer and Cologna that broke up the pack over time. “It is good when the pace picks up – it was just an eight-man group to the finish…It is not normal to have 20 guys at the line after 30km. Cross-country is supposed to be a hard sport.”
But he was not in position to be involved with any attacks or attempting to catch Olsson.
“I could never be a main actor in that group, because the legs were a bit heavy in the skating and even in the classic, but I am super happy with the result.”
Braten was quite pleased with the team – “we are clever” he told FasterSkier, but they are looking for the hardware. “We should like to have a medal!” the Norwegian concluded, in good humor.
He also noted that the Canadians have always been focused on the second half of the games. “We started mostly yesterday and today, and are looking forward to the relay and the 50k. And we should be strong in the team sprint with a couple of the guys.”
And while it was a record breaking performance for the Canadian men – they joined Sweden as the only teams with three in the top-10, and no other nation bested their 4 in the top-16 – Ivan Babikov’s individual performance was the highlight of the day.
Kershaw (2nd in left track) battles the leaders on the second classic lap.
Despite his 5th place finish, he was upset at the finish, and was consoled by teammates. One can speculate that he saw a medal within grasp, and was not able to grab it.
Babikov tweeted after the race “Happy with my 5th place,” and then “but it makes me sad when I think how close it was to the Olympic medal, and what if it was my only chance in my career?”
The chasers closed on Olsson over the last 3 kilometers, and with just 2.4 to go, Alexander Legkov (RUS) finally made a move, bringing eventual winner Marcus Hellner (SWE), Anders Soedergren (SWE), Petter Northug (NOR) and Tobias Angerer (GER) with him. Babikov was not able to match the pace initially, but he stayed with it and moved back up on the last climb. He overtook a fading Northug, who broke a pole when moving in front of Hellner, and entered the stadium just 50 meters back in 5th.
His finish was strong, and he made up some ground, but there was not enough race left. The numbers backed up what the eyes witnessed. He posted the fastest skate time of the day, and only Hellner was faster over the last kilometer. He may not have won a medal, but he made history for the second race in a row.
Babikov has had a remarkable Olympics and has two more races to go. With this performance, the Canadian men are set up to battle Sweden, Norway, Germany and Italy in the 4x10km relay. And the 50k plays to Babikov’s strengths – the harder the better.
At the halfway point in the 2010 Games, the Canadian men are stronger than ever before. And with Kershaw disappointed in a 16th, and Harvey skiing to 9th despite “tired legs” the future bodes well for the home team.
“We trained really hard to have days like today, so hopefully we can keep it rolling,” summed up Kershaw.
It was a tough week for the Canadian World Cup Team, but the group is determined to look forward by keeping their long-term plan in mind and refocus on their goals and priorities.
Alex Harvey, the top finisher in Saturday’s sprint, said the events of the week made it seem “ like the sky fell on us. . . .It made it really hard for the athletes to focus on the races. . .”.
The team did not qualify anyone for heats during Saturday’s sprint race. Sara Renner was the top placer for the women’s team, coming in 4.5 seconds out of qualifying in 42nd place. Behind her were Chandra Crawford in 49th and Perianne Jones in 51st. In the men’s race Alex Harvey was the top finisher at 55th, with Devon Kershaw in 60th.
Commented Harvey, “Personally, I did not expect anything special from this weekend result wise. I know I need a lot of races under my belt before I get going for real. I still thought that I could be in the top 30 though…”
Sunday’s race saw only a slight upswing in results, Ivan Babikov and Sara Renner the top finishers in 38th and 39th respectively. However, Chandra Crawford and George Grey, both coming back from injuries, had some positive finishes.
Both athletes are trying to get back into the flow of racing, and coach Wood told Cross Country Canada on Sunday, “We need to get Chandra some harder aerobic conditioning and I think she was a positive for us today.”
George Gray (photo: Morten Byskov)
Grey, who has been recovering from a torn ligament in his foot, said of Sunday’s distance race, “personally I was happy with my race. I was not expecting a good result and had other goals in mind. My foot did not re injure, I felt strong on the hills, and I finished the last 10km very well considering my past six weeks. Since I got back skiing just over two weeks ago I have steadily improved my total speed and hope that in two weeks I will be firing with all cylinders during the Davos World Cup.”
A major blow to the team occurred on Thanksgiving day when the team’s head coach, Inge Braten, slipped on some ice and broke his hip, putting him off the circuit for an undetermined amount of time. Meanwhile, Sara Renner, George Grey, and head coach, Dave Wood, were en route to the races. But because of numerous flight delays, which Gray describes as a “nightmare travel that took us over 50hours” the three arrived in Kuusamo just in time for the races. And further staffing issues on the team did not help to elevate the mood.
As Coach Wood commented to the Canadian Press after the weekend,” “It was a brutal trip over here for us and I think we are just a little flat right now. We need to have a good training period this week and regroup.”
Grey put the thought out that perhaps if the amount of summer training was the reason some of the team was feeling slow, perhaps this was a “good omen” for the Olympic games.
Sara Renner
Renner pointed out, “If there weren’t obstacles, it would be boring”. She added the reminder that competition is so fierce on the World Cup that if an athlete or team is feeling a little off, it shows in a big way. Renner, however, is confident in the team’s ability to bounce back. “Luckily things turn around and we are a team with a sense of humor and confidence… important attributes for success. Our team spirit will keep us floating!”
![](http://www.statisticalskier.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/braten_nor.png" "braten_nor")
![](http://www.statisticalskier.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/braten_swe.png" "braten_swe")
![](http://www.statisticalskier.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/braten_can.png" "braten_can")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2009/11/4657718_252507.jpg" "Inge Braten")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/kershaw.jpg" "Devon Kershaw gunning for a medal")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/03/ts-can-1-web.jpg" "Alex Harvey (R) and Devon Kershaw (L) celebrating their World Championships gold.")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/can-team.jpg" "The Canadian men's team surrounding Ivan Babikov at the finish of the 30km pursuit.")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/can-gray-babs.jpg" "George Grey leads Ivan Babikov in the skate leg.")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/can-kershaw.jpg" "Kershaw going for it.")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/can-harvey-noth.jpg" "Harvey putting the hurt on Petter Northug.")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/can-kershaw-pack.jpg" "Kershaw (2nd in left track) battles the leaders on the second classic lap.")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/can-babs-fin.jpg" "Babikov - bittersweet.")
![Alex harvey](http://images.fasterskier.com/2009/11/alex-harvey-skate.jpg")
![George Gray (photo: Morten Byskov)](http://images.fasterskier.com/2009/11/George-Gray-Photo-Morten-Byskov.jpg")
![Sara Renner](http://images.fasterskier.com/2009/11/sara-renner-classic.jpg")