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Tag: Rickard Grip

  • U.S. Ski Team Lines Up Summer Training From Alaska to Ramsau

    U.S. Ski Team Lines Up Summer Training From Alaska to Ramsau

    Randall and Stephen training with the Mora Ski Club last summer. They'll be back to Sweden this August, this time with the rest of the USST women. Courtesy photo.

    In the months following its first camp of the year in Bend, Ore., the U.S. Ski Team (USST) has several new training destinations planned along with its old standbys: the men and women will split up and head to Alaska, Sweden, Austria and Germany over the course of the summer. And for the first time since its first trip to New Zealand 10 years ago, the Snow Farm is completely off the schedule.

    The women’s summer begins in familiar territory: the “North American Women’s Training Alliance” will coalesce once again for a June camp in Anchorage, Alaska. The Americans, Canadians and an unnamed European guest will take advantage of Eagle Glacier for quality time on American snow.

    August brings a new training opportunity for most of the women: they’ll jet off to Scandinavia where they have a joint camp planned with the Swedish women. Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephen both did a tour of Sweden last summer with their host Anna Haag, but with the rest of their teammates along for the ride this time, what began as a friendship between Haag and the Americans has turned into a full-scale, two-week training period in Salem and Torsby for each team’s full roster.

    A collaborative camp on this level between the U.S. and a European national team is unprecedented, at least in USST head coach Chris Grover’s memory. The idea was discussed in January in the midst of the Tour de Ski, when Swedish women’s coach Rickard Grip cited Randall’s skate technique and the value of exposure to a non-Scandinavian approach to skiing among the benefits to training with the Americans.

    The results the U.S. women posted on the World Cup this winter played no small role, either.

    “I think because of the women’s team making a big step forward and having World Cup contenders, that becomes more attractive to a team like the Swedes than perhaps it was before,” said Grover.

    “I’m psyched it’s coming to fruition.”

    Dachstein glacier. Photo: Erik Nilsson.

    While the American women are in Sweden, the men will be in central Europe — first to Ramsau, Austria, home of the Dachstein glacier, and then on to Oberhof, Germany to use the indoor ski hall.

    The traditional New Zealand trip, which has been a staple of the USST’s summer training in some capacity since 2002, is off the schedule this year. The Southern Hemisphere is simply too far and too expensive for it to make sense any more.

    “It was tough to pull away from because it’s such fantastic conditions, great living, and such a solid camp,” said Grover.

    Besides airfare more than doubling in recent years, Grover added that the lengthy travel and 16-hour time zone adjustment (from EDT) made the Snow Farm a less practical option. Europe is a cheaper flight and only six hours ahead of the eastern U.S.

    “We talked for a while about going to Europe, and we felt it was time to do something different,” said Grover. “And it would be a little easier on our budget as well.”

    Dachstein is a mecca for nordic skiers year-round, and in the summer is frequented by European clubs and national teams. Grover wasn’t sure who else would be in Ramsau in August, but knew the Norwegian men would be in Oberhof for the tail end of the USST’s camp there.

    “We may look for opportunities to schedule workouts with the Norwegians if it’s possible, but we have nothing planned at this time,” he said.

  • Kikkan Randall’s New Friends? Emil Jönsson’s Parents. Swedish-American Ties Deepen

    Swedish sprinter Emil Jönsson says he enjoys "talking shit" with the Americans.

    During Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy, spectators standing at just the right spot on the race course could have witnessed something surprising enough to make them choke on their cappuccinos: two Swedish fans screaming at the top of their lungs for Kikkan Randall, the American cross-country ski racer.

    The scene made little sense, until one realized that the fans were the parents of Emil Jönsson, the star Swedish sprinter and boyfriend of Anna Haag—the member of the Swedish women’s team whom Randall had visited last June for a training camp.

    After blossoming last summer, the friendship between the Swedes and Americans has continued to flower through the competition season, injecting some fun into what can sometimes be a dreary winter. And now, the relationship may be developing even further: The two squads are mulling plans for a joint, group training camp in Europe next summer, according to coaches from both teams.

    “I think it could be the start of something good,” Rickard Grip, the Swedish women’s coach, told FasterSkier. “We will see what happens.”

    Anna Haag (l) with Liz Stephen (center) and Kikkan Randall during their camp last summer. Courtesy photo.

    The growing ties between the two teams have kept things interesting on the four-month-long World Cup circuit, Randall said. The tour can sometimes wear down the Americans, since they’re staying in Europe, away from their families and friends, for the entire season.

    “It’s just made it even more like home here this winter,” Randall said. “When we’re all staying at the same hotel, we can go have a meal with another team, talk about some different things. And so, I think it just keeps everybody fresh.”

    She has met the Swedes for coffee, skied with Haag and others on the trails, and expects to do even more throughout the rest of the winter.

    It’s not just the Americans who are benefitting, though. Jönsson, the Swedish sprint star, said that he’s enjoyed having a few more people on the circuit “to talk shit with.” For the Scandinavians, he said, cross-country skiing can be a matter of “life or death,” and the connections he’s developed with the Americans have helped him keep some perspective.

    “I think it’s a little bit too serious in Sweden and Norway,” he said. “It’s good for us just to relax, a little bit.”

    But the exchanges between the two teams have been more than just idle chatter, and a chance for the Swedes to practice their English. They’ve also extended to sport.

    At their camp in Sweden last summer, Grip said, Haag was keeping an eye on Randall, who has developed over the last few years into one of the best sprinters in the world.

    “[Randall] moves really well on the skis, and has good technique,” Grip said. “Anna was looking, a little bit, at what

    Kikkan Randall sprinting during the Tour de Ski.

    she does.”

    The Swedish women, Grip added, have a lot to learn from athletes who come from different cultures.

    “If you’re being too small, and you’re thinking, thinking of your skiing and [only] everything like that, I think you also block your opportunity to be a better and better skier,” he said. “You can talk always about training and training, but…personality has to grow up.”

    While American culture may be new and different, one of the main reasons the Swedes have engaged with Randall and the rest is the growing strength of the U.S. women’s team, according to Chris Grover, the American head coach.

    That strength, Grover added, is also why a joint training camp might work out.

    The details of such a camp won’t be settled until the spring, and it’s by no means guaranteed that one will happen. But Grover said that he had discussed the idea with Grip, and that the Swedes are “very open to it”—a sign, he added, of a growing level of respect for the Americans from some of the Scandinavian ski powerhouses.

    In the past, the Norwegians or Swedes might have been reticent about giving the Americans an opportunity to train with, and learn from, their own athletes. But now, the Americans actually have something to offer, Grover said.

    “Obviously, they have a lot of talent in their own squads,” he said. “But I think some of those teams can see that we have a really talented group of young ladies, too, so that they could get something out of having our ladies there to train with. Otherwise, it just becomes more logistics for them.”

    Other collaborations in the works include a potential visit by Haag to North America for some late-season racing this year; she told FasterSkier during the Tour de Ski that she hasn’t made up her mind about a trip.

    Randall also said she would invite the Swedes to the U.S. team’s annual spring camp in Oregon.

    “We’ll see if they come,” she said.

    But regardless of how all the plans play out, it’s clear that both the Americans and the Swedes have forged some bonds that will last for a while.

    “I think it’s awesome,” Jönsson said. “Me and Anna—we have found friends for life.”

     

  • While Men Ski Mountain Pass, Women Ski Laps; TDS Field Reacts

    While Men Ski Mountain Pass, Women Ski Laps; TDS Field Reacts

    A view of the men's course for Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski.

    TOBLACH, Italy – Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski, which took place Thursday, is the event’s crown jewel: a 35-kilometer point-to-point race that sent competitors up an over a mountain pass, with the craggy Dolomites as a stunning backdrop.

    Or, to be more precise, it sent male competitors up and over a mountain pass, with the craggy Dolomites as a stunning backdrop. The women, meanwhile, skied three laps of a standard five-kilometer course on the trails in Toblach, never heading up high to the rugged alpine scenery.

    We checked in with a number of coaches and athletes to see what they thought of the discrepancy.

    Marit Bjoergen (NOR): “For us it is better, because when [there is] a group, and…one in front, it is hard to go in front. But for us, when the track is round, it is easier to go alone. I think it is better to do it like this.”

    Rickard Grip (Swedish women’s coach): “Actually, I think it’s a little boring that they go on this normal 5 k track for three laps. I think it would be interesting to see if the ladies started where the men will start. They wouldn’t [have to] go the first three or four k—the men go all the way down here, then they go the 5 k loop, then in the finish. So, I think maybe the women could go on the track to here, and then not make any laps [on the 5 k loop), or maybe do a really short one, or something.”

    “I think it would be interesting to see about that, because it’s a little bit boring that they just go [in Toblach].”

    Kikkan Randall (USA): “Last year I was kind of up in arms about, ‘Hey, why do the guys get to do a cool point-to-point race, and we don’t?’  But after skiing here, I felt like it was a really good course, and it still accomplishes, you know—people gapping together, people spreading out. And I think for us to do a point-to-point course, it was going to be mostly downhill, so I think it’s a good venue…there’s still plenty of exciting racing.”

    Sami Jauhojaervi (FIN): “The [35 k] track is not the best possible for ladies. A lady who is skiing alone will lose from one to three minutes, compared to a group, which can change the leader all the time. It would change too much. The time differences in ladies are already now big—too big.”
    “Of course, us men, it’s nice to have some challenge, but of course on the lady’s side, it’s huge gaps. And those would be even more huge. So the number three [lady] would start in the wave, [if] they would do this 35 k.”

    On an alternative: “They could, for example, in this stadium—they could do some uphill, and then come down from another track. For five kilometers, flat-uphill, seven kilometers to 10 down, then some loop in the stadium.”

    Astrid Jacobsen (NOR): “Of course we could race 35, but I think the day we should race 35, we should also have the same distance for the shorter races. Like, [in the prologue in Toblach], we had three [k], they had five [k]. And I think also—it’s bigger gaps between the women and the men, so if we had a 30 k, it would be really not interesting any more. Because I think it would just be one skier, [then] two minutes, one skier…[That way], we’d get too big differences between the skiers, and then it’s not so much action any more…I think 30 k tomorrow would be maybe not so fun to watch.”

    Magnar Dalen (Finnish head coach): “I feel that it should have been much better that the women had the same type of race [as the men]. Because the race they have tomorrow on this hard track [the 5-kilometer loop] just separates the real good engine skiers more. If the ladies had had the same as the men—maybe five kilometers shorter, but still with a slight downhill—it would have been very interesting for the overall. Now, the Tour will be like [settled] tomorrow. Not who is one and two, but all the others behind will have big problems, and impossibilities for the podium.”
    “It’s a hard track [the one the women are skiing]. It’s an extremely hard track at high altitude. (Toblach is at roughly 4,000 feet above sea level.) I don’t see any reason—why are the girls skiing a harder track than the boys?”
    On the feelings of the Finnish women: “They want to have it the same as we had at the beginning of the Tour de Ski—then they were starting [the same course as the men].”

    Charlotte Kalla (SWE): “I don’t know. I’m very focused that it should be 15 kilometers…it’s enough with 15 kilometers.”

    “It would be fun to go from one place to another, but I don’t want to go 15 kilometers downhill.”

  • Swedish Surprise: Ingemarsdotter, Kalla in Team Sprint

    Swedish Surprise: Ingemarsdotter, Kalla in Team Sprint

    Charlotte Kalla in the women's 10km classic.

    The Swedish sprint relay team selection was a surprise for Charlotte Kalla, although the coaches have been tossing the idea around for a couple of days, especially as Hanna Falk doesn’t seem to have nailed the peak for the World Championships.

    “If you had asked me last summer if I thought I’d be racing the team sprint at the world Championships I would have laughed,” Kalla admitted.

    Good course

    But the decision being what it is, both Kalla and Ingemarsdotter are excited for the race.

    “I think the course suits us well as a team,” said Ida Ingemarsdotter. She pointed out that there are several teams that will be fighting for the hardware in the women’s teams sprint: Norway and Finland are the obvious suspects, both teams that have proven their position in Holmenkollen this week, but Ingemarsdotter also doesn’t rule out Italy and Slovenia in the mix for the medals.

    Norway’s team will consist of Maiken Caspersen Falla and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, giving Marit Bjoergen an extra rest day before the relay on Thursday.

    “I think we could beat the competitors with an ambush, come up from behind,” said Ingemarsdotter, who is not worried about racing the team sprint the day before possibly racing the 4x5K relay on Thursday.

    “The rest of the season we do back to back races on the World Cup all the time. You learn to just put your head down and get the job done,” Ingemarsdotter said.

    Ida Ingemarsdotter also in the 10k classic. She has added distance racing to her sprint-heavy resumé.

    Confident in Kalla

    Sweden’s national team coach Rickard Grip said he felt that he had named the most promising team for the race, based on Kalla’s improvement in classic technique the last season.

    Over the past season, Kalla has made several strong bids for classic starts. In Kuusamo in November, she placed fourth in the classic sprint, and during Tour de Ski Kalla delivered a solid 11th place in the classic sprint.

    “I really feel like I nailed my peak this week. It will be exciting to see what Ida and I can do out there tomorrow,” Kalla said. “I hope I’m able to ski to my potential tomorrow. We’re skiing for a medal.”