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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Snow Farm

  • Campbell Wright: The U.S. Biathlete Who Believes in Luck—and Hard Work

    Campbell Wright: The U.S. Biathlete Who Believes in Luck—and Hard Work

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    Campbell Wright might just be the United States’ greatest biathlete. Born to American parents who emigrated to New Zealand in 1993, the 23-year-old joined the U.S. team in 2023 by using his dual citizenship. Since the change, he’s continued his progression and notched some of the best results the U.S. program has ever seen. Wright became the first U.S. biathlete to win two medals at a World Championships when he took home two silver medals from the 2025 championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. He’s been training around the world – Italy, the U.S. and New Zealand – as he prepares for the 2026 Olympics. Get to know Wright as he tells his story with a mix of humor and candor, and explains his philosophy on luck that’ll have you rooting for him even harder.

    This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.

    Campbell Wright (USA) on his way to his second straight silver medal at the IBU World Championships Biathlon, in Lenzerheide (SUI). (Photo: NordicFocus)

    You’re on the national team with my sister, Chloe, but we haven’t met, and I honestly don’t know much about you. How did you get into cross-country skiing and then biathlon?

    My getting into cross-country skiing is the result of one person: Mary Lee. She and her husband started the cross-country Snowfarm in New Zealand. She was my neighbor. My parents had four boys and had their hands pretty full. So when she offered to take us kids cross-country skiing, they were like, “Yeah, go for it!” I started cross-country skiing when I was about 10 and just really enjoyed the vibe up there. It was pretty chill, pretty laid back, not as high-stress as alpine skiing.

    That’s so lucky Mary was your neighbor. It sounds like without her, you might’ve never become a skier.

    She also took me over to my first-ever skiing race in Australia when I was probably 11. She organized for me to go to Canada on an exchange with a skier. So when I was 14 I went to Ontario. That’s when I really started loving skiing a lot, because that’s the first time I ever saw people my age skiing. The cross-country skiing scene in North America is just epic, I really fell in love with cross-country skiing properly there. That’s when I was like, Oh, I’d really love to be a skier.

    Campbell Wright (USA) after the IBU World Championships Biathlon, sprint in Lenzerheide (SUI). (Photo: NordicFocus)

    How long were you there?

    Four weeks. I was able to race against other kids, which was great because in New Zealand, I didn’t know if I was good or bad or somewhere in the middle because there was no one to race against. I was pretty shocked, realizing I wasn’t horrible at skiing. My brother (who is a professional cyclist) talked about how Europe is more competitive, so I also had the opportunity to go train with the Australian biathlon team in Italy. I was at the training sessions with everyone, and then when a race came, they would all go to a biathlon race, and I would just stay at the hostel by myself. I realized Europeans are a bit better at skiing than North Americans, and that I should try to spend more time in Europe and try biathlon properly. If I wanted to go to Europe and train with a group, biathlon was my opportunity to do it. I spent school holidays in Europe, a few more weeks every year. And then when I was 18, I left school and spent four months in Europe.

    What was the team like?

    Pretty much every single biathlon federation that didn’t have enough money to actually make a team gave Australian biathlon a little bit of money and became part of their team. So it was like Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, all kinds of working together. There were about 30 of us living in bunks in a hostel while training in Europe. There were teenagers up to 40 years old. It was good to see, as a young person, that not everyone has everything available to them. It’s a privilege to get to do what I do.

    Campbell Wright (USA) celebrates his silver medal at the IBU World Championships Biathlon in the men’s pursuit in Lenzerheide (SUI). (Photo: NordicFocus)

    You were with the New Zealand team until 2022 and represented them in the Olympics in 2022. What made you want to join the U.S. Team?

    I worked with Emil Bormetti from when I was 15 to 19. When I went from the IBU Cups and junior cups to training with the older athletes, I had a different coach. Once I stopped getting coached by Emil, I started enjoying biathlon a lot less. I was thinking about quitting biathlon a little bit. At the end of the season, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. I knew I wasn’t going to go back to train under my old coach. At the same time, Emil got the assistant coaching job with the U.S. I already had a U.S. passport. It just came at the absolute perfect time. I had just gotten good enough to probably qualify for the US World Cup team. Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey were two of my idols, and they were working for U.S. Biathlon, too. It was just a perfect time to swap. One day you’re like, Maybe I’m done doing this forever, and then the next day it’s just like, life-changing. 2023 was my first official season on the U.S. team.

    It certainly seems like it’s been the right choice. You’ve had some incredible results since joining the U.S. team. The best, of course, was at the World Championships in 2025, where you won two silver medals. What was that week like?

    Everyone wants to have their best race at World Champs, but I know that’s not the reality of the world. It doesn’t work like that. I thought if I had my best skiing day and my best shooting day, I might be able to get in the flowers. In the sprint, Ponsiluoma started a minute in front of me.  He’s probably a top 3 skier in the world in biathlon. I was thinking, If he misses three in prone then I can follow him on my second lap. I came into prone. I went clean, and I saw him coming out of the penalty loop and I was like, Holy sh*t, it actually happened. You just have to follow him, no matter how many matches you burn on this lap, if you want any chance to be near the front, you really just need to follow him.

    Campbell Wright (USA), Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR), Eric Perrot (FRA), (l-r) – IBU World Championships Biathlon, pursuit men, Lenzerheide (SUI). (Photo: NordicFocus)

    That’s such a risk, going that hard on a lap that leads right back into shooting.

    My second lap was pretty hot, like, I was redlining pretty hard. I came into standing and was like, OK, let’s just get these targets down. I don’t know how, but they all went down. On the last lap, I saw from the wax techs and everyone that I was doing pretty good, and everyone was screaming like, You’re probably gonna get a medal here! That will motivate you to ski fast.

    You got your silver medal in the sprint. And then that led to you having a great starting position in the pursuit, where you medaled again. Your face after the last shooting was one of the greatest moments of the season.

    I don’t know how I did it again, to be honest, because at Junior Worlds, I won the sprint and then proceeded to miss like eight in the pursuit. I was very much preparing for that mentally. I was like, Campbell, this could be a sh*t show. When you prepare for the worst and hope for the best, it’s a pretty good place to be. I came into the final shooting in second place. Eric Perrot and Sturla Laegreid were behind me. Those are the two best standing shooters on the World Cup. I knew I needed to shoot clean because I knew those guys were going to shoot clean. And sure enough, they both did. But I did, too. I knew I was safe. It was pretty fun to be me on that day.

    Campbell Wright (USA) takes aim during the men’s relay at the IBU World Championships in Lenzerheide (SUI) last February. (Photo: NordicFocus)

    We’re heading into an Olympic year. How excited are you? How are you feeling?

    I want to be a good biathlete. I would say I was a successful biathlete this past season, even without two World Champ medals. I’m a lot more proud of that than I am of it coming together on the right day, because I think there’s a huge component of luck there. You need to be f*cking lucky to get on a podium at the Olympics or World Champs because there’s probably 20 guys who can do it.

    That’s true, especially in your sport. Cross-country skiing alone would require luck to get on a podium. But then add in the variables of shooting, and there’s a lot of luck involved.

    I know in my heart that if Ponsiluoma didn’t miss three, I would not be a World Champs medalist. I can’t look myself in the mirror and say that luck wasn’t part of it.

    Campbell Wright (USA) climbing the Stelvio Pass in Livigno (ITA) during his summer training in July. (Photo: NordicFocus)

    Earlier, you spoke about how you got into biathlon as a way to train in Europe. But you’ve clearly fallen in love with the sport. What do you love about it?

    The thing I like most about biathlon is that it will break your heart, but then it also gives you these highs. That’s what I’m here for. A bit of thrill, a bit of heartbreak, a bit of theater. That’s what I love about it.

    Campbell Wright’s World Cup season will start in November in Östersund, Sweden. Olympic biathlon competitions begin on February 8th in Antholz, Italy.

    Campbell Wright (USA), Otto Invenius (FIN), and Paul Schommer (USA), (l-r) climbing the Stelvio Pass, Livigno (ITA), in July. (Photo: NordicFocus)

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    Campbell Wright (USA) is now setting his sights on the 2025/26 season. (Photo: NordicFocus)
  • Lights, Camera, Action: U.S. Ski Team Stars in Latest Warren Miller Film

    Lights, Camera, Action: U.S. Ski Team Stars in Latest Warren Miller Film

    Terraces of groomed snow. The U.S. Ski Team trains at New Zealand’s Snow Farm, 2018. (Photo: Colin Witherill/ Warren Miller Entertainment)

    Big and bold. Published on the latest press release from Warren Miller Entertainment are the rarefied featured athletes in the season’s cinematic siren call that winter is imminent: The Warren Miller ski film Face of Winter. Of course, there’s the icon of the Iron Cross, Jonny Moseley. Listed along with the gravity side of skiing royalty are U.S. Cross Country Ski Team (USST) members Kevin Bolger, Paddy Caldwell, Sophie Caldwell, Jessie Diggins, Simi Hamilton, and Ida Sargent.

    First things first. It’s been almost four long years since Outside Magazine put undue pressure on Hamilton by claiming, “This man will make nordic skiing cool”.

    What is cool anyway? In other words, cool is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Furthermore, one person responsible for a sport’s coolness? Talk about a burden. 

    On October 12, in Portland, Oregon the 69th Warren Miller film premiered. And with it, the film crew and editors made their visual case for sustaining cross-country skiing’s coolness.

    For six days this September, a Warren Miller production crew shadowed the USST during their on-snow camp at New Zealand’s Snow Farm. The images they captured do not disappoint. Drone shots of synchronized striding on perfect switchbacking corduroy are drool-worthy. There’s the obligatory mix of thumping tunes and up-tempo ski clips that are hallmark Warren Miller. The fellowship of skinny skis and lycra get the creative treatment they deserve.

    Behind the scenes, the New Zealand shoot wasn’t a certainty. 

    “We spent considerable time and a lot of debate about whether or not we’d do this,” the film’s producer Josh Haskins emailed. “It was entirely too late in the season to add a shoot, our budget was tapped, but we appreciated the unique angle and felt this was the year to tell it, while the Olympic story was still fresh.”

    U.S. Ski Team member Simi Hamilton with coach Matt Whitcomb review technique footage at New Zealand’s Snow Farm, 2018.

    Despite the obvious exposure the film’s segment could provide nordic sport, according to U.S. women’s coach Matt Whitcomb, the coaching staff was hesitant.

    “We heard mumblings about it for a couple of years but nothing really came to fruition,” Whitcomb explained during a phone call. “We as coaches said we are not sure that we want to do this. What if we all end up sick because we are skiing back and forth trying to get a good shot with Warren’s crew? Then we are going to have spent a lot of money for nothing for this camp.”

    At the Snow Farm, despite the potential for distraction, the ski team stuck to its rigid training schedule. The New Zealand camp remained focused on quality training — maximizing the investment in chasing the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.  

    “So not spending too much time talking to a coach, continuing to move and just having a lot of well-orchestrated sessions,” Whitcomb said of the team’s on-snow priorities. “And when you have a film shoot happening during that, you can see the chance for things to run off the rails. And so we played a little bit hard to get and those guys were great they stayed at it. I don’t know if we were really appreciating how large Warren Miller is and what a professional crew they have. Because it was almost easier than when you don’t have the film crew out there. They were just so good.”

    Whitcomb noted any potential disruptions were mitigated by good communication. Coaches would explain the next day’s training beforehand, the producer, in turn, explained how they could optimize their cinematography. For example, an 8-kilometer loop with fewer opportunities to film athletes would become a 3 k circuit.

    “If it were 3 k long, the skiers would come by two and half times as frequently,” Whitcomb said. “And then they would have a better shot at getting the footage they needed.”

    The backroom transactional nature of the USST’s participation related to business opportunities. Both the U.S. Cross Country team and Boulder, Colorado-based Warren Miller Entertainment have sponsorship deals with L.L. Bean. From a marketing perspective, both entities understood the positive value of producing content during the ski team’s limited New Zealand window.  

    Jessie Diggins (USST) training at the Snow Farm in New Zealand, 2018. (Photo: ColinWitherill/Warren Miller Entertainment)

    “We have an existing partnership with L.L. Bean, who is a partner of the team, and the IOC, USSA and U.S. Cross Country Team were all integral and extremely helpful in the planning and logistics, giving us the assistance and access we needed to properly tell the story,” Haskins explained. “In the end, we griped about the added stress, money and limited screen time in the movie but we all agreed it would make the movie better to include it. And it paid off, at our world premiere in Portland, OR. last Friday the segment received one of the loudest audience responses and applause of the night when Jessie crossed the finish line.”

    Footage of the Diggins and Kikkan Randall Olympic gold stands as the narrative arc’s apogee for the cross-country ski segment. Those Olympic moments still strike a nerve.      

    Whitcomb relayed a personal story. By chance, a close friend happened to notice Face of Winter‘s world premiere would be showing as he left work recently in Portland. That former skier from St. Lawrence University eventually sat in a packed theater expecting the usual and iconic Warren Miller powder-lust ski shots.

    “He had no idea that his favorite sport was being featured,” Whitcomb said. “Then halfway through the movie, when the cross-country segment ran, he was so happy that he just wanted to stand up and start cheering. That was good to hear from someone who was surprised by it all. He was just so proud.”

    Once in a while, it’s ok to feel like the cool kid in the room.

    Taking a break during their Park City, Utah training camp, the U.S. Cross Country team was on hand and on stage Oct. 18, for the Salt Lake City opening of Warren Miller’s Face of Winter. (Photo: Justin Miller)
  • Nordic Nation: The Two-Halves-Make-a-Whole Edition with Team Gregg

    Nordic Nation: The Two-Halves-Make-a-Whole Edition with Team Gregg

    Team Gregg, consisting of two halves that constitute a podium-threat whole, is featured on the latest episode of Nordic Nation. Caitlin (formerly Compton) Gregg, 36, and husband Brian Gregg, 33, the two members of Team Gregg, are based along the border of Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Yes, the two skiers are highly accomplished; both are former Winter Olympians and Caitlin earned a bronze medal in the 10-kilometer freestyle at the 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. But their partnership has become a model of independent professional ski team viability.

    The sum total of Team Gregg: Brian Gregg (left) and Caitlin Gregg (right). (Courtesy photo)

    They are also a model of two hyper-driven people able to moderate their own personal goals for the collective greater good of the team. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to see the Greggs at a race venue, this much is clear: they have got each other’s back. Brian can be seen helping test skis, handing Caitlin feeds along the course and screaming encouragement. The same can be said of Caitlin. Neither is above doing the menial tasks to ensure the other has the best opportunity on race day.  

    Nordic Nation caught up with Caitlin and Brian Gregg on Sept. 13, a few days after their return from an on-snow camp at New Zealand’s Snow Farm. Along with the usual “how’s the training going”, questions, you’ll hear about the unique way the Greggs financed their house and what the future holds.

    (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

    Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

  • Lustgarten, Diggins Double Up on Wins at Winter Games NZ

    Lustgarten, Diggins Double Up on Wins at Winter Games NZ

    Jessie Diggins of U.S. Ski Team and Stratton Mountain School Elite Team on her way to win the women’s 5-kilometer freestyle at the 2017 Winter Games NZ hosted by the Snow Farm in Wananka, New Zealand. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    What if getting to snow-covered groomed trails came in three steps — those literally being from the front door to the trailhead. While recent winters may make this seem like a melting dream for many, a number of Americans made it their reality these past two weeks while staying at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand.

    U.S. Ski Team (USST) members, as well as American skiers representing the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF), Stratton Mountain School (SMS), and Team Gregg, flew more than 24 hours to take full advantage of the Snow Farm’s accommodations and 55 kilometers of groomed track for several weeks in late August/early September. While each program held its own respective training camp, the coinciding times made for an American medley of skiers on the farm. Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell, Ida Sargent, Simi Hamilton, and development-team member Julia Kern all made the trip for the USST’s camp, which ran from Aug. 22 to Sept. 11. 

    According to USST Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb, the New Zealand camp is not mandatory for all team members.

    “Being an Olympic year we want to individually tailor each plan [for each athlete],” he explained in an email.

    Liz Stephen and Kikkan Randall opted to train in Sweden with the Swedish national team earlier this summer, and Andy Newell prioritized summer rollerski racing in Norway.

    “The travel didn’t make sense to do both,” Whitcomb continued. “For snow, Kikkan has glacier time in Alaska and Liz will do Foret Montmorency in early November. The same was true for Andy … [who] wanted to try Norway instead of New Zealand. While Kikkan has come down to the Southern Hemisphere with us, it makes sense for the Alaskans [including Sadie Bjornsen, Erik Bjornsen, Scott Patterson, Rosie Brennan, and Hannah Halvorsen, who train with Randall with Alaska Pacific University] to use the excellent facility on Eagle Glacier.”

    For those that made this year’s New Zealand trip, he said it’s certainly worth it.

    “While the trip to New Zealand means airfare that can cost around $1200-1300, the Snow Farm cooks exceptional food, grooms around 30k daily, and provides cozy lodging,” Whitcomb wrote.

    “We had a strong group of Americans at the Snow Farm this year, which made for entertaining dinners and competitive ping pong matches,” he continued. “[SVSEF head coach] Chris Mallory is very good.  We partnered up with Craftsbury Green Racing Project, SMS Elite Team, and Team Gregg for a bunch of sessions, and that made for some really effective days.”

    Whitcomb further explained that for those USST athletes returning to the New Zealand training camp, a few things were done differently in terms of lodging.

    “We tried something new this year,” Whitcomb wrote. “We live and train at the Snow Farm, which is situated at 5,000 [feet].  This year we trained for 7 days, and then rented a house in a hip little town called Wanaka where we recovered near sea-level for two nights, and cooked our own food.  I think this played an important role in most athletes having strong second and third weeks up on the rock. If week three is too much of a struggle, the training doesn’t get absorbed effectively, and it dampens the benefits of the camp.”

    The opportunity to get on snow, as well as the convenience of its location with regards to lodging, were reasons enough for many non-USST members to also travel to the Southern Hemisphere.

    “Not having to commute to skiing saves a lot of time and energy that we can put into training and effective recovery,” Ben Lustgarten of the CGRP wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “It is also really nice being at 5000 feet instead of 9500 feet like it would be on a glacier in Europe, and the skiing terrain here is much more conducive to a variety of workouts: intervals, specific technique work, races, easy distance, flats, hills, etc. I loved our training camp last year on the Dachstein glacier, but a 3km loop at 9000ft that takes 45 minutes to get to is really hard and doesn’t offer the variety of training that we can do here.”

    (Left to right) Japan’s Kaichi Naruse in second place, American Ben Lustgarten (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in first and American Brian Gregg (Team Gregg) in third after the men’s 10 k freestyle, part of the Australia/New Zealand Cup, at the 2017 Winter Games NZ at the Snow Farm in Wananka, New Zealand. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    Several Americans also competed in the Snow Farm’s Winter Games NZ races, which featured a men’s and women’s 1.6 k classic sprint, 5/10 k freestyle races and a 10/15 k classic mass starts, all part of the Australia/New Zealand Cup.

    Some of them had already raced a Worldloppet marathon earlier in their stay, and Whitcomb explained each athlete’s race schedule in New Zealand varied depending on how they absorbed the training load. USST athletes were encouraged to do two to four races, choosing between the 42 k or 21 k Merino Muster Worldloppet and three Winter Games NZ races.

    “When it goes well, we stack it high,” he wrote.

    Racing kicked off on Thursday, Sept. 6, with the men’s 10 k and women’s 5 k individual starts. A light dusting of fresh snow covered the 2.5 k race loop, which challenged racers to a series of short steep uphills and two twisty downhills.

    That didn’t slow Lustgarten, who won the men’s 10 k in 27 minutes, 35.5 seconds. After pacing his first two laps and slowing a bit in his third, the 25-year-old Burlington, Vt., native heard his time was not too far from the win and went for it.

    “I got a split that I was 2 seconds from the lead with a lap to go, which made the last few minutes really painful, but I managed to get the win which was really exciting!” Lustgarten wrote. “I haven’t won a skate race in a really long time, so I was happy about that.”

    Finishing 8.9 seconds back from Lustgarten’s time was Japan’s Kaichi Naruse in second. American Brian Gregg of Team Gregg/Loppet Nordic Racing rounded out the podium in third (+49.7). Also making the top five were Americans Adam Martin (CGRP) in fourth (+51.9) and Matt Gelso (SVSEF) in fifth (+2:02).

    In the women’s 5 k, Diggins (USST/SMS Elite Team) came away with the win, covering the course in 14:53.8. Australian Barbara Jezersek followed 9.9 seconds back in second place, and Caldwell (USST/SMS Elite Team) reached the podium in third (+10.5). Rounding out the women’s top five were Caitlin Patterson (CGRP) in fourth (+34.7) and Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg/Loppet Nordic Racing) in fifth (+42.8).

    Sophie Caldwell (10) of U.S. Ski Team and SMS Elite Team racing to third in the women’s 5 k freestyle at the 2017 Winter Games NZ at the Snow Farm in Wananka, New Zealand. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    “It was phenomenal!” Diggins said, according to a U.S. Ski & Snowboard press release. “They did so well to find all those hills—I like hills—and it was impressively hard.”

    Skiers returned Friday for the men’s and women’s 1.6 k classic sprints. Caldwell returned to the podium, this time in first, besting her USST teammate, Ida Sargent (USST/CGRP) in second and Patterson in third.

    “It’s only September and we still have two months before we head to Europe, but it’s always nice to have some encouraging races that confirm the training is paying off,” Caldwell told U.S. Ski & Snowboard. “I’ve had a really productive camp and was happy to end it with a win in the sprint and a third in the 5k, which was probably one of my best-ever distance skate results!”

    In the men’s sprint, Ben Saxton of the SMS Elite Team took the win, ahead of Lustgarten in second and Naruse in third. Saxton chose to double pole through the rounds, which were run in four heats of four, seeing the race as an opportunity to try different race tactics. 

    “I just love double poling, and getting a chance to stress and test that technique in a racing situation is always a valuable learning experience,” Saxton wrote in an email to FasterSkier.

    “I thought the trip was a really special opportunity to work on some technical aspects of skiing that don’t totally translate from snow to asphalt,” he continued. “Additionally, the diverse crowd of skiers at the Snow Farm ensured that the quality of training stayed high for all 3 weeks which always leads to big gains.”

    After using classic skis in the qualifier, Lustgarten also opted to double pole the heats, due to what he described as “slick” conditions.

    “Double poling the heats was a good idea with the downhill finish, but I felt incredibly awkward on the herring bone because I was so scared I would accidentally glide using my skate boots and skate skis, so I lost a few seconds on the climb but kept within the rules,” Lustgarten wrote. “Races this early in the season are good to point out what I need to work on, and I definitely need to add herring bone to the list.

    “I managed to make it to the A-Final and was right behind Saxton when he took off over the first long climb, and when he made a gap of 2 seconds or so he secured the win,” he continued. “I was happy to double pole past Japanese racer Kaichi for second place.”

    Lustgarten once again returned to the podium on Saturday, Sept. 9, the third consecutive day of racing, in the men’s 15 k classic mass start. With wind blowing snow into nearly white-out conditions, Lustgarten indicated that half of the battle was simply staying on course. He and his new CGRP teammate, Martin forged to the front joined only by Naruse after lap 1 of 4.

    “I had to snowplow a lot of the downhills and just look for the edges of the track,” Lustgarten wrote.  “It was hard to make any moves because every downhill we hit the leader would have to slow down a bit to see where the trail was, and those following would just rest and catch up.”

    Heading into his final lap, Lustgarten surged during one of the herringbone hills in an attempt to separate himself from Martin and Naruse.

    (Left to right) Australia’s Barbara Jezersek in second place, American Jessie Diggins (USST/SMS Elite Team) in first and American Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg) in third after the women’s 5 k freestyle at the 2017 Winter Games NZ at the Snow Farm in Wananka, New Zealand. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    “I got about 1-2 seconds on Adam and Kaichi, and realized that I had to use that gap to try and win the race,” Lustgarten wrote. “I really did not feel like I had the energy to outkick anyone, so I wanted to see if I could get a gap. I burned all of my matches on the first 75% of the last lap cresting hills hard and climbing hard and making sure to double pole really well on the flats. I was completely exhausted by the last climb but had enough of a lead to secure the win! And I was so excited to see Adam come in second!”

    Lustgarten finished first in 47:50.8, while Martin crossed 23.3 seconds later in second. Naruse claimed third, 32.8 seconds back from Lustgarten.

    In the women’s 10 k, Diggins won in 34:49.9, besting Patterson in second by 26.6 seconds. Sargent snagged third, 1:00.3 back from Diggins.

    After returning to the U.S., USST members are currently training individually or with their clubs, Whitcomb explained. They’ll reunite Sept. 28 to Oct. 13 for a final dryland camp in Park City, Utah, where they’ll have a guest athlete from the German women’s team.

    Results:

    Men’s 10 k freestyle | Women’s 5 k freestyle

    Men’s classic sprint | Women’s classic sprint  

    Men’s 15 k classic mass start | Women’s 10 k classic mass start

  • Americans Dominate 2017 Merino Muster and Half Marathon

    Americans Dominate 2017 Merino Muster and Half Marathon

    The start of the 2017 Merino Muster 42-kilometer on Sept. 2 at the Snow Farm near Wanaka, New Zealand, with Americans Jessie Diggins and Simi Hamilton (in blue) up front. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    Visibility was thin and temperatures were below freezing last Saturday at the Snow Farm. Opaque white clouds of fog swept over the landscape near Wanaka, New Zealand, showcasing a skyline that seemed to play on the country’s largest historical farm industry: sheep. If bluebird skies and sun had greeted competitors in previous years, racers in the 2017 Merino Muster experienced temperatures around -5 degree Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) and a four-meter radius of visible track, then fog, for most of the 42-kilometer marathon.

    Simi Hamilton (U.S. Ski Team) leads Phillip Bellingham during the 42 k Merino Muster on Sept. 2 at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. Hamilton ultimately won and Bellingham placed third, 2 seconds back. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    The flutter of his own pole grips passing in his peripherals might have been the only company U.S. Ski Team (USST) A-team member Simi Hamilton saw during the race, had it not been for American Brian Gregg and Australian Phillip Bellingham.  

    The two contenders followed Hamilton from the start, and within the first few kilometers, all three had broken away from the rest of the 80+ men’s field to form a lead group. Together, the two Americans and Australian forged through the next 40 k, taking turns leading through the day’s scrim that hid the panoramic views of the Pisa mountain range that surround the Snow Farm.

    “It was incredibly foggy all morning,” Hamilton wrote in an email. “I think we would have all gotten a little lonely out there if we had been skiing on our own.”

    The trio kept each other company for the entirety of the race, but by the final two kilometers, Hamilton had staked his spot in the front. As Hamilton headed into the finishing stretch, both Bellingham and Gregg pushed to keep up with his pace. He ultimately held off Gregg by a second and Bellingham by 2 seconds to take the win with a finishing time of 1 hour, 40 minutes and 33 seconds.

    “My energy felt good both years, but last year I had trouble accessing my sprint/[Level 4] gear in the final 2 kilometers of the race,” Hamilton wrote. “This year, I felt more comfortable skiing level 3 and I found that it was much easier to access my sprint gear at the very end.”

    The victory is Hamilton’s first in the Merino Muster, which has been running for 23 years, the last three of which its been part of the Worldloppet marathon series. He first raced the marathon last season and finished second to his then-teammate Noah Hoffman (who won in 1:45:08 by 23 seconds over Hamilton). Upon returning, Hamilton had some specific objectives.

    “The primary goal (both last year and this year) is to get in a really solid level 3 workout, with a hard effort at the very end,” Hamilton wrote. “It’s great terrain to be able to do that on because it’s all very rolling and you can maintain a really consistent effort the whole time without burying yourself too deep. And I think it’s always important to put on a race bib this time of year from time to time in order to start getting back into the race routine before the season really starts.”

    Simi Hamilton (c) of the U.S. Ski Team after taking the win in the 2017 Merino Muster marathon on Sept. 2 at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. He held off fellow American Brian Gregg (r) by one second and Australia’s Phillip Bellingham by 2 seconds.(Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    Gregg’s second-place result came at his first Merino Muster, an event he was able to enter since he was in New Zealand for a training camp with his wife and Team Gregg teammate, Caitlin Gregg. The two arrived in New Zealand on Aug. 22 and planned to train there until the second week of September.

    “Our dates ended up aligning with the USST camp dates as well and it has been a lot of fun joining them for workouts,” Brian wrote. “At the start of the second week down here athletes from Craftsbury, Stratton and Sun Valley arrived so we have had a large US representation. My brother and sister in law also made the trip down to race the Muster and help support our training. They both work remotely for their companies and it has been a blast to have them here with us.”

    While he indicated that his summer training had been going well, the race itself was an invaluable opportunity for Gregg to tackle technique. Following Hamilton for an extended hard effort was one of his primary aims, not to mention testing his sprint speed against one of the U.S.’s top sprinters.

    “One of my specific goals for this race was to ski with Simi,” Gregg wrote. “I think he is one of the better technical skiers in the world especially in V2 and following his smooth rhythm has been helpful for my own technique. Technical adaptations on snow has been my biggest goal of the camp and the race offered a focused 1 hour and 40 minutes of that.

    “Swapping leads with Simi allowed me the opportunity to make technical adjustments through mimicry and then I could take the lead and make the technique more my own,” Gregg continued. “Although my goal was also to win the race I can hardly complain about being able to match the finishing sprint of a World Cup Winner.”

    Bellingham, an Australian national team member, rounded out the men’s marathon podium in third, just two seconds out of first. A week prior to the Merino Muster, Bellingham competed in the 2017 Kangaroo Hoppet in Falls Creek, Victoria, where he placed second to American Miles Havlick.

    Diggins 1st Woman, 4th Overall 

    In the women’s 42 k race, which started with the men, USST A-team member Jessie Diggins took the win with a time of 1:51:42 for fourth place overall. Diggins explained that while she was able to ski with the front group of men for the first few kilometers, she eventually settled into a pace that was more her own.

    The all-American women’s podium at the 2017 Merino Muster on Sept. 2 at New Zealand’s Snow Farm, with Jessie Diggins (c) of the U.S. Ski Team in first, Hannah Dreissigacker (l), formerly of US Biathlon, in second, and Britta Clark (r) in third. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    “We all started together but after 3-4km I knew I couldn’t hang with the lead guys the whole race, so I dropped back a bit,” Diggins wrote in an email. “I didn’t have to ski alone though, which was really nice!”

    For much of the race, Diggins skied with Estonian Joosep Tammeme, a change from last season when she paired with her USST teammate Liz Stephen for most of the marathon.

    “Last year was super fun because I got to ski with Liz the entire race,” Diggins wrote. “This year I had a really nice Estonian man to partner with but nobody can replace Liz Stephen!”

    Thirty-one seconds behind Diggins, Tammeme, the fourth male, finished fifth.

    With the Merino Muster behind her, Diggins will look to finish off the remainder of the USST’s three-week training block in New Zealand.

    The start of the 2017 Merino Muster 42-kilometer on Sept. 2 at the Snow Farm near Wanaka, New Zealand, with Americans Jessie Diggins and Simi Hamilton (in blue) up front. (Photo: Winter Games NZ Facebook/Neil Kerr)

    “The Merino was a fun way to get a long intensity session in during the week and ski hard while also enjoying the feeling of racing again!” Diggins wrote. “Huge, huge thanks to the entire crew here at the Snow Farm. They always treat us so well and make sure the trails are groomed perfectly for great training. This is my favorite camp so I’m really grateful to them for making space for us down under!”

    The second woman after Diggins, 10 minutes and 17 seconds back, was retired American biathlete Hannah Dreissigacker, who has been working at the Snow Farm over the past few months. Dreissigacker, 30, explained that the race was her first since her retirement in the spring of 2016, and though she had remained relatively active leading up to it, gunning for the win wasn’t a goal.

    “I’ve been doing a variety of work in the office as well as coaching and instructing and I’ve been trying to get out and ski whenever I can,” she wrote in an email. “But I definitely went into the race with low expectations.”

    The Vermont native, instead saw the race — which ended up being her longest workout of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter — as more of an opportunity to do something she loved: skiing.

    “The race split up immediately for me — I knew better than to try to stay with Jessie at all,” Dreissigacker wrote. “I skied with an older Russian skier, and then by myself, keeping the pace comfortable and I was very happy to feel good the whole time! There was some low-visibility off the start but the trails were in great condition and it was a fun first race as a ‘master blaster’.”

    Rounding out the women’s podium in third (+17:24) was American and 2016 Bates College graduate Britta Clark.

    In the 21 k “Snow Rake”, USST A-team member Sophie Caldwell took the overall win in a time of 51:21. Just one second behind her was Caitlin Gregg in second place, while the third woman was U.S. Paralympics Nordic Head Coach Eileen Carey (+5:48). The first man in third overall (+4:44) was U16 skier Campbell Wright, of New Zealand.

    Results: 42 k | 21 k

  • 17 Questions for 2017: Katharine Ogden

    17 Questions for 2017: Katharine Ogden

    Katharine Ogden (left) training with U.S. Ski Team teammates (r-l) Jessie Diggins, Liz Stephen, and Sophie Caldwell in New Zealand this summer. (Courtesy photo)
    Katharine Ogden (left) training with U.S. Ski Team teammates (r-l) Jessie Diggins, Liz Stephen, and Sophie Caldwell in New Zealand this summer. (Courtesy photo)

    Welcome to “17 Questions for 2017″, where we are catching up with American and Canadian national-team members before the beginning of the winter season. 

    ***

    Katharine Ogden of the Stratton Mountain School kicked off last season by winning the SuperTour 10 k skate in West Yellowstone, Montana – then picked up a fourth-place finish at U.S. National Championships, two top-20’s at World Junior Championships, and finished the season off with her first World Cup starts in the Ski Tour Canada.

    Ogden just turned 19 years old. The U.S. Ski Team “D” teamer placed fourth in both the sprint and 10 k classic at New Zealand Championships this summer and has spent serious time training with the women’s national team.

    1. Biggest change in your life in the last five or so months since the ski season ended?

    Biggest change in my life since the past season was graduating high school. So far I’m loving being able to just ski without having school work to worry about.

    2. Biggest change in your training?

    Since I’m not in school I’ve upped my training hours considerably since last year. I also started on a new strength plan.

    3. Major areas of improvement you’ve seen so far?

    The biggest improvement I’ve seen so far has been in my double poling. I’ve worked really hard for years now to correct my back position in that technique and it is finally starting to come along.

    4. Whom you’ve been working closest with this offseason (coaches or training partners)?

    During the summer I’ve been training predominantly with the SMS Elite Team girls and coach Pat O’Brien.

    5. Best trip in the last five months (and why)?

    Left to right: Ida Sargent, Sophie Caldwell, Katharine Ogden, Liz Stephen, and Jessie Diggins racing at New Zealand National Championships at Snow Farm, New Zealand. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)
    Left to right: Ida Sargent, Sophie Caldwell, Katharine Ogden, Liz Stephen, and Jessie Diggins racing at New Zealand National Championships at Snow Farm, New Zealand. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)

    My favorite trip this summer was definitely New Zealand in September. It was totally awesome to get on snow then and it was also an extremely productive camp for me. I also just loved everything about the place the people and the food there. Honestly might have been one of my favorite camps of all time.

    6. Favorite cross-training?My favorite cross training is mountain biking.

    I just got a new bike and I’m loving it so much.

    7. Favorite non-athletic activity or pastime this summer?

    My favorite non-athletic pass time this summer was eating a big yummy brunch on off days.

    8. Song that was your jam this summer?

    I don’t really have a favorite song. I mostly listen to audiobooks. My favorite is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

    9. All time favorite race moment?

    My all time favorite race memory is from my first ever Junior Nationals at Soldier Hollow in Utah. I was just barely picked as the third member of New England’s “A” relay team for U16 girls, my teammates were Zoe Snow and Julia Kern. Our team and the Alaskan team were super close the whole race and Julia was out anchor leg. My favorite moment was when the three of us found out that Julia had out lunged the Alaskans at the line to win the race!

    10. First thing you pack in your bag when you leave for Europe?

    First thing in the bag when I pack to go to Europe is oatmeal and peanut butter. You new know with the food in a new place so I always pack the essentials.

    11. Venue/event you’re most excited to visit this season?

    U.S. Ski Team D-team skier Katharine Ogden (r) during a sprint time trial at the USST's annual training camp in Park City, Utah, which ran this year from Oct. 17 until Oct. 31. (Photo: Bryan Fish)
    U.S. Ski Team D-team skier Katharine Ogden (r) during a sprint time trial at the USST’s annual training camp in Park City, Utah, which ran this year from Oct. 17 until Oct. 31. (Photo: Bryan Fish)

    The event I’m most looking forward to this year is the SuperTour races in Silver Star BC. I’ve never been to Silver Star but it’s so many people’s favorite place so I’m really excited.

    12. Who will win the World Cup title this year?

    Jessie Diggins. duh.

    13. Biggest sacrifice you feel you’ve made choosing this career path?

    I think choosing to pursue skiing as a career has caused me to give up some things but they really arent worth considering because this lifestyle gives back much more than it takes. I wouldn’t give up the opportunities to travel, make new friends and learn about myself for anything.

    14. If you could change one thing about your sport, what would it be?

    If I could change one thing about the sport I would make it snow more. I guess that’s not specifically about the sport but the one bummer about being a skier is when you want to ski but there isn’t enough snow.

    15. What did you have for breakfast this morning?

    For breakfast today I had french toast but I usually have peanut butter banana oatmeal.

    16. In 5 years, I’ll be ____?

    Hopefully racing on the World Cup, living the dream.

    17. In 50 years, I’ll be ____?

    Living in Vermont and I’ll hopefully have cute grandkids that I can ski around with.

    Left to right: U.S. teammates Ida Sargent, Jessie Diggins and Katharine Ogden during their first ski of the camp at Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Erika Flowers)
    Left to right: U.S. teammates Ida Sargent, Jessie Diggins and Katharine Ogden during their first ski of the camp at Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Erika Flowers)
  • Green Focuses on Core to Remedy Back and Rev Up for Another Season

    Green Focuses on Core to Remedy Back and Rev Up for Another Season

    Brendan Green training in Canmore, Alberta, on his birthday, Nov. 4. (Photo: Rosanna Crawford/Instagram)
    Brendan Green training in Canmore, Alberta, on his birthday last Friday, Nov. 4. (Photo: Rosanna Crawford/Instagram)

    Chiropractor appointments, massage sessions, physical therapy, yoga, you name it and Biathlon Canada ‘Eh!’ team member Brendan Green has probably tried it. After suffering from a herniated disc in his lower back five years ago, undergoing surgery, a re-herniation, and a second surgery, post-surgical treatments had almost become part of Green’s training plan.

    However, the past few winters tested his pain tolerance too far and by the end of last season, Green decided to give both his treatments, and his back, a rest.

    “I was at a bit of a crossroads trying to figure out what to do,” Green, who turned 30 last week, said on the phone from Canmore, Alberta. “So come springtime, I took some time off and gave [my back] time to recover.”

    When Green rejoined Biathlon Canada for training this summer, keeping his back feeling better remained part of the plan. But returning to treatments was not the way Green wanted to go. Instead, deriving inspiration from other athletes and social media, he made a slight change to a another training component: his core.

    Biathlon Canada's Brendan Green making friends with some sheep during a road bike in the Rockies this summer. (Photo: Scott Gow)
    Biathlon Canada’s Brendan Green making friends with some sheep during a road bike in the Rockies this summer. (Photo: Scott Gow)

    “I mean, you see [the Norwegian guys] on Instagram and it’s like, holy cow, half that stuff I could probably not even do one rep of,” Green said. “So that got me thinking, if I could really, really strengthen the core, maybe I could strengthen the back.”

    Green began incorporating two extra core circuits a week, each 20-minutes long, relying heavily on physio ball work that targets ski specific motions.

    “My core is exhausted after, but that’s what I want to achieve with this,” Green wrote in an email. “And this summer has actually been one of my better summers in terms of training and not getting sidelined with nerve pain or back problems.”

    Along with more fine-tuned concentration on his core, another novel nuance to Green’s summer training included traveling to the Snow Farm for Biathlon Canada’s first summer training camp in New Zealand.

    “This year, the team decided that one of the goals would be spending more time on snow for the training season,” Green said of the team’s three-week camp in August. “New Zealand is a beautiful country, but also an ideal training set up as well. … [At the Snow Farm] you can eat breakfast and walk out your door and you’re on snow.”

    Earlier in the offseason, Green also attended his men’s team’s second-annual  “ManCamp” in Jasper, Alberta. Green explained that for the past two years, the men’s and women’s national biathlon teams have split training camps in the summer, with the men spending a week in Jasper and the women traveling to Kelowna, British Columbia, for a weeklong “Wine Camp.” 

    “I was at a bit of a crossroads trying to figure out what to do … Come springtime, I took some time off and gave [my back] time to recover… and this summer has actually been one of my better summers in terms of training and not getting sidelined with nerve pain or back problems.” — Brendan Green, Biathlon Canada A (technically, ‘Eh!’) team member

    “Two years ago at World Champs, Nathan [Smith] had a podium, so he had a little more input than normal into some of the early season training camps and Nathan really wanted to go to Jasper, so we thought we’d give it a try,” Green explained. “There’s no shooting range [there], so we leave our rifles at home and we just focus on volume training. There’s lots of good rollerskiing there and it’s fun. Jasper is a good way to start the season.”

    'King' and 'Queen' of the mountains, Brendan Green (r) with his girlfriend and teammate Rosanna Crawford after Biathlon Canada's summer "testival". (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)
    ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ of the mountains, Brendan Green (r) with his girlfriend and teammate Rosanna Crawford after Biathlon Canada’s summer “testival”. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)

    Currently competing at Biathlon Canada’s World Cup team-selection trial races at Frozen Thunder in Canmore this week (he is already prequalified for the World Cup), Green is excited about the quickly approaching race season and the prospect of more podiums for his team.

    Last season at 2016 World Championships, he anchored his men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay team to bronze for Canada’s first medal in a team event at a major world championships. On Oct. 28 at Frozen Thunder, Green beat out American Matt Gelso in North America’s first unofficial on-snow race of the season: the 12 k freestyle interval start.

    “In the past, the big names have been a little more solidly consistent — [France’s Martin] Fourcade, [Norway’s Ole Einar] Bjørndalen — but now it seems to be changing up a little more,” he said. “I feel like there’s a lot more podium possibilities or potentials on the horizon. You have to have a good day obviously, but I think it’s within reach.”

    ***

    We asked Green to give our ’17 Questions for 2017′ a go. Here are his responses:

    1. Biggest change in your life in the last five or so months since the ski season ended?

    My longtime teammate Scott Perras retired at the end of last season.  He was a machine and I used to do almost all of my training with him.  It was definitely a change not having him around when I started training again this spring.

    2. Biggest change in your training?

    I’ve taken a different approach to my core strength training, but otherwise no significant changes, just sticking to the plan while trying to put in high quality hours.

    3. Major areas of improvement you’ve seen so far?

    It’s so difficult to say until race season rolls around.  I think I’ve put in good work but we will find out for sure in just a few weeks!

    Biathlon Canada's Brendan Green (r) rollerskiing at his team's “ManCamp" in Jasper, Alberta. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)
    Biathlon Canada’s Brendan Green (r) rollerskiing at his team’s “ManCamp” in Jasper, Alberta. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)

    4. Whom you’ve been working closest with this offseason (coaches or training partners)?

    This season the Men’s and Women’s team split off into more separate training groups, so the men’s team has been working closer together as a whole.

    5. Best trip in the last five months (and why)?

    This summer the team did a training camp in New Zealand.  It was a fun change of venue for us and New Zealand has a lot to offer.  It’s a beautiful country.

    6. Favorite cross-training?

    I bought a new mountain bike in the spring which has been fun.  There is lots of great riding around Canmore.

    7. Favorite non-athletic activity or pastime this summer?

    A friend gave me some sourdough starter this spring and since then I’ve been making a few loaves of bread a week.  I’m also always trying to up my espresso-making game.

    8. Song that was your jam this summer?

    I’ve really been digging Trevor Hall lately.

    9. All-time favorite race moment?

    There have been a couple, but winning bronze at last years World Championships was amazing.

    10. First thing you pack in your bag when you leave for Europe?

    Ear plugs. Can’t sleep without them!

    11. Venue/event you’re most excited to visit this season?

    Our World Cup in Antholz, Italy, is always my my favourite stop on tour, but I think the World Championships in Hochfillzen, Austria, will also be exciting.

    12. Who will win the men’s and women’s World Cup titles this year?

    Martin Fourcade and Kaisa Makarainen

    13. Biggest sacrifice you feel you’ve made choosing this career path?

    I live a long ways from where I grew up, so for me definitely time spent with family.  And education.

    14. If you could change one thing about your sport, what would it be?

    Doping.

    15. What did you have for breakfast this morning?

    Sourdough pancakes.

    16. In 5 years, I’ll be ____?

    Hopefully still able to call Canmore home.

    17. In 50 years, I’ll be ____?

    In 50 years I’ll be 80, so in all likelihood there is a pretty good chance I’ll be dead?

  • 17 Questions for 2017: Sarah Beaudry

    17 Questions for 2017: Sarah Beaudry

    Sarah Beaudry and her Biathlon Canada teammates having summer ski fun in New Zealand. (Courtesy photo)
    Sarah Beaudry and her Biathlon Canada teammates having summer ski fun at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. (Courtesy photo)
    Welcome to “17 Questions for 2017″, where we are catching up with American and Canadian national-team members before the beginning of the winter season. 

    ***

    22-year-old Sarah Beaudry is quickly becoming a contributing member of Canada’s senior biathlon team: she made her first trip to World Championships in 2016, as well as increasing her World Cup experience. That included racing the second leg of a sixth-place mixed relay team in Canmore, Alberta, and scoring her first individual World Cup points the same weekend.

    The 2014 World Junior Championships bronze medalist in the pursuit, Beaudry is now a member of Biathlon Canada’s “B” national team.

    1. Biggest change in your life in the last five or so months since the ski season ended?

    Moving out of chaotic athlete housing known as Coda, to a much calmer house downtown, 1min from work and 2min from the grocery store.

    2. Biggest change in your training?

    Changing from working more closely with Matthias [Ahrens] to having Roddy [Ward] as my main head coach.

    3. Major areas of improvement you’ve seen so far?

    Endurance.

    4. Whom you’ve been working closest with this offseason (coaches or training partners)?
    Beaudry on a camping trip with Cross Country Canada's Maya MacIsaac-Jones (right) and Quebec biathlete Chloe Selerier (taking photo).
    Beaudry on a camping trip with Cross Country Canada’s Maya MacIsaac-Jones (right) and Quebec biathlete Chloe Selerier (taking photo).

    Biathlon Canada’s wicked girls team.

    5. Best trip in the last five months (and why)?

    Skiing on snow in New Zealand followed directly by a rest week spent at a family cabin on British Columbia’s sunshine coast. To be able be to halfway around the world and be skiing in perfect snow for three weeks and then have some family time, eating fresh seafood and swimming everyday makes for the best combination.

    6. Favorite cross-training?

    Adventuring, whether it be a long mountain run hike or rollerskiing some far out roads, just getting out of the usual run, rollerski, bike routes that sometimes become habit.

    7. Favorite non-athletic activity or pastime this summer?

    Baking adventure, baking something new and exciting and seeing how it works out, making a complete mess of the kitchen and then sharing the results with friends.

    8. Song that was your jam this summer?

    I wouldn’t say I had one summer jam but I did forget my aux cable on my most recent drive back home to PG which resulted in driving back to Canmore with CDs from when I was a kid which was pretty fun. Some old school Avril and Hilary Duff along with some Big Fun Party mixes.

    9. All time favorite race moment?
    Beaudry finished 38th in the 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, in 2016, before making her first trip to World Championships. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)
    Beaudry finished 38th in the 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, in 2016, before making her first trip to World Championships. (Photo: Daniel S. Guay)

    Moving up from 29th to third at World Juniors in Presque Isle and being able to share the flower ceremony with Julia!

    10. First thing you pack in your bag when you leave for Europe?

    My Onepiece.

    11. Venue/event you’re most excited to visit this season?

    I enjoy new races courses and countries so I think if I get to go to Pyeongchang that would be exciting.

    12. Who will win the World Cup title this year?

    Nathan Smith and Anais Bescond

    13. Biggest sacrifice you feel you’ve made choosing this career path?

    Putting my post secondary education on hold.

    14. If you could change one thing about your sport, what would it be?
    Beaudry celebrating fifth place in the youth sprint at 2013 World Youth and Junior Championships in Obertilliach, Austria. (Photo: Hugh Harden)
    Beaudry celebrating fifth place in the youth sprint at 2013 World Youth and Junior Championships in Obertilliach, Austria. (Photo: Hugh Harden)

    Well I feel like everybody agrees that having 100% clean sport and more races in North America would be awesome. So I will add another race that is a mass start and the leader gets to pick what position shooting the field does at each time you enter the range. That or you can tell a joke to count for penalty loops and based on how funny it is you have to do less loops.

    15. What did you have for breakfast this morning?

    Toast, eggs and an orange. I am not a huge breakfast fan except on off days. Then I usually have what me and some friends call Fat Amy day which is basically a pretty elaborate brunch.

    16. In 5 years, I’ll be ____?

    Well if Nathan and his girlfriend have their way and Calgary wins the Olympic bid I will be training for #Beauds2026.

    17. In 50 years, I’ll be ____?

    Skiing, adventuring and eating cake.

  • USST Returns From New Zealand Training Camp (with Photo Gallery)

    USST Returns From New Zealand Training Camp (with Photo Gallery)

    Left to right: U.S. teammates Ida Sargent, Jessie Diggins and Katharine Ogden during their first ski of the camp at Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Erika Flowers)
    U.S. teammates Ida Sargent (l), Jessie Diggins (c) and Katharine Ogden during their first ski of the U.S. Ski Team’s camp at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Erika Flowers)

    Four inches of snow on one day, gray storm clouds and drizzling rain the next, followed the day after by blue skies, sunshine, and groomed trails of corn-snow. When it came to this year’s forecast for the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) on-snow camp in Snow Farm, New Zealand, the weather was anything but consistent.

    For many American athletes and coaches who spent Aug. 30 to Sept. 14 training on the southern end of the country’s South Island, however, the inconsistency in weather was warmly welcomed.

    “New Zealand is the perfect place to work on technique!” Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 skier Erika Flowers, who joined the USST for its 16-day camp, wrote in an email. “The conditions change daily so we also had the opportunity to ski in many different conditions (think fluffy dry snow, pouring rain, wind, sun, icy, soft, slushy, and even some perfect corduroy) and practice adjusting technique based on weather, snow, terrain, etc. ”

    Skiers double pole up a hill during the USST's training camp at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)
    Skiers double pole up a hill during the USST’s training camp at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)

    It was not just opportunity to practice skiing in varying conditions that made Snow Farm — one of the USST’s favorite summer training destinations since 2002 — once again a top pick to return to. In her second visit to the Snow Farm, current USST member Jessie Diggins described the area as also having the perfect mix of training terrain.

    “I absolutely love this training camp,” Diggins wrote in an email. “It’s amazing skiing with 35km of groomed tracks, really fun crust skiing since it’s springtime here, and the terrain includes all the elements I like to work on: steep climbs, rolling tracks, turning downhills!…I don’t think the travel is actually much worse than going to Europe because once I get here, I adjust quickly every year and jump right into quality training!”

    Including Diggins and Flowers, a total of 10 athletes ventured to the Snow Farm with the U.S. team. Ida Sargent, Sophie Caldwell, Liz Stephen, and development-team member Katharine Ogden made up the rest of the women’s contingent, and U.S. men’s team veterans Andy Newell, Simi Hamilton and Noah Hoffman trained with SMST2 skier Ben Saxton.

    While Flowers and Saxton are not current USST members, U.S. head coach Chris Grover explained the team invited them to the camp.

    “We don’t create selection criteria for non-USST athletes to join camps; we simply invite athletes to join camps when we feel they will add quality training partners to the group, the camp will benefit their own development and help them get better, and we have the space and resources to accommodate them,” Grover wrote in an email.

    At New Zealand National Cross-Country Ski Championships, which took place Sept. 9-11 at the Snow Farm, Saxton raced to second in the 15-kilometer classic mass start and third in the classic sprint final. He described being appreciative of the chance to not only get so much time on snow, but spend that time with training partners who can push him.

    “While I’m taking the performance results of the camp as positive indicators of where my fitness is at right now, I know there’s a lot of work left to be done before we get on snow in Bozeman [at the U.S. SuperTour opener] this fall,” Saxton wrote in an email. “I was also very pleased with the technique work I got to do in camp. Being on snow is just so different than roller-skiing and I have so much to work on technically, that getting the chance to work behind World Cup athletes in unique and occasionally unstable snow conditions was, for me, a tremendous opportunity.”

    USST athlete Andy Newell carving a turn during a crust cruise at Snow Farm, New Zealand. (Photo: Erika Flowers)
    USST athlete Andy Newell carving a turn during a crust cruise at Snow Farm, New Zealand. (Photo: Erika Flowers)

    The winner of both the men’s sprint and 15 k classic mass start was Newell, Saxton’s SMST2 teammate. Hamilton (also of SMST2) won the 10 k freestyle individual start and Hoffman placed third the 15 k classic mass start.

    “The sprint, as normal, was a bit of a struggle and the classic race, I’ve always struggled at this time of year really putting down solid race efforts,” Hoffman, a distance skier, said on the phone from Park City, Utah. “I’m impressed with [Andy’s] form. He just easily skied away from me and Ben in the last kilometer or so of that race.”

    The weekend prior to New Zealand nationals, Hoffman won the Merino Muster 42 k freestyle marathon on Sept. 3. He explained that while his training load has been considerably higher this year, his body has been able to adjust fairly well so far.

    “[The 42 k race] came early in the camp so I didn’t feel super comfortable on my skis at that point, but it was a fun opportunity,” Hoffman said. “Simi raced as well and we got to ski together almost the entire race. It was in the last 2 k we were able to race against each other. That was good practice for me. That’s the part of the race that I need to be able to accelerate and be able to really lay it on the line in the World Cup.”

    Hamilton finished 23 seconds behind Hoffman in second place, while Diggins took third overall and won the women’s race. Twelve seconds behind her, Stephen was the second woman in fourth overall.

    “Not all of the team was ready for a 42k race that close to travel at the beginning of a camp, so we had half of the team do some lighter threshold in preparation for the FIS [New Zealand nationals] races the following weekend,” U.S. women’s coach Matt Whitcomb wrote in an email. “We talked with the racers – Simi and Noah, as well as Jessie and Liz, about skiing together at a comfortable race pace. We wanted them to take turns leading, to practice pulling as well as drafting, and to not tap the body too deeply so early in the camp. But at the end, everyone agreed to let each other have it in the final part of the race – no hand-holding across the finish line. Noah and Simi hit full-gas at 40k, and Jessie and Liz waited until the 500 meters-to-go mark.”

    Both Stephen and Diggins also reached the podium the next weekend at New Zealand nationals, which doubled as Australia/New Zealand Cup races. Diggins took second to Sargent in the classic sprint, and Caldwell placed third. Diggins then took first in the women’s 10 k classic mass start ahead of Sargent in second and Caldwell in third. Stephen won the final women’s event of the weekend, the 5 k freestyle individual start.

    American Sophie Caldwell skiing through fresh powder at Snow Farm, New Zealand. (Photo: Katharine Ogden)
    Sophie Caldwell skiing through fresh powder at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. (Photo: Katharine Ogden)

    While the USST left with quite a few podium finishes, Grover explained the primarly goals of the camp were not race results, but race starts and time on snow.

    “The primary goal was extended time on snow working on group and individual technique needs,” Grover wrote.  “Another goal of the camp was to touch base with racing.  Besides the Merino Muster, we had 3 AUS-NZ COC [Continental Cup] races.  All athletes had between 2-4 starts.”

    For athletes like Ogden, it was the chance to get race starts on snow without feeling pressure to perform that allowed her to focus on her technique and form during the camp.

    “I think that it was very valuable for my technique having a focused on snow block without the pressure of important races,” she wrote. “As for fitness I’m pretty happy with where I’m at, it was awesome to get some volume in and get to train with some older, more experienced athletes.”

    Ogden also competed in the first two races of the New Zealand nationals and placed fourth in both the classic sprint and 10 k classic mass start. She wrote she was “really happy” with her efforts in both races “optimistic about the upcoming season.”

    After arriving back in the U.S. last Thursday, most of the NZ camp athletes planned to spend a few days recovering before training at full steam again. The USST’s next camp is Oct. 17-31 in Park City, where most of its athletes will take part in high-elevation, dryland training. This year, the team opted out of its annual camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., which typically takes place in September and offers dryland training around sea level.

    “This year we dropped one camp from the schedule (total 4 camps) in order to prioritize high-quality camps followed by solid blocks of training for each athlete at home with their club teams,” Grover wrote. “We have at least 4 weeks at home for each athlete between camps.  I can’t remember the last time we didn’t have a camp in Lake Placid; I’ve personally been there the last 10 years in a row.  It’s a great training location and we love going there, so we will be back there in the future.  It simply didn’t fit this preparation period.”

    New Zealand nationals results: Classic sprint (women, men) | women’s 10 k classic mass start | 15 k classic mass start | women’s 5 k freestyle | men’s 10 k freestyle

    Merino Muster (Worldloppet) results: Men | Women (Complete results)

    — Alex Kochon contributed reporting

     

     

  • Irwin and Gelso Win Australian Hoppet; USST Goes 1-2 in New Zealand Marathon

    Irwin and Gelso Win Australian Hoppet; USST Goes 1-2 in New Zealand Marathon

    Left to right: Americans Mary Rose and Deedra Irwin, both of SVSEF, along with Australian Aimee Watson on the podium for the women's Kangroo Hoppet 42-kilometer maration,, on Saturday Aug. 27 in Falls Creek, Australia. (Photo: Kangroo Hoppet)
    Americans Mary Rose (l) and Deedra Irwin (second from l), both of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF), along with Australian Aimee Watson on the podium at the women’s Kangroo Hoppet 42-kilometer freestyle marathon on Saturday, Aug. 27, in Falls Creek, Australia. (Photo: Kangroo Hoppet)

    Note: This article has been updated to include official results from the Merino Muster.

    In their first ski marathon south of the equator, a few Sun Valley Education Foundation (SVSEF) Gold Team team members founds themselves on the podium two weekends ago at the Kangaroo Hoppet on Aug. 27. 

    After spending nearly a month training on snow in the land down under, SVSEF teammates Deedra Irwin and Matt Gelso finished their Australian training camp on top of the podium, winning the respective women’s and men’s 42-kilometer Hoppet, part of the Worldloppet marathon race series, in Falls Creek, Australia.

    “Not many people can say that they’ve skied and raced a marathon in Australia,” Irwin wrote in an email. “The Nordic ski community down there is also really supportive and was excited to have us there. There were lots of people cheering for us along the way.”

    Irwin skied most of the 42 k freestyle race alongside her Sun Valley teammate Mary Rose. From start to finish, Irwin explained it was predominately a race between the two of them, with Irwin outlasting Rose by 0.6 seconds with a winning time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 15.6 seconds. Finishing more than 12 minutes later, Aimee Watson was the leading Australian in third place (+12:17.7).

    “The competition was mostly just Mary and I from the start,”  Irwin wrote. “The race came down to a sprint … I got in front of her at the right time and was able to push through the finish first. Skiing with her during the Hoppet taught me a lot about marathon racing. She is a really strong skier and it was fun to be with her during the race and try to match her moves.”

    Sun Valley's Deedra Irwin after winning the 2016 Kangaroo Hoppet on Saturday Aug. 27, in Falls Creek, Australia. (Photo: Kangaroo Hoppet)
    Sun Valley’s Deedra Irwin after winning the 2016 Kangaroo Hoppet on Saturday Aug. 27, in Falls Creek, Australia. (Photo: Kangaroo Hoppet)

    Rose pointed out that there was plenty of competition besides her teammate.

    “Most of the Australian National Team competed, along with some AUS legends like Esther Bottomley,” Rose wrote in an email.

    Both Irwin and Rose plan to race another marathon this coming winter, the 2017 American Birkebeiner in February, which is also part of the Worldloppet marathon series. And next summer, Rose indicated that she might return to the Kangaroo Hoppet.

    “I don’t have any marathons on my race schedule for this coming year, except the Birkie,” Rose wrote. “I will for sure be returning to Australia to compete in this event, hopefully next year!”

    First across the line in the men’s race, Gelso beat out Australian national-team athletes Phillip Bellingham and Nick Montgomery, who finished in second and third, respectively. Just over the halfway point, Gelso explained the front group gradually began to dwindle.

    “It split up into five guys, maybe with 20 k left,” he said on the phone from Australia. “At 5 k I kind of blew off the front … and in the last 4 k it turned into, like, three separate people.”

    Gelso has raced at least two marathons before, finishing seventh in the 2014 American Birkie and 16th at the 2014 Engadin in Switzerland.

    For winning the Hoppet, both Irwin and Gelso received $1,300 Australian dollars, as well as a wooden plaque, compression socks and a mug. More than 230 men competed, and 64 women finished this year’s edition of the race. 

    “The organizers of the events and the volunteers involved put on a race that I will never forget,” Irwin wrote. “Thank you to the Australian ski community for having us there and letting us enjoy their beautiful winter.”

    American winner Matt Gelso (c), runner-up Phillip Bellingham (Australia), and third-place finisher Nick Montgomery (Australia) on the podium at the men's Kangaroo Hoppet 42-kilometer maration, on Saturday Aug. 27 in Falls Creek, Australia. (Photo: Kangaroo Hoppet)
    American winner Matt Gelso (c) with Australian runner-up Phillip Bellingham (l), and third-place finisher Nick Montgomery (r), also from Australia, after the men’s Kangaroo Hoppet 42-kilometer maration, on Saturday Aug. 27 in Falls Creek, Australia. (Photo: Kangaroo Hoppet)

    After the Hoppet, most of the SVSEF skiers headed back to the U.S. for a recovery week in Sun Valley, Idaho, before resuming training. Gelso and Rose opted to take their recovery week exploring Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, prior to flying home this coming Wednesday.

    “Everybody else is back, it’s just Mary and I here now,” Gelso said. “We’re kind of doing a recovery week right now, but when we get back, we’ll obviously have to get back into time zone … That’s kind of the plan: get back, get recovered and then get back into full training before we head to Frozen Thunder [in Canmore, Alberta].”

    Soaking up the Southern Hemisphere sun and a few last days of rest were also a part of Rose’s schedule.

    “I am hanging out in Sydney for a week visiting a friend,” she explained. “So I am putting in some beach time and being a tourist.”

    2016 Kangaroo Hoppet results: Women | Men

    Hoffman, Diggins Win Merino Muster 42 k

    The U.S. Ski Team took first and second in both the men's and women's races at the 22nd Merino Muster 42 k freestyle, with Noah Hoffman (second from l) winning the men's race over Simi Hamilton (l), and Jessie Diggins (r) outlasting Liz Stephen (second from r) for the women's win. Here, those top finishers pose with Wanaka's Mary Lee at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: USSA Nordic/Facebook)
    The U.S. Ski Team took first and second in both the men’s and women’s races at the 22nd Merino Muster 42 k freestyle, with Noah Hoffman (second from l) winning the men’s race over Simi Hamilton (l), and Jessie Diggins (r) outlasting Liz Stephen (second from r) for the women’s win. Here, those top finishers pose with Wanaka’s Mary Lee at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: USSA Nordic/Facebook)

    This past weekend in New Zealand, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) swept the overall top four in the 42 k Merino Muster at the Snow Farm in Wanaka. Noah Hoffman beat out his USST teammate Simi Hamilton for the overall victory, and Jessie Diggins was the fastest woman in third overall, 12 seconds ahead of teammate Liz Stephen in fourth.

    U.S. Ski Team members Simi Hamilton (c) and Noah Hoffman during the 2016 Merino Muster at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. Hoffman won the 42 k freestyle race, and Hamilton placed second. (Photo: USSA Nordic/Facebook)
    U.S. Ski Team members Simi Hamilton (c) and Noah Hoffman during the 2016 Merino Muster at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. Hoffman won the 42 k freestyle race, and Hamilton placed second. (Photo: USSA Nordic/Facebook)

    Hoffman won the skate race in 1:45:08 and Hamilton finished 23 seconds later in second place. U.S. coach Matt Whitcomb told the Otago Daily Times that Hoffman, the team’s leading distance skier, was working to improve his sprinting, while Hamilton, who has podiumed in World Cup sprints, wanted to improve his distance skiing.

    Two years ago, Hoffman placed second in the 2014 Merino Muster behind Poland’s three-time race champion Maciej Kreczmer. Canadian Para-Nordic visually impaired legend Brian McKeever won last year’s edition (as well as 2010 and 2011), ahead of his teammate and guide in Paralympic events, Graham Nishikawa.

    Clocking in third at 1:59:12 was Diggins and Stephen followed 12 seconds later as the second woman.

    Of 10 USST members in New Zealand, four raced — finishing first or second in their respective men’s and women’s races. Whitcomb told the Otago Times that the U.S. has held training camps at the Snow Farm for more than 16 years.

    This year, all but six of its athletes are there. Of those six, at least four — Alaska Pacific University skiers Kikkan Randall, Rosie Brennan, and Sadie and Erik Bjornsen — are training at home in Alaska on snow at Eagle Glacier.

    2016 Merino Muster results

  • USST Makes Up for Lost Snow Time in New Zealand; Next Up: Norway

    USST Makes Up for Lost Snow Time in New Zealand; Next Up: Norway

    Part of the USST contingent in New Zealand. From left to right: Matt Whitcomb, Andy Newell, Anouk Faivre-Picon, Sophie Caldwell (top), Noah Hoffman (bottom), Liz Stephen, Ben Saxton, Paddy Caldwell (Photo: Simi Hamilton)
    Part of the U.S. Ski Team contingent in New Zealand. From left to right: Matt Whitcomb, Andy Newell, Anouk Faivre Picon (of France), Sophie Caldwell (top), Noah Hoffman (bottom), Liz Stephen, Ben Saxton, and Paddy Caldwell (Photo: Simi Hamilton)

    On July 7, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) headed south to the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand, for its first on-snow camp of the offseason. Usually the team would have logged some spring skiing in May in Bend, Ore., but minimal-snow conditions at Mt. Bachelor led the USST to cancel its annual camp there.  Instead, the team relied on its mid-summer trip to the Southern Hemisphere to make up for the lost time on snow.

    “One reason we felt it was important to go to New Zealand this year was that we weren’t able to have our traditional camp at Mt. Bachelor,” USST Head Coach Chris Grover said on the phone. “We wanted to have a longer on-snow camp than we have had the last few years in the middle of the summer to try and make up some of those missed days on snow.”

    Nine USST athletes and three coaches from the lower 48 reported to camp — with A-team members Andy Newell, Simi Hamilton, Liz Stephen, Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell, and Ida Sargent, B-team member Noah Hoffman, D-teamers Paddy Caldwell and Ben Saxton, as well as women’s coach Matt Whitcomb, assistant coach Jason Cork, and Grover. French World Cup skier Anouk Faivre Picon also joined the group.

    Of the 16 skiers nominated to the USST this spring, most of those who didn’t make the New Zealand trip trained with the Alaska Pacific University (APU) Elite Team in Anchorage. Instead, they had three shorter on-snow camps planned for Eagle Glacier, where the USST held a camp last summer and where several of the USST women have returned every year since 2011 for the North American Women’s Training Alliance.

    The women in New Zealand. From left to right: Anouk Faivre-Picon, Liz Stephen, Jessie Diggins, Ida Sargent, Sophie Caldwell. (photo: Sophie Caldwell)
    The U.S. Ski Team women in New Zealand plus France’s Anouk Faivre Picon (l). From left to right: Liz Stephen, Jessie Diggins, Ida Sargent, Sophie Caldwell. (Photo: Sophie Caldwell)

    For the athletes in Alaska, it is easy to take advantage of Eagle Glacier’s location. But for everyone else, a longer trip to New Zealand made more sense this year, Grover explained.

    “Alaska is awesome, but Eagle Glacier really lends itself to about six days of skiing up there and then its time to come down and take a rest with the way that everything is set up, the way the living situation and everything works,” he said. “[The APU skiers] have their plan that they get from [their coach] Erik Flora. … They are getting on Eagle Glacier three times: once in each summer month, June, July, and August. I understand it, I mean, when you have skiing out your back door, it makes it a little bit hard to make the move all the way down to the Southern Hemisphere.”

    But for the rest of the USST, the 15-day camp at the Snow Farm was ideal, with easily accessible ski trails along a ridge and an accommodating staff willing to groom specifically for them.

    “It’s a fantastic place for just focusing on training as much as you want and eating and sleeping and recovering in between,” Grover said. “Typical days were breakfast, ski for two and a half, three hours until lunch, [then] lunch, a little bit of recovery time, and then an afternoon workout — that was usually skiing — and then dinner and some technique review and that sort of thing from the day, maybe some PT [physical therapy]-type work in the evening if necessary and then to bed.”

    With so much ski time paired with effective recovery, the athletes accomplished one big goal of the camp: ticking off a lot of kilometers in on snow. Another group goal was to refine technique to make for the kind of technical training it would have normally done at Mt. Bachelor in May.

    Skiing during the sunrise (photo: Simi Hamilton)
    Skiing into the sunrise. (Photo: Simi Hamilton)

    “One thing that we spent a lot of time on down there was herringbone technique because it’s not something you can train dryland training on rollerskis,” Grover said. “For the most part, it needs to be trained on snow. The athletes also worked on technique fundamentals, doing a lot classic and skate skiing without poles.”

    While hours on snow and technique remained the main focus, the group also incorporated strength and intensity into its camp.

    “Every third day would be some sort of intensity in the morning and then half the group would go down to Wanaka to either run, or to lift, or to do both whereas the other half of the group might stay up and use the small gym and ski and lift up top,” Grover explained. “As a whole, everyone is kind of making good gains, some really good gains in strength happening right now.”

    The group also made sure to have some fun. One off day, everyone went to Queenstown and went go-carting. They also did a couple photo shoots with new USST clothing sponsor L.L. Bean. Grover said the team had fun with the usual ski camp stuff and “did a great job of supporting each other and taking care of each other.”

    The team was able to trek to New Zealand because of an increased budget from the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) and some fundraising from the team itself. Last year, the team had to forgo a camp there because of a lack of funds.

    “Luckily, this year we were able to really not even take the budget as much into consideration as we had in the previous year, but to do what we felt was the best program for the team,” Grover noted.

    USST members enjoyed excellent skiing conditions (photo: Sophie Caldwell)
    USST members enjoyed excellent skiing conditions. (Photo: Sophie Caldwell)

    Now back in the U.S., team members are spending time with their local clubs, continuing their summer training before their next USST camp in Norway. Kikkan Randall, Diggins, Caldwell, Stephen, Newell, Hamilton, and Hoffman depart for Norway on Aug. 9, where the main focus will be on competing in the Toppidrettsveka, a three-day rollerski competition in Aure, Knyken, and Trondheim from Aug. 20-22, which several national teams attend.

    The trip is for the more experienced World Cup athletes who are looking to gauge themselves against the world’s best. “For some athletes, that just didn’t really fit in to what they felt like they needed to be doing in August whereas others felt like they really did need to have a measuring stick to see where they were against the competition,” Grover said.

    Reflecting on New Zealand, Grover was positive: “It was a really good camp. We feel like we really accomplished what we set out to accomplish with it,” he said. “I think that athletes, everybody is coming back tired, knowing that they put in about as many kilometers in good snow conditions as they could really hope for.”

  • Hoffman Lone U.S. Ski Team Member to Train in New Zealand

    Hoffman Lone U.S. Ski Team Member to Train in New Zealand

    Polish skier Maciej Kreczmer leads Noah Hoffman in the 2014 Merino Muster at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. Noah Hoffman spent roughly two weeks training at the Wanaka venue. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/NoahHoffman.Com)
    Poland’s Maciej Kreczmer (r) leads Noah Hoffman (c) in the 2014 Merino Muster at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. Hoffman spent roughly two weeks training at the Wanaka venue. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/NoahHoffman.com)

    Noah Hoffman isn’t one to take his training lightly. The way he sees it, a serious-and-dedicated plan will allow the the 25-year-old U.S. Ski Team (USST) member to achieve his lofty career goals, which include winning an Olympic gold medal and an FIS World Cup Distance Globe.

    Given his driven nature, Hoffman is willing to venture outside the standard USST plan in order to bolster his training and address what he’s identified as his weaknesses.

    This summer, that meant participating in a solo camp at New Zealand’s Snow Farm following the USST men’s camp in Alaska.

    From Aug. 9 t0 Aug. 25, Hoffman had 15 full days of on-snow training at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. Over the course of his camp, he trained more than 50 hours.

    For Hoffman, the decision to make the summer trip to New Zealand was easy. He’s been adding the trip to his training plan for the last three years and finds that the often-fast, hard snow is ideal for his technique work. This year, he said conditions were especially favorable.

    The view from the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. Accodring to Hoffman, the conditions were the best he's seen in five years at the venue. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/NoahHoffman.com)
    The view from the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. Accodring to Hoffman, the conditions were the best he’s seen in five years at the venue. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/NoahHoffman.com)

    “I had the best snow conditions that I’ve seen in any of my five years going there,” he wrote in an email. “I was hard-wax skiing the entire time and had 14 days of beautiful weather.”

    Hoffman explained that his New Zealand trip served as an additional on-snow camp used to supplement the USST camp schedule. For the Colorado native, his continued on-snow training has helped him improve his technique.

    “I think the additional on-snow time has been essential to the technique improvements that I’ve made in the last two years and is critical to my technique goals for this summer and beyond,” he wrote.

    While Hoffman appreciates the value of North-American summer glacier camps, he found that New Zealand’s skiing better replicated winter World Cup conditions.

    “Training at the Snow Farm is significantly more valuable than on-snow time on a glacier in the Northern Hemisphere,” he wrote. “Glacier skiing is slow and soft. It is a different type of skiing than we see at most venues in the winter.”

    Often times during the race season, World Cup venues are hit with warm conditions and organizers salt the course to increase snow speed.

    Even though Hoffman was the sole USST member to travel to New Zealand this year, his coaches and teammates who remained stateside were extremely supportive.

    “They understand my goals and support the plan that my personal coaches and I believe is best for my training,” Hoffman explained.

    The Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/NoahHoffman.com)
    The Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/NoahHoffman.com)

    While most of his training in New Zealand was spent alone, Hoffman was able to connect with Canada’s multiple-time Paralympic gold medalist Brian McKeever and one of his guides Graham Nishikawa for several training sessions. And when he wasn’t training, Hoffman spent meals with the Canadian Para-Nordic Team.

    “That social activity was critical for me to stay happy down there,” he wrote.

    Hoffman’s training also included the 2014 Merino Muster. The 42 k freestyle mass start took place on Aug. 16 and included several international competitors, such as Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk.

    Hoffman placed second, 11 seconds behind Poland’s Maciej Kreczmer.

    While he would have liked to win the race, he wrote on his blog that he was happy with the outcome and that the race served as an excellent intensity workout.

    “The goal is not to be good in August,” he wrote. 

    Hoffman also allotted time for some lighthearted charity work. With the help of his Canadian counterparts, he participated in the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Ice Bucket Challenge, a social-media phenomenon intended to raise awareness and research funding for the illness, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

    Hoffman returned to the U.S. on Aug. 25, where he will continue the remainder of his summer training. This year he will sit out the USST Lake Placid camp in New York (taking place Aug. 26-Sept. 7), as his trip to New Zealand served as its replacement.

    Reflecting on his summer, Hoffman said his training was “almost ideal,” citing his health, happiness, and technique improvement. Looking ahead, he feels prepared for the season ahead.

    “I believe I’m really well set up to transition to higher intensity and more race-type fitness as the fall progresses,” he wrote. “I’m very happy and excited with the way things have gone.”

    The Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/Noahhoffman.com)
    The Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/Noahhoffman.com)

     

  • FIS Registration Due For Southern Hemisphere Races

    2013 Kangaroo Hoppet at Falls Creek - Leading Women - Chisa Obayashi, JPN (in purple) & Marina Chernousova, RUS (in red)
    2013 Kangaroo Hoppet at Falls Creek – Leading Women – Chisa Obayashi, JPN (in purple) & Marina Chernousova, RUS (in red)

    Press Release, June 20, 2014

    Temperatures are dropping and the ski fields in Australia and New Zealand will soon be opening. In Australia cross country skiing club races begin at the start of July, with all FIS competitions in AUS and NZL taking place in August. Any elite international racers planning to compete in FIS races in the southern hemisphere should note that FIS registration for the 2014/2015 season is now due. Athletes wishing to be on the 1st FIS points list for the season and to have their points count for southern hemisphere races should ensure that their FIS registration is processed by their National Ski Federation and sent to FIS before June 30.

    The schedule for the FIS Australia – New Zealand Continental Cup is as follows:

    August 2 – Perisher, AUS – Sprint Classic

    August 3 – Perisher, AUS – 5/10km Freestyle

    August 7 – Snow Farm, NZL – Sprint Freestyle

    August 9 – Snow Farm, NZL – 5/10km Freestyle

    August 10 – Snow Farm, NZL – 10/15km C Mass Start

    August 16 – Falls Creek, AUS – Sprint Freestyle

    August 17 – Falls Creek, AUS – 10/15km Classic

    August 23 – Falls Creek, AUS – Kangaroo Hoppet 42km Freestyle (Worldloppet)

    Link to all race on FIS site: 2014 AUS/NZL FIS Races

    International athletes seeking additional information on racing in Australia should contact Finn Marsland, Ski & Snowboard Australia High Performance Manager, via email on: finn.marsland@gmail.com

    Ski & Snowboard Australia Cross Country – AUSXC

    www.facebook.com/ausxc

    Twitter: @ausxc
  • U.S. Men, Canadians Get to Work on Snow Farm

    U.S. Men, Canadians Get to Work on Snow Farm

    Andy Newell of the U.S. Ski Team leads Russia's Alexey Petukhov during the men's A-final of the New Zealand Winter Games freestyle sprint last Thursday. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/noahhoffman.com)
    Andy Newell of the U.S. Ski Team leads Russia’s Alexey Petukhov during the men’s A-final of the New Zealand Winter Games freestyle sprint last Thursday. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/noahhoffman.com)

    In his nine-plus years on the U.S. Ski Team, Andy Newell figures he has logged more skiing hours at the Snow Farm on the South Island of New Zealand than any other place in the world.

    An annual training camp destination since 2002, the U.S. men’s team touched down there last week and will stay for the rest of the month.

    Simi Hamilton skis away from U.S. Ski Team head coach Chris Grover after breaking down some video footage of his technique. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/noahhoffman.com)
    Simi Hamilton skis away from U.S. Ski Team head coach Chris Grover after breaking down some video footage of his technique. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/noahhoffman.com)

    Head coach Chris Grover will let Newell, Simi Hamilton and Noah Hoffman take full advantage of the August snow and complete some of their biggest training volume weeks of the year. But it won’t be all slow and easy.

    “The ease of the living/training situation here makes it quite easy to train a lot,” Grover wrote in an email. “We will also run several interval and speed sessions, with at least one interval session being Sochi-specific for the sprinters.”

    The camp coincides with New Zealand’s Winter Games, which served as a fitness gauge for some World Cup skiers last Thursday. Newell beat a small-but-quality field in a skate sprint, while reminding his skiing muscles what all that rollerskiing, running and biking this summer has been for.

    “It’s August, so we never want to be racing too fast in the middle of the summer,” Newell wrote. “But at the same time we want to see positive feedback and improvement in how the training is being absorbed.”

    Hoffman continues to rebuild up his upper-body strength after undergoing shoulder surgery this spring. He did a 2 ½-hour double-pole workout on Friday.

    Hamilton sprained his left ankle a couple of weeks ago during a run with the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team and did not race on Thursday as skating irritates his ankle more than classic. He partially tore all of the ligaments in the same ankle during a terrain-park accident in high school and has had occasional problems with it since. Hamilton wrote in an email that while in New Zealand, he has been working with Canadian team physical therapist Shane Hutchins on re-aligning the ankle and getting it to function normally again. The U.S. did not send a physical therapist to the camp.

    Newell said the extensive trail system is white, but dirt and grass isn’t far beneath his ski bases. He said conditions range day-to-day from awesome to not great, depending on how windy it is and how cold the nights are.

    “I like training here, because you can get the real winter-type conditions that are hard to find in glacier skiing,” Newell wrote, referring to one of the few other places to find skiable snow during the North American summer.

    Hoffman expressed his dissatisfaction with the grooming on his blog.

    “The (Snow Farm) staff has chosen not to groom on multiple occasions,” Hoffman wrote. “The decision not to groom has made training difficult and less productive. We, the athletes training here, don’t understand the excuses, because we have skied all over the world in more adverse conditions than they are experiencing here at the Snow Farm.”

    A short drive down off the mountains brings athletes to the town of Wanaka, with its green grass and lakes, where they run and do strength.

    Following the New Zealand camp, the U.S. men will stop in at home and re-pack their bags before heading to Lake Placid, N.Y, for the next USST camp about a week later (Sept. 3-16).

    Canadian national team members during a training session on one of the first days of their training camp at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/noahhoffman.com)
    Canadian national team members during a training session on one of the first days of their training camp at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo: Noah Hoffman/noahhoffman.com)

    Canada’s entire World Cup team is also in New Zealand, with the exception of Lenny Valjas, who is rehabbing his knee after having it scoped last month. He explained in his blog that he has been racing on a bad knee for nearly five years, but this summer it was getting progressively worse so he finally had it taken care of.

    “[Valjas’] recovery is going really well, but we felt it was better to get him 100-percent before returning to a full training camp,” Canada head coach Justin Wadsworth wrote in an e-mail. “There is no doubt in my mind he’ll be ready this winter. He went into the scope in the best shape of his life and has done a super job of continuing to train while doing the rehab on his knee.”

    Four younger skiers from the Pierre Harvey National Training Centre in Quebec tagged along to train alongside Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov, Dasha Gaiazova and Perianne Jones.

    Wadsworth and Grover shared their camp plans with each other and the teams will combine for several workouts.

    “The focus down here is just good solid training with an emphasis on technique,” Wadsworth wrote. “It also allows our athletes to take a break from roller skiing and running, so they head into the final part of the summer/fall refreshed and ready to get the work done before the snow flies. We’re not doing anything specific for preparation for Sochi except some work in steep terrain, which we don’t normally get on roller skis.”

    The Canadians have an altitude camp in Truckee, Calif., in early October, before getting on some more preseason snow in Canmore, Alberta.

    “Overall, the team is doing well and it’s fantastic to have more women than men down here,” Wadsworth wrote. “The group here is super motivated and is a nice mix of veterans and younger athletes.”

  • Newell Thrives in NZ, Wins Winter Games Opener at Snow Farm

    Newell Thrives in NZ, Wins Winter Games Opener at Snow Farm

    Andy Newell (l) and Russia's Alexey Petukhov go head-to-head in the men's A-final on Thursday in the Winter Games NZ freestyle sprint in Wanaka, New Zealand. Newell won the race, Petukhov was second and Canada's Devon Kershaw placed third. (Photo: Noah Hoffman)
    Andy Newell (l) and Russia’s Alexey Petukhov go head-to-head in the men’s A-final on Thursday in the Winter Games NZ freestyle sprint in Wanaka, New Zealand. Newell won the race, Petukhov was second and Canada’s Devon Kershaw placed third. (Photo: Noah Hoffman)

    The U.S. Ski Team men’s squad touched down in New Zealand on Tuesday afternoon. Imagine racing in the land down under, a 16-hour time difference from Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton’s base in Vermont and 18 hours from Colorado, where Noah Hoffman primarily trains, two days later.

    Newell and Hoffman did just that (Hamilton ran into major baggage woes on his way over), and Newell came out on top of a relatively stacked, if not small, field on the opening day of Winter Games NZ.

    The Winter Games NZ men's 1.6 k sprint podium, with winner Andy Newell (c), runner-up Alexey Petukhov (l), and Devon Kershaw in third. (Photo: Snow Farm/https://www.facebook.com/SnowFarm)
    The Winter Games NZ men’s 1.6 k sprint podium, with winner Andy Newell (c), runner-up Alexey Petukhov (l), and Devon Kershaw in third. (Photo: Snow Farm/Facebook)

    The ninth-ranked competitor, Newell not only crushed the qualifier of the 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint at the Snow Farm in Wanaka, but he went on to win his quarterfinal, semifinal and eventually the final over Russia’s Alexey Petukhov and Canadian Devon Kershaw. Top seed Nikita Kruikov of Russia ended up fifth after teammate Anton Gafarov in fourth.

    After spending most of his summer with the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team, Newell clocked a time of 2:52.96 over what he considered a fast course, which was “fairly hard packed,” he wrote in an email. “The course was really fun with a super fast rolling downhill and lots of turns. … Neither of the two climbs on course were too steep.”

    Petukhov was the second-fastest qualifier nearly four seconds later in 2:56.54 and Kershaw qualified third in 3:00.10. Their positions ultimately held steady, with Petukhov placing second and Kershaw third in the final.

    “I felt a lot better than I thought I was going to racing,” Newell explained of his first time on snow in a couple months. “The travel is tough to get down here but adjusting to the time change is actually pretty easy. A lot easier than Europe. So racing two days off the place isn’t that big of a deal.”

    Still, he didn’t feel exactly the same as he would on a World Cup morning.

    “I wasn’t too eager to race in the morning having only had one day on snow but as a warmed up I started feeling pretty good,” Newell wrote. “The sun came out so I had plenty of energy in Qualification. Obviously all the Russian guys here are fast sprinters so I didn’t have any goal for the race other than to make the final.

    “It’s August so we just use these races as training opportunities and use them to gauge how our bodies are responding to the summer training and also identify things that we need to work on technically,” he added. “Especially with sprinting it’s helpful to jump in races like this so you can stay sharp when it comes to heat tactics and race-like accelerations.”

    Newell specifically tried to work on fast accelerations, over the tops of hills and during the final stretches of each heat.

    “I think it worked out well and I was happy with the result,” he wrote. “I was stoked with how the body felt pushing hard. We spend all summer long running, biking, rollerskiing, just training a ton and its good to remind yourself of why you’re putting in all the hard work. It’s good to remind yourself that you’re a ski racer and this is what you’re trying to get faster at.”

    Primarily a distance skier, Hoffman finished ninth ahead of a Russian and six Korean skiers.

    The Winter Games NZ women's 1.6 k skate sprint podium, with winner Justyna Kowalczyk (c), runner-up Dasha Gaiazova (l), and Anastazia Kuzmina in third. (Photo: Snow Farm/https://www.facebook.com/SnowFarm)
    The Winter Games NZ women’s 1.6 k skate sprint podium, with winner Justyna Kowalczyk (c), runner-up Dasha Gaiazova (l), and Anastasia Kuzmina in third. (Photo: Snow Farm/Facebook)

    In the women’s skate sprint, Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk was the fastest qualifier in 3:27.25, more than 5 seconds ahead of Olympic gold medalist biathlete Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia. Canadian Perianne Jones qualified third in 3:36.42.

    Kowalczyk went on to win her semifinal and top Canada’s Dasha Gaiazova in the final for the overall victory, telling race organizers, “It was a good race on a very good track. I am very happy and racing here at Snow Farm and the Winter Games is very important for me for Sochi,” she said.

    Gaiazova was second, but could not be reached for comment, and Kuzmina placed third. Jones finished fourth in the A-final, topping Japan’s Michiko Kashiwabara and Chisa Obayashi, who were first and second, respectively, in the B-final. New Zealand’s lone entrant and first Olympic biathlete, Sarah Murphy, ended up seventh of eight women. Murphy is trying to qualify for her second-straight Olympics after “a lot of back luck last year,” including illness and a broken rifle, she told the Otago Daily Times.

    “These Winter Games are really very important for me and my bid for the Olympics,” she said.

    Although Thursday marked the start of the Games, it was essentially the only day of true-blue racing for the Americans at the Snow Farm. “We are hopefully going to do a distance time trial with the Canadians later in the camp but that will be the only other racing,” Newell explained.

    Results: men | women

  • Before Olympics, U.S. and Canadian National Teams Train at Both New and Familiar Venues

    Before Olympics, U.S. and Canadian National Teams Train at Both New and Familiar Venues

    The Snow Farm in New Zealand. The Canadian National Ski Team and U.S. men will return there this August for a two week on-snow training camp.
    The Snow Farm in New Zealand. The Canadian National Ski Team and U.S. men will return there this August for a two week on-snow training camp.

    As U.S. and Canadian national team members continue to log hours this June on snow, asphalt and trails, they have several more training camps on tap for the remainder of the season to look forward to. The first World Cup in Kuusamo, Finland, isn’t until the end of November, but when you start to break down the North American training schedules by camp and month, the offseason suddenly looks much shorter.

    The two nations have a history of holding joint camps in the offseason; last month in Bend, Ore., the teams often skied together on rollerskis and on snow at Mt. Bachelor. The teams separated after Bend; the U.S. Ski Team migrated to Park City, Utah, for an altitude camp and series of treadmill tests. Liz Stephen traveled to Norway and Sweden to train with national team members there, and the Canadians split for their respective homes, which for Perianne Jones, Ivan Babikov and Devon Kershaw meant Canmore, Alberta.

    For their next training blocks, the U.S. Ski Team and Canadian National Ski Team diverge. The Canadian men and women will be back in Bend in late June for a two-week dryland camp, while the Americans have a month-long block of home-based training to follow Park City.

    “By design, we have a really open summer,” said USST head coach Chris Grover. “The idea was to really allow each athlete to build some momentum in their home club environment and home training environment, and to really make some progress with their day-to-day training over the summer. So everyone’s got quality at-home time in the summer, some on-snow opportunity.”

    When the training season transitions to fall, U.S. athletes will be together more often than not. “[It is] a little more of an intensive camp schedule once we get into the fall, as the volume drops and we’re typically doing more intensity,” Grover said.

    In between now and October, the U.S. men and women each have a separate two-week training camp on the schedule. The women will once again be in Alaska starting in mid-July for a half dryland, half on-snow camp in Anchorage and on Eagle Glacier. In 2012, the women’s Alaska camp included Finnish guest athlete Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, and Grover indicated another guest invitation was currently being finalized.

    The U.S. men have a longer break built into their camp schedule, but will travel all the way to the New Zealand’s Snow Farm to return to snow for group training in mid-August. After trying something new with a men’s camp in Ramsau, Austria, and Oberhof, Germany, last year, Grover is returning his team to familiar ground before the Olympics. He says they found the quality of skiing on Dachstein glacier to be inconsistent and the Oberhof ski hall wasn’t suited for long sessions.

    “Dachstein in the morning is good, but in the afternoon it’s typically not very good, depending on the weather,” Grover said. “In the ski hall there’s only so much skiing you really want to do on a daily basis inside there.

    At the Snow Farm, he says, the snow is more consistent and offers higher quality skiing for longer training sessions. With the Canadian men scheduled to be there at the same time, the location also offers more opportunity for group workouts.

    New Zealand also provides the potential for some early head-to-head competition. The New Zealand Winter Games take place there in August and include three FIS races at the Snow Farm. The U.S. will miss the first two races, a 15 k mass start classic and a 10 k individual freestyle, while they fly down, but Grover thinks there is a possibility the U.S. men will jump into the freestyle sprint on August 15 for their second day on snow. Whether they compete or not, he expects the camp to be a quality one.

    “New Zealand has been a go-to for us since 2002 and we’ve really come away from it so many times going, ‘That was a really great camp,’ ” Grover said. “We took a look around and tried something different last year, but I think because it’s an Olympic year, we know we can get a ton of great skiing down there and we know we can come away from the camp having had a fantastic camp. It made sense to go back down.”

    When fall intensity ramps up the USST will return once again to Lake Placid, N.Y., followed by a return to Park City for another altitude block and a final pre-season camp in Canmore on the stockpiled snow of Frozen Thunder.

    “We had a great camp up there last year and I think one of the reasons the team hit the ground running so well in the fall World Cup was because we had that extra eight days of on snow time that we haven’t had in previous years for some of the athletes,” Grover said of Canmore.

    After New Zealand, the CNST’s October camp takes them to a new venue: Truckee, Calif., instead of Park City. Women’s coach Eric de Nys explained in an email that they wanted a new location for their October camp.

    “We wanted a fresh place to do the training this year and we feel we can achieve our objectives for this camp better in Truckee,” he wrote.

    — Alex Matthews contributed reporting.

  • Canadian Men Leave NZ ‘Feeling Good,’ Cracking Jokes

    Canadian Men Leave NZ ‘Feeling Good,’ Cracking Jokes

    Canadian World Cup team member Alex Harvey crashes and burns during a head-to-head sprint with one of his teammates at the Snow Farm near Wanaka, New Zealand, where the team recently spent two weeks training. (Photo from XC Canada video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8roNOx3M0dk)

    Just over two weeks ago, the Canadian men’s cross-country ski team made the long journey to New Zealand in search of some low-altitude, on-snow volume training. According to head coach Justin Wadsworth, they planned to work on intensity and climbing steep hills.

    That was the plan, and after checking in with Wadsworth before the team left for home on Wednesday, he wrote in an email that all went well. In fact, he described the camp as excellent.

    “Overall we are ahead in every aspect from where we were last year,” Wadsworth wrote. “So I’m very pleased.”

    Lenny Valjas (l) and Alex Harvey while being filmed at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. (From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8roNOx3M0dk)

    While the four World Cup teammates — Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov and Lenny Valjas — put in some long days at the Snow Farm near Wanaka, they also had some fun. The team posted a YouTube video called, “Snow Farm – New Zealand – August 2012” to sum up their time there, which was mostly a laughing matter.

    In one scene, the four men stand stand on a treeless trail high above the landscape while taking a break during training. Valjas looks to his left.

    “Pop questions for our teammate Ivan Babikov,” he says.

    “Hey Babs, what’s your spirit animal?” Kershaw chimes in.

    Babikov laughs. “Unicorn?”

    Devon Kershaw (l) interviews Ivan Babikov in an XC Canada video at the Snow Farm in New Zealand. (From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8roNOx3M0dk)

    The camera pans to Harvey: “Hey Babs, can you explain why we see the moon and the sun at the same time?”

    Babikov pauses. “We’re way down deep south. That’s why.”

    They all laughed, and then it was probably back to training. At least that’s what the videos shows. But between jumping out to scare Kershaw at surprising moments and doing penguin-like belly slides on skis, the Canadian men did have a productive camp. Wadsworth pointed out the quality of a couple speed sessions and hefty amount of technique work.

    “Maybe one of the best days was a crust cruise up to the top of the Pisa Range [the plateau where the Snow Farm is located] on a bluebird day,” he wrote.

    Snow conditions were good despite a thin snow year, he added. The team has also never skied in New Zealand this late in the season (they typically travel there about two weeks earlier in August for the Winter Games NZ races with other international skiers).

    “Really the only hitch was 2 of the 4 guys got a 24 hour flu,” Wadsworth wrote about Harvey and Babikov’s illness about halfway through the camp. “This happened on the morning of the classic time trial we had planned, so we had to move things around a bit, Alex and Ivan bounced back quickly and even though they were rooming with Devon and Lenny the flu didn’t spread.”

    Asked how he was feeling, Harvey responded in an email from the airport that he was doing well.

    “I’m coming out of the camp not really tired,” he wrote. “It’s hard to know what [the sickness] was exactly. … It was quick but pretty intense. Probably something we caught down in town, in Wanaka. I was able to ski twice the next day so I didn’t loose any training really. I just ended up skipping a rest day later in the camp.”

    View from the Snow Farm near Wanaka, New Zealand, in late August. (From: youtube.com/watch?v=8roNOx3M0dk)

    Harvey added that having the camp a bit later gave them more time to enjoy summer back in Canada. Once they arrived in New Zealand, he said the conditions were still good, just a bit more spring-like.

    “But there was never a day were we couldn’t ski because of the weather, which is pretty good for the Snow Farm,” he wrote. “We usually get one or two days were we can’t ski up there so we were lucky this time.”

    Just like other team training camps, Harvey focused on completing hard-intensity workouts with his teammates.

    “The training camps are the only time I do Level 4 intensity in the summer so it’s good to be with the boys to do that,” he wrote. “We also worked a lot on technique, classic, skating, uphills, flats. Trying to improve a bit on all aspects. I feel like I was able to put a lot of hours on snow, maintain the strength training while doing 4 solid hard intensity sessions and training kind of at altitude.”

    (Harvey trains at sea level near Quebec City and could feel the difference at the Snow Farm’s elevation at 1,500 meters.)

    “I’m coming out of the camp fitter and faster that’s for sure,” he added. “I feel like the camp didn’t take too much out of me so I should ba able to get two more solid weeks of training before our next camp in Park City, Utah (from Sept. 23-Oct. 4).”

    As for highlights, Harvey picked out three:

    “1. The weather allowed us to ski everyday if we wanted to.

    2. Settlers of Catan. It’s ‘The Game that Defines our Generation!’

    3. Devon’s beard and hair combo. Skyping with my mom, she asked why he tried to look like a hobo and said that he’s a ‘complete disaster.’ “

  • Chipping Away at Technique, One Cue at a Time

    Chipping Away at Technique, One Cue at a Time

    2012 U.S. Nationals
    Noah Hoffman (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/U.S. Ski Team) attacking a climb at U.S. Nationals this January. Photo: Flying Point Road.

    Noah Hoffman has been all over the world this summer in search of snow, and in less than a week the U.S. Ski Team member will be jetting off again to find more. This time he’s headed to the Southern Hemisphere along with teammate Kris Freeman to train at the Snow Farm, New Zealand’s premier cross-country ski field and, until this year, a regular U.S. training destination.

    It won’t be the first time this summer that the pair has embarked on an independent trip on top of the regular USST camp schedule; they both flew to Norway in June to spend time on Sognefjell. But between Sognefjell, the Snow Farm and earlier camps throughout the U.S. and Europe, Hoffman will have trained on actual skis this offseason more than any other in his career.

    This intensified quest for groomed trails is part of a specific plan to improve on what Hoffman currently considers to be a significant weakness of his: technique. And there’s no better place to fine-tune it than on actual snow.

    “You can do a little [technique] on rollerskis but it’s much more realistic on snow,” Hoffman said on the phone from his current base in Park City, Utah. “I’ve struggled with the transition between rollerskis and snow before, and I feel like it’s really important for me to learn to ski on snow because that’s where the races are held and technique has always been one of my biggest weaknesses.”

    Hoffman following Canadian Devon Kershaw early in the Oslo World Cup 50 k last season. Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus.

    In fact, Hoffman believes that any success he’s had came in spite of not being the most efficient skier out there. Pure fitness worked for him until a point, but less-than-perfect technical ability eventually got in the way of further progress.

    “It’s almost astounding how bad my technique is, and how I haven’t been able to make much progress with this before,” Hoffman said.

    As a junior skier rising through the national ranks, he didn’t see the specifics of things like pole placement as a priority. “I kept finding that the harder I worked the faster I skied. But that doesn’t work forever; eventually you start getting tired and over trained. I was lucky in that I was able to handle a lot of training and each year work harder and ski faster, so I never saw the need to really address other aspects of skiing.

    “But that stopped working, especially in 2009 when I had a really bad season.”

    The summer afterwards was when Hoffman hired Zach Caldwell specifically to be his technique coach, and ever since they have adopted a unique plan to gradually fix Hoffman’s weaknesses. Caldwell assigns Hoffman an intensive three-day block of time about once a month to go away and work on some aspect of his technique. After, they revisit those cues at various intervals down the road and measure progress.

    “Zach and I have a unique relationship; I don’t know of anyone who works on technique the same way I do,” Hoffman said. “But it’s worked really well for me… My classic skiing really took off the first year we started working together. Skate has been a longer process but I think we’re making some good gains right now.”

    In order to ingrain small tweaks into his muscle memory, Hoffman has learned that he responds best to specific cues. Attempting to imitate other skiers didn’t stick, and so Caldwell and Hoffman devised ways to get the latter to set an edge or reach his arms in certain ways using analogies and imagery cues. Cues range from the simple — ‘stand up’ — to more complicated.

    For example: the skateboard cue.

    “Imagine a skateboard out in front of you with a stack of weights on it,” Hoffman explains. “A rope is attached to the skateboard, which is attached to your hand. When I’m poling in a classic striding motion I imagine myself pulling the skateboard to me, getting it moving as fast as I can without letting the weights drop off the skateboard. It has to be a smooth motion, but you’re accelerating through it and you’re pushing hard.

    “We came up with that the first summer and that’s stuck with me; it’s been a great cue. I don’t know what kind of learner that makes me, but it’s worked really well for me.”

    In the skate technique, other prompts include the [Maurice] Manificat cue for V2 and the [Petter] Northug cue — the Norwegian’s V2 alternate is “really good for springing off the foot and getting slingshotted down the track.”

    And so when Hoffman steps onto the winding trails at the Snow Farm, ‘skateboard cue’ will be on his mind. He is looking forward to training at a venue free of distraction; with food, lodging and training all under one roof, he and Freeman aren’t even renting a car.

    “Once again we’re someplace that is not very conducive to doing much but eating, sleeping and skiing,” Hoffman said. “It’ll be a good opportunity to be focused and work on what I need to work on without any distractions. Kris is one of the best in the world at doing that, so he’s a good person to go down there with.”

    Setting out to improve technique is one thing, but Hoffman’s ultimate goal in doing so is to be the best skier in the world in five more years.

    “A top 10 or top 15 would be a great success for me [at 2014 Sochi Olympics]. I’m looking to be a regular top-10 skier on the World Cup by that time,” Hoffman said. “But I’m looking at winning a gold medal in 2018. That’s my goal. I want to be winning World Cups by that time; I want to be winning world championships in Lahti in 2017.”

  • Canadian Men En Route to New Zealand; Plan to Meet Hoffman and Freeman

    The Snow Farm, as seen in July 2010, where the Canadian men’s team will be the lone North-American contingent training for nearly three weeks starting Aug. 22 near Wanaka, New Zealand. According to Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth, U.S. Ski Team members Kris Freeman and Noah Hoffman will also be there.

    Scattered throughout Canada on Sunday, four World Cup team members and their coaching and support staff started their long journey to the land down under – that is, New Zealand.

    Alex Harvey ate handmade chocolates and sipped a steamed drink while waiting for his 16-hour flight out of Québec International Airport, then got upgraded to business class, according to Twitter.

    Meanwhile, his teammate Devon Kershaw tweeted that he was in coach on another flight, but didn’t mind.

    “It’s awesome in the back,” Kershaw wrote. “Middle of the middle for 15 hours #decent?”

    As head coach Justin Wadsworth stepped off the plane in Denver and awaited his departure for Los Angeles, he took the time to chat with FasterSkier on the phone. The entire Canadian men’s team – Harvey, Kershaw, Lenny Valjas and Ivan Babikov – will arrive in Queenstown, New Zealand, on Tuesday afternoon. They’ll start training Wednesday and spend about two and a half weeks on snow at the Snow Farm near Wanaka.

    ***

    FasterSkier: Last year, you timed the trip with the New Zealand Winter Games so your skiers could race at the Snow Farm. Why did you schedule it later this year?

    Justin Wadsworth: We have a lot of camps. In the summer, it works out to be almost two weeks out of every month the athletes are in camps. I thought this summer it might be nice to give everyone a six-week period with no camps. That’s basically what we did to try to create more of a stay-at-home and get back into a groove where everybody lives. Our last camp was up on the Haig Glacier, you know, as part of our Hawaii camp. [Note: The men’s team was in Hawaii from mid June to July 4, then skied on the Haig Glacier near Canmore, Alberta, from July 5-9].

    It has been a nice break for everybody, including myself, and then it just worked out well. We usually have a two-week break before the Park City altitude camp in September [where both the Canadian men’s and women’s teams will train together in Utah from Sept. 23-Oct. 4].

    FS: What are some training goals while in New Zealand?

    JW: This is kind of a volume camp. We have other periods where we focus a little bit more on intensity. This one is volume-based and obviously on snow. It’s worked very well in the past few years [at creating a base for really good ski technique and working on climbing. We’ve been rollerskiing a lot and glacier skiing where there’s not a lot of opportunity for super-steep uphill training]. It’s just terrain that’s good to be on for working the steep uphill.

    FS: Why else is it important to travel there for snow?

    The men’s 15 k classic mass start podium from 2009 in New Zealand: Canadian winner Devon Kershaw (c) and teammate Ivan Babikov (l) and American runner-up Kris Freeman (r).

    JW: We have opportunities to ski in Canada and right behind Canmore on the glacier, but New Zealand provides us with straight-out-the-door, fairly low altitude, and just really, really good winter snow conditions to train from. I, personally, and I think the athletes really feel like this camp provides them something that a lot of their summer skiing doesn’t.

    I know other North Americans are sort of straying away from going there, but … I think it is a super-high value for us to be down there, and it’s worth the trip even though it’s a long trip down there. It’s a really good place to get some quality training in.

    [Note: For the first time in 10 years, the U.S. Ski Team will not be training in New Zealand this summer. Head coach Chris Grover cited the steep rise in airfare, lengthy travel and 16-hour time-difference adjustment as reasons for skipping the trip. Instead, the U.S. men recently skied in Austria and Germany, and the women just wrapped up two weeks of training in Sweden.]

    FS: Which international skiers will still be at the Snow Farm?

    JW: Right now, the Russians are down there and Justyna Kowalczyk and one other male sprinter from Poland [Maciej Kreczmer], and then Kris Freeman and Noah Hoffman [of the U.S. Ski Team] will be down there a little bit later. There’ll be a few other folks there.

    FS: Do you plan to coordinate workouts with Freeman and Hoffman?

    JW: Hoff gave me an email a couple days ago and asked me what our plan was down there. He said he’d like to at least hook up for some workouts. We’ll probably do a time trial down there so it might be nice to get those guys into that one and probably some intensity with them also. I mean, we’re happy to work with those guys and I’m sure they’ll ski a lot together in the distance workouts. The majority of the sessions down there are distance training.

    FS: It seems like the North American women have been pushing particularly hard to train together. How would you describe the relationship between the Canadian and U.S. men?

    JW: It’s a little bit different between men and women. I think the social aspect on the women’s side is so much more important, and I think that’s a big difference. It’s not that we don’t want to train with Hoff or Bird, it’s just guys in general do a little bit more on their own. We’re not going to force it, but definitely there will be some company on the long workouts that they’ll be welcome [to join at the Snow Farm]. It will be nice to have those guys there.

    FS: Which of your staff members are going?

    JW: Myself and [wax tech] Joel Jaques, [team physiotherapist] Shayne Hutchins, and then [men’s assistant coach] Louie Bouchard … so we have a pretty good staff-to-athlete ratio on this one.

    FS: Will the training sessions be mostly structured similarly or individually?

    JW: Occasionally, we’ll have different workouts, but [at] almost all the camps, guys do all the workouts together. We can vary the length of them and stuff individually, but they do all pretty much the same plan for the camp so it works out really nicely and I think it’s beneficial for all the guys.

    You kind of see that now, Lenny’s coming up and I think Ivan’s doing really well right now. He’s focusing on some things for him on the side leading into this period, so I really feel good where he is and where Devon is, and I know Alex is doing well. Everyone’s doing great. They all train together and hopefully push each other a bit when we need to push.

    [Note: Kershaw and Babikov have been training together throughout the summer in Canmore. In a recent blog post, Kershaw wrote: “After the momentum we gained during the Maui camp – Ivan and I have been working super well together under the watchful eye of Justin. It’s a different set up with the men and women training separately this year which is a big change, but things with the men’s team seem to be going splendid.”

    FS: How are the team dynamics in general?

    JW: We separated the men and the women this year and I think that’s been working well. We’re going to get everybody together in Park City. We’ll be doing slightly different things, but we’re going to be sharing some meals and stuff together.

    The reports on [women’s national-team members] Chandra [Crawford], Dasha [Gaiazova] and Peri [Jones] have been really good, and the vibe on the guys’ team is always good. I’m feeling really good about how things are, and it’ll be good to get the team together in Park City because we’re going to be spending a lot of time together starting in November. It’s good to make sure we’re all on the same page.

    FS: And that camp’s timed slightly before the USST training camp in Park City (from Oct. 8-18)?

    JW: It just didn’t work out timing wise because we want to be back up in Canada for Frozen Thunder starting on [October] 15th. We wanted our men and women to be at the Park City camp together. The U.S. women will be in Canmore so that’s kind of the shared time when our ladies can train with their ladies during that period. It’s important to get the team together in Park City just to make sure we don’t lose contact with that.

  • Americans Rave About New Zealand As Racing Kicks Off Today

    Kris Freeman leads the way for the Americans in today's 10/15 k classic mass start race at the Snow Farm in New Zealand.

    The World Cup opener is still 100 days away, but for the U.S. and Canadian national teams, the 2010-2011 cross-country season kicks off today with a 10/15 k classic mass start event.

    The race is part of the ANC series – the Australian and New Zealand Continental Cup. It is being held at the Snow Farm in New Zealand, and will feature an elite, if small, field.

    The U.S. Ski Team (USST) will start their top distance skiers with Kris Freeman, Noah Hoffman, Liz Stephen, Morgan Arritola, and Kikkan Randall all donning bibs.

    The Canadians, more recent arrivals in New Zealand, have also entered five athletes, according to Head Coach Justin Wadsworth.  Ivan Babikov, Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey lead the way, while sprinters Chandra Crawford and Stefan Kuhn are last-minute additions.

    But these teams didn’t travel halfway around the world to focus on racing, USST Head Coach Chris Grover told FasterSkier in an e-mail.

    “Racing here in New Zealand is secondary to the training, for sure. Each athlete is picking one or two of the three races to participate in. The idea is to have the opportunity to put a bib on and to have a hard effort,” he said.

    The Canadian approach is essentially the same. Added Wadsworth, “Our main focus here is training, and I’m looking for good training leading into, and coming out of these races. But they are races, so I expect hard racing by the athletes.”

    Kershaw, coming off a season in which he placed fifth at the Olympics, is fired up, seeing the event as a great training opportunity.

    “It’s the best workout you can do…so we are all looking forward to it – regardless of how the results end up. That’s the beauty of racing in August,” he wrote in an e-mail.

    And while results may not matter much, Kershaw sees Freeman as the favorite.  “I know that Kris is feeling really good…but us little Canadians will do our best to hang on.”

    Team Work

    The trip to the Snow Farm for both teams is about the training.  The American athletes have been in New Zealand for two and a half weeks, taking advantage of excellent weather and ski conditions.

    USST Coach Matt Whitcomb explained the overall training strategy. “Everyone brings their own training plan with them that is built around a base plan, in which intensity, speed, and over distance days are generally together,” he wrote in an e-mail.

    And while the excellent conditions and great terrain provide for ideal training, Whitcomb sees those factors as a bonus.

    “It’s the group atmosphere, the focus that Kikkan gets while being pushed by Morgan and Liz, that [Andy] Newell gets by being chased by Simi [Hamilton], that Bird [Freeman] gets while being hassled by the Hoff [Hoffman] that really makes these camps a success.”

    Stephen concurs, saying, “having my teammates here to train with is another focus, making sure we are constantly learning from each other and pushing one another to be better.”

    The team component is a major piece of the camp.

    “Good team harmony is as important as good training,” says Whitcomb. “There is no hiding that as stresses build moving toward and through the winter, team cohesion can be the first thing that gets challenged, so it’s important to be on top of this.”

    The team holds several meetings during the three-week trip to address these exact issues, though judging by Stephen’s feelings for her teammates, there shouldn’t be many issues.

    “It is my favorite part of being a nordic skier, being on a team,” Stephen wrote in an e-mail. “And we have a really fired-up group of individuals again this year, so whenever we are together, it makes for a good time and provides extra great training.”

    All About the Training

    Stephen is focusing on a volume block, and while she needs a day to adjust back to snow from rollerskis, she said she finds the opportunity to integrate her dryland work onto skis invaluable.

    “We all have specific technique goals that we came into the camp with, so the video review that we have been doing on many sessions has been really beneficial,” she said.

    Hoffman, on his first New Zealand trip, has also been focusing on volume, doing much of his training with Freeman.

    “I really enjoy training with him—I feel like we train [at] similar speeds,” Hoffman said in an interview from the Snow Farm.

    He has taken advantage of the opportunity to learn from his more experienced teammates, noting that there is rarely an opportunity for this during the winter.

    Like the rest of the team, Hoffman is using his time on snow to work on technique, but he has a unique protocol in place.  Video from New Zealand sessions is posted online, where coaches Zach Caldwell and John Callahan back in the U.S. can view it and provide timely feedback.

    Hoffman also sends detailed accounts of his progress, and the “sensations” he has been having technique-wise.

    The digital interaction is no substitute for having those coaches on the side of the trail, but according to Hoffman, things are “going in the right direction.”

    All of the snow time also provides the opportunity to test skis.

    “On most days, the skiing could not be better,” Whitcomb told FasterSkier. “The cold and even conditions have allowed us to dial in the kick zones and wax application on the powder skis.”

    Living the Life

    The Snow Farm provides a nearly ideal training setup, with trailside accommodations and excellent food.

    “There are so many k’s of freshly groomed trails every day, and none of us are even close to getting sick of the lifestyle or the skiing here,” says Stephen. “Eat, train, eat, sleep, train, eat, sleep.”

    Hoffman has found the food fantastic – varied and of high quality. Whitcomb said his personal favorite is when Japanese car testers are visiting the Snow Farm.

    “We haven’t seen sushi yet, but I’ve been doing some damage to the miso soup lately. The sticky date pudding is second, followed by lamb of any sort.  It has all been great,” he said.

    More Racing to Come

    Following today’s mass start there are two more races – a freestyle sprint on Friday, and a 5/10 k freestyle on Saturday.

    The Americans will start sprinters Newell, Hamilton and Randall in the sprint, while the Canadians bring Crawford and Kuhn to the line.  Some of the distance skiers may also sprint, depending on how things go today.

    –Nathaniel Herz contributed to this story.