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Tag: Stratton Mountain School Elite Team

  • From D to B: Paddy Caldwell’s Natural Progression

    From D to B: Paddy Caldwell’s Natural Progression

    American Paddy Caldwell (SMS/USST) on his way to qualifying 20th in the men’s classic sprint at U23 World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. He went on to place fourth in his quarterfinal and 18th overall for his best sprint result at U23 Worlds. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

    Back in December of 2010, 15-year-old Patrick “Paddy” Caldwell was racing amongst grown men. He finished 17th in an International Ski Federation (FIS) classic sprint held in Craftsbury, Vt. Today, at 23, Caldwell skis for the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team and is a newly minted U.S. Ski Team (USST) B-team member. To put things in perspective, during that 2010 Craftsbury sprint, Patrick O’Brien, Caldwell’s current primary coach and head of the SMS Elite Team, was nearly 23 at the time and placed fourth in the race.

    The USST has a well-established development pipeline. Here’s the basic philosophy: have skiers find success at each rung of the ladder before exposing themselves to deeper competition as they progress towards more rarefied races. From local and regional events to junior nationals, OPA Cup trips, NCAAs, senior nationals, to Junior and U23 World Championships, Caldwell has paid his dues, notched benchmark performances, and maintained the grind to find success at each incremental step.

    It wouldn’t be a stretch to say Caldwell embodies the spirit of a USST development model where skiers can remain in school, meet conflicting demands, and with a big dose of hard work and a smidge of luck, make progress as a skier.

    From D to B

    Initially, Caldwell was named to the U.S. D (development) team for the 2014/2015 season. He maintained D-team status until this spring when he was officially nominated to the B-team. (His cousin, Sophie Caldwell, remains on the A-team.)

    Paddy Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team D-team/SMS) racing to 46th overall and 25th for time of day in the men’s 15 k freestyle pursuit at World Cup Finals in Quebec City. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

    In a phone interview two weeks ago, the Lyme, N.H., native explained that making the jump to the B-team wasn’t an explicit goal.

    “I don’t think I officially wrote that down in a goal section or something like that in the beginning of the year,” Caldwell said while finishing up spring classes at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. “By looking at it as sort of progression, it definitely has been a goal of mine. My goal was to be a competitive World Cup skier and that is a step that needs to happen.”

    Caldwell’s 2016/2017 objectives highlighted U23 World Championships at Soldier Hollow outside Midway, Utah.

    “I was really focused trying to peak for those events and put up the best results that I could in that field,” he explained.

    At U23 worlds, he earned two top 10s, placing ninth in both the 15-kilometer skate and 30 k skiathlon.

    Caldwell was granted starts for the World Cup’s closing weekend, a three-race mini tour in Quebec City. He placed 46th overall at World Cup Finals, but turned heads with a 25th-best time of day on the final-stage 15 k skate pursuit.

    In the near term, despite his promotion, it’s life as usual for Caldwell. There’s school to finish up and training hours to log. (Caldwell returned recently to Hanover from the USST’s first on-snow camp of the year in Bend, Ore.)

    “I think that is very much in the air,” Caldwell said when asked if he’d be racing a full World Cup schedule. “And it depends on a lot of things — foremost if I am skiing well. And those are plans I am still working out. I don’t know exactly what opportunities will be there. Those are things, discussions we’ll have later in the year.”

    Caldwell will remain under the guidance of O’Brien at SMS. And from a funding standpoint, Caldwell said he won’t see a bump in USST funding.

    “Not in terms of support from the U.S. Ski Team,” Caldwell said when asked if his B-team status came with greater financial support. “The last few years I have been really fortunate to be successful fundraising through the local community here in the Upper Valley in New Hampshire and Vermont. So I am really thankful for the support from local people in both the ski community and outside the skiing community. I think absolutely if I end up racing in Europe more, it will be a bigger expense, and those are things I am not completely dialed on yet.”

    Caldwell is officially a senior at Dartmouth, having earned 32 of 35 credits for his bachelor’s degree while studying geography and economics. In 2015, he won the 10 k skate at NCAA Skiing Championships.

    Paddy Caldwell (13) chases Kris Freeman in the 50 k freestyle mass start at 2015 U.S. Distance Nationals in Sun Valley, Idaho.

    “I feel really fortunate to go to Dartmouth College and be able to balance skiing and education,” he said. “One of my goals, I’ve always been aimed at finishing an undergraduate degree in a timely manner. I’m really thankful to be at Dartmouth where there is a flexible quarter system. I’ve taken off most fall terms since I have started at Dartmouth as well as winter and been able to go in the spring and summer fairly consistently.”

    As a discretionary pick for the USST, Caldwell has jumped a significant pipeline-hurdle. Domestically, his peers have been skiing in a tight pack — on this year’s SuperTour, the men’s side had several different standout performances.

    “I think there is an aspect of added pressure,” Caldwell said of his new B-team status. “But I also think that that is an inherent part of our sport. At the end of the day, it comes down to racing fast. That pressure is going to be there no matter what team you are on. It is something that I try not to focus on and just see it as an opportunity to keep growing as a skier and not as a target on my back, because I think it is easy to see it that way. Absolutely there will be some pressure from that, it’s also not something that I am unfamiliar with. I think it’s part of the sport. You have to, at least for me, just focus on trying to achieve results for my own growth as a skier and not focusing on the stuff going on around me.”

  • FasterSkier’s Juniors of the Year: Katharine Ogden and Léo Grandbois

    FasterSkier’s Juniors of the Year: Katharine Ogden and Léo Grandbois

    Katharine Ogden (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com) and Léo Grandbois (Photo: IBU) are FasterSkier’s 2017 Juniors of the Year.

    With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding North American junior athletes across all nordic disciplines. 

    ***

    Katharine Ogden, Stratton Mountain School/U.S. Ski Team

    Yes, Stratton’s Katharine Ogden has earned our “Junior of the Year” honors before. But this season, the 19-year-old Vermont skier rose to even greater heights. Early in the season, she snagged second-place honors in the senior fields at a SuperTour (the 10 k classic in West Yellowstone), a NorAm (the 10 k freestyle at Sovereign Lake), and U.S. National Championships (the 20 k classic mass start).

    American Katharine Ogden (SMS/USST) and her dad John celebrate her bronze medal in the women’s 10 k skiathlon on Friday at 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. (Photo: U.S. Ski Team/Tom Kelly)

    And that was before World Junior Championships even started. At Soldier Hollow, Ogden started things off with a fifth-place finish in the 5 k freestyle, tying the second-best World Juniors result ever by an American.

    Two days later, she raced to a bronze medal in the 10 k skiathlon, becoming the first American ever to stand on the podium in an individual World Junior Championships race.

    And then two days after that, Ogden anchored teammates Hailey Swirlbul, Julia Kern, and Hannah Halvorsen to relay bronze, the first medal ever won by a U.S. women’s relay team in the history of the event.

    “This week at worlds has been amazing,” Ogden, wrote in an email to FasterSkier at the time. “Wonderful skiing and good weather and unprecedented results for the whole team.”

    And she told the U.S. Ski Team for a press release: “It was really incredible to stand up at the medals ceremony the other night [after the skiathlon]. The only thing I can think of that would be better is standing up there with my friends.”

    Then she did.

    Léo Grandbois, Biathlon Estrie/Biathlon Canada 2022 Squad

    17-year-old Léo Grandbois of Lennoxville, Québec, just made one international racing trip this season. But on the very first race of the trip, he made a splash.

    The youth men’s 12.5 k individual podium after the first race of 2017 IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Osrblie, Slovakia, with Canada’s Léo Grandbois in first (c), Russia’s Said Karimulla Khalili (l) in second, and Germany’s Danilo Riethmüller (r) in third. (Photo: Airat Aitniakov)

    Grandbois had traveled to Brezno-Osrblie, Slovakia, to represent Canada in the youth division at the International Biathlon Union’s World Youth and Junior Championships. The previous season he had competed at the Youth Olympic Games, with a top finish of 22nd, but this was his first time at the bigger event.

    In the 12.5 k individual, Grandbois hit every target – the only competitor in the field to go 20-for-20 – and picked up a gold medal, by an impressive minute and 14 seconds over Said Khalili of Russia.

    “I am probably the most happy man on earth today!” he wrote in an email to FasterSkier after his win.

    Grandbois went on to be one of Canada’s most consistent performers at the Championships, finishing 14th in the sprint and 22nd in the pursuit. The sprint result came despite three penalties.

    “I think it just says that I am quite strong even [during] a bad race,” Grandbois said at the time.

    “I’m missing 15 days of school to be here, and my teachers/professors are probably thinking, ‘This guy is not doing the right thing,’ but I know that I am doing the right thing,” he wrote in his 20-for-20 interview.

    And even then, he wasn’t done yet – Grandbois had proven his speed in that sprint, where he had the tenth-fastest course time in the field. Come the end of the season, he went to Cross Country Canada Ski Nationals for the first time and picked up junior national titles in the 10 k freestyle and the 15 k mass start.

    Honorable Mention: Julia Kern, SMS Elite Team/Dartmouth College/U.S. Ski Team

    Julia Kern, another Stratton skier with a U.S. Ski Team “D” team affiliation, joined Ogden on the relay podium at Soldier Hollow – and Kern’s efforts brought the team into sixth place at the halfway point of the race.

    Julia Kern (U.S. Ski Team D-team/SMS) racing to 29th in the women’s 1.5 k freestyle sprint qualifier on Friday at World Cup Finals in Quebec City. In her first World Cup race, Kern ended up 24th on the day. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

    “There is no one I would rather be on the podium with than my best friends and teammates,” Kern, 19, wrote at the time. “Not only did I share the experience with my best friends, but on home soil with all my family and friends there to celebrate with us!”

    Six weeks later, Kern got the first World Cup start of her career. It was a skate sprint in Québec City as part of World Cup Finals – and not only did she qualify for the heats, but she finished 24th and scored World Cup points in her first try.

    Coming off a clean sweep of the Junior Nationals races in Lake Placid, New York, Kern was confident, and at the same time unsure where she would stack up against the best skiers in the world.

    “At the start line it almost felt like a dream because there I was at the start line next to some of the best skiers in the world, skiers who I have looked up to and watched race after race on my computer screen to learn and gain inspiration from,” she wrote. “This is a huge confidence booster for me because it is easy to make a goal and have my teammates and coaches who believe in me tell me results like this are possible. But it is another thing to actually live up to it and believe it yourself, too.”

    Honorable Mention: Gareth Williams, Telemark Racers/Canadian Junior National Ski Team

    Gareth Williams (Telemark Race Team) on his way to a personal-best 11th in the men’s 20 k skiathlon at 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

    Where hasn’t Gareth Williams raced this season? The Kelowna cross-country skier started out in Canada, where he snagged a top-10 in the senior NorAm field at Sovereign Lake. At U.S. National Championships, he took third in the junior 10 k classic mass start. And then back in the U.S. for World Junior Championships, he turned in some of Canada’s best results, placing 11th in the 20 k skiathlon and 20th in the 10 k freestyle.

    “It is exciting to see that I have the speed to ski with the best juniors in the world,” Williams wrote after the skiathlon. “Being so close to to the top 10 is my only disappointment.”

    He headed for more junior racing after that, touring Switzerland and Germany and picking up finishes of second, sixth, and sixth in OPA Cup Juniors action.

    Finally, Williams returned to Canada and started World Cup Finals, where he finished 71st overall.

    “You’ve got a lot of fast guys, and you’re kind of going from being one of the faster guys to obviously to one of the slowest guys around,” Williams wrote of the experience. “That’s a cool feeling, actually.”

     

  • Spring Series Photo Gallery: Mixed Relay

    Spring Series Photo Gallery: Mixed Relay

    On Friday at Spring Series in Fairbanks, Alaska, clubs went head to head in the 4 x 5-kilometer co-ed mixed relay at the Birch Hill Recreation Area. Below is a photo gallery, courtesy of Lance Parrish and Max Kaufman. U.S. Distance Nationals and the SuperTour season concludes Sunday with the 30/50 k freestyle mass starts.

     

  • SuperTour Finals Photo Gallery: Skate Sprints

    SuperTour Finals Photo Gallery: Skate Sprints

    Spring Series opened earlier this week in Fairbanks, Alaska, with skiathlon races on Monday and freestyle sprints on Wednesday to wrap up the 2017 SuperTour season. Here is a photo gallery from Wednesday’s skate sprints, courtesy of Max Kaufman. Spring Series continues Friday with the co-ed mixed relay and Sunday with the 30/50 k freestyle mass starts, part of U.S. Distance Nationals.

  • Wasting No Time, Holmes Works Hills Hard for 20 k Title

    Wasting No Time, Holmes Works Hills Hard for 20 k Title

    Chelsea Holmes of Alaska Pacific University crosses first in women's 20-kilometer classic mass start on Tuesday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    Chelsea Holmes of Alaska Pacific University crossing the finish line first in the women’s 20-kilometer classic mass start on Tuesday at 2017 U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.

    MIDWAY, Utah. — As she headed up Soldier Hollow’s infamous Hermod’s Hill for her fifth and final time, there wasn’t another skier in sight. At least none of the ones she started with.

    Chelsea Holmes, of Alaska Pacific University (APU), was fine with that. She never liked sprints to the finish, and on Tuesday, Holmes would have it her way.

    Of course, there was still the possibility that she would slip and skid to a stop, or slow down drastically from a serious bonk. But those were all chances Holmes was willing to take. In the 29-year-old Alaskan’s mind, ski racing is about taking risks.

    Chelsea Holmes (l) of Alaska Pacific University leads Katharine Ogden (c) and Caitlin Patterson of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project during the women's 20-kilometer classic masst start on Tuesday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    Chelsea Holmes (4) leads Katharine Ogden (3) and Caitlin Patterson during the women’s 20-kilometer classic masst start on Tuesday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.

    Tuesday’s 20-kilometer classic mass start was no different. Especially with it being the last distance event of the 2017 U.S. Cross Country Championships series.

    “There are countless races that I’ve lead only to be passed and blown out in the last half kilometer,” Holmes said after Tuesday’s race. “But even those days, I don’t think I would do anything different other than say I should have gone harder, earlier. … I know that, more than anything, I will be disappointed if I don’t put it all out there.” 

    Go hard or go home it was, and within the first of five laps, Holmes was charging the front along with Katharine Ogden, of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) and U.S. Ski Team Development Team,  Caitlin Patterson, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), and Erika Flowers (SMS Elite Team).

    Hunting Holmes down in a chase group was her APU teammate Becca Rorabaugh — who place second in Sunday’s classic sprint and just off the podium in fourth in Saturday’s individual start — Liz Guiney (CRGP), Canada’s Dahria Beatty, and Anne Hart (SMS Elite Team).

    As the squad of women in front descended back toward the lap lane, Holmes continued to work through the stadium’s flat section. Ogden did not. The 19 year-old was relaxed, following close to Holmes’s lead until the group made their way out into lap two.

    Skiing under the bridge that spanned the course’s first major climb, Ogden strode to the right of Holmes, seeking the front spot for herself.

    Katharine Ogden (Stratton Mountain School) of the U.S. Ski Team D-team during her final lap of the women's 20-kilometer classic masst start on Tuesday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    Katharine Ogden (Stratton Mountain School/USST D-Team) during the final lap of the women’s 20-kilometer classic mass start on Tuesday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.

    “KO is like me, she likes to push the pace,” Holmes said of Ogden. “Even though the stadium is not super-long, I could tell … I would get sucked back in. On the climbs, I felt myself breaking away.”

    Though Holmes hadn’t necessarily peg-pointed a place on course to start her surge, by the end of Lap 2, she was feeling it. Climbing up the last hill before cornering back through stadium, it was only Ogden and Patterson who were able to hold onto Holmes.

    “[Holmes and Ogden] have really amazing turnover on the uphills,” said Patterson, who strode roughly 10 meters behind the leaders on the hill. “It was sort of hard for me to ski relaxed and comfortable and follow them but, I was trying to follow them.”

    Close to 25 seconds ticked by before the next group of women made their way up, including Rorabaugh, Hart, Flowers and APU’s Rosie Frankowski, who had maneuvered around three more skiers since the start — she started in bib 14 — and now sat in seventh.

    Yet, as Patterson point out, with two laps to go, no podium or position was firmly in place. Especially at altitude, on a course that features some 700 meters of climbing, anything could happen. Patterson was predicting, or hoping, something would.

    “I think your mind kind of naturally goes to like, ‘Ah, OK, here I am in third,’ ” said Patterson who had lost close to 30 second on the leaders by the end of Lap 3.

    “But I was telling myself that it’s not over until it’s over,” she added. “People blow up and or get stronger again and with these big downhills and flats. You just never know what’s going to happen.”

    Something did happen. Holmes hammered even harder.

    Heading into her fourth lap, the Alaskan was bringing the hurt. Ogden, who had been fairly relaxed for three-fourths of the race, slowly faded from the APU suit’s sight.

    “I was definitely chilling a little bit the first few laps,” Ogden explained. “Then [I] kind of died a little, actually a lot.”

    Admittedly for Ogden, the race soon became about holding onto her spot rather than the finding first place position.

    “I could tell that she was dropping me pretty hard,” Ogden added. “And I was just trying stay ahead of Caitlin [Patterson], to be honest.”

    But Holmes hadn’t won yet. Even for a seriously adept climber, racing for the win is far from a glamour gig. It’s gritty. It’s grueling. But, according to Holmes, glamorous? Far from it.

    “You hear stories about people feeling amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever felt that,” Holmes said. “If someone feels it’s easy, I don’t know I believe them.”

    With one lap to go, the potential to bonk was still present. But botching the win because of that wasn’t what Holmes was worried about. For Holmes, it was whether she’d cross the line knowing she’d gone hard enough.

    The women's 20 k classic mass start podium on Tuesday at 2017 U.S. nationals at Soldier Hollow, with winner Chelsea Holmes (c), runner-up Katharine Ogden (l), and third-place finisher Caitlin Patterson.
    The women’s 20 k classic mass start podium on Tuesday at 2017 U.S. nationals at Soldier Hollow, with winner Chelsea Holmes (c), runner-up Katharine Ogden (l), and third-place finisher Caitlin Patterson.

    “It’s a waste to think about that,” Holmes said of worrying about going too hard, too soon.  “If I blow up, I blow up. I have to believe that I blow up less than everyone else.”

    By the final 100 meters, with none of the skiers she had started with around, Holmes proved she wasted no time worrying about blowing up, crossing first for the win in time of 1:01:33.5 hours.

    Taking second place, in her second 20 k ever, was Ogden, 49.2 seconds behind Holmes.

    The final podium spot went to Patterson in third, (+1:10.4). Just missing the podium spot in was Frankowski in fourth (+2:13.9), while Canadian World Cup Team member Emily Nishikawa rounded out the top five in fifth overall (+2:26.6).

    With the final U.S. nationals distance race done and just one race left, a freestyle sprint qualifier on Thursday, Holmes is happy to have taken the win for herself and for her APU team.

    “Our techs, they work so hard…and the coaches,” Holmes said. “To do this for them, to give back to them, is amazing.”

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