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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: Sylwia Jaskowiecz

  • Team 8: Poland

    Poland

    Nations Cup Ranking: 8th (2264 pts)

    Men: 17th (109 pts)

    Women: 6th (2155 pts)

    2010/2011 World Cup Team

    Men

    Maciej Kreczmer

    Mariusz Michałek

    Krzysztof Stec

    Maciej Staręga

    Sebastian Gazurek

    Women

    Sylwia Jaśkowiec

    Paulina Maciuszek

    Martyna Galewicz

    Ewelina Marcisz

    Agnieszka Szymańczak

    Justyna Kowalczyk

    What you may have missed last season:

    Well, if you tuned into elite-level cross-country skiing at just about any point last year, one thing you did not miss was Justyna Kowalczyk steamrolling her way to three Olympic medals, a victory in the Tour de Ski, and the World Cup overall title. Over the course of the season, Kowalczyk contested every single individual race on the World Cup except for two, for a total of 33 starts. Along the way, she racked up more than $350,000 and 2,064 World Cup points—700 more than Norway’s Marit Bjoergen, her nearest challenger.

    What else? Well, last year’s next-famous Pole was Kornelia Marek, who might now be better-described as infamous. Marek was the only cross-country skier busted for doping at the 2010 Olympics—she tested positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO, then blamed it on intramuscular injections that she received from a physiotherapist named Witalij Trypolski. While Marek acknowledged getting the injections, she apparently didn’t bother to ask whether they just might have included illegal drugs. The International Ski Federation didn’t care, and slapped her with a two-year ban.

    What You Should Know For This Season

    While the Poles do have a small supporting cast, the most obvious question is whether Kowalczyk can sustain her torrid racing and training schedule. A conversation with a slightly flabbergasted reporter last February indicated that she doesn’t take her foot off the gas pedal, even in the middle of winter.

    [podcast]http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/11/Justyna-Kowalczyk2.mp3[/podcast]

    A few things should help. First, a €125,000 sponsorship deal with a Polish bank will mean that Kowalczyk will not go hungry. (Even if you skip the rest of this preview, don’t miss her acting skills in this ad.) Second, she has her own six-member support crew separate from the rest of the national team: head coach Alexander Wierietielny, assistant coaches Rafał Węgrzyn and Mateusz Nuciak, servicemen Are Mets and Peep Koidu, and doctor Robert Smigielski. Third, Kowalczyk has some knowledge of her own to fall back on, thanks to a masters degree from the Physical Education Academy in Katowice, where she wrote a thesis called “An Analysis of Training Loads.”

    However, Kowalczyk has also been doing something during the off-season that anyone with knowledge of cross-country skiing would classify as unwise: provoking the Norwegian superstar Marit Bjoergen. Since last year’s Olympics, Kowalczyk has been complaining that Bjoergen’s asthma medicine gives her an unfair advantage—recently, she told a Polish newspaper that she prepares for racing “on the trails, not at the pharmacy.” The comments certainly seem to stoke the fires of the Scandinavian press, but it’s not clear that they bother Bjoergen—after all, she did win three gold medals at the Games. Look for some awkward congratulatory hugs at the finish line this winter.

    Who You Should Watch

    Sylwia Jaskowiec had four top-30 results in individual races last winter, and while she has been on the cusp of regularly scoring World Cup points, her racing has been inconsistent. A rollerski accident in August took a few months out of her preparations for the season, so it will be interesting to see whether she can make a jump this year.

  • Randall Nets Another Strong Finish in 30K

    Saturday’s race at Whistler Olympic Park was about 20 times as long as Kikkan Randall’s best distance.

    But no matter: the Alaskan more known for her sprinting put in another outstanding performance Saturday in the 30 k classic, finishing 24th—a career-best in the event. It was Randall’s first time competing in the long-distance race at the Games, and only her third time racing over 15 k on the World Cup.

    Coming into the Games, she wasn’t even sure that she was going to start the event.

    “I flip-flopped a lot during the week. Since I hit my goals in the sprint and the team sprint, I could have easily stopped and said, ‘hey—that was a great Olympics,’” Randall said. “At the same time, I knew I was in great shape, and I’d never raced a 30 k at a major championship before, so it was a great chance to get experience.”

    With bib number 33 of 55, Randall was towards the back of the pack from the gun. Her strategy for the race, which she planned with her club coach, Erik Flora of APU, was to hang tough for the first five or ten kilometers—after which things usually start to settle down, she said.

    While Randall remained in the back half of the field through the first couple of laps, she didn’t concede much time, as the women were still in a tight group. When the race started heating up, around 15 k, she was still within sight of the leaders, just over 30 seconds back.

    Two-thirds of the way through, Randall had settled in, and at 20 k she was in 23rd—just one spot from her final result.

    But just because she only dropped one place by the finish, though, didn’t mean she didn’t have to suffer. With six or seven kilometers to go, Randall said, she started getting some cramping, especially in her arms. That forced her to stay on her klister skis, which, while stickier and easier to kick, were slower than the harries she had available in the pit.

    Then, Randall had to fight a knock-down, drag-out sprint to the line with Poland’s Sylwia Jaskowiecz, winning in a photo finish after some desperate striding over the last ten meters.

    With her result from today, plus a sixth in the team sprint, eighth in the classic sprint (a personal and Olympic best), and a strong relay leg, it’s clear that Randall pegged her peak perfectly. That was satisfying, given that the Games were her big goal of the year, though Randall said that in the future, she’d like to be able to have that top form for longer.

    “I hope every year I can extend the peak a little bit more,” she said. “But ultimately, it’s great to perform at big championships.”