USA I takes the win in Falun’s 4 x 5 k mixed relay. From left to right, Scott Patterson, Rosie Brennan, Zak Ketterson, and Jessie Diggins. (Photo: NordicFocus)
By Tom Horrocks
May, 10 2022
U.S. Ski & Snowboard has announced the 22 athletes nominated to the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team for the 2022-23 season. Nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on the published selection criteria in the prior season.
In addition to established veterans, including three-time Olympic medalist Jessie Diggins and two-time Olympians Rosie Brennan and Scott Patterson, the 2022-23 Team includes five new members. Moving up to the A Team and joining Diggins, Brennan and JC Schoonmaker for the coming season are 2022 Olympians Julia Kern, Novie McCabe, Ben Ogden and Patterson.
B Team nominations include 2022 Olympians Hailey Swirbul, Sophia Laukli, Gus Schumacher, Kevin Bolger and Luke Jager. John Steel Hagenbuch and Hunter Wonders move from the D-Team to the B Team, and Zak Ketterson re-joins the national team program as a member of the B Team for the 2022-23 season. Finn O’Connell has been nominated to the B Team for the first time after finishing fourth in the overall SuperTour standings, which included nine individual top-10 results.
Development Team nominations include returning team athletes Sydney Palmer-Leger – the 2020-21 NCAA Champion – and Zanden McMullen. New Development Team athletes include Sammy Smith, who finished fifth in the freestyle sprint at the 2022 Junior World Championships; and three members of the bronze-medal winning U.S. men’s relay team from the 2022 Junior World Championship – Will Koch, Michael Earnhart, and Walker Hall.
“This team is the largest in U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s XC history, and it could become our most successful one, too,” noted Head Coach Matt Whitcomb. “There is clear talent, as well as a history of impressive results, but most importantly, these are individuals from many different clubs in the U.S. that are interested in connecting and believing in one another, and pushing hard. Talent and past results don’t get me as excited as a bunch of athletes that are ready to lock in together.”
Notable retirements following the 2021-22 season include 2022 Olympian Hannah Halvorsen, and Junior World Championships bronze medalist Katharine Odgen.
The 2022-23 FIS Cross Country World Cup season is scheduled to kick off with races in Ruka, Finland Nov. 25-27. The 2023 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships are scheduled for Feb. 21 through March 5 in Planica, Slovenia.
A 2022-23 staff announcement will be forthcoming, while an official U.S. Cross Country Ski Team announcement will be made in the fall.
Kris Freeman wearing the 2014/2015 yellow SuperTour leader’s bib en route to a win in the Craftsbury SuperTour 15 k classic mass start in February 2015. (Photo: John Lazenby/lazenbyphoto.com)
(The following op-ed is an opinion piece submitted by an author unassociated with FasterSkier. Viewpoints do not necessarily reflect that of FasterSkier’s staff or sponsors. We fully support open dialogue and encourage the use of the comments section at the bottom of this page to express varying views. To submit an op-ed, email info@fasterskier.com.)
About the author: Kris Freeman raced for the U.S. Ski Team for more than a decade, from 2002 to 2013. A four-time Olympian who placed fourth in the 15 k classic at both 2003 and 2009 World Championships, Freeman, 36, is currently training in New Hampshire in hopes of making the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
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“The U.S. Ski Team will select only the most qualified athletes with the greatest possibilities for winning medals in future World Championship and Olympic Winter Games competitions,” the team wrote in its 2018 national team selection criteria.
In a recent interview, Head Coach Chris Grover explained that the potential for winning medals was key to several discretionary nominations.
I believe that there should always be room for discretion when nominating athletes, but the vague “medal potential” standard has become an excuse for the national team coaches to have free reign.
It’s another example of how the U.S. Ski Team markets itself to the ski community as all-inclusive, as representing all of U.S. skiing. But watching their actions, this advertisement rings false.
Can the best skiers make the national team?
Before I go any further, I believe that a case can be made for every athlete nominated for the 2017/2018 team and I mean no disrespect to any of them.
I merely wonder how many skiers in our country are consistently overlooked and what part personal favoritism plays in the nomination process.
U.S. Ski Team national-team criteria provide two ways to get onto the team via World Cup rankings: a top-50 ranking overall, or top-30 in sprint and distance. However, for male distance skiers, this is not much of a choice. No additional man in the entire World Cup field would meet that distance criteria who was not already in the top 50 overall. Thus, this criteria does not represent a way to add additional male distance skiers to the team. (Graphic: FasterSkier/Chelsea Little)
For the first time in several years, the B-team is made up entirely of discretionary picks. Noah Hoffman failed to make the objective criteria by only one World Cup point but was left off the team. Yet Erik Bjornsen scored 66 fewer points than Noah and was still named to the team for the fifth time.
It should be noted that Erik has never made the objective criteria in any year, and also did not objectively qualify for this year’s World Championships in Lahti, Finland, based on written criteria.
Erik teamed up with Simi Hamilton to take fifth place in the team sprint and was 18th in the 15 k classic in Lahti. Even though success at World Championships is ostensibly one of the national-team’s main goals, those solid results were not sufficient for an objective nomination.
The U.S. Ski Team does provide one criteria based on FIS points: that skiers with a top-20 ranking on the FIS distance or sprint points list will be named to the team. However, this is harsh top-20 cutoff represents unattainable standard that is redundant with the other criteria. All of the top-20 male distance skiers according to FIS points are also ranked in the top 50 of the World Cup. It should be noted that Chelsea Holmes of APU is the 33rd-ranked woman in the world according to FIS distance points. Only three women with lower points are not at least semi-regular starters on the World Cup, and for one (Sweden’s Ebba Andersson) that is because she is still a junior and notably a Junior World champion. (Graphic: FasterSkier/Chelsea Little)
I believe Erik is our best all-around skier and, again, I have no issue with his nomination. However, when the best skier in the country can’t make the B-team criteria, it raises questions.
I believe the unstated rationale for the high objective standard is that ski team leadership wants complete control over the nomination process. The easiest way to do that is to put objective criteria out of reach, keeping athletes on the B-team in a constant state of subservience as the team’s decisionmakers hold the keys to their livelihood. The team can tell them what to say to media and what financial information can be disclosed to the public.
Ask yourself: when was the last time a U.S. Ski Team athlete talked publicly about a poor wax job? Are you aware that B-team athletes have to pay roughly $150 each day that they are in Europe racing on the World Cup? Have any of them ever mentioned that in an interview you have read?
Who scores points?
The particular results, numbers, and details of individual nominated-or-not cases (see “More Discretionary Picks” below) are interesting fodder and could be discussed for hours. But doing so might miss the forest for the trees. Such decisions are emblematic of broader problems at the U.S. Ski Team.
There is no written standard for athletes to qualify for the funded A-team vs. the unfunded B-team, but the common discretionary standard that the U.S. Ski Team has used is a top 30 ranking in either Distance or Sprint world ranking list, formerly known as the Red Group.
The team used this standard because Red Group skiers were partially funded by FIS up until this year. But now that the FIS funding allocation system has changed, maintaining this standard merely encourages our athletes to start every World Cup in order to not miss a chance to score points. For an organization that claims World Championships and Olympic medals are their only goal, racing their own athletes into the ground is hypocritical.
More Discretionary Picks:
Paddy Caldwell and Scott Patterson were also named to the B-team using discretion. Paddy followed the pipeline route to his nomination. With two top-10’s at U23 World Championships, his nomination at some level was predictable even if he did not meet objective criteria.
Scott’s nomination is more of a mystery. He is too old for the ski team’s pipeline system, and he wasn’t nominated to the World Championship team. He did have some solid World Cup results, taking ninth place on the Olympic trails in South Korea and 27th at the Holmenkollen 50 k in Oslo. However, it should be noted that Noah beat him in Korea in his last race of the season before he came down with pneumonia.
The World Cup start rights that were given to Patterson baffled the rest of the domestic field, as there was no qualification criteria for them or explanation for why those starts were granted; in a recent interview, Grover told FasterSkier that “We wanted to find opportunities for Scott.” Scott definitely did well with these opportunities, but who is to say that other domestic skiers could not have had the same success?
Then there is Tad Elliott, who was the king of clutch this season. As a distance skate specialist, he took third and second in the two freestyle World Championships qualifying races. Then he went to Finland and pounded out a 27th place finish in the 50 k, the best result we have had in that race since I was 12th a decade ago. As a reward, Tad was snubbed for World Cup start rights at World Cup Finals in Quebec. The disparity between Scott and Tad’s treatment is troubling.
Meanwhile, Rosie Brennan is the only women’s B-team nominee this year despite Caitlin Patterson having scored an identical amount of World Cup points and Chelsea Holmes putting up a 13th place in the 30 k skate at World Championships. Rosie may, as Grover says, be a medal contender in the 4 x 5 relay. But by that rationale, Caitlin and Chelsea should also certainly be named to the national team.
Crucially, the standard also makes no sense in that it does not differentiate success against strong fields versus weaker ones. For instance, Liz Stephen scored 98 of her World Cup points en route to a second place finish in the Korean World Cup. The race had the weakest World Cup field in my lifetime. Liz scored most of the rest of her points in the hill climb in the Tour de Ski. Only 31 women started, and last time I checked, there are no hill climbs in the Olympics.
I want to reiterate that all of the athletes nominated to the team deserve to be there. Liz is clearly one of our best skiers.
But all the same, why is a non-championship event being used as a standard to make the U.S. Ski Team, whose primary stated goal is to win medals?
The Tour de Ski ended up being a points feeding frenzy. Rosie Brennan and Liz would not have qualified for the World Championships without it. They did not accrue enough points to make the top-50 standard until that final Tour stage. Noah also qualified for the World Championships in a non-Championship event on the final day of the Tour against a diminished field. Is racing up a hill at the end of a nine-day tour really a fair way to determine who goes to the World Championships or Olympics?
Even if you believe that the Tour de Ski is a fine qualification basis for the Olympics, there is that access problem. U.S. Ski Team staff can (and does) give or deny Tour de Ski start rights at their whim. There are no written standards for how these spots are doled out. I believe that there are half a dozen domestic skiers that potentially could have qualified for the World Championships had they been given the opportunity to race World Cups during the qualification period.
What are the priorities?
The U.S. Ski Team has gradually consolidated too much power in the naming of the national team, major Championships teams, and World Cup start rights. “Discretion” and “medal potential” are getting in the way of U.S. cross-country skiing reaching its true potential. The team’s World Cup staff need to have a presence at Nationals and SuperTour Finals, so that they have a hands-on way of evaluating domestic talent.
This brings me to the most aggravating part of the U.S. Ski Team dynamic in relation to domestic skiing. I call it “teaminess.”
Much has been made of the good team dynamics that the women’s team has marketed, and clearly it is working for them. However, the staff uses these dynamics as another way of controlling team composition: they have decided what emotional attributes an athlete should have, and if the athlete doesn’t have them (or doesn’t pretend to have them) he or she is not welcome.
“Attitude and commitment of athletes” is even one of the discretionary criteria for team selection.
This could be construed to include every male athlete in the country because it is well-documented that men and women have very different psychological needs. As a generalization, women perform better when they train in close-knit groups amid lots of social support. Men, on the other hand, generally like to have independence and thrive when given space and respect.
Yet for the last six years, the men have been perpetually bombarded with criticism for not behaving like the women’s team. Many independent-minded skiers, who have posted some of the best results in our nation’s history, do not feel supported or welcome within the U.S. Ski Team structure.
My question is, how real is the team dynamic if it is so fragile that it could collapse by the mere presence of these skiers?
Also, is it fair to protect the women’s team from any type of intrusion at the expense of the men’s team and anyone on an ever-expanding blacklist?
The staff appears to believe that it is. In the name of maintaining the status quo, the team has avoided hiring a men’s coach, perhaps due to a desire to not disrupt the women’s team dynamic.
It is completely unacceptable that the men’s team has no dedicated advocate among the staff of the governing body.
What are we paying for?
The “teaminess” factor also plays into financial issues. The U.S. Ski Team wants to be all-inclusive when it comes to raising money from the cross-country ski community and projects itself as a supportive and welcoming resource. But in reality, the team’s resources are denied to many athletes with the potential to succeed internationally.
With the current lack of funding coming from U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), the nordic program could not survive without assistance from the nation’s clubs. In return for this financial support, the clubs should know how their money is being spent. And there should be clear, attainable objective criteria for their striving athletes.
But what is the budget of the U.S. Ski Team, anyway? It has been a decade since anyone at the USSA released a cross-country skiing budget document to the public or press. Most years, they won’t even answer what the overall budget cost is, without even getting into how it is broken down. That’s quite the culture of secrecy.
The U.S. Ski Team coaching staff has become convinced that only they know which athletes should be supported – and how they should be supported. They have created a closed system over which they have complete control.
This is a fearful and exploitative way of running a national governing body. U.S. skiing will not grow without outside ideas and influence.
It is time for leadership that is open to all personalities and ideas. Fear of losing what we have will not allow us to reach our true potential as a nation.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA) formally announced its nominations for the 2017/2018 cross-country ski team in a press release. Most notably, Noah Hoffman was not renominated, Scott Patterson was named to the B-team, where he’s joined by Patrick “Paddy” Caldwell, who made the jump up from D-team status.
“After a strong 2016-17 season, including three World Championship medals and nine World Cup podiums, the Team is looking for medals in the upcoming 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang,” the press release stated.
“Each athlete accepting the nomination to U.S. Ski Team receives world class program support, along with access to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Center of Excellence, as well as athletic benefits including an elite coaching, sport science, sports medicine and high performance staff, and education opportunities,” it continued.
Note that these are nominations rather than a set-in-stone team.
“An official team announcement will be made in the fall,” the release added.
FasterSkier will follow up on the selections. In the meantime, here is a look at the selection criteria and the nomination breakdown below:
A TEAM
Men
Simi Hamilton (Aspen, CO; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 5/14/87)
Andrew Newell (Shaftsbury, VT; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 11/30/83)
Women
Sadie Bjornsen (Winthrop, WA; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 11/21/89)
Sophie Caldwell (Peru, VT; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 3/22/90)
Jessie Diggins (Afton, MN; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 8/26/91)
Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 12/31/82)
Ida Sargent (Orleans, VT; Craftsbury Green Racing Project; 1/25/88)
Liz Stephen (East Montpelier, VT; Burke Mountain Academy; 1/12/87)
B TEAM
Men
Erik Bjornsen (Winthrop, WA; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 7/14/91)
Patrick Caldwell (Lyme, NH; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 2/18/94)
Scott Patterson (Anchorage, AK; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 1/28/92)
Women
Rosie Brennan (Park City, UT; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 12/2/88)
D TEAM
Men
Ian Torchia (Rochester, MN; Northern Michigan University; 3/8/96)
Several members of the U.S. Ski Team lift up Kikkan Randall after she won her third-straight World Cup sprint Crystal Globe a the end of the 2013/2014 season. Randall enters the upcoming season with another A-team nomination after a year of possible over-training. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) announced its cross-country team nominations for the 2015/2016 season on Thursday, naming 16 athletes to the team, four more than the previous year.
All 12 athletes from 2014/2015 will return, led by Liz Stephen (Burke Mountain Academy) who finished 10th overall in the season’s World Cup standings. Other A-team athletes include 2015 World Championships silver medalist Jessie Diggins of the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team (SMST2), three-time World Cup sprint champion Kikkan Randall of Alaska Pacific University (APU), Sadie Bjornsen (APU), Sophie Caldwell (SMST2), Ida Sargent (Craftsbury Green Racing Project), Andy Newell (SMST2), and Simi Hamilton (SMST2).
The B-team will feature returning athletes Noah Hoffman (Ski and Snowboard Club Vail) and Erik Bjornsen (APU).
Rosie Brennan (APU) and Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg) are two new additions to the B-team after breakthrough seasons. Like Diggins, Gregg earned a historic medal in the 10 k freestyle at World Championships in Falun, Sweden, placing third after Diggins. Brennan broke into the top 20 on both the World Cup circuit and at World Championships, most notably in the 30 k in Falun where she placed 16th. Brennan returns to the USST after being a member of the team in 2007/2008 and 2008/2009.
The D-team will also grow in the 2015/2016 season with the addition of two women, Katharine Ogden (SMS) and Julia Kern (Cambridge Sports Union). They were named along with returning D-team athletes, Ben Saxton (SMST2) and Patrick Caldwell (SMST2/Dartmouth).
Andy Newell is one of two men on the USST A-team in the 2015/2016 season. Here the SMST2 skier is racing in the 15 k classic individual start at the 2015 Super Tour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
There are objective requirements to earn an automatic nomination to the U.S. Ski Team (USST). An athlete must either be in the top 50 in the overall World Cup rankings or have a top-30 ranking in the distance or sprint disciplines. A skier can also be ranked in the top 30 of the FIS points list in distance or sprint list to earn the nomination. A final qualifying criteria is a top-three finish at either the Junior or U23 World Championships.
Nine athletes automatically qualified for the team: the eight A-team athletes, who all met the World Cup ranking criteria, and Gregg, who was 27th in the International Ski Federation (FIS) distance points list. The remaining seven skiers were all chosen by discretion.
Although Gregg made the objective criteria, she was not ranked in the World Cup’s Red Group and thus was placed on the B-team.
As in past years, USSA will cover the majority of the eight A-team athletes’ expenses. According to USST Head Coach Chris Grover, there are several instances when A-team members will have to cover their own costs, such as the training period over Christmas when the team prepares for the Tour de Ski.
The B-team athletes will receive some support in the form of lodging and meals at certain training camps, such as the upcoming Park City training camp occurring later this month. However, during the actual season, B-team athletes receive no support from USSA in terms of travel and lodging.
D-team athletes are expected to pay for everything they do throughout the season, but receive the support of the national-team infrastructure, such as coaching, when necessary.
According to Grover, the National Nordic Foundation (NNF) has financially aided both B- and D-team athletes at training camps and during the competition season in the past.
Liz Stephen racing to 11th in the 15 k skiathlon at the 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. Stephen will headline 12 returning and four new athletes on the 2015/2016 U.S. Ski Team. (Photo: flyingpointroad.com)
Grover: ‘We’re really excited to see what people can do’
After the nominations were announced, Grover said that he was excited to see what the group of 16 skiers could accomplish in the upcoming season. Although there is no major championship event in the 2015/2016 schedule, he believes that the Americans have an opportunity to shine.
“I’m really excited for the season because I felt like we had so much bad luck with our crew last year,” he said on the phone. “We made some mistakes as a nation and as a coaching crew both within the USST coaches and also with the club coaches. We had bad luck in terms of injuries. First of all, I doubt we will have those injuries again and second of all I think we will learn from some over-training issues going forward.”
The most notable injuries of the season came from Sophie Caldwell and Hoffman. Caldwell broke both her elbows in the leadup to the season, which hindered much of her preparation. Hoffman fractured his leg in a November crash — his first World Cup race of the season — which took him out of competition and full training until late February 2015.
In terms of overtraining, Grover pointed to two specific athletes — Newell and Randall — who may have suffered from its effects throughout the season.
With no championship event, the team will have varying focus races between athletes. However, Grover said that the Tour de Ski and the season-ending Canadian World Cup tour are two events that many team members will target. With a “home-time-zone” advantage and a small break spent in the U.S. to prepare beforehand, Grover said that the Canadian tour gives his team an opportunity for high performance. The midseason World Cup weekend in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, is another focus as it features some of the Americans’ best events: a freestyle individual distance and a team relay.
Grover explained he’s interested to see how the newcomers perform in their first seasons as full-time World Cup athletes, especially after successful 2014/2015 outings.
“[Brennan] dominated domestically in the fall. We’ve talked about her a lot — she was in great shape last summer when we saw her at the camp at Eagle Glacier and she carried that shape into the fall,” Grover said. “Then she showed up on the World Cup and she proved that her domestically really translated to her speed internationally. It was natural to put her on the B-team.”
“Caitlin by contrast struggled in the early part of the season. She was the Continental Cup leader during the whole first period and she wasn’t skiing particularly fast at that time,” he added. “She went home, regrouped, she obviously did some good training in Colorado. She came back and did some really good skiing in Falun and Holmenkollen in particular.”
Grover said that the coaching staff will be “selective” as to which races they enter the 34-year-old Gregg because of limited starting spots and her tendency for high performance when targeting certain races.
“For her it doesn’t make sense for her to dive into a full World Cup schedule,” he said. “She has shown that she does her best when she targets key events that play to her strengths. One key thing that’s on her radar is the 15 k freestyle in Davos in the middle of December.”
On the World Cup circuit, the U.S. has lost two sprint starts for the women — a reduction from six to four — and will only be able to start seven women in the season’s tours, which make up just over half of the season’s races. (Tour starts are calculated by adding distance spots plus half the sprint spots). With eight women on the A- and B-teams, the entire team will not be able to start the tours. One exception will be the Ruka mini tour in Kuusamo, Finland, which allows an additional spot for the Continental Cup leader for Period 1. Since Brennan will be the leader at the time, all eight women will technically be able to start the mini tour.
17-year-old Katharine Ogden’s sixth-place finish in the women’s 10 k skiathlon at the 2015 Junior World Championships was the best American result in a distance race since 2002 (Photo: Bryan Fish/USSA)
D-Team: An Opportunity for Extra Support
The D-team will double in size from two to four in 2015/2016 with the addition of Ogden and Kern. According to Grover there were several athletes who were strong candidates for positions on the team.
“It’s hard because there are a number of athletes who are out there that could have potential D-team positions,” he said. “Especially on the guys’ side, there are a lot of guys who are really close that maybe had one or two real standout races for the year. There are a lot of guys we are keeping an eye out for and we just want to watch really for another year and see how they develop and see if they can have some big results in Europe.”
Grover explained that Ogden and Kern have been at the top of women’s junior racing in the U.S. for several years and that their successes last season proved they were ready for national-team support.
“With Katharine and Julia, those are two juniors who have been the best juniors for a few years. In general they have been two of the standouts,” Grover said. “Katharine was one of the obvious choices, as her result at the Junior World Championships is one of our historic best U.S. finishes of all time. Julia had some really standout results on the Europa Cup and Slavic Cup in particular where she was the fastest American woman.”
While the D-team does not provide any special starting rights or automatic trip qualifications, it does allow its athletes to take advantage of the USST infrastructure. According to Grover, its four members will have access to USST perks such as sports medicine, sports science and coaching that wouldn’t otherwise be provided to National Training Group (NTG) athletes.
2015/2016 USST Nominations:
A-team
Men
Andrew Newell (Shaftsbury, VT; SMS T2; 11/30/83)
Simi Hamilton (Aspen, CO; SMS T2; 5/14/87)
Women
Sadie Bjornsen (Winthrop, WA; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 11/21/89)
Sophie Caldwell (Peru, VT; SMS T2; 3/22/90)
Jessie Diggins (Afton, MN; SMS T2; 8/26/91)
Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 12/31/82)
Ida Sargent (Orleans, VT; Craftsbury Green Racing Project; 1/25/88)
Liz Stephen (East Montpelier, VT; Burke Mountain Academy; 1/12/87)
B-team
Men
Erik Bjornsen (Winthrop, WA; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 7/14/91)
Noah Hoffman (Aspen, CO; Ski and Snowboard Club Vail; 8/1/89)
Women
Rosie Brennan (Anchorage, AK; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 12/2/88)
April 22, 2013 – The following is the USSA’s preliminary list of nominations for the 2013 U.S. Ski Team. The nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria. The USSA will announce the actual team roster this fall, naming those athletes who accept the responsibilities of being a part of the U.S. Ski Team and are planning to compete in the 2013-14 season. Team staff will work individually with nominated athletes to provide education on Team responsibilities and programs leading up to the formal Team announcement this fall.
A Team
Holly Brooks – Alaska Pacific University NSC
Jessica Diggins – Stratton Mountain School T2
Andy Newell – Stratton Mountain School T2
Kikkan Randall – Alaska Pacific University NSC
Ida Sargent – Craftsbury Green Racing Project
Liz Stephen – Burke Mountain Academy
B Team
Erik Bjornsen – Alaska Pacific University NSC
Sadie Bjornsen – Alaska Pacific University NCS
Sophie Caldwell – Stratton Mountain School T2
Simi Hamilton – Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team
Noah Hoffman – Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Team Homegrown
With less than 10 months to go until the 2014 Winter Olympics, three of seven men on the U.S. Ski Team (USST) were not renamed to the 2013/2014 national squad.
A former U.S. Ski Team D-team member, Erik Bjornsen (APU) is shown at 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy. After winning his first national title and achieving several other personal bests last season, Bjornsen, 21, was recently named to the B-team for 2013/2014.
Official nominations have not been publicized, but it appears the remaining four – Andy Newell, Noah Hoffman, Simi Hamilton and Erik Bjornsen – will be divided between the A- and B-teams. By making the World Cup Red Group, Newell retained his A-team status while Hoffman and Bjornsen explained they will be the B-team along with Hamilton, a former A-team member.
One of two Development Team skiers for the last two seasons, Skyler Davis of the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team (SMST2) was not renamed and his D-team status was not renewed. Bjornsen, of Alaska Pacific University, received the call-up to the B-team, and both said on the phone Friday that they were surprised.
“I didn’t think they would take anyone off the team before an Olympic year,” Davis said. “I thought, why not keep us on for one more year? Especially when you’re cutting half the guy’s team. That didn’t make much sense to me.”
At least three women are expected to remain on the A-team, with Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins confirming they kept their spots. After a breakout season, Liz Stephen has also met the Red-Group, A-team criteria.
Earlier this week, three-time Olympian and A-team veteran Kris Freeman expressed his alarm at being dropped. Teammates confirmed Tad Elliott was not renamed to the B-team. Head coach Chris Grover has declined to comment until nominations are released early next week.
“I was pretty confident with all the strong racing at the end of the year, I thought they would keep me on,” Bjornsen said, coming off his first SuperTour Finals title at the age of 21. “Last year, I was pretty nervous. This year, I didn’t think much about it. … I just felt like I’m stronger than those next-tier guys, like David Norris and Tyler Kornfield. For Grover to chose me over them was [huge].”
On the other hand, Davis said the phone call he received from Grover was a “little surprising,” considering he showed improvement over the previous season and scored World Cup points in Canmore, Alberta, where he was 24th in the freestyle sprint.
Skyler Davis qualifying at the World Cup freestyle sprint on Dec. 15 in Canmore, Alberta, where he finished a career-best 24th. A former D-team member, Davis was not renamed to the USST, but will continue training with Stratton Mountain School T2 Team in an effort to make U23s and the 2014 Olympics.
“I didn’t think they were gonna bring back the D-team,” Davis said. “It was more like you have to race fast and live up to the B-team if you’re gonna be on it.
“I’m still only 21 years old,” he added. “I thought they’d try to keep me on, but it’s not that big of a deal because if you ski fast, you make it again. … With the D-team, I didn’t really get much funding as it was, so that part’s not really different. Basically I got stripped of the title and some free clothes.”
He said not being named shouldn’t affect his sponsors, and he plans to attend certain USST camps except the upcoming one in Bend, Ore., and those in New Zealand and Europe this summer. Davis will try to make U23 World Championships and the Olympics next year, drawing inspiration from SMST2 teammate Sophie Caldwell, who is expected to be added to the U.S women’s team.
“World champs [are the] same as Olympic criteria; Sophie got picked because she was racing fast,” Davis said. “I didn’t get picked. I don’t think [not being on the U.S. Ski Team] will help or hurt your chances.”
As for the reduced men’s team size, Davis and Bjornsen had mixed reactions.
“It’s not really a team anymore with [four] guys,” Davis said. “That’s really small for any group to be a team.”
“It’s definitely a stronger team,” Bjornsen said. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I’m gonna miss training with Freeman and Tad and having Skyler there was awesome.
“All the women, too, it seems like it’s such a strong group right now,” he added. “Everybody has the possibility of doing something amazing. I’m glad that they categorized me with those other guys and I hope I can show everybody that I was a good choice and I’ll be making a charge for the Olympics.”
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/D7K_1064copy-copy-e1423689099916.jpeg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2009/02/usst-logo.jpg"){kind=logo}
![Several members of the U.S. Ski Team lift up Kikkan Randall after she won her third-straight World Cup sprint Crystal Globe a the end of the 2013/2014 season. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/03/Randall140314mf151.jpg")
![Andy Newell is one of two men on the USST A-team in the 2015/2016 season. Here the SMST2 skier is racing in the 15 k classic individual start at the 2015 Super Tour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/newell-classic.jpg")
![Liz Stephen racing to 11th in the 15 k skiathlon at the 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. Stephen will headline 12 returning and four new athletes on the 2015/2016 U.S. Ski Team. (Photo: flyingpointroad.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/SMF8372.jpg")
![17-year-old Katharine Ogden's sixth-place finish in the women's 10 k skiathlon at the 2015 Junior World Championships was the best American result in a distance race since 2002 (Photo: Bryan Fish/USSA)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/IMG_4354-e1423596964403.jpg")
![A former U.S. Ski Team D-team member, Erik Bjornsen (APU) is shown at 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy. After winning his first national title and achieving several other personal bests last season, Bjornsen, 21, was recently named to the B-team for 2013/2014.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/02/IMG_5029.jpg")
![Davis qualifying.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/12/davis-us-web.jpg")