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IOC Cuts Teams Sizes For Olympics. Time To Consider Change Of Allegiance?

IOC Cuts Teams Sizes For Olympics. Time To Consider Change Of Allegiance?

Newsfeed
Bad news for Swedish female skiers. Ditto for the Russian males. But the much the worst for the Norwegians of both genders: The IOC rather severely cut the quota for participation in the 2022 Olympics. If in Korea 2018 the teams in cross country skiing were supposed to have no more than 20 athletes, in China in two and half years time it will be reduced to 16 total, 8 girls and 8 boys. Which is really tight for 6 events for each but that's a different story. The one we want to raise and debate today is called " change of allegiance". We all know that some counntries produce talents in excess e.g. Brazilian footballers, Chinese table tennis players or long-distance runners from Kenya. It became a norm for…
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Rosie Frankowski: Right Now In the US There Are Larger Political Issues We Need To Address Than Growing Nordic Skiing

Rosie Frankowski: Right Now In the US There Are Larger Political Issues We Need To Address Than Growing Nordic Skiing

Leaders, Newsfeed
Who is Rosie Frankowski? - One of the world's top skiers yet the one that you've not necessary heard about. Originally from Minnesota , Rosie long lives, trains - and works - in Alaska. While not officially a member of US Squad A ( and thus lacking much of material support afforded to the USA's bestest) , Rosie is a regular at the international competitions including the Olympics 2018 ( 21st at 30k C) and Seefeld 2019 ( 24th in skiathlon) Why is this fairly long interview? - Because it's nothing short of fascinating to learn how different the whole pro-skiing system is set up and works across the ocean. In a word: much tougher conditions in nearly everything. Here's our conversation with Rosie, slightly trimmed for length ( we…
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Elena Vyalbe Announces Three Pregnancies In Team Russia!

Elena Vyalbe Announces Three Pregnancies In Team Russia!

Leaders, Newsfeed
The boss of the Russian skiing has made it known today that no less than three of her female athletes will miss at least the beginning of the season trough pregnancies. "I told them all girls in the team that if they think about babies they've got to hurry up and get pregnant this year, the one without the World Championships or the Olympics" Vyalbe who won dizzying 14 world and 3 Olympic titles during her career , herself had missed the Olympics of 1988 through pregnancy. Olympic and world medalist Yulia Belorukova and ex U23 champ Elena Ustiugova, nee Soboleva, were mentioned by name, the third future mother was not.
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Squires,  Team Russia Know-How

Squires, Team Russia Know-How

Newsfeed, Training & Outfitting
Well, it isn't really. Coaches who maintain their form were training alongside active athletes for yonks. A squire - or " coach who trains along" - fulfills many roles including conducting training sessions  , leading by example ( how about 5 hour mountain trekking or equally long biking? ) and to some, namely team leaders, being quasi-personal coach. It could be argued that recent successes of both Team Slovenia and Team GB are linked to that active coaching system. But it's the Russians who polished the system and in some ways took a step further in the last couple of years. Here's how it works: [caption id="attachment_12791" align="alignnone" width="1920"] ...it's all started with Markus Cramer arrival to Team Russia. First order of things was to get him an interpreter. By…
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More On Fluoro Ban

More On Fluoro Ban

Newsfeed, Training & Outfitting
Pierre Mignerey, the race director of cross-country skiing at the International Ski Federation since 2012, in interview with Ski Chrono/ Le Dauphine "The next year an environmental standard goes into effect that will ban production, distribution and importation of fluorine wax in the European Union.... The problem is that we have no way to control the teams for the moment. " Quite a thing to say, coming from one of the top bosses of international cross country skiing - and quite an issue overall. So, we decided to publish more relevant excerpts from our recent conversation with one of the key people pushing non-fluoro revolution in xcskiing. Say hello again to Joel Svedlund, project manager with Peak Innovation and one of the organizers of The POPFREE Ski Goes Global project…
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