February 29, 2008 (Liberec, Cze) – Drew Goldsack is a 6-year NST member. At the recent Canmore World Cups Goldsack recorded the top male finish for the Canadian team with a 12th place finish in the 1.2km Skate Sprint. In 2006 he became a first-time Olympian when he competed at the Torino games. It was at these games where Goldsack again posted the top Canadian result in the sprints finishing 31st just missing out on advancing in the group of 30.

At the international level the Rocky Mountain Racer Ski Club member has excelled as a sprinter for a number of years. At those same Olympic games he teamed up with Devon Kershaw for a best ever-male 6th place finish in the team sprints. Competing at the 2004 U23 World Championships Drew won the sprint event held at Soldier Hollow, Utah. We caught up with Goldsack as he prepared for the recent World Cup stops in Liberec, Czech Republic, and Falun, Sweden.

Congratulations on recording the top Canadian male finish at the Canmore World Cup.
Drew Goldsack: Thank you.

Did you feel you were coming into form for that skate sprint in particular?
DG: I thought so, but with sprinting it can be hard to tell. At the World Cup level you can be feeling great and still get killed in the qualifier, it’s one of those races where you are on or off, there’s not much in between. The days leading into the race I was feeling good, the energy and speed were good and my technique was feeling really solid. I actually didn’t feel so hot in the qualifier but was thrilled to see 11th place pop up on the result board. I felt better and better as the day went on, and that’s the feeling I’m always hoping for on a sprint day.

Since this is an off year for a major championships were the Canmore races the focal point?
DG: Definitely, I actually chose to sit out the Tour de Ski in order to make sure I was totally prepared for the races in Canmore. I think it’s important to set goals and focus on certain races throughout the year rather than just try to get in a lot of starts.

This is your first full year on the World Cup – how has that experience been?
DG: Yes, this has been my first full year on the World Cup. Overall it has been a good experience but also tough at times, I had a slow start to the season and when you’re not racing at your best, the World Cup is a hard place to be. I wouldn’t say that I was racing poorly but it’s not like racing in North America where you may not be feeling 100% and still win. If you have an off day on the World Cup you sure know it!

Did racing in front of the hometown crowd contribute to your best ever World Cup result?
DG: For sure it helped. It was great to be able to have friends and family out to watch me race and I really fed off of the energy of the home crowd. Even better than racing at home, is being able to perform well at home. It’s always nice when you have a good race but when you’re on the World Cup, half a world away, you don’t get to share the excitement of good races with anyone but your teammates. Being able to have friends, family and sponsors in Canmore to share in the excitement was really something special.

You compete well as both a sprinter and a distance skier with your best results in the sprints. Are sprints the focus of your off-season training?
DG: Ha, I’ve been asked that a lot lately, I have a lot of thinking to do this spring about what my focus will be for the coming years. The focus for this year was a balance between training for shorter distance races (up to 15km) and sprinting. Typically, I’d say I have been training as a distance skier and I just happen to be able to sprint well too. I’m going to have to sit down with the coaches in the spring and weigh my options for next season and the lead into the 2010 Olympics. It’s really hard for me to turn my back on distance racing because when I was a young skier there was no such thing as a sprint race. I grew up idolizing skiers like Bjorn Daehlie, and pictured myself winning distance races in dramatic fashion. That being said, the individual 10km was my favorite event (the 10km classic from the Trondheim World Champs is still one of the best races I have ever seen), but that race isn’t around anymore on the World Cup and having never had a chance to race a World Cup 10km I think that sprinting may just be the natural progression for me.

If I do begin to focus on sprinting it will mostly be specialization at the World Cup level. I would continue to do as many distance races as possible domestically but my training would be specific to sprinting. I’d like to still leave the door open to be a part of the 4x10km relay for Canada and maybe the odd 15km classic at the World Cup level but other than that the World Cup would be all about sprinting.

I think a lot of people don’t realize that many of the top sprinters who never race distance races on the World Cup are still very strong distance skiers and when they’re not on the World Cup they’re still doing a lot of distance races for conditioning. To say you are a sprinter doesn’t mean that you’re never going to race longer than three minutes again, I think more so it dictates how you train and which races take priority, not which races you will and will not do.

All the best this season and in the future.
DG: Thanks