October 31, 2014 – In 2013 would anyone have guessed that Sophie Caldwell would finish in 6th place at the Sochi Olympics, securing the best U.S. women’s Olympic finish in history? Would we have guessed at that time that she would be on a World Cup podium in Lahti? Going into the Olympic season, she had one World Cup finish in the top-20. What about Jessie Diggins? She had a top-20 individual World Cup finish in the second World Cup that she ever raced, and was on the podium with Kikkan in Team Sprint the following day! When Kris Freeman narrowly missed a medal at the World Championships in 2003, finishing 4th in the 15 km classic, very few people outside of the United States had ever heard of him. When Simi Hamilton won in Lenzerheide last season, the announcers struggled to pronounce his name. I’m guessing they’ll get it right this season.

My point is that athlete development and performance are not linear. There are often incredible performance jumps in the career of a cross country ski racer. There are several keys to unlocking these performance jumps. The first is hard work: volume, intensity, recovery, technique, day after day and year after year. The second is opportunity; getting to the right races at the right time. This is where the NNF comes in.

In the 2010-11 season, the U.S. Ski Team made the decision to start racing the complete World Cup calendar. We decided that if we were going to be successful at the Olympics and the World Championships, we needed to learn to be successful at World Cup every weekend. We needed to really learn how to race, and we needed to learn how to win.

Since then, we’ve made a greater foray into the European development race series as well (Europa Cup, Scandinavian Cup, U23 World Championships, etc). After all, young athletes can’t learn to race on World Cup; they need a race experience that is appropriate for their age and ability. We are currently reaping the benefits of this push into Europe. The USA was the 15th ranked nation in the world in cross-country skiing in 2010. In 2014 we were the 6th best nation. But it costs a lot of money to spend the winter in Europe.

It costs a lot of money to get the right athletes to the right starting lines weekend after weekend.

Through the NNF, the cross country ski community is getting those athletes to the right races. Your efforts, and those of your friends, family, and community members are helping to put U.S. Cross country ski racing back on the map. But we really haven’t scratched the surface on the potential that we have here. How many folks have been involved in D25? Several thousand?

There were over 3 million people that cross-country skied in the US last year. There are many more that are related somehow to someone who cross country skis. We need to reach out to these folks and get them involved. That’s where you come in.

Please take a few moments to reach out to family and friends and let them know what you are up to and how the NNF supports your efforts, as well as those of your team, your teammates, your club, and your community. You’ll be surprised at just how many people are excited to donate and how generous they are when it comes to a meaningful project like the D25. I know I was!

Sincerely,

Chris Grover
Head Coach
U.S. XC Ski Team

Support the National Nordic Foundation’s Drive for 25 here.