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The idea arose after Brooks’ successful completion of the Kuusamo Mini-Tour where she finished 23rd overall amongst over 90 women. However, coaches and Brooks were waiting to see how the races in Davos went before making an official decision about her race schedule. Brooks proved that she belongs on the Tour de Ski roster without question. In Saturday’s distance event in Davos, after 50 starters Brooks was leading the race. Until approximately 10km (into the 15k event) she was as high as seventh place overall. While she faded towards the end of the race, Brooks finished 13th place, five seconds out of tenth to bring home the best result of the day for the USA. Aside from Kikkan Randall’s 8th place in Sjujsoen and an 11th place in the 2011 Lahti, Finland pursuit, Brooks’ 15km result in Davos might be one of the best female distance race results since Alison Kiesel in the mid 1980s!
Following this weekend’s performance Holly has consistently scored points in five of seven individual race starts. World Cup points have come in both techniques, skate and classic as well as both racing styles, distance and sprint events. Brooks has proved that she is a well-rounded racer, capable of skiing well in any event, and any distance; a skill that will prove valuable in the 9-stage, 11- day Tour de Ski!
Brooks’ enthusiasm for the Tour format matches her stellar, World Cup start. “I am really, really excited for the Tour and the opportunity to race day after day here in Europe. My favorite part of the World Cup are the race weekends and in the Tour, it’s like having five race weekends condensed into one event. I feel like my training with APU has prepared me with the fitness to race day in and day out.
“I’ve gathered both mental and physical strength from my long days in the mountains growing up with my dad and at home, in Alaska with my husband Rob. I am excited for the challenge and cannot wait for the Tour to begin!”
In the overall World Cup standings Brooks currently sits in 26th place overall, and perhaps more notably, is ranked 19th in the World for distance skiing.
This year’s Tour will begin in Oberhof, Germany on December 29th with a 2.5km freestyle Prologue event. The Tour will then continue on to Obersdorf (Germany), Toblach (Italy), Cortina (Italy), and finally conclude in Val di Femme (Italy) where the final stage will take place in the form of a 9-kilometer uphill ski. (Val di Femme is also the site of the 2013 Nordic World Championships so racing at this venue will prove valuable in more ways than one!).
The full Tour de Ski schedule of events can be found in the attached World Cup Calendar document. For more information on the actual event, check the website HERE.
The first event of the Tour is scheduled to begin 10 days after the upcoming World Cup weekend in Rogla, Slovenia. This means Brook will spend Christmas in Ramsau, Austria with other members of the US Ski Team in order to participate in a pre-Tour training camp. Brooks, along with US Ski Team members Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephan, will miss the 2012 US Nationals being held in Rumford, Maine. The US Championships is scheduled in direct conflict with the Tour de Ski.
The 2012 Tour de Ski is the banner event for the 2011-2012 season; a year where there is no World Championships or Olympic Games. As such, many of the top athletes are gunning to have their best performances at the Tour.
Last year’s Tour de Ski proved to be tough as close to two thirds of the field dropped out before the final hill climb. This year completion rates are expected to be higher as skiers aren’t worried about “saving themselves” for a Championship event. Still, the unique stage race will prove to be tough physically, mentally, logistically, and finally, financially.
The chance to participate in the Tour de Ski is a wonderful opportunity, one that Holly will not pass up. Unfortunately, the invitation for the Tour comes with no funding and Holly is responsible for paying her costs directly out of pocket. If she continues to turn in good results there may be an opportunity to finish out the entire World Cup season, through the end of March. What initially began as a six week trip has the likelihood of turning into a full, five month World Cup season!
In order to participate in the Tour and the remainder of the World Cup season Holly is faced with raising an additional $17,500. This sum pays for basic expenses (room & board + transportation) alone with no “in-pocket income.” Several fundraising campaigns are currently in the works to support Holly’s Tour de Ski and World Cup efforts. For more information or if you would like to participate, donations can be made via paypal on her blog or, contact Holly directly at brooksha@gmail.com.
December 14th, 2011 at 11:35 pm
What is wrong with the US ski team?
The 2nd best US cross country skier of all time and they don’t support her?
Can someone please wake them up and give Holly the support she has earned?
The message to younger skiers can’t be a good one if there’s no support when you’ve proven you deserve it.
December 15th, 2011 at 12:15 am
YES!
December 15th, 2011 at 12:18 am
YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!
KL, please make sure you gave to the US Ski Team—-with their fund rsising!!!
December 15th, 2011 at 3:57 am
Why shouldn’t sponsors, Bill Marolt, the USSA themselves…and, perhaps the Government(??) give them support? We can support them as much as we can during these troubled economic times, but what about the people that should really support them? Bill Marolt makes as much per month as every athlete on the the US Ski team (all disciplines) do in a season combined. It’s pretty sad and pathetic when the US, the world’s most powerful nation (before China eventually takes over), and certainly the richest, can’t support the US Ski Team, while it engages in other, absolutely less meaningful activity elsewhere. It’s crazy to think that with so many resources, so many people, such a big country, so many winter destinations/towns/clubs, etc, that In the past 35, the US has only had a couple major championships medals. Time to turn that around.
December 15th, 2011 at 8:32 am
Solution:
http://www.nccsef.org , aka…National Nordic Foundation.
Doing WHAT an NGB should be doing. We are growing rapidly
thanks to our donors.
As Executive Director, I am a volunteer so that our athletes &
coaches get the money not the other way around.
Cheers, Dave Knoop
December 15th, 2011 at 9:21 am
I love how so many people aren’t stating the obvious, the cowardly ask the average joe to give to athletes while Bill Marolt makes over 600,000$ in salary and drives a collection of Audi cars while drunk. I mean, people are in the streets occupying Wall Street and here you are, like a banker, asking middle class to give ? People in the US have cowardly shut down against the greedy, accepting that it is totally normal to be screwed by some idiot. It’s not ! Your CEO could be voted as the worst of all time if he owned a company. US XC SKI doesn’t have to be run like GM ! Dave I’m so happy you volunteer, now how about volunteering a little courage and admit that THIS IS A SHAME ! Why is everyone afraid of the greedy, I guess Marolt has the board by the BALLS.
http://johnnyklister.com/2010/04/click-here-to-get-really-pissed-about-the-fact-that-bill-marolt-makes-652000-whist-driving-drunk-plundering-and-pillaging-and-generally-ignoring-most-of-our-sport-2/
December 15th, 2011 at 9:28 am
This is the NYT reporting on Mr BS and no one is saying anything ? Even non skiers are laughing… US XC Skiing might just be guilty of sado masochism. Top US Skiers now need to rise up and speak their minds !
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/sports/skiing/18ski.html?pagewanted=1&hp
I mean read the absolute corporate bullshit: “We are a business, and just like any other business, we have to make decisions on spending. Anyone can advance their own position by simply moving up the athletic pipeline. And as you have more success and you move up, you will have more program costs covered”
December 15th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Pedro, uhh you didn’t just direct that comment at me personally did you, I.e. about my courage or what I should admit did you?
Do a little research get your facts straight if you did.
December 15th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
I did not, I appreciate NCCSEF. However, I will say your mission lacks any, if even weakest possible, criticism of what is happening within USSki. Politics I guess…
December 15th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Dave, are you happy about how USSki CEO is allocating funds ?
December 15th, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Pedro, Alpine, Freestyle and Snowboarding tend to be more popular than nordic, in some instances, A LOT more. Results (apart from the past few years) have been seriously lacking as far as nordic skiers go on the international scene, which is probably one of the reasons why ol’ Bill hasn’t given two ‘shnits’ about our sport. Now, obviously I realize the US nordic community has to come together, one way or another and help each other out, but if the boss himself, who has the power to bring in as much money and as many sponsors as he could with what’s within his power, doesn’t invest as much, then you have what we have today.
I don’t think you should throw this blame on Dave or anyone within the nordic community as far as funds and trying to get money for our athletes to compete at the highest levels is concerned. We need to get results, and fast. There is absolutely no reason why the US couldn’t dominate nordic skiing now or in the future. Again, considering our resources, considering how many people ski, how we tend to get mor consistent winters these days than Europe, and how much money we possess, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be winning more than 2 medals in 35 years. I don’t think it’s money that’s our biggest problem, it’s something else. Actually there are a few reasons, but I won’t get into that here. Money is a problem, but it shouldn’t be the only thing we should be concerned about now. The NCCSEF is a great thing, and I applaud everyone who dedicates their time, energy and money to it, but really, it should never have come to it. I don’t think other disciplines have an equivelent organization, and to my knowledge, other nations competing on the WC tour don’t either.
The fact that that we are in need of each other helping with money isn’t a good indicator of where we are. FISCROSSCOUNTRY has their BMW’s, Salomon’s, Swix, Alpina, ZDF, Eurosport, Mazda, etc. Where is that in the US? Where is our Salomon sponsor? Where is our Atomic sponsor? Whatever happened to Charles Schwab, Barilla, Chevy Trucks, Putnam, Audi, etc, etc?? These organizations/firms/companies have the money, not us!! We can help out of sympathy, out of inspiration, out of our passion for our friends and fellow competitors, but the big sponsors and the ceo’s of the US Ski Team are the ones who have to come up with the big $$ in the end. This is how things work elsewhere in the world. For some reason, they don’t work like that here in the states, and that’s a damn shame!
December 15th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
I guess I got past the problem admiring a long time ago and decided to DO something!
It’s easy to see the problem much harder to solve it. Pedro perhaps you know soccer/ futbol?
If you do then you know the game flow, i.e. creating is so much harder to do than disrupting.
I have actually met with Bill. Our scheduled 30 min. conversation lasted 90 and could have gone on longer. I did my best to present to Bill an alternative approach.
I felt that Bill was open to further discussion in the future. I won’t elaborate. One thing I know Bill looks at is results, i.e. Olympic Medals. They got 20 or 21 of them in skiing/ snowboarding
at the Olympics, none in Cross Country. Where would you put the money? Coincedently Kikkan’s success may change the USST budget for next year maybe not if I think of the Nordic Combined situation that occured. Which we btw, helped raise funds for this year as well.
NNF is about raising funds for our nordic sports, right now that is XC and NC. Pedro if I was happy about how things are why would I bust my butt trying to provide an alternative?
Rob, great article and it was nice to meet you last spring btw, soo cool to see Holly and our other female athlete’s inspired by Kikkan’s success and leadership in more ways than one.
December 15th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Dave, thanks for doing all you can to help us move forward!! We need more people like you and others that truly want the US to succeed and are doing whatever is in their power to do so!! THANKS
December 15th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Many thanks indeed to Dave Knoop and the NNF, leading the way in finding solutions to help young nordic skiers pursue their goals. Dave, is there any chance of money from the Drive for 25 going to help Holly Brooks? If not, we all need to pony up some more! Much as I think nordic has gotten the short end of the deal from USSA for the 30 years I’ve been in the sport and that Marolt is overpaid, the nordic community still needs to step up and support its own. Chapeau to NNF for action!
December 15th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
On one side we have a charitable foundation to feed and fly skiers and on another hand a ski federation (corporation) that cannot fund a top 30 world skier (or US cup winnings for that matter). I don’t care what sport you do or what country you live in, that is a very very slanted way of funding things, the gaps are huge ! Just the gap between Canada and US is huge… I mean, my socialist tax dollar are paying for the loaner therapist… On the other hand, I suspect head of Ski Canada is not making 600K a year… Seriously, no one wants to go head-on on this do they ?
You find 600K is decent ? So sorry for the US if this is the case…. BTW Federer, maybe other poorer nations don’t actually need something like NCCSEF, ever wonder why ? Cause they pay for food and flights of athletes. You want to elaborate as to why US doesn’t get medal ? Don’t throw money at it, you’ll see how little return you will get. Been proven over and over again, and any short term gains can be killed in a few years without a good base (which I suspect USSki isn’t working to hard on).
‘I have actually met with Bill. Our scheduled 30 min. conversation lasted 90 and could have gone on longer. I did my best to present to Bill an alternative approach.
I felt that Bill was open to further discussion in the future. I won’t elaborate. ”
Wow, you sat down 90 BIG minutes with the prez ! Let me get that straight, he never actually talked to you before ? No wonder he can get bonuses, why spend on money on xc skier when there is an organization like yours… Seriously, can I scream the irony, you are building something that will likely ensure him a bonus for Sochi ? I’m sorry for being so sarcastic but I’m sure you can relate to the surreal situation.
December 15th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Pedro, I think you are way off base on this. You can head over to http://www.nccsef.org and find out for yourself what NNF is all about. You are suggesting that whatever the NNF raises and gains will somehow go to Mr. Marolt?? The NNF is about US nordic skiing, not Mr. Marolt, at least not directly. Should the US nordic team keep improving and there are more racers like Kikkan, everyone will benefit, including Mr. Marolt, and it will gain the US Team more money and publicity, so in that sense, yes, Mr. Marolt will gain from it, but it’s not like money going straight into his pocket. This is how I understand it, at least. While he is the CEO of the US Ski Team, and at the end of the day, most of the people in the nordic racing community are members of the USSA, the NNF is a different, more intimate, more ‘in touch’ with the fan base (sort of speak) foundation. I think you misread Dave’s comment. At the end of the day, we are all here (I assume) to provide support for the US nordic team, any which way we can.
December 15th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
John Borstemann,
D25 was awesome thanks so much! If you will look at our Press Release previous to D25,
we elected to fund $58k in various projects. We focused on the Juniors first. We allocated some (not a lot $13k) for World Cup starts for unfunded skiers. Again we wanted to take care of the Juniors first. Since D25 was so successful I have asked our Board of Directors to take another look at our funding. We do not fund individual athletes but we do fund events. That way it meets our IRS guidelines and 501c tax status. I am also aware many of our unfunded athletes took care of their own fund raising which is great. Stay tuned for a new NNF Press Release.
As for you Pedro: For the record, I met Bill Marolt for the first time back in 1977.
Cheers to Canada all the best to both North American teams
December 16th, 2011 at 1:29 am
Dave, was ol’ Bill as much of a drunk douche back then as he is now? LOL
December 16th, 2011 at 8:34 am
Federer, if you read between the lines of my comments, you will understand that I meant NCCSEF is doing all the ground work to bring athletes to the top, and how these athletes medal further out or during the Olympics is surely part of Marolt’s bonus package (including sponsorship and cut back goals I’m sure). In essence US ski has created a welfare system where they can just let anyone (you, me) else invest in talent and then just pick low hanging fruits. It think this is wrong.
And anyone suggesting that 650K a year for that job is normal suffers from Stockholm syndrome…
Enough said, I’m a big fan of the US ski team but I find the Wall Street approach appalling. Sports is politics and politics is money. Apologies for stating the obvious !