March 5, 2008 – (Malles, Italy) – Noah Hoffman of Aspen, Colorado was the top finisher for U.S. men’s squad in two consecutive races at this yearss Nordic Junior World Championships. Despite breaking a ski early on in the 20km Mass Start race, Hoffman at one point battled his way back up to 6th place before fading back to his final position of 23rd place. Earlier in the week, Hoffman was the 2nd best North American finisher behind Canada’s Alex Harvey, placing 11th at just under one minute behind race winner Hans Christer Holund of Norway.

After an unforgettable senior season in high school in which he won three individual state titles, Hoffman led his school ski team to an eighth state championship. Then he packed up his gear and moved to Sun Valley, Idaho where he will train with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. Despite having been accepted to Dartmouth University which boasts a national championship ski program Hoffman believes that Sun Valley is the right place for him to earn a spot on the U.S. Ski Team’s Nordic development Squad. However, this decision is on a yearly basis and he has not yet ruled out Dartmouth for down the road. Until then Hoffman will continue to pursue his ski racing dreams.

We caught up with him in Malles, Italy as he was preparing for the men’s 4x5km relay, the closing event at the 2008 Nordic World Junior Championships.

You have had quite a successful race season this year, with a top ten at U.S. Nationals in early January and now back-to-back top 25 performance at the Nordic Junior Worlds. You must be confident you made the right decision in heading to Sun Valley?
Noah Hoffman: Yes, Sun Valley was a great fit for me. It was a great training situation, a fun group to ski with, and provided a really good support system. It was really good to ski with a diverse group of athletes, all of whom have different strengths. I got to work on sprinting and double pole technique by following world cup sprinters Colin Rogers and Reid Pletcher. I got to run and distance train with sub-four minute miler and summer Olympic hopeful Ben True, and I got to roller ski with and learn from world cup distance skier Mike Sinnott. Also, getting coaching advice from Rick Kapala was incredibly helpful. He has been and is involved with every aspect of skiing in North America, and his knowledge base is unbelievable. The whole situation worked well because I continued to work with my coach John Callahan from Aspen. This program worked really well for me. John is incredibly knowledgeable and knows me and my boundaries well. We have been able to work Rick’s team practices into my schedule and the whole situation has been great.

In deferring Dartmouth for year, was it always Sun Valley where you felt you needed to be?
NH: I always knew Sun Valley was on my list of possibilities and I knew they had a great program, but I had several choices for where I might be and had a tough time choosing. I considered other post-grad programs like Steamboat and Maine Winter Sports. I also considered college without NCAA skiing at APU. And then I weighed all these choices against school at Dartmouth, CU, or Utah. I ended up limiting the choices to non-school options because I was not ready to put academics before my skiing. I decided on Sun Valley because of the great group of athletes to train with.

It is often said that a U.S. skier must choose between an international racing career and a college education. Sounds like you intend to do both. But for now the focus is on ski racing. Is there a level you wish to achieve in skiing before you would consider heading back to school?
NH: I absolutely intend on going to school. However, as I mentioned earlier I still don’t feel that I am ready to put my education before my skiing. When I go to college it will be to get an education, but until I am ready to make that my priority I am going to hold off. Right now this decision is on a year-to-year basis. Whether I will one day ski in college or hold off with school until my skiing career is over, I don’t know. The hard part about this is that as long as I want to have the option of NCAA skiing, I have to keep up my eligibility. I also need to figure out the financial side of ski racing. John, my family and I are trying to answer some of these questions and figure out an approach for next year.

In moving from being a high school racer to being a full-time athlete have you been able to greatly increase your yearly training hours?
NH: I have not upped my hours more this year than I have the last couple of years. In fact, as a percentage, I have made a smaller jump in hours this year than last year. There were several reasons we did not make a bigger jump in hours. First, the jump I made last year was very large – larger than we intended. The gain didn’t seem to hurt me too much and I seemed to handle it pretty well. However we were still worried that another large jump might be too much for me and we’ve been satisfied with the improvement I’ve made this year.

Secondly, my training volume was high last year. We did not see the need to increase it much beyond that. The one real benefit to not being in school this year is the quality of the rest time between workouts. Thirdly, we slightly upped the amount of intensity I’m doing this year which limits the volume gain possible.

At the conclusion of the Nordic Junior World Championships what does your racing schedule hold for the rest of the season?
NH: I have a very busy schedule planned for the rest of the season. I’m really excited about it. On Friday, March 7, I’m heading up to Anchorage for the Junior Olympics. I’m really excited to ski in Anchorage, on trails I hear are really awesome, and against what should be a strong junior field this year. Then, the day after the JO relay, I’m heading back down to Whistler, B.C. for Canadian Nationals to compete in the 10km and 15km. Then I leave Canada early for Fairbanks, AK to get a good week of training in before U.S. Long Distance Nationals at the end of March. Those will be my first races over 25k. They should be really fun!

Congrats on your great racing and all the best.
NH: Thanks