March 07, 2018 – Team R.A.D stands for Real Athletic Development. The program operates year-round for cross country skiers and biathletes, that are in the Learn to Compete and Train to Compete stage of development. The objective of the program is to provide top quality training and racing opportunities specific to athletes in this stage of development with the goal that these athletes will progress to a Cross Country Canada / Biathlon Canada National Team. Athletes accepted in this program will be highly driven and committed to achieving a high level of performance.

Background
The Team R.A.D program started in May 2016 with a cross country program. The program delivered excellent results in it’s initial year by qualifying 3 athletes on National Ski Team programs – Ty Godfrey and Reed Godfrey at the World Junior Championships and Russell Kennedy at the Norway and Canada World Cups. Several medals were won on the NORAM series and at the US Junior Nationals. This past season, Russell raced for Canada at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, Ty and Reed raced at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Goms, and Aidan Millar raced for Biathlon Canada in multiple IBU and World Cups in 2018.

The Canmore Nordic Ski Club (CNSC) is a collaborative partner with Team R.A.D. in the delivery of the program. CNSC has been operating for more than 28 years and currently has over 600 members. It offers a full range of programs aligned with the Long Term Athlete Development Plan and Sport for Life model. The role of CNSC in this program is to provide organizational, planning and coaching expertise in the development and delivery of the program. In addition, Team R.A.D shares various CNSC resources such as waxing facilities, waxing personnel, waxing equipment/products and office. Members of Team R.A.D are not required to race for the Canmore Nordic Ski Club (see note in fee section).

Overview
The program has four key components:
• high quality coaching specific to junior and early senior level to maximize performance and potential for success later as older senior skier/biathlete;
• constant monitoring using state of the art technology;
• personalized mental training;
• national and international racing experience

Athletes
Maximum team size is planned to be 12 athletes with ideally an even gender split between male and female.

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