March 01, 2014 – Sochi – So What Happened? – Yes, the Olympics are over and anyone in the North American Nordic scene has to be scratching their collective heads – where are the medals? Both countries, in my estimation, realistically had a chance to win 2-4 medals each! Meaning 4-8 medals would be headed west come the end of spring – not out of the question at all. So, where did the train fall off the tracks, I definitely have my ideas and they will differ from other opinions. Let’s get started on these thoughts.

Canadian Women’s Team – They were the easiest to pass over for consideration as no medals were expected. Two years ago with a 3-women team the Women’s Coach announced that an effort to build a cohesive women’s team and program would be undertaken over the next few years. Yet the official team size entering this Olympic year was a 2-women squad as announced in the spring. It appears that no headway was made in team size or in the program. Their results at the Games were pedestrian and their participation in the number of events was disappointing. This program is still a ways out. There seems to be a reluctance to race which has been apparent for some time – but you’ll never get in racing shape unless you race.

Canadian Men’s Team – They had a huge window of opportunity for medals when reviewing what transpired over the past two years entering the program this spring. One would think that a program template or model from the 15-podium strong year record from three winters ago would have been relatively easy to replicate for this past summer and fall – but it didn’t happen!

In coaching, like other management systems, you replicate successful things you have done – the template is easy as it has been in place for years. Yet in November, when all teams were in northern Scandinavia getting in some WC pre-season racing and intensity training, the Canadian men were in Davos packing in hours and kilometers at altitude in preparation for Sochi. To me this is an example of how far off base the program ended up being and was a BIG mistake, as it just doesn’t happen that way.

The result was a not a very encouraging start to the early WCs with the potential for the rest of the winter to be a disaster – including medals at the Games becoming totally out of reach. Athletes in some cases looked over-trained and in a number of other cases seemed under-trained and/or under-raced.

An old national team member called and asked me why so many starts were being missed – this person felt that you went to races to race. The one thing I know that I always tried to be aware of during bad years – and we had them as well – was inclusive support by all of the staff in putting together the program for the future. No good is served if sniping is happening behind the Head Coach’s back.

Is leadership at various levels in the Canadian program adrift ? To me it looks that way and it’s time for the dog to start wagging the tail. The big saving grace is the 6 million dollars they had for a budget this year. While a lot was misspent in my opinion still good opportunities took place. I’m forecasting that next year will see a down-sizing in staffing and programming as no medals means way less dollars  from OTP the funding agency.

US Men’s Team – is in the process of trying to grow in size and potential for the future and be representative – at the Olympics they were that. Headway is being made and with the WSC in Falun in 2015 they should continue to have some forward movement. Noah Hoffman and Erik Bjornsen are the bright young stars on the team and look like they can be real WC players, especially with another year of training under their belts – I see big things from them.

US Women’s Team – had the biggest medal potential but this was the Olympic year and the glare was very, very bright with much going on that does not occur in the other three years between the Games and they know it now – I hope. The next time round they will have to be better at saying NO.

Let’s see…magazines, newspapers, TV, radio stations, schools, suppliers, sponsors, Fast and Female, clubs, businesses, Olympic staging, photo shoots, ski balls, columns, your local town’s persona attention and the list goes on. All of them want a piece of you and your time. As Holly Brook’s said in a blog or a tweet that I’m well known in Alaska, but this year everyone knows me and talks to me.

If you were to add up all the time you took to deal with all of this – for instance Fast and Female is 7-12 days for ambassadors, plus the time in prep and travel I’ll bet you lost a full 20-30 days of recovery time. And much of the energy you use is the nervous kind.

The outcome of this to me was a team that started to wear down in the early part of January. Schedules started to get juggled…one example was Kikkan stopped posting her “Daily Rap” on SkiTrax on Jan 13th (well before the Games) and I knew the battle was on to save the season.

Training is #1 and recovery is #2 in the training formula – it is hard to say NO! Even a phone interview sucks energy out of you i.e. no medals! All of the above pertains to all Olympic skiers not just our North American crew.

Pierre Harvey, multiple WC winner in the 80s, said to me he loved coming to training camps as he didn’t have to answer the phone or say no to anther offer of some sort, which he always had a hard time doing.

I encourage all team members to use your recovery time judiciously – look out for these ladies next year!
 
Video Replay – Is a must for the future, as what went on at the Olympics was criminal in clear cases of the rules on interference, barging or leaving your lane or what ever you may call it at least three different times. There is huge prestige, money and future success that is tied to winning  medals  at the Olympics, especially gold ones.

In the video clips that were – and I hope – are still available of the men’s Team Sprint, Sami Jauhojaervi (FIN) clearly left his lane and interfered with Tim Tscharnke (GER) causing him to crash, and in the men’s 30km Skiathlon Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) changed lanes just before the finish and clearly obstructed Russia’s Maxim Vylegzhanin just before the line as the Russian ended up 4th. I personally think the Germans and Russians were denied medals.

If FIS and Pierre Mignery, FIS Race Director, think their ruling on these episodes were correct and just an issue of ski dynamics in a race they need to re-read the rule book. It is very clear about the protocol of not wandering in the finishing lanes.

Jauhojaervi in his post race interview was smiling as he was making his statement insinuating to me that he had just gotten away with interference. We all know that look.

In all of sport video replay is becoming more of a factor in enforcing the rules. But in my opinion FIS appears to treat potential disqualifications as an embarrassment to the organizer and does every thing in its power not to enforce the rules when such infractions happen – especially at big events like the WSC and Olympics.

This viewpoint is too old fashioned and unfair as these athletes work way too hard, for too many years, not to have the correct results recorded. I think decisions like this [Jauhojaervi] will encourage more of this kind of interference and I don’t think this is good for sport at any level. Some day these infractions will end up in court.

Video replay cameras and their location must become a requirement of the WSC, Olympic and WC organizers in sprints, team sprints and all mass start racers and in all the finish zones for all races to curb infractions.

Jessie Diggins – I think she has some homework to do for the future, as she is having way to many mishaps during her races (lack of concentration and/or preparation). A total of 6-8 falls (maybe more), poles broken, baskets on backwards, entering the lap lane instead of the finishing lane. These miscues are not only hurting her individual efforts and results, but clearly they affect the   team as well – I count two places at two different events. Someday those may be medals that get lost.

Sochi Venue – what a great job they did in a very unique and novel set of venues. I hope they go on to have a big legacy.

Women’s Ski Jumping – remember the Vancouver court battle to include women in the Vancouver Olympics? They are still paying for challenging the IOC – only one event in the very first days of competition in Sochi and then gone. You hardly knew they were there. This is known as payback – a game the IOC is good at! Can the women hope for the addition of the big hill and team competitions for the next go round in PyeongChang, Korea – we’ll have to wait and see how long the IOC holds a grudge!!

My Breakout Skiers – Canada’s Graeme Killick (fastest and toughest 50km ever) and the USA’s Erik Bjornsen – you guys have done it on the big stage. Remember what it felt like – re-live it – imprint it as there will be a next time.

Nordic Skiing – All disciplines – xc skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, men and women all missed the chance to advance their futures, while biathlon at least held the status quo – and some of that had to do with the night presentation of their events. Another 4-year wait for a big push – too bad.

Talk to You Soon.