November 1, 2005 – U.S. cross country athletes set up housekeeping this week for their final preseason training camp, a lead-up to the opening SuperTour races Nov. 5-6 in Fairbanks and Nov. 12-13. World Cup start slots are on the line while athletes look to build momentum for the Olympics in February.

“We’ve got a couple of pretty important weekends coming up,” Head Coach Trond Nystad said Wednesday. “It’s an Olympic year and people need to get started on the SuperTour if they’re going to qualify for the Canadian World Cups [Dec. 10-11 in Vernon, B.C., and Dec. 5-18 in Canmore, Alberta].”

The schedule:

Fairbanks (Birch Hill)
Nov. 5 – Men’s 15K (7.5+7.5K) pursuit, women’s 10K (5K+5K) pursuit
Nov. 6 – Freestyle technique sprints

Anchorage (Kincaid Park)
Nov. 12 – Men’s 10K and women’s 5K, freestyle
Nov. 3 – Classic technique sprints

Kris Freeman (Andover, NH), Andrew Johnson (Greensboro, VT) and sprinters Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) and Torin Koos (Leavenworth, WA) are set for the opening races.

Freeman is healthy after getting hit twice last season with a nagging flu and Johnson is working his way from recent stomach problems, Nystad said.

“Everyone’s anxious to get the season going, get back on snow. This should be a good start for us,” the coach said. After Alaska, the Ski Team returns to its Park City, Utah, training site until heading to West Yellowstone, Mont., for SuperTour races Nov. 25-26 and final selection for the World Cup races in Canada. Nystad said eight U.S. skiers are scheduled for each race and he expected to take 20 or more men and women for the five races.

Two-time Olympian Carl Swenson (Park City, UT), who trained in Norway for part of the summer, has returned to Scandinavia and will race in early World Cups, Nov. 19-20 in Beitostolen, Norway, and Nov. 26-27 in Kuusamo, Finland, before returning for the Canadian races, Nystad said. “Carl’s a veteran and we want him to be comfortable in his preparation as he gets ready for his last season.”