My recollection is that early sprinting was not particularly
specialized. Skiers with good distance results who were also known
for their finishing sprint abilities, such as Zorzi and Svartedal,
could be said to have made the jump in the other direction. But many of
them, including those two, continued doing distance races with decent
WC results or better. That can't be said at all of the U.S.
sprinters. My sense is that as sprinting has become more specialized,
so have the natural abilities and training of more of the athletes
chosen for it (Bjoern Lind comes to mind).

I was hoping to find a 4x10 relay result from last season, but all I
can find is that Newell came in 72nd at Davos in early December and
27th at the nationals a month later, both in 15K classic. He was 6th in
the 15K skate at nationals in March. I think he mentioned on his blog
how he hadn't trained for distances and wanted to work on that, if for
no other reason than to improve his endurance for long sprint days.
Koos was well back in the 10K classic at spring nationals, but did come
in a close second to Babikov in the 50k classic. In Europe he stuck to
sprints. As for Demong, it's interesting that the crossover idea hasn't
come up publicly. I wonder if it's just a matter of his preference, or
if there aren't some major logistic if not coaching, organizational or
political questions at play.

Gene


"Jeff and Stephanie Kalember" wrote:

ahhhhhhhhhh gene, come on now ... sprinters HAVE made the jump up to 10k
!! - Zorzi, Svartedal, etc ...

I'm just thinking Koos and Newell have been at or near the top, they CAN do
it for 10k in the right race. Like Zorzi drafting off Alsgaard for 10k then
trying (unsuccessfully) to outsprint him.

how about Demong though? why have they never even tried him? is he not close
at all? The norwegians do it with their biathlon guys....