Unfortunately, is seems like we are often competing against teams that
want to win at any cost, including using drugs, etc. I recall a report
from the last Olympics that stated a house used by a foreign nordic
team was full of used blood doping supplies. It sounds like the same
thing is going on again this Olympics. It's hard to compete against
cheaters. Personally, I liked the Olympics better before they were so
important that people would cheat to win.


wrote:
It seems to me that the tried and true method of developing skiers in
North America and having them race in North America is not working... I
mean, France beat us!

How do we fix the problem?

Some ideas;

1) Have our athletes stay, train and race in Europe during the ski
season. If this is too much of a burden for our athletes, then they
probably aren't committed to being the best anyway. Then, have the
National Championships in March when they come home from Europe.
Nationals should set the team for the following year except for those
who are in the Red Group and automatically qualify for expenses paid
etc.

2) Identify athletes who have no chance of placing better than 50th,
even 40th and leave them home. We can't waste valuable monetary
resources on skiers who just don't have it.

3) Focus on Sprint racing and Marathons. France had a guy named Herve
Balland who would ski Worldloppets and then join the French Team to ski
the 50K at the Olympics and World Championships. He won medals... A
skier like Carl Swenson fits that mold. Certain skiers would fit that
category. Sprinters like Christian Zorzi have proven very effective at
going 10K in a Relay. Lets develop speed first. Skiers like Andy Newell
and Torin Koos should ski everything up to 10K in distance.

4) Identify skiers with huge talent like Kris Freeman and devote those
limited resources to developing them.

Any comments or ideas?

J Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT