Japanese Nordic World Cup Team

I was quite surprised by the performances of the Japanese skiers at the
CN World Cups !

I don't pay enough attention to it to have noticed these skiers
previously.

There was a Japanese guy in the lead group of most races. He got some
very nice consistent finish results too.

There was at least one Japanese woman skier who was making her way in
the sprint heats I believe. She seemed to command some respect.

I have not seen this topic illuminated anywhere.

Is that an all-Japanese effort ? Do they train in Japan, with
countrymen, coached by same ?

Or do they hire in some Scandanavians ?

There are plenty of Kenyans (& Italians, others) running around Japan,
which helps the Japanese running. I wonder if they employ a similar
tactic for the ski racing.

I actually think they have Italian coaches, or at least the women do. I
was standing next to some Japanese women and their coaches at the
Silver Star sprint night and the coaches were speaking English to them
with Italian accents. Of course the north island gets plenty of snow so
there is no reason they couldn't develop some good skiers. They've
developed some good marathon runners over the years.


Chris