Heart-warming story ...

 

Dear Sophie Caldwell
I'm really sorry you fell. Me and my family, Kaisa (my sister) Kira (my mom) Craig (my dad) Sampo (my cat) and Tomah (my dog, we got him 2 weeks ago) were all cheering for you. I have a few questions for you. What does it feel like to be an Olympian? How old are you? Do you have any siblings? What is your favorite book or series? How much time do you spend with your team and how much time do you spend with your family? Do you have any pets? What are some of your hobbies? How tired are you after a race? What is your favorite color? How much time do you spend training? Tell your friends Kikkan and Jessie I like their hair. If you want to write me back my mom's email is: ...

 Love,
Siri Stolen


Sophie's response:

Dear Siri,
Thank you so much for your letter, I loved it! Those are wonderful questions you have and I will do my best to answer them!

It is an amazing feeling to be an Olympian. I think I've dreamed of being an Olympian since I was about your age, so sometimes I need to pinch myself to remind myself that my dream is actually coming true! I am 23 years old and will turn 24 on March 22nd. I have two siblings. I have a brother and a sister and they are twins and two years younger than I am. I have a lot of favorite books, but I just read a great book called The Art of Hearing Heartbeats. My sister's favorite books are the Harry Potter Series and I think she has reread each book several times! I spend a lot of time with my team in the winter and a lot of time with both my team and my family in the other seasons. I am very close with my family, so I try to see them as much as possible when I'm home and miss them very much when I'm gone. My ski team has kind of become a second family though because they are some of my best friends and we spend 5 month in Europe together each winter! Growing up we had two dalmations for pets, but right now we have two cats. My cats' names are Dudley-Rose and Red. I love reading and doing a lot of other outdoor activities. I played a ton of different sports growing up and I love most things outdoors. I am usually very tired after a race, but it's a good tired. My favorite color is blue! I spend up to four hours a day training. Kikkan and Jessie say thank you!

Thank you for your questions and I hope to hear back from you again!
Love,
Sophie

 

 

Full story at:  http://www.skinnyski.com/racing/display.asp?Id=33027

Another great weekend for DN!

Saturday at the Finlandia race in Bemidji, Minnesota, lots of great results by DN skiers:

No axe this year for me, but finished on the podium in a tough classic race (and all-out sprint):

But DN did take home an axe with Kristen winning the Women's pursuit race:

And on Sunday, Levi took a another podium finish ... this time at the Western Canadian Championships in BC:

And some more podium finishes at the Manitoba Loppet on Sunday in Pinawa ...

No photos available at press time.


 

Men's Sprint Final at the Olympics

Well, this was pretty dramatic ....

Interval Training

The scene from yesterday's Downtown Nordic interval workout:

First day

40-year-old biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen becomes the oldest Winter Olympic gold medalist.  This is how to skate:

Olympic Schedule

First event starts Saturday morning at 4AM Winnipeg time.


GO CANADA!!

Cross-Country: The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

Date	Event
Feb 8 4:00 AM	Ladies' Skiathlon
Feb 9 4:00 AM	Men's Skiathlon
Feb 11 4:00 AM	Ladies' Sprint – Qualification
Feb 11 4:25 AM	Men's Sprint – Qualification
Feb 11 6:00 AM	Ladies' Sprint – Quarterfinal
Feb 11 6:25 AM	Men's Sprint – Quarterfinal
Feb 11 6:56 AM	Ladies' Sprint – Semifinal
Feb 11 7:06 AM	Men's Sprint – Semifinal
Feb 11 7:22 AM	Ladies' Sprint – Final
Feb 11 7:30 AM	Men's Sprint – Final
Feb 13 4:00 AM	Ladies' Classic
Feb 14 4:00 AM	Men's Classic
Feb 15 4:00 AM	Ladies' Relay
Feb 16 4:00 AM	Men's Relay
Feb 19 3:15 AM	Ladies' Team Sprint – Semifinal
Feb 19 4:06 AM	Men's Team Sprint – Semifinal
Feb 19 5:45 AM	Ladies' Team Sprint – Final
Feb 19 6:15 AM	Men's Team Sprint – Final
Feb 22 3:30 AM	Ladies' Mass Start
Feb 23 1:00 AM	Men's Mass Start

All times are in CT

Great Job Levi!

From Cross Country Canada's facebook page:

Seiser Alm, Italy

A number of national ski teams are training in Seiser Alm, Italy right now as part of their final preparations for the Olympics.  Here's a great video from Andy Newell of the US. 

Someday, you will ski there ...

From Leukemia to Sochi: Fletcher Brothers Aim for Olympic Greatness

The ski jumps of Howelsen Hill are hard to miss as you drive down Lincoln Avenue in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Naturally derived from the hillside overlooking the small ski town, the jumps have served as a springboard for many athletes looking to make their way to the Winter Olympics.
For the town’s locals, the jumps are a source of entertainment, training, or amusement. For one child, they were life saving.

A Childhood in Question: Finding Relief in Skiing
Growing up, Bryan Fletcher had no idea of what his future would hold. Diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia just before turning three, the Steamboat Springs native was uncertain what life would be like while undergoing treatment for such a serious disease.

Despite the gravity of his situation, Bryan wanted to have the semblance of normal childhood. For the young child who had always “hit every bump and jump” on the side of a trail, that normalcy would take the form of a sport not so ordinary to the average American child: ski jumping.

“As a young kid I remember saying to my parents, ‘those are the biggest jumps in the world! I have to do at least once in my life. That would be so cool.’ Shortly thereafter my parents signed me up for a learn-to-jump program and from the first day I was hooked,” said Bryan in an interview. “I couldn’t get enough of it and every time I went off a jump I would just be running straight up to the next one.”

His start in the sport corresponded more-or-less with the start of his treatment.  From the age of four, would take week-long trips to Denver to receive his chemotherapy and then hurry back to Steamboat Springs to ensure he got in as many jumps as possible. While he listened carefully to do everything the Doctors asked of him, jumping was the one thing with which there was no compromise. It was the main source of happiness for Bryan, and his parents just couldn’t tell him to stop.

“For two hours a day while I was training with my friends I was a worry free, happy, normal kid and that was all that mattered in the end.” – Bryan Fletcher

Bryan would continue to fight his leukemia for seven years, going trough several year cycles of chemotherapy and remission. But the ordeal wouldn’t end there. In the middle of his treatment he survived a stroke that he was fortunate enough to escape relatively unharmed. Finally, after serval years of treatment he went into sustained remission.

Through those seven years, Bryan also was looking for new ways to challenge himself, and that’s where cross country skiing came in. Once involved, he learned of nordic combined, and the rest was history.
Once in remission, his career in nordic combined took off and he made the Junior World Championship team in 2003, 2005, and 2006. As a result from his rise in the nordic combined racing community, he was named to the U.S. Ski Team in 2004 and competed in this first World Championships in 2007 in Sapporo, Japan. He would continue his World Championship runs with appearances in 2011 and 2013
But Bryan’s career wasn’t the only one born out of his disease.

While he made his trips back and forth between Denver, Bryan’s brother, Taylor, watched with admiration as his older sibling balanced the challenges of chemotherapy and joy of ski jumping.
Taylor soon joined a learn-to-jump program himself, instantly fell in love with the sport.

story continues at fasterskier.com :

 http://fasterskier.com/article/from-leukemia-to-sochi-fletcher-brothers-aim-for-olympic-greatness/

Marcialonga!!

The second Swix Ski Classic race -- the historic Marcialonga in Italy was held on the week-end.  The men's winner attacks from the pack just after the 3 hour point in the video.  The race finishes on a steep 3km uphill through a little town.

Thursday training

Thursday training this week will be classic double pole and one-step double pole on the oval where we did intervals on Tuesday night.  We will add in some work on cornering on classic skis.

Coach John will be heading things up as I rest up for a race at Nipika Lodge in B.C on Saturday.  It feels like race season is just starting!

I googled for a photo of double-pole technique and this picture from our own blog was not far from the top of the search results!