|
|
MID-SEASON
JON ENGEN
Contributing Editor for the Master Skier
Jon, of Norway, came to the U.S. in 1980. He competed on the World Cup and in three Olympics in x-c skiing and biathlon while pursuing a career as a Professional Engineer. He has won several World Masters titles and skis with Team Rossignol. He is active in the U.S.S.S.A. Jon lives in Sun Valley, Idaho where he is a Certified Personal Trainer, PSIA ski instructor and masters coach. He can be reached at jonengen@cox-internet.com
|
 |
Andy Newell, U.S. Ski Team, World CUp medal winner.
|
The future is bright for US Cross-country. Our sport is changing internationally as well in the US, so is the environment it is operating in, and the opportunity can be summarized in a few statements:
We have snow! The rest of the world is scrambling on this point.
We have rapidly developing Regional and Club programs of high quality, providing attractive opportunities for development and elite performance alike.
Our National Governing Body (NGB), the US Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), is expanding its emphasis on cross-country and establishing a solid infrastructure for our performance end.
We have good recruiting in numbers, and we are improving our ability to attract top talent.
The international competition formats are changing; Americans are innovative and adaptive and we are finding our strengths.
How do we stack up against the rest of the world? We are probably not quite matching the investments of the top nations where Nordic ski sport is the national passion, but we are gaining ground.
In the bigger picture, many countries with strong Nordic traditions and national, government sponsored sports programs are moving towards an economy like ours; the athletic community finds new challenges, the top athletic talent has more options, and much of the funding becomes their own responsibility. That may give us a more level playing field in years to come.
The US cross-country community has picked up the opportunity and fostered multiple high-quality elite/development clubs and regional programs throughout the country, and these programs are integrated with today’s USSA and US Ski Team (USST) operations. We also have highly qualified and successful coaches working with top level athletes individually, and commercial industry teams supporting athletes beyond the club level. All of these efforts are affecting our development in a positive way.
US cross-country ski racing is now fully integrated with the international community. Our Continental Cup, or US SuperTour, is a high quality competition series on American soil and has for the first time tied all interested US skiers directly into the international FIS standards and scoring base.
Significant progress is seen in US Ski Team athletes of both sexes entering the World Cup podium and we have promising international results posted by the younger set. The current Ski Team is comprised of more athletes than we have seen for decades and these athletes are based in their home communities throughout the US as well as Park City, UT.
The USSA has over time become a substantial and successful organization which knows how to bring out winners and leaders in various disciplines, although cross-country has traditionally not been prominent in this picture.
The organization is very aware of the sport’s 36 available Olympic medals, and committed to build a program of international caliber and medal harvest potential, as the motto “Best in the World” cannot be achieved without cross-country. The USSA cross-country budget is now multiples of what was seen just a few years ago, about double of that heading into the Torino Olympics, and steadily growing as the performance potential is evident.
USSA cross-country has in latter years developed and implemented a Comprehensive Performance and Development Plan. The Plan, which was immediately embraced by the greater USSA organization and the cross-country community, takes us a moving decade into the future and integrates the whole national development pipeline.
The US cross-country program is now working closely with various successful USSA departments, which translates into education, events, organization, sports science and medicine support beyond anything we have seen in the past. This has a very notable impact on our top athletes, affording them performance opportunities not available to the generations of skiers before them, and we also have many far-reaching benefits.
The National program integrates more athletes around the country than ever before through regional outreach and open doors for motivated skiers seeking progressive development environments.
The USSA has implemented a long awaited Coaches’ Education Program, which could be a new start in growing overall competence in the Cross-country ranks. The National Cross-country Program has a larger coaching staff than we have seen in modern time.
The additional manpower, and the fact that these coaches are permanently based in the country, makes year-round, on-the-ground operations smoother, more activities are coordinated and information shared throughout the country, and better records are retained.
The USSA is building a top-notch National Training Center in Park City. This facility will house state of the art training, testing and education facilities, and will be a huge resource for our elite and developing Cross-country athletes, coaches and officials.
The current USSA Cross-country Committee has active representatives from all geographical Divisions, collegiate skiing, officials, industry and at-large interests.
The Cross-country Committee members, and those who actively participate in the organization and process, are in recent years well keyed into the USST operations and engaged in the overall national performance progress.
For more information about the Cross-country Committee, consult your USSA Competition Guide that comes with your membership, your Division representative or www.ussa.org. We will hopefully always have input on US Cross-country’s philosophy and overall program as that is an essential component of bringing the sport forward.
The USSA is the overall organizational center for skiing in the US, including the US Ski Team, regional programs, etc. Cross-country enthusiasts are rather weak in support of the organization; we count for a single digit percentage of the membership, and only a fraction of the nation’s active Cross-country skiers are actually members of their own NGB.
We have many single day competitive events involving multiple the participants comprising the USSA membership, which means we have a vast pool of human resources with untapped constructive energy we would love to hear from and include.
Funding to the US National Cross-country efforts comes through the main purse of the USSA, which is a non-profit organization. The income is generated from sponsorship, US Olympic Committee funds, gifts and donations, sales, membership and the alike, which is allocated to the disciplines based on presented initiatives, performance and proven needs and numbers.
Although we are active on the sports side, Cross-country representation has classically been passive in the Foundation and parts of the organization engaged in business aspects and other organizational well being. This is a circle we need to break, and we are anxious to hear from the Cross-country community in this regard. US Cross-country skiing is on a roll and we need the whole community to come together in bringing our sport forward.
All the best to everyone in the 2007 - 08 season and let’s see some top-notch US results this winter!
|
For more articles like this one, subscribe today to The Master Skier. |
|
