By Gavin Kentch
We’ve heard a lot about skis this week from the American camp, not all of it, unfortunately, positive. Jessie Diggins pronounced herself “heartbroken” about her skis on skate sprint day, for example, which is never a great thing to hear from your star.
Suffice to say that the American coaches are aware of these issues, too. Ski prep for transformed snow conditions (a longstanding bête noire for the American service staff), and how to improve this going forward, was a prime topic of conversation when USST Program Director Chris Grover spoke with media today after the men’s 50km.
Here’s what Grover had to say. Questions, in bold, are from reporters Nat Herz and Noah Eckstein, proud Bowdoin skiing alumni both. Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
How’d you feel about today?
It was okay. Of course, disappointing that perhaps we didn’t get the best skis on Gus’s feet. Because I think obviously on the right day with Gus, it could have been a good battle.
Great for Kevin. Excited for how he did, for his endurance, his ability to be there at the end with his group. Little rough for JC and Luke (laughs). One of those days where the conditions are such that if you’re not having one, you are really not having one.
Neither of those dudes are, I don’t want to put it the wrong way, but I wouldn’t call them spritely.
Yeah, exactly. They’re both pretty strong guys. And they’re probably a little bit better suited to 10km and 15km and 20km.
Not a 50km in ankle-deep slush.
Exactly. But this is a great experience for them, and we had a number of other men that were not prepared to start today or not present. So that was the situation we were in.
Did they salt the course today?
You know, they did salt, but as I understand it, it kind of created a hard top layer, but it was only maybe like an inch or inch-and-a-half thick and so they broke through it really quick.
Is it fair to say the [ski] service has been pretty hard for you guys this championship?
It’s been challenging, but you know, the second half has really been quite good. Starting with the 10km classic was pretty solid for almost everybody. Great on the team sprint day. Pretty good for the relays; skis were good there.
But today is a little bit of a challenge for some athletes and good for others. I think a little bit depending on what brand you’re on and what the factory grind in there is, it was probably a challenge.
Is that a little bit hard for you guys? When the athletes come through and will say, like, “probably didn’t have the best skis today,” I think my immediate inclination is like, “oh, that’s a team problem.” But actually I think you look at Jessie too, like she had a tough day, tough skis in the sprint on a day when Julia was fifth, right? And so it is more complicated.
Exactly. And that’s one reason why we’re finally in the last year starting our own grinding program. We’ve had a system forever where we primarily rely on factory grinds. And we still do, and 85% of the time that’s a good solution.
But there are those conditions, especially when it gets warm and wet and dirty, where it can be a little bit hit or miss if you’re going with that system, and that’s where a team like Norway has a big advantage. They’ve had their own grinding system for a long time and all those skis that they’re racing on, as I understand it anyway, have been ground by their federation and they know exactly — they’ve tested exactly how the hand structure is going to interact with the grind that’s underneath. So that’s what we’re moving towards.
It was soft out there today. Check out those ruts in the corner. (photo: Lukas Pigott)
Do you think that these warm and wet and saturated transformed conditions are a particular weak spot for you guys right now, relative to other conditions?
I think one of the advantages that a country like Norway or Sweden has is that they are so close to Sognefjellet [a longstanding destination for summer snowfield skiing in western Norway] and the European glaciers. And they’ve been able to afford year-round service people to actually be testing in the summertime on glacier conditions and warm and wet.
And all of our guys are seasonal. All of our technicians are seasonal. They’re on five-month contracts. So that’s just one of the things that’s on our horizon that we have to get to.
But we’re also a long way from the glaciers. With the exception of Eagle Glacier, which has been offline for five years now. We just don’t have glaciers handy like they do.
[The Eagle Glacier facility above Girdwood, Alaska, a 45-minute drive and 10-minute helicopter flight from Anchorage, has not been open for training since summer 2019. The old training center there was formally condemned following earthquake damage; the pandemic generally, and the challenges of new construction at a venue only accessible by helicopter and located on U.S. Forest Service land specifically, have plagued the rebuilding process with multiple delays. The new training center was originally intended to be useable by the APU Elite Team before the end of the summer 2024 training season; the new planned reopening is summer 2025. —Ed.]
Is there a step you can be planning to kind of correct that?
Yeah. We’ve started to — the summer before the last one [we were in] Sognefjellet; we’re hoping to go back to Sognefjellet with our grind truck, with some of our technicians.
It just takes money. It’s only money.
What do those techs do when they’re not teching for you?
Well, lots of different things. Like Tim Baucom is a foreman in a company that sells and installs wood floors. Paul works at Gear West.
Eli [Brown] has done a lot of different things, including working for an LED light company. He’s recently been working for a company that removes trees from people’s properties.
What else. It’s kind of all over the place. Oleg [Ragilo] helps — his wife has like a salon and beauty kind of business. And he helps with that.
So you know, everybody has to kind of figure it out. And that’s one of the real challenges is that those are more their full-time jobs, and these are more their part-time jobs. I mean, Bjorn [Heimdal] is in the Norwegian Army. And he’s managing all the equipment on a base up in Bardufoss; he’s a soldier. And Per-Erik [Bjørnstad], he basically helps manage and run the recreation department in Alta, Norway; that’s his real job.
So these guys have found a way to make this work, to get some time off. And sometimes they’re still working part time on the weekends — or not the weekends, but whenever they get back. So yeah, it’s challenging.
Any other takeaways from today?
I don’t know if we’ll ever see someone win six golds in one championship again. That’s my biggest takeaway. We’re witnessing history that it’s going to take a long time to repeat.
Were you surprised that Johannes was able to do that today, given what it looked like out there?
I mean, yes and no. I’m never really surprised at what he can do. But it’s an incredible accomplishment.
Do you think that being inside the skiing bubble kind of inures you to the awe of what he’s doing? Or is it like, are you guys just as shocked as everybody else?
I mean, very impressed. We obviously knew coming in that he could have the potential to win six medals. But to actually do it is incredible. Everything has to come together. Just the idea of managing your energy and staying healthy. Plus the amount of public appearance that he has to do in award ceremonies and interviews. And it’s really amazing how he kind of pulled it all together.
If you could sum up this championship in three words, what would they be?
“Wet” will be one of them.
“Atmosphere” is another one.
And… I don’t know. “Incredible,” or “special.” Something like that. It’s been really fun for us to be in the middle of this atmosphere. I think it will be a long time before we see another atmosphere at a world championships like this. And you really have to applaud Norway and the Trondheim organizer for their vision for putting this together, for finding a way to get this many people into the venue every day. And the Norwegian people for coming out in this weather. It’s like, a lot of people might have stayed home, but not here. And that’s pretty cool.
You had a few athletes I think, between Gus, Julia, and Jessie, who are putting in some significant time on these climate negotiations [with Folk Mot Fossilmakta]. Tell me about how you witnessed that as a coach. That was taking up not a totally insignificant amount of time during a pretty important moment in their career.
Absolutely. And I think for some athletes, there’s definitely a weight and a stress to kind of spending that time to figure that out. But at the same time, that discussion is important in their values and the values of our organization. And so we want to encourage them to chase their values and follow all their values.
So the timing is not ideal, but you know, their mission is pretty unwavering. And this is just an extension of that.
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