By Gavin Kentch
This viewing guide aims at encouraging you to tune into portions of this year’s U.S. Ski & Snowboard spring meetings, which are being held in Park City, but also on Zoom, in the middle of this week.
I am serious. I think that a lot of people in this country, including folks who are fairly well-invested in the sport, don’t really have a sense for how high-level decisions are made or where they come from. I didn’t, either, until I started clicking through the agenda spreadsheet and tuning into meetings a few years ago.
What I found was — and I’m going to put my journalistic skepticism and default register of snark aside and be earnest for a second here — a group of people who genuinely care about the sport and who are giving up several days of their life to work together for its betterment. Let me be clear, I reserve the right to author reasoned criticism of said decisions once they have been made… but I was consistently struck by the care and attention being given to these decisions.
Plus, USSS wants you to listen in, or at least to know what is being discussed and what information underlies these decisions. “There’s a lot of rules and stuff that I wish we could do a better job of sharing,” Cross Country Sport Coordinator Adam St.Pierre told host Ryan Sederquist in a recent SederSkier podcast.
“And Congress isn’t necessarily the time to do that, but my hope would be that by hearing the discussion it lets you know what you don’t know, so then you can approach your club coach or your friend who may know more, or email me,” continued St.Pierre. “That’s my job as the Sport Coordinator, is to try to coordinate.”
(Personally speaking, I would say that I average about one “do you know” or “where can I find this information” inquiry a week from readers. I welcome these and will always do what I can to help, and I mean that quite sincerely. DMs are always open on Instagram, or email me at info (at) nordicinsights.news.)
So, let’s talk about the logistics of Spring Congress.
How can you find out more information?
St.Pierre candidly stated in the podcast that he has little ability to edit the main USSS website (he called it “sort of atrocious”; as someone who attempts to find skiing information for a living, do not disagree), and so puts all the information that he can into the master Google Doc spreadsheet. If you take nothing else from this article, here is the link to that spreadsheet.
There is a lot of information here: meeting agenda, Zoom links, links to substantive proposals, and more. Take a few minutes and click around this document; I promise that you will learn something.
How can you watch the races meetings?
Zoom links for all sessions are given in the Google Doc. It’s not fancy, but it works better than Outside Watch. And with that, we’re back to snark.
What is the schedule for the next few days?
Here are some screenshots for you. All times are given in the venue local time, Mountain Time. Subtract two hours for Alaska or add two hours for the East Coast. The rest of you can figure it out from there.
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Wow. That’s a ton of meetings, and I don’t exactly have six hours a day set aside for this. Are there any specific highlights you would recommend?
There are! Here are some sessions that I try to listen to every year, either live or on the replay (archives of all sessions should be available after the fact; follow links to Zoom recordings in the spreadsheet):
• preview of next year’s U.S. Nationals, here from Kris Cheney-Seymour with ORDA on behalf of Lake Placid
• Greta Anderson update on U.S. development
• Gus Schumacher update (in his capacity as USSS Athlete Rep) on behalf of the athlete working group
• Matt Whitcomb update on the U.S. Ski Team
• Discussion of next year’s SuperTour calendar
• New business proposals on Wednesday afternoon
I am a junior coach, or a parent of juniors, or an involved junior skier; the SuperTour and World Cup are great, but my specific area of interest right now is really just junior skiing. Do you have any recommendations for this?
Yes! Wednesday morning is when you want to tune in. Future JNs bids, discussion of proposed changes to the JNs schedule, criteria for things like Scando Cup trip and World Juniors, and more will all be discussed then. Plus you get to hear a lot from Greta Anderson, always a plus in my book (disclosure: Greta is a dear friend).
I’m really just focused on skiing right now, and I truly just want to know where the next major championships are going to be held. Can you just tell me that here, without making me click through a lot of other stuff?
Also yes:
• U.S. Nationals: Lake Placid in 2026.
Tbd for 2027ff., but I have heard rumblings about possibly giving this to Soldier Hollow for the lion’s share of years between now and 2034, with an eye to giving American skiers the chance to accumulate some home-course experience in advance of a home Olympics in nine years’ time. Not to mention that the venue is readily accessible from anywhere in the country, you can get rental cars and hotel rooms there with ease, there is running water by the stadium, and other such niceties. Nothing against the Anchorages or Houghtons or Cables or Lake Placids of the world, but this constellation of amenities is not always a given for a venue.
There will also presumptively be a World Cup weekend held in Utah in the 2032/2033 season as an Olympic test event, heck maybe also the season before that because there is no global championship that year and the U.S. seems to be cool with FIS now (thanks, Loppet Cup!). So everyone should get used to spending some time at Soho over the next few years, is my point. There are certainly worse places to be.
• Junior Nationals: Birkieland in 2026; presumptively Auburn in 2027.
• NCAA Championships: Bozeman (Crosscut Mountain for nordic, Bridger Bowl for alpine), March 2026. Bids are currently open for 2027 and 2028. Bidders should be prepared for the possibility of three nordic events by that point, the NCAA notes — a 7.5km, a 20km, and a sprint — which, 👀👀.
I appreciate the schedule links and all, but I have a day job/kids/training/life, and am realistically not going to be tuning into any Zoom sessions here. What are some of the more interesting documents that I should peruse?
Excellent question. In no particular order (I will fill in this section with the rest of the direct links as soon as the spreadsheet gets updated, sorry):
• draft SuperTour calendar for next season
• preview of 2026 U.S. Nationals in Lake Placid, from Kris Cheney-Seymour with ORDA
• preview of 2026 World Cup Finals (!) in Lake Placid from Kris Cheney-Seymour
• Greta Anderson presentation on athlete development
• Matt Whitcomb presentation on the U.S. Ski Team
• Bryan Fish domestic update
• preview of 2026 JNs in Birkieland, from Kristy Maki
• also the three proposals linked below
What are some proposals being brought forward this year as new business, and why should I care about them?
Great question. Here is some of what is on tap this year:
• Adam St.Pierre with USSS has proposed to reduce the amount of prize money paid out in SuperTour races, so that the amount the host club has to pay is fully covered by NNF. Under the current prize money structure a host club pays out $3,850 in prize money for each day of SuperTour racing, of which NNF covers $2,500.
“The support from NNF decreases the financial burden of hosting SuperTour significantly, but most clubs/venues could find a better use for the $2700 they would otherwise pay as prize money,” St.Pierre writes. He elsewhere characterizes the current structure as “like taxing venues for hosting SuperTours.” He explains, “We need to pay prize money to SuperTour athletes. This is necessary to elevate the professionalism of our sport, but it is not fair to pay the athletes at the expense of the club/venue hosting the event.”
St.Pierre has two proposed changes to the compensation structure. In one model, prize money moves from six deep to five deep and is set at roughly 65 percent of current amounts: $500 for first, $325 for second, $200 for third, $125 for fourth, and $75 for fifth. In the other model, more prize money is given to fewer places: $600 for first, $400 for second, and $250 for third.
You should care about this if: you are a professional skier; you are coaching professional skiers; you are a club that puts on races; you know or care about anyone in these categories.
• Andy Keller, head coach at Northern Michigan, has proposed that USSS move to temperature limits for racing that are (a) warmer and (b) more nuanced than the current FIS rule.
The FIS temperature cutoff rule is likely well known to most readers of this site: “If the temperature is below –20° C, measured at the coldest point of the course, a competition will be postponed or cancelled by the Jury” (ICR 315.9). There are also provisions in the FIS rules for postponing or cancelling due to “difficult weather conditions.”
Keller’s proposal, which has been adopted by the Central Collegiate Ski Association, or CCSA, for the past several winters now, is drawn from policies promulgated by the Norwegian Ski Federation. It suggests a cutoff of –15° C for U16 and younger, –18° C for junior and senior athletes in distances shorter than 15km, –15° C for junior and senior athletes in distances of 15km or more, and –15° C for multi-age junior races that have U16 or younger athletes.
The proposal keeps the current limit of –20° C for World Cup and global championship races held in this country, sets a limit of –18° C for SuperTour races [I assume this also means U.S. Nationals], and keeps the limit of –20° C for combined U.S./Canada NorAm races [I assume that USSS does not in fact have jurisdiction over Nordiq Canada, and so cannot legislate changes for NorAm races even if they wanted to].
Keller notes that CCSA has had difficulty enforcing this rule in the Midwest, because the FIS rulebook preempts local rules. That said, if Keller’s proposal passes it would be binding on the entire country, not just on the Midwest, assuming that nothing changes in the current relationship between divisional custom and USSS as a nationwide sanctioning body.
You should care about this if: You race in USSS-sanctioned races anywhere in this country where it is cold in winter; you have thoughts on the interplay “between national rules and divisional autonomy,” as a collection of current-year proposed changes to the comp guide has it.
• Forrest Mahlen, assistant coach at APU, far right in above photo, has proposed allowing non-NCAA athletes to race in NCAA events. (Okay, the document is more precisely entitled “Proposal for US Athletes to have Equal Access to Domestic FIS Races,” but I think it is a fair summary of the text of the proposal to say that we are really talking about non-NCAA skiers in a handful of NCAA races here.)
Mahlen points out that NCAA races, specifically both days of NCAA Championships and mass start day at RMISA Regionals, have been high on the list of races with the lowest FIS points penalty over the past two years (low points are good). Mahlen argues that excluding American athletes with valid FIS licenses from these races denies them the chance to participate in races where they could achieve a FIS-point result that would help them in, potentially, qualifying for the World Cup or making the U.S. Ski Team.
Mahlen writes, “The opportunity to participate in these races cannot be understated. FIS points are directly used to award World Cup starts and to select the US Ski Team. It is a reasonable assumption that access to these events will play a significant role in selecting the next Olympic Team. These events are ‘closed’ to US athletes only, as an international FIS race if a foreign NGB requested that their athletes participate the venue would be required to allow it.
“US Ski and Snowboard is committed to the principles of fairness and equal opportunity we must either allow all US athletes to compete, or to remove the FIS designation from these events.”
Let me take a moment here to acknowledge who specifically is making this proposal: Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center has within its club, by a substantial margin, the largest collection of non-NCAA athletes in the country. It is manifestly to APU’s advantage to (a) let its athletes generally train and race outside of the NCAA system, but then (b) also compete in NCAA competitions when it would help them. I am not writing anything here that I have not recently said to Forrest in person, fwiw. I should also acknowledge that I pay APU each year for coaching, though I promise that APU Masters is considerably removed from high-level FIS racing.
If you are an NCAA coach, or are affiliated with NCAA racing, you probably hate this proposal. If you are not, your feelings are likely more neutral. You can find the current makeup of the Sport Committee and the Coaches Sub-Committee here if you would like to try to read the tea leaves on this one.
I should also note that several proposed changes to this year’s nordic comp guide (find them all here) sound in the concerns of Mahlen’s proposal. Take this commentary on rule 1.8, entry restrictions: “This likely needs a more formalized process, for many ‘closed’ sanctioned events are being called to question. It likely requires specifically outlining which sanctioned events are closed and proactively voting those through as a quorum of XC Sport Committee. Then publicly & proactively posting those ‘closed.’”
Or this overall comment, summarizing several potential changes to this year’s comp guide (emphasis in original):
“NOTE — the topic of event restrictions (rule 1.8), club representation limitations (rule 0.7), Prize Money Eligibility (41.2.1 USCCC & 81.1.1 ST), USCCC relay eligibility (rule 41.4), and SuperTour points scoring (rule 81.3.4) should be discussed TOGETHER. The rationale here is that the NCAA system is an integral part of the development pathway. We want to provide our best Americans access and opportunity to race these athletes (primarily foreign with strong FIS point profiles) however we also should award/ reward them as an integral part of the USSS club system. We also need to be strategic in FIS/USSS sanctioning to ensure accuracy in our scoring systems.”
I, truly, do not know what the committee’s vote will be on this. But it is fair to say that the proposal comes as part of a larger discussion on “preserving” NCAA racing versus making competitive races more broadly available to more athletes. Stay tuned.
You should care about this if: you compete in NCAA races; you compete in non-NCAA races sanctioned by USSS; you have thoughts on the role that APU plays in American skiing.
How many of this week’s sessions will pass the Bechdel Test?
Well, this is awkward.
Not many. Sophie Goldschmidt, Kikkan Randall, Greta Anderson, and Kristy Maki are the only female presenters I see across two days’ worth of agenda items. (Put another way, a woman is as of this writing listed as the lead speaker for a total of 1.5 hours over 14.25 hours’ worth of meetings.) Maybe a few minutes of their presentations will present at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man, depending on who asks questions. Again, stay tuned.
Enjoy the meetings, everyone.
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