By Gavin Kentch
U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced that they had hired four new coaches for the national team: Ville Oksanen as a new World Cup Coach, Esben Tøllefsen and Simen Finjord as World Cup service staff (read: wax techs), and Lizzie Larkins as Development Coach. The news came in a May 28 press release that I somehow did not see until this week; sorry about that.
Tøllefsen and Finjord replace Per-Erik Bjørnstad and Chris Hecker as service staff. Larkins replaces Greta Anderson as Development Coach.
I believe that Oksanen is an addition to the World Cup–level coaching staff rather than a replacement, but that is my informed surmise rather than sourced reporting. To show my work here: The two people with the job title of World Cup Coach last season were Jason Cork and Kristen Bourne. Cork said last fall that he intended to remain with the team, albeit in a slightly more expansive role following the retirement of the athlete, Jessie Diggins, with whom he had closely worked for many years. Bourne, meanwhile, is currently with the national team in Sjusjøen, per her public Strava. If Cork is no longer with the USST, then that is news on its own. But I do believe that Oksanen is an addition rather than a replacement.
News of Finjord’s hiring was reported here, as well as on other news sites, in advance of this official announcement.
[Read more: Simen (22) will lead the USA to gold – becoming the youngest ski [waxer] in the World Cup (NRK, May 2026)]
Oksanen previously worked with the Finnish national team, per the USSS press release. He led the men’s national team from 2022–2026, and the women’s national team from 2019–2022.
Tøllefsen has worked in ski service for the past nine years, again per USSS, including six years full-time for Norway, and three years for both Norway and Iceland. Finjord, meanwhile, worked for Team Aker Dæhlie for the last two years. He is also, per USSS, currently attending law school in Tromsø, which my inactive lawyer self respects. You can do a lot with a law degree, as they say.
Larkins is a 2020 graduate from the University of Vermont, where she raced on the ski team and was a two-time qualifier for NCAA Championships. She coached at Auburn Ski Club for a year after graduating, per her LinkedIn page, and then served as the assistant nordic coach at Montana State from 2021–2024. She also earned a Master’s in Coaching Sciences from MSU while she was coaching there.
Larkins’s main job for the past two years was outside of skiing, according to her LinkedIn. She had sporadic coaching roles in that time, most prominently on the coaching staff for the American para nordic team at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milano–Cortina; no other coaching roles are listed on her LinkedIn page since she left Montana State at the close of the 2023/2024 season.
In the press release, USSS program director Chris Grover said that Tøllefsen and Finjord will meet the U.S. service team for on-snow testing at Sognefjellet this week or next, while Oksanen will work with athletes in both the Sjusjøen and Sognefjellet portions of their current Norway-based training camp. “Meanwhile, Lizzie will join development projects already starting in June,” Grover added.
