SWEDEN 2012

I've been a little slow to get this year's blog installment going, but here we go with some pictures!

on the flight

best seat in the plane

matchy matchy

it was a little rainy when we first got here

and the trails were a little brown...

but then we got some snow!

ski testing

I bundled up with some mittens

The World Cups Begin!

On Wednesday the World Cups here in Östersund started. You can read all about them on fasterskier.com (with most of the photos done by me and my dad).

 dad and i took a little break to do some shopping in town. i found some pretty awesome gloves.

while i was at the bottom of the course cheering on skiers, i had a little time to construct a makeshift flag (a very expensive one at that) with a spare swix triac pole that i brought with me.

 later, we went to the supermarket and found something very special and rare...the sun.

one of the coolest places to go during christmas time here in Östersund is the Julmarknad or Christmas Market, there you can find such swedish delicacies as moose kebabs and very heavily fried bacon pancakes.

maybe the best bacon pancake i had all day...maybe.

this morning (saturday) i watched Kikkan Randall of the US XC Ski team win the women's sprint in Dusseldorf, Germany on television. it was awesome!

i might need some more chocolate.

First Few Days

added a little american spirit to our apartments.

snowed last night. mostly in piles, directly on the trail... strange weather here in the somewhat-frozen north.

the snow is brown. good good.

2pm...and the sun is down.

bad news: it's raining. good news: rainbow!

...and then it started snowing!

watched Petter Northug kill it in some cross country races over the weekend.

tested some skis today. they were super fast.

the typical color scheme of a traditional swedish meal.

out in the ski testing area with all the wax techs.

GO USA!

feeling good after a solid 18km skate ski.


sorry about the 3 day gap in posts, i'll try to update this a little bit more... 

Sweden: Round Three

This will be my third trip to Östersund, and hopefully the best yet! But as of yet, there is no snow here. So we'll see how this ski trip goes.

 packing. done.

primed to go.

 napkin on iceland air.

 icelandic hot chocolate: tastes much better than it looks.

safely arrived in winter wonderland. 38˚ and blue skies.

happy thanksgiving. go eat some fish, potatoes, lettuce, and crispbread.

Relays and Final Ski

Sunday was the final day of racing, both the men's and women's relay races were held then. The men went first at 11:00, the US finished in 7th place after a very windy day at the shooting range. Since we only have three women racing, we didn't have any team in the women's relay. However the German women's team had a great race, they won with their star skier Kati Wilhelm having a great last leg of the race. Actually, the USA Biathlon Team has many connections with the German Team. Most of the waxers and team members speak German, and Kati's skis are waxed by her boyfriend (our head waxer, Andi). After the races were over, I had a great final ski on the course. I was just starting the biggest and steepest downhill of the course, when they shut off all of the lights on the trail. Luckily, the skies were still lit up a little by the massive lights in the stadium. When we got back to the hotel, it was massive packing time! We packed all of our stuff into two 20 kg bags, two ski pole tubes, and two super-stuffed carryon bags. I got to bed at 9:30 after a very long day. Tomorrow will be even tougher as a full day of travel back to the US!

Sprints and Bronze!

Saturday was definitely our busiest day yet. In the morining, we had to wake up early to get to the venue so we could test waxes and get the men to their start at 10:30. The sprints were 10k for the men and 7.5k for the women, each race with 2 shooting stages. The men's race went fast, Tim Burke shot clean and finished only 37 seconds behind Ole Einar Bjørndalen, the king of biathlon. Ole has won 5 Olympic gold medals, 14 World Championships, and 90 World Cups, as well as having been the only Biathlete ever to have also won a Cross Country Skiing World Cup. Tim Burke beat Bjørndalen on Thursday, so we are thinking that there might be a new king on the rise. After the men's race came a short break before the women's sprint, during the break I had lunch in the cafeteria for coaches and volunteers. The womens race was intense, with everthing changing with each shooting, in the end Tora Berger of Norway won. Later, we all got transport from the hotel to go to the medal ceremony for Tim. It wasn't a traditional medal ceremony (budget cuts), so all of the athletes got clothing from a local store. Immediately after Tim left the stage, Dad and I raced over to the other side of the plaza to see if we could get a table at pub that we had liked last year. We stepped inside and within 30 seconds had the only unreserved two-person table in the restaurant. We had a great meal of fish n' chips and a burger, afterwards we picked up some candy and ice cream at a gas station on the walk back. When we got back to the hotel, I was really tired so I went straight to bed.

Julmarknad

On Friday, Dad and I went to Jamtli again to go to the Christmas Market. The Julmarknad is made up of 200+ stalls out in the cold Swedish air, each one selling various gifts and traditional foods from the holiday. We sampled some Swedish Glögg, a drink like mulled cider, and a type of pancake that was filled with bacon and very salty. After we had walked back, I decided to take some time to digest before my evening ski. Dad brought me up to the athlete's lounge, where I did some homework and blogging. When I did get out on the trails, I had a great ski. I classic skied 12k on just the upper loop, and then did some specific strength and double-poling. It was definitely a quality day in Sweden!

Jamtli and Silver!

On Thursday after breakfast, I did some homework. Then later Dad and I hitched a ride with the coaches over to the venue, from there we walked to Jamtli, the museum of Jamtland's history. There we walked through the amazing museum and saw all of the interesting exhibits of the culture of northern Sweden. After that we visited the gift shop and went to lunch in the café. Later we went back to the venue to ski and prepare for the men's race. I was starting to do some intervals around the upper loop, when the temperature dropped to minus 10 celcius. I decided to do a moderate skate for an hour instead. Later Dad and I walked out to one of the hills on the course to do feeds for the men's race. Feeds are when you hand the athlete a drink of water or another drink during the race on a long downhill. The men's 20 kilometer individual race began at 5:10 and had 136 competitors. We had four racers in the event, Tim Burke, Jeremy Teela, Jay Hakkinen, and Kevin Patzolt. It was a great night for team USA with Burke taking 2nd, the best world cup result for the US since 1982. There are no races tomorrow, but on Saturday and Sunday there will be 2 races each day!

First Race Day

Today we woke up late and just in time to catch the end of breakfast in the dininghall. We caught a ride with Jeremy and Herbert, two of the athletes, down to the CO-OP (also a grocery store). We went and visited the Woolpower outlet and found some cool merino wool clothing. Then we walked back the hotel to get changed and go ski. We hopped in the Jumper van with waxers Gara and Christian, and were the first people over at the stadium. I went for an hour long skate ski with some no-poles and specific strength worked into it. Then I went and hung out in the athletes lounge where there are a bunch of laptops and blazing fast Internet. At 11:00 EST the women 15k race will begin, and you can watch it live at www.biathlonworld.com.