Heather and Paddy Nominated for Youth Olympic Games

Congratulations to SMS skiers Heather Mooney and Patrick Caldwell for being chosen to represent the US at the first ever Winter Youth Olympic Games to be held in Innsbruck, Austria next January.

Heather and Paddy were chosen because they each finished the year as #1 in the country for their age group on the National Ranking List. The US expects to be limited to two cross country athletes for the competition.

The Youth Olympic games are being held to further promote the winter sports by raising the excitement level for younger athletes. There will be 63 sporting events for 1058 athletes ranging from all of the ski disciplines to snowboarding, skating, luge and bobsled. Paddy and Heather will each compete in a Freestyle sprint race, a mid distance ( 5, 10 km) Classic race and a relay where they will team with two biathlon skiers.

Both skiers are "tickled pink" and looking forward to the event. They each represented the USST last winter when Heather competed at the Jr World Championships in Estonia, and Paddy competed in Sweden at the J1 Championships. The Youth Olympic Games will have a different flavor with top athletes from all over the world competing in different sports. It promises to be a great experience.

April Showers....

Huh? Yeah..this is what we woke up to this morning. It has been a cool, dreary April. Alum Barney Hodges, who is an apple grower, is psyched because it is safer to have a late spring bloom. So..blame Barney.
We are back at school. After a bunch of missed school in March, the nordies are busy making up incompletes and getting back into dryland activities. It is nice that the teachers set aside time every day after school to help out.
Our spring training goals are to build an aerobic base, improve general strength, and work on running technique. We want to run during distance workouts vs plod. We will also do enough biking to be ready for our century ride in late May or early June.
Our new training year starts on Monday :).

Congratulations to Skyler, Isabel and Heather

Wow!

Skyler was just named to the US D team and Heather and Isabel were named to the National Training Group. Congratulations to all of them.

Skyler will be staying with us another year and supplement our program with a couple of USST camps and competition trips.

Heather will be skiing at Middlebury college and Isabel will remain at Dartmouth.

More exciting news to follow!

1/2 Pipe Fun

Click any picture to enlarge.

Stratton Mountain School Nordic Report 2010-2011

We just wrapped up an excellent season of racing for our SMS Nordic team. We achieved all of our team goals on the National level and half of our goals on the International level. Everyone worked hard and made significant improvements. We had a great group and it was fun for the coaches to work with them.


We have a saying “Once an SMS nordie, always an SMS nordie.” Alumni are always welcome to train with us and many join our summer club program. With this in mind, when we sat down to make team goals last summer, we included goals for results from our alumni.

Here were our goals:
Train well and be supportive of teammates. Check.
Top 10 at World Ski Championships. Check, Andy Newell 10th in sprint.
Top 10 at U23 World Championships. Nope. Sophie qualified, but did not attend (school and health).
Top 10 at Jr. World Championships. Nope. We had 3 racers at Jr. Worlds and were led by Heather Mooney’s 31st.
Top 10 at USST J1 Scando Trip. Check. Paddy Caldwell placed 8th in the 10 km skate.
At least 3 current skiers qualify for USST trips. Check. Heather and Skyler Davis made the Jr. World team, Paddy and Cambria McDermott made the J1 Scando Team.
Win Roger Weston Award (top high school in US) for boys and girls. Check. We had 5 different skiers podium in individual races at Jr. Nationals and 9 place in the top 10.
Win Jr. National Club Award for Boys and Girls. Check.
Continue streak of at least 1 gold medal at Jr. Olympics and at least 1 skier qualifying for Jr. World team. Check; Skyler, Heather, Cambria and Tyler Foulkes all won gold at Jr. Nationals. Skyler, Heather and Isabel Caldwell qualified for the Jr. World team. The streak is now at 15 years.



Looking Ahead: We have a great group of young energetic kids joining the program next year so the future looks bright.
To become a truly excellent cross-country skier, one has to commit to many years of systematic training. We need to keep working with the local youth ski league and figure out ways to keep supporting our skiers after they graduate from high school. By creating a cradle to grave program, we will provide consistency that is crucial in an athlete’s development.
Two years ago we started a “Devo” summer program for 11-14 year old skiers. The first year we had 4 members, last year we had 11. We will continue this program and hope to keep the momentum going.
Our popular BKL and Jr. camps are scheduled in August (see link on right for details). These camps attract 100 young skiers from all over New England and expose them to top level coaches and athletes from around the region.


We have always provided summer dry land training for the SMS skiers and we will continue this program and encourage other dedicated skiers to join the group. Andy Newell plans to spend more time in the area this year and this should attract stronger skiers (among others, Sr. National medalists Sophie Caldwell and Skyler Davis will be here). We are looking forward to working with a strong group of highly motivated athletes. For more information on our nordic programs, contact Sverre at scaldwell@gosms.org.

Why I Love Early Spring

Winter started a bit late this year, but we got lots of snow. Today is April 10th and this morning I skied most of the trails at Wild Wings. The base remains 12-16" of good solid snow and the only bad part is under the hemlock trees (dropped needles). The touring center is closed, but skiing is excellent! On the nights that it freezes, the crust skiing is fabulous and on the nights when it does not freeze, the trails that were packed all winter provide a good firm base.
So....nice days, good morning skiing and then warm enough in the afternoons for running and biking.
Gotta love it!

Sun Valley Wrap

The Super Tour finals mini tour ended with a tough hill climb on Saturday. Congratulations to Kikkan R. and Kris F. for taking the overall titles in impressive fashion.
This was a great way for us to end our season. We had a great year, but we still have work to do!
The course started with a solid uphill from the base of Dollar mtn up over the saddle and down to Elkhorn. Then the real climbing started!
Tyler may have been a bit tired from all of the racing and hot tubbing, but he still skied a good race.
The hill climb was run with the pursuit format. Everyone started with those that were close to them after the first 3 days of racing. Actually, the first 50 or so ran on the pursuit format, then they started 3 skiers every 15 seconds (based on their overall ranking). First one across the line was the overall winner.
Still going up.
At this point, the best thing to do was to shut out the pain and mimic the person in front of you.
Amy started 15 seconds behind Izzy and got this close before Izzy pulled away a bit on the very top.
Cambria.
Rachel.
No, this is not a bunch of skiers asking for a free handout. It is the Jrs. doing their dance routine at the awards ceremony.
Heading home.
Thanks to SVSEF for hosting a great week of races!

Sun Valley Classic Sprint Race

The morning started off brisk and clear. Temps had dropped just low enough to set everything up and the classic sprint was fast. Those of us from the East were happy... just go for it..no great worries about the thin air because the course was a mixture of d-pole and striding and it was only a 3 minute race.
The only trick was that as the prelims started, the temps rose quickly and the course was closed to everyone except people in their race. People would test their wax off course and be happy, but 15 minutes later, it might slip on the race course (more skiers, more sun, warming temps). We did pretty well, but a couple of the kids slipped.
Izzy looks as if she is working.
Nice day for racing and cheering.
Patrick O'B hammers hard.
Paddy in the prelim.
Mac strides the hill.
Charlie attackes the top of the hill.
Tyler crests the hill and heads for home.
Oh yeah...
Round up the usual suspects.
Stay out of the sun!
Rachel just missed making the Jr heats, but she didn't let it ruin her day.
Cambria strides out in the girls A final.
Hallie and Chuck.
The "conch man".
Bridger is very tired, but he made the Jr heats and won his semi before blowing up in the final.
Heather hammered to 3rd in her 1/4 and finished as the 2nd Jr.
huh?
Kikkan, Sophie and Ida in their semi final. They ended the day 1,6,7.
Austin is enjoying the trip.
The prelims started at 9 on very fast snow. The finals were at 12:45 in 55 degree sunshine...tough for racing, but great for spectating.
Andy won the prelim, the 1/4, the semi and...ended 2nd when Mike Sinott had a great race and pulled away for the win on the big uphill.
Skyler killed it today. He qualified 3rd (behind Andy and Simi) and went on to place 2nd in the B final.
Smiling in the sun.
Jr podium, Digger, Heather and a Canadian.
Jr podium, Skyler and a couple of Swedes.
Prelim winners.
Mens podium.