Gear News: Unusual Brands At Juniors World In Oberwiesenthal

Gear News: Unusual Brands At Juniors World In Oberwiesenthal

Gear News, Newsfeed
Apologies for starting with the obvious: most of the top athletes compete & win at the Juniors/ U23 World Championships using exactly the same brands as their older comrades in the FIS World Cup. In professional sport best prospects are signed early in hope of seeing them win the Olympics and the World Cups one day. That's something only large companies with serious sponsorship budgets could afford. Not every large company is willing to invest in many junior, however and not every gear manufacturer is willing to sponsor grown-up world-class athletes with their ,well, fairly grown-up appetites. That essentially means the Juniors at Oberwiesenthal are, among other things, are anextremely unusual face-off: The equipment produced by second-tier manufacturers (basically, those who can't afford Klaebo or Bolshunov) is put against larger,…
Read More
Justyna Kowalczyk About Izabela  Marcisz And Rest  Of Her  SuperSquad

Justyna Kowalczyk About Izabela Marcisz And Rest Of Her SuperSquad

Leaders, Newsfeed
This is Part 2 of our conversation with Justyna Kowalczyk. Part 1 is to be found here Regarding that "Super Squad" moniker we keep on attaching to Ms. Kowalczyk's team: It's invented by us. After watching the young Polish skiers under the tutelage of Alexander Wierietielny and Justyna Kowalczyk train & compete in several locations throughout the year, the name "Super Squad" sprung to mind - and we feel it's highly appropriate. As far as we know, nobody ever tried that: selecting a few very promising skiers in their mid-teenage years and working on turning them into a world-class athletes, year after year, race after race, camp after camp. We are not privy to details but are certain that it takes Kowalczyk' status with sporting authorities and sponsors to pull…
Read More