Leaders

24Apr 2020 by DS News Team

Valentina Vuerich: Remember To Always Dare

Memento Audere Semper - "Remember to always dare". The quote from Gabriele d'Annunzio' poetry graces one of Valentina " Vale" Vuerich's arms. Very fittingly. Vale is a remarkable figure in the international skiing for several reasons each of which warrants a story about her: - she is one of a very, very few ski servicewomen on the international scene - and, likely, currently the most successful of them all as her personal athlete, Anamarija Lampic just had a fantastic season. We all know that the xcskier's success is always build on quality of her/ his skis. - a former athlete herself, Valentina is a lot more than a ski technician. She is a training partner and, judging by amounts of smiles & giggles, one of the close friends to her…

22Apr 2020 by DS News Team

Aleksander Wierietielny And Justyna Kowalczyk Step Down As Team Poland Coaches

Leaders, Newsfeed

...It was an exciting experiment... ...Aleksander Wierietielny had a long and illustrious career capped with his best known pupil, Justyna Kowalczyk, winning two Olympic golds, three FIS Cross-Country World Cups and incredible four Tour de Ski victories in a row. [caption id="attachment_15635" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wierietielny and Maniek, the First Dog of XCsking, always there on the tracks [/caption] The Soviet Union-born coach wanted to retire after the 2018 Olympics but none else than Ms. Kowalczyk had convinced him to stay for a few years to work on the project both fascinating and incredible: select a group of 16-17 year old Polish girls - and turn them into world-class skiers. It would be wrong to add the standard "money no object" but it was a very well funded project, money of…

16Apr 2020 by DS News Team

Russia Announces Its Squad Selection 2020/21

Leaders, Newsfeed

The Russians have just announced their national team selection for 2020/21. -It's one skier smaller in total numbers compared to the last season yet remains by far the world's largest: 39 athletes in total. Wow! [caption id="attachment_15599" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yuri Borodavko & Oleg Perevozchikov[/caption] -The unique structure of independently operating inner groups remain: those under Yuri Borodavko (10 skiers ) and Markus Cramer (9) have both men and women, the one under Oleg Perevozchikov is men-only. Egor Sorin's group is considered equal in status, but is composed primarily of U23 skiers of both sexes with two exceptions. [caption id="attachment_15595" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sedova, Nepryaeva and Belorukova[/caption] Get used to two new names: Yulia Stupak and Anastasia Kuleshova. Those are Yulia Belorukova and Anastasia Sedova who both are back to the squad…

14Apr 2020 by DS News Team

Swiss Team Announces Squad Selection 2020/21

Leaders, Newsfeed

The Swiss ski federation is traditionally among the first to announce the squad selection for the upcoming season - pretty much the moment the last one is over. Corona-crisis or not, the Swiss have decided to keep with traditions Only three athletes made it to the national team this time around: Dario Cologna, Nadine Fähndrich and Laurien van der Graaff. No surprises there - all three had strong last season. [caption id="attachment_15560" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Fähndrich/ van der Graaff duo is among the strongest in the world. Here they are captured right after the silver finish in Dresden, their second Team Sprint podium of the season[/caption] [caption id="attachment_15561" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 2019/20 wasn't the best season for the Olympic champion, only one individual podium - but, rumor has it, Cologna was experimenting…

30Mar 2020 by DS News Team

Thea Murud About Her 347K Tour De Force

Leaders, Newsfeed

Thea Krokan Murud - about her ultra-long skiing gig on the weekend: - There was two of us: my friend Julie Vollum Bø (Norway's ex U23 champion in cycling and ultrarunner ) - No, were not trying to set a new world record, just wanted to go skiing for 24 hours. - The loop was about 15 km, in Lillehammer. - The food that works best is the food you really like, because you have to eat a lot - even when you don’t really want to. I used sports drinks, bars, homemade buns, chocolate, candy, Coke - everything I could’ve think of f with a lot of sugar in it. - The important thing was to keep warm so my Swix Paragon jacket was a good choice - warm…

Category: Leaders