Gearing up for the start of the World Cup cross-country ski circuit at the end of October, the United States Ski and Snowboard Association named fourteen skiers to the national cross-country ski team last week. The cohort is divided into two groups, one which will initially race in the top-tier World Cup events, the other which will initially race second-tier races in North America and Europe before moving up, probably after the World Championships, to the top tier. All in all, it's a big team - the biggest since the 1998 Olympic team - and one which stands a good chance of generating some high places. I was happy to see that Midwesterners were well represented.
The World Cup team comprises six skiers, all veterans of at least the 2006 Olympics. The lone woman is Anchorage, Alaska, native Kikkan Randall, who last season placed ninth in the individual sprint at the Torino Olympics and fifth in a World Cup sprint at Borlange, Sweden - both highest-ever places for a female American cross-country skier. Joining her will be five men: three sprinters and two distance specialists. The latter, Kris Freeman (best elite-race placing: fourth in the 15km classic interval-start race at the 2003 World Championships) and Andrew Johnson (best: 21st in the 30km freestyle mass-start race at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City) are good racers who have yet to put together anything like a breakout season - or even series of races - though both appear to have the power to place well. The sprinters, on the other hand, are better-known quantities. Andy Newell placed third at the final World Cup sprint last season, the high-snow mark for American racers since 1983. His teammate Torin Koos has enjoyed top-30 places in elite races (his best being 11th in a 2006 sprint), and beyond the individual races, Koos and Newell could form a very strong duo for team sprint events. The third sprinter, Wisconsinite Chris Cook, has the thinnest elite resume (though he did finish 21st in the 2006 Olympic sprint), but will benefit from racing at the top level this winter - which as Newell and Koos have demonstrated, tautologically constitutes the best kind of training for those selfsame races.
Compared to the elite squad, the developmental team is loaded with women, including two Minnesotans (both Olympians): Lindsay Weier (Mahtomedi) and Lindsay Williams (Hastings). The lone men, Westerners Matt Gelso and Leif Zimmerman, both distance racers, will profit from racing alongside World Cup athletes in Europe, as will the other four women: Morgan Arritola, Taz Mannix, Morgan Smyth, and Liz Stephen. All things considered, these six women (and Kikkan Randall) have the best opportunities to earn high World Cup places, as the women's fields tend to be slightly thinner than the men's and to afford unknowns the best chances to place well.
Having been salivating for two seasons now at the prospect of seeing Americans on the podiums - and having been elated to see Newell take third at Changchun this winter - I think it will be an profitable World Cup season for Americans. I won't hope for any wins, much less medals at the Worlds in Sapporo, but a raft of top-tens and a podium or five would be nice. I applaud the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association for gambling on a huge team like this one, and I wish all the coaches and athletes the best of luck. (In this, I differ from certain members of the American XC ski community, who posted some truly bizarre and utterly unhelpful comments on this FasterSkier.com blog post.)