“To be the best there is no luck. Only hard work over a long, long time.”

-Arne Hetland

From August 6th through the 14th, I was one of eight U.S.  cross-country skiing juniors to be chosen to attend the International Junior Camp in Norway.  The Norwegian Ski Federation hosted the camp. They invited some of the top juniors from around the world to share their knowledge about the sport of cross-country skiing. The camp’s purpose was to have a hard week of training and teach the Norwegian approach to training and technique. At the end of the week I realized the camp offered much more than just that.  

Most of the time, cross country skiing is an individual sport. Excluding relays and team sprints, skiers race for themselves and achieve individual success.  To reach this success, however, cooperation and collaboration with your team and other competitors is more important than I previously thought. In Norway, 160 athletes from 15 different countries came together to put in a very demanding week of training. Any one of those athletes could have done the same workouts back home, but the camp brought us together and forced the kids to reach out both to ask for help and to give it out. 

The first part of the camp took place in Oslo, Norway’s capital. Here we met the other athletes, roller skied with the camp sponsor, Statoil, and had a four-mile uphill running test.  Our first three days in Oslo felt like any other ski camp; Meeting new kids and getting in the mindset to work hard, with little time for rest. After our time in the capital we roller skied about 50 kilometers to a small ski resort called Sjusjøen (Shoo-shun).  Here began the rigorous training regime of long two to five hour runs and roller skis everyday.  Between the exhausting time spent pouring sweat, and ignoring the stinging blisters on our hands, we listened to presentations made by notable figures in the cross-country ski world.  A few of these presenters were especially impactful to the athletes.

Tor Arne Hetland, a three-time World Champion and two-time Olympic medalist, spoke about the most important attribute a successful skier needs: a love and passion for the sport.  I believed this before and he only confirmed my belief.  All of the hours of work I put in are all for nothing if I don’t enter every training session with a focus and goal. It is important to believe in what I am trying to accomplish and savor every moment of it.

Trond Nystad head coach of the Norwegian ski team also spoke.  Giving technique tips that were new and helpful to my skiing; he also also spoke on what coaching becomes as skiers reach a more elite level.  Beyond organization and sports science, Trond expressed how an athlete must become their own coach. This means adjusting schedules, race preparation, and everything else to the athletes needs and wants. A second part of this is encouraging teammates to critique and help each other with aspects of technique, recovery, and race tactics. Coaches like my own, Josh Smullin, and Brian Tate, encourage my teammates and I to train hard, but when the need arises to tailor that training to our individual requirements.  However, to improve further, teammates must give each other help and advice. After all it is the kids that race and during that need to go fast is where kids pick up the most useful means to becoming a faster skier. Everybody finds different ways that works for him or her. In Norway every session, whether it be in the strength room working on core, or two hours of double poling; kids were watching each other and giving feedback on what they saw to improve form and technique. It can be hard at first, as it was for me, to accept and give this feedback because I thought kids had little experience and didn’t know the specific way I ski, like my coaches do.  The truth is quite the contrary though. These juniors are proving themselves to be excellent skiers and have the most to offer because they constantly need to adapt and change technique and style in order to be the next top skiers in the world.  It is not necessary to be fast to give tips.  Just because someone beats you in every race does not mean they couldn’t use the help you can give them. By reaching out it encourages others to follow your example, benefiting all skiers fast and slow.  Communicating with one another to build off of each other’s strengths and minimizing weaknesses is necessary in bringing up the U.S cross-country ski program.  

After a tiring week of learning and getting faster I was excited to bring what I had learned home with me. The level of focus and passion for the sport my SSWSC teammates have is unlike I have ever seen it before; I only see this improvement becoming more powerful everyday. Although I am leaving for school this year, I know the SSWSC cross-country ski team is preparing for a season like no other.  It is my hope that SSWSC athletes across all disciplines are exposed to new ideas and motivations to create young, passionate, future Olympians.  

By: Lars Hannah