Athlete News, August 27, 2019
SJ/Nordic Combined
Congratulations to SSWSC’s SJ/NC U14 Head Coach, Garrett Fisk, who was named Coach of the Year by USA Nordic!
“The 2019 Club Coach of the Year was awarded to Garrett Fisk who coaches at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. Garrett Fisk has been an integral part of the SSWSC for nearly ten years. He has been the U14 coach for many years and played a vital role in the development of athletes who are now on Junior National and National Teams. This year, alongside Karl Denney, Fisk coached athletes to seven Junior National Championships and an additional eight podiums at Junior National Championships. Fisk’s efforts go beyond just coaching at the SSWSC, as he has coached young nordic combined athletes from all over the country during yearly Europe training camps. For three consecutive years, he has helped young American skiers gain international experience while introducing them to the FIS Youth Cup level competitions all over Europe.”
Earlier this year, coach Karl Denney was awarded “Coach of the Year” by U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
A handful of our Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined athletes just returned from long training camps in Europe.
Coach Karl Denney was coaching the Nordic Combined Junior National Team in Slovenia and Austria for 16 days, with10 athletes and two coaches on the trip. Of the 10 athletes, half of them hailed from Steamboat Springs. Niklas Malacinski, Gunnar Gilbertson, and Alexa Brabec represented the Junior National Team, and were also joined by two National Team members, Tess Arnone, and Annika Malacinski.
Meanwhile, our Special Jumpers were in Poland, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. Decker Dean, Erik Belshaw, Annika Belshaw, and Canden Wilkinson were over the pond for the past 29 days and will all return to school next week except for Decker Dean who has already graduated and been named to the National Team. They got to compete in FIS Cup and Continental Cup events while overseas. It was the first time Canden and Erik competed at such a high level.
These trips were made possible through the fundraising efforts of the Rocky Mountain Division and the National Nordic Foundation.
Niklas Malacinski
Gunnar Gilbertson
Freestyle
Final day here at Perisher. We are ending with a 1 run singles event. This is because we are running a test event for a mixed team duals event. FIS representatives are here to see if the event works. If so, they will slowly be added into World Cup, world championship, with hopes it will be added to the Winter Olympics in 2026. It is an interesting format so I’m excited to see how it all plays out.
Yesterday’s event went very well. We had some variable conditions in the morning but the boys prevailed and skied well. If you watched the live-stream you would have noticed how firm and icy it was, this obviously made things much more difficult. In the end the temp warmed up and the course softened up to give up perfect conditions!
Results:
Landon Wendler - 9th Place (this is a great outing for Landon. He battled conditions but rose to the challenge and performed. Showing he has what it takes against top World Cup skiers.)
Spencer Belsky - 31st (he is looking to elevate his skiing to a level he knows he can and improve this result today!)
Today’s event:
Run order:
Spencer - 9th
Landon- 27th
Live-stream: Snow.tv