On fasterskier John Caldwell relates his first going to Europe as a rookie ski coach with the U.S. Ski Team ....
15 caldxski - Apr 18, 2009 at 7:00 am
I first went to Europe as a rookie coach in 1966 when I headed–all alone– the FIS Team to Oslo. We had five guys. Women weren’t on the scene. We had a manager, no doctor. We shared a fairly crappy, old rooming house with the Russians. The Cold War being in the Norwegians’ minds, they said they did not want to appear to favor either country at these championships and so we both got the least good accommodations in town. It worked out well for us because the Russians shared their staff with us, especially their masseur, who gave all the guys massages.
Some of the team had raced in Europe before and so before the first race I asked them who they wanted splits on. One or two wanted splits on their teammates and I knew we were in trouble. I told them we didn’t come to Norway to race each other and so we eventually settled on the East Germans. It was a good match-up and along the way we got to know some of their team, guys like Klause and Grimmer.
Two years later we went to Grenoble for the Games, same splits, same two teams basically, and we weren’t embarrassed by the DDR. Then came Czechoslovakia in 1970. Again, basically the same two teams, figuring on the same splits. First race I’m out on the course and in checking my first split I thought my watch was screwed up or I figured on the wrong start time for someone. Next split, worse! It didn’t take long to figure out that we were being totally outclassed by the DDR guys.
After that race I skied around the stadium and talked to a bunch of coaches that I knew well by know, using my best fractured German, “Was gibt mit DDR?” To a man they all looked around to see who was watching, then rolled up their sleeves and pretended to do an injection.
So there it was, right out in the open. Naturally, there had been rumors long before, years before in fact, not just about the DDR, but other countries as well. But here the jump in results was so startling as to give the game away.
I’ve always figured there at least three things we can do about the drug scene in skiing. We can try to adopt it, but I know of no one who would favor that. I surely don’t. Next, we can wimper about it and use it as an excuse and sort of give up. Well, that’s never been my forte. Finally, we can take advantage of it, get a bit pissed off and work like hell to beat the cheaters. This is clearly what many other countries have done. The doping actually raised the bar for cross-country racing. How to beat the cheaters is I think what Zach was talking about. Unfortunately, too much of the discussion has degenerated into who’s doping, what good results are, how good our skiers really are, and so on.
Until I’m convinced that our skiers are training harder (especially more hours) than I think they are AND that they have learned to ski technically well, I will consider statements about our prowess, about our having some of the best skiers in the world but they’re being pushed down the ladder by the dopers, etc., as self-defeating. This sort of talk sounds too much like an excuse. Are we accusing the Swedes and the Norwegians of doping? They generally trounce almost all our skiers. How about Babikov, Kershaw and Harvey of Canada? These guys doping? I doubt it and so we should ask what the story is here instead of talking about doping. How are these skiers doing it?
We can get into arguments on what constitutes good results, so let’s look at our US distance skiers, men’s division. (Most of the world focuses on these skiers, while we in the US have focussed on the sprints of late.) If there’s anyone in the US who can hold a candle to Kris Freeman, I ‘d like to meet him. The rest of our field is distant! We need to ask ourselves why we don’t have more Kris Freemans. (His medical problems may actually help him better focus on big event races since he’s into the business of listening to his body. Someone suggested Zach supply info on Freeman’s training program and I think most of us know that has been forthcoming, almost to the point of boredom.)
We can go back–and I know you younger folks hate this–to around 1982, long after acknowledged doping was taking place and look at the club of Caldwell, Galanes, Koch and Simoneau. If these guys were doping–they were all in the Red group–it sure fooled me and would have to be classed as the most successful, undiscovered drug program in the world. The team didn’t even have a doctor along on their trips to the WC events and to the FIS in Oslo in 1982.
The same question comes up again–how did these guys do it? I can tell you that they trained damned hard and skied damned well and knew how to get up for races. After we can get our skiers into this mode we can start paying attention to less important items which often deflect us too much these days, such as equipment, waxes, pole lengths, proper clothing, levels one through five or whatever, charts, graphs, pulse rate monitors, snow conditions, specialty events, doping, etc. Yup, sounds old-fashioned and that’s exactly what it is. But it works.
John Caldwell
From Fasterskier.com
Wow!! This has to be one of the best stories I've ever heard and I really have to thank Mr. Caldwell for being so forthcoming with this and thanks to the fasterskier web site for providing the forum. Well done.
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