len wrote:
Hi Halvard,
Whenever I see Americans or Canadians doing well in cross country it seems to be the sprints. Any idea why we North Americans can do well in the sprints but have more trouble breaking into the longer events. I thinks sprints are what 1500 m races?
This is a good question.
I think the reason has to do with training culture.
In Scandinavia you will find youth skier (14y and older) doing a lot of their training without a coach.
An important part of xcskiing training is the zone 1 work, easy running, rollerskiing or skiing.
When you know what to do, you do not need a coach to monitor every step. Any 15y old can run for 2h in talking speed without a coach.
But I think it is an expectation that a US coach should take part in all training sessions, and it is many parents that do not feel comfortable with youth being out alone.
I also think that it is more common to just follow a program from a coach instead of taking part in writing your own program.
As a Norwegian D1 skiers said to me, no of the skiers from Scandinavia got a program from the official coach. They all made their own programs.
Can Americans be good distance skiers? Of course. Diggins is really close, she is the best 5k skate skier in the world.