After reading all the high tech v low tech threads lately, this reminded me of a typical slowtwitch debate. I guess it happens in every sport …
"For the second time in a week, Canadian sport officials with an eye on winning the medal race at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, have fired a top coach who was hired to get them there.
Again, it was a Norwegian who felt the axe, as Arild Monsen, who led the men’s World Cup ski team to it’s best season, was cut over “philosophical differences” with Cross-Country Canada’s administration. Essentially, Monsen, an old-school coach, believed in letting survival on the terrain determine who should be on the team. Officials, on the other hand, invested their faith in sport science, lactate levels and other measurements. "
Some time ago I stopped trying to understand what sports administration folks do and the decesions they make. In many cases, they make completely no sense at all. I know nothing about this particular incident, just making a comment, from many years of watching and observing many different sports admin bodies operate.
Again, it was a Norwegian who felt the axe, as Arild Monsen, who led the men’s World Cup ski team to it’s best season
The fact that the men’s world cup ski team had it’s best season is surely partly due to Monsen, but mostly it is because of the rising of a 20 years old who had 2 podiums on the world cup senior circuit this season. His name ? Alex Harvey, son of Pierre Harvey. Remember this name.
Aside from the results of young Alex, let’s not discount what the other boys on the team have done.
I completely agree with our now “ex” Norwegian coach…team selection by results only. You can’t test in the lab for “mental fortitude and desire”…As an example, I am sure that there were 15 guys in the Olympic triathlon final who all came off the bike together that would have tested “equal or better” to Simon Whitfield, but only Frodano beat Simon.
…and yes, Alex Harvey will be the “big relevation of the Whistler Games” in the mainsteam media, but to those in the sport, this has been no surprise, since his performances going back to 2006.
Aside from the results of young Alex, let’s not discount what the other boys on the team have done.
I completely agree with our now “ex” Norwegian coach…team selection by results only. You can’t test in the lab for “mental fortitude and desire”…As an example, I am sure that there were 15 guys in the Olympic triathlon final who all came off the bike together that would have tested “equal or better” to Simon Whitfield, but only Frodano beat Simon.
…and yes, Alex Harvey will be the “big relevation of the Whistler Games” in the mainsteam media, but to those in the sport, this has been no surprise, since his performances going back to 2006.
Dev
Agreed. Nice job by the pencil pushers in the cheap seats. I hope the team can pull it together and have a fantastic race season.
**Nice job by the pencil pushers in the cheap seats. I hope the team can pull it together and have a fantastic race season. **
We seem to specialize in this in Canada - leaving good people off of National and Olympic teams for who knows what reason. There is a long history of this.
Technically, Simon Whitfield should not have been on the Olympic Games team for Sydney! That was one that slipped through the cracks.
It’s unbelievable now with what our National Speed Skating and XC feds have done.
Sports Science’s role is to support athletes and coaches, not to run the show. Let the head coach do his/her job. No medal has ever been awarded for performance in a lab.
Maybe they should have turfed the ones who disagreed with the coach rather then the other way around.
Long time ago i was a minor member of the US alpine ski team. I was STUNNED by the incompetence of the US ski team administration. Generally staffed by tired out “never-wases” who had been kind of skiiers kind of once kind of a LONG time ago, who were in the job because they were largely unsuited to anything else, nad would have been fired from any for-profit business.
In many years, seeing many nonprofits and many for profits, the US ski team administration stands out as the LEAST competent organization i have ever interacted with.
If the canadian nordic team is anything like this, i am not surprised.
In many years, seeing many nonprofits and many for profits, the US ski team administration stands out as the LEAST competent organization i have ever interacted with.
It’s usually only the big high profile fiascoes that make the news - there is all kinds of stuff that goes on behind the scenes with most sports admin bodies, which is truly unbelievable.** **And it goes on at all levels - from the local club right on up to the IOC!
What an unbelievable shame. I hope the team members can put this aside and focus on what lies ahead. The last thing they need is this type of distraction.
I wonder if CCC actually asked the athletes for their opinions?
Agreed- when i was on the team there really weren’t any high profile fiasco-ey type things- it was just day to day incompetence- travel, athlete selection, logistics. EVERYTHING was a clasterf-ck. More lost skis in travel than i can remember.
I imagine that its the same with USAT etc- it certainly seems to be, a few examples:
-really bizarre selection criteria for the olympics
-total incompetence around national rankings last year
-2-3 different “halls of fame”
-usat totally ignoring WTC type events, even though these seem to represent (at least by ST polling) by far what people actually race.
-craziness around doping, failure to track/report doping cases, etc
I can’t say that I completely agree or disagree here, particularly since we don’t know all of the circumstances surrounding the decision, but this part of the article seems to indicate there was more to the decision than what we’re talking about here:
“It’s different for the Scandinavian countries who have deep participation numbers and always have someone to follow. It can be survival of the fittest … We don’t have that luxury. We turn to sport science to tell us where our athletes are at.”
It sounds like Monsen might’ve been running the athletes into the ground in training. Perhaps the firing was a good thing; perhaps it wasn’t. I guess we’ll find out next year in Vancouver, eh?
HA! What if Harvey’s LT and Vo2 were “lesser” than Grey’s, Kershaw’s or Babikov’s??? I suppose they would have kicked him off the team! That is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Besides, everyone’s training schedule is never exactly the same and peaking for events dictate different lab results at different times of the season.
Holy Hell, thank goodness we’ve got Vordie, Whitey coaching, and former skiers like Bodensteiner running USSA XC here.
Thats exactly what I was thinking… The athletes have been following this long path, leading up to 2010 (which probably started the week after the 2006 games) and now with months left you throw them a curve. Talk about fu**ing with someones head! Hopefully, they can use it as a rallying call but generally these kind of drastic changes don’t have a happy ending.
So what exactly is does Jim McCarthy know that is better than what Arild Monsen knows as head coach of the best ever World Cup year that we’ve had in almost 2 decades? Almost like Bob Gainey kicking Guy Carbonneau out and taking over behind the bench in MTL.
