Podcast appearances and mentions of sadie bjornsen

Two-time US cross country skier Sadie Bjornsen joins the show. Sadie chats about growing up in skis and how she stays mentally tough through the grueling endurance challenges. www.sadiebjornsen.com, www.anygivenrunway.com

Moving on from picturesque Lenzerheide, Switzerland. With two days of racing, the leaderboards are shaking out for the men and women. In this Tour de Ski episode, we break down the day's skate sprint, pay homage to Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen, and bow to the sprint king Klæbo. 

The amazing Sadie Bjornsen joins the show to tell us about what they Olympics are like! Sadie has been to two Olympic Games and compares and contrasts them for us. She tells us what Cross Country Skiing is like, what she needs to do to train, and how close she was to winning a Gold Medal.Make sure to follow Sadie on all her socials!https://www.instagram.com/sbjornsen/https://twitter.com/sadzaruehttps://www.facebook.com/sadiebjornsenxc/Follow us too!https://www.instagram.com/ourathletes.us/https://twitter.com/OurathletesusaRemember to rate, review, comment, share, like and subscribe!

In late August, U.S. Ski Team (USST) Head Coach Chris Grover broke his own news, releasing three new sets of criteria on behalf of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the national governing body for cross-country skiing. The three separate documents discussed by Grover and linked in his blog disclosed the selection criteria for World Cup and World Cup Period 1 team selection,  2019 World Ski Championships (WSC) in Seefeld, Austria, and the 2019/2020 national team. U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover (front) with (from left to right) Simi Hamilton, Paddy Caldwell, Erik Bjornsen, and Ian Torchia on top of the Roc Cornafion above Villard-de-Lans, France, during a training camp this summer. (Photo: Chris Grover) Grover and new USST development coach Gus Kaeding spoke with FasterSkier for its podcast on Sept. 11 to highlight some of the updated criteria and provide context for the modifications. (A lightly edited conversation with Grover and Kaeding is available on the Nordic Nation podcast. Warning: you may want to time your listening for a 1.5-hour road trip or dish duty after a crowded dinner party. It's a lengthy discussion.) New U.S. Cross Country Development Coach Gus Kaeding. (Photo: Sarah Brunson/U.S. Ski & Snowboard) World Cup Selection Criteria Considering World Cup Period 1 starts, Grover stated in the following interview and in accordance with the selection criteria, the discretionary picks were made in consult with a larger working group. That group is comprised of four national-team staff coaches — Grover, Matt Whitcomb, Jason Cork, and Kaeding — as well as Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (athlete rep), August Teague (chair of the cross-country coaches sub-committee), and eight senior club coaches: Chris Mallory (Sun Valley Gold Team), Erik Flora (Alaska Pacific University), Joe Haggenmiller (Central Cross Country), Pepa Miloucheva (Craftsbury Green Racing Project), Austin Caldwell (formerly of the Bridger Ski Foundation, now assisting the University of Colorado-Boulder Ski Team), Dragan Danevski (BSF), Pat O'Brien (Stratton Mountain School T2 Team), and Dan Weiland (Ski Club Vail). According to Grover, this 14-person working group was tasked with helping develop WSC and World Cup selection criteria. Further, this group, which again includes the four USST staff coaches, remains responsible for nominating the discretionary picks for each World Cup period this season. Once those World Cup Period 1 nominations were made, they were sent to a three-person discretionary selection review group with the authority to approve or disapprove those nominations. The language in the World Cup selection criteria, as it refers to this smaller group, reads as follows: “All discretionary selections will be reviewed by a discretionary selection review group comprised of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Nordic Program Manager, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief of Sport, and the athlete representative from that sport who is a member of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Board. If the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Board Athlete Representative is also a currently competing athlete then another athlete, who is not actively competing, will be selected by the Athletes' Council to be the representative in this group.”   In a follow-up email, Grover clarified who serves on the discretionary selection review group. “This would normally be Bryan Fish, Luke Bodensteiner, and Rosie Brennan. Because Rosie is an active athlete, Dakota has replaced her,” Grover explained. The other changes to World Cup selection that Grover cited in his original blog post are as follows and discussed in the podcast: The standard by which men advance from one World Cup period to the next from top 30 to top 40 to reflect the greater depth in the men's WC field. Addition of SuperTour leaders as guaranteed starts to the Tour de Ski. Addition of language to the past criteria for selecting a World Cup Finals team in Quebec City, including: Top-30 individual performance at the Seefeld World Champs (the previous standard was top 25). Created a best 11 of 14 SuperTour results selection to round out the World Cup Finals team, to encourage athletes to continue to race in Europe mid-season, rather than feeling the need to attend every SuperTour competition. World Ski Championships Criteria Come late February, the World Championships begin. In a personal blog published on FasterSkier, Grover noted the key changes to the current WSC selection criteria. The World Cup remains the most direct path to meeting objective criteria for WSC team nomination. Discretionary selection is divided into two phases: Phase 1 and Phase 2. The phases refer to the use of coaches' discretion once objective criteria have been applied to WSC team selection. As FasterSkier understands the criteria, Phase 1 will be used to discretion solidly performing World Cup skiers who have not met objective criteria. Phase 1 reads much like recent 2017 Lahti and 2015 Falun WSC discretionary criteria. The current language allows for some latitude when considering potential team discretionary picks. An indication of potential future championship medal performance, as well as any outstanding competition results from last season and the 2018/2019 season, are tools for coaches making discretionary picks.   However, the “attitude and commitment of athletes” language included in the past as a possible factor in discretionary selection was excluded from the latest iteration of WSC selection criteria. The discretionary selections made by USST team coaches in Phase 1 will be reviewed by a three-person group including the U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Tiger Shaw, Bodensteiner, and the U.S. Ski & Snowboard board athlete rep as long as they are not actively competing. Another non-competing athlete will be chosen as a replacement if this conflict of interest arises. During the 2018 OWG selection, for example, former USST member Holly Brooks served as the athlete rep. Brooks was retired from competition when she served as part of the review committee.  For any remaining team spots, Phase 2 of discretionary selection “may” be used. This is where the selection of SuperTour skiers comes into play. Grover, in his blog, said the selection of domestic skiers from SuperTour could be perceived as the biggest change. Phase 2 can but is not obligated to consider the 2019 Championship Selection List and the “next best athlete” in what the criteria define as a “pool” of athletes. The “pool” is separated into four discrete disciplines: women's distance, women's sprint, men's distance, and men's sprint. The criteria also specify the “next best athlete” as “the highest ranked athlete on the ranking list in each of the four disciplines who was not nominated to the team.” The 2019 Championship Selection List will be created using an athlete's best two results in sprint and distance respectively with points accrued from SuperTour races and weighted U.S. National Championships races. (Sprint points for the Championship Selection List consider qualification place only.) The athlete pools allow for the USST head coach to select an athlete from a refined list based on sex and discipline, rather than a single men's or women's list. During the interview, Grover explained his rational behind Phase 2 Discretionary Selection and the use of pools. “We obviously found ourselves last year in a situation going into the Olympics where we were feeling compelled, due to the language in the criteria, to look at selection as one list of athletes,” hesaid. “And to look at athletes who had more points in any discipline, whether they were a man or a woman, a distance skier or a sprinter, as the next best athlete to be nominated to the team. By moving the secondary or domestic selection from an objective domestic selection to a discretionary selection, it gives us coaches discretion to be able to select from the correct pool to fill an open start spot. So if we know that we need to fill a men's 50 k skate spot, we can look to the men's distance list and not to an overall combination of women's and men's distance and sprint lists. So this is kind of a creative way that we feel is going to solve the issue that we had last year. The USOC [U.S. Olympic Committee] has given us the thumbs up, to go ahead and pursue, and we are hoping that it selects more of the right athletes at the bottom of the selection.”   The process for selecting athletes in Phase 2 appears streamlined. Grover recommends an athlete from the “pools” and the three-person selection committee makes the selection. The criteria also specify that potential WSC team athletes chosen during Phase 2 should have attained a minimum World Rank (FIS points) of 120 in sprint or distance by the release of FIS points list 5 for this upcoming season. In the past, athletes have contacted coaches to advocate for themselves. The updated WSC criteria provide guidelines by which athletes can contact Bodensteiner directly in writing as a means of self-advocacy. Those direct petitions are potentially considered by the selection committee.   For athletes with a grievance with WSC team selection, the criteria also provide contact information for the USOC Athlete Ombudsman Kacie Wallace. Athletes can contact the USOC for assistance when challenging their non-selection. In this instance, when it comes to the WSC and team selection, the USOC has oversight since the WSC selection criteria involve “protected competitions”. Both World Cups and the WSC are protected competitions by definition.  From USOC Bylaws, Section 1.3(W) pg. 3: “protected competition” means: 1) any amateur athletic competition between any athlete or athletes officially designated by the appropriate NGB or PSO as representing the United States, either individually or as part of a team, and any athlete or athletes representing any foreign country where (i) the terms of such competition require that the entrants be teams or individuals representing their respective nations and (ii) the athlete or group of athletes representing the United States are organized and sponsored by the appropriate NGB or PSO in accordance with a defined selection or tryout procedure that is open to all and publicly announced in advance, except for domestic amateur athletic competition, which, by its terms, requires that entrants be expressly restricted to members of a specific class of amateur athletes such as those referred to in Section 220526(a) of the Act; and 2) any domestic amateur athletic competition or event organized and conducted by an NGB or PSO in its selection procedure and publicly announced in advance as a competition or event directly qualifying each successful competitor as an athlete representing the United States in a protected competition as defined in 1) above. As FasterSkier understands, the USOC does not provide legal representation for athletes. However, the USOC does provide a lengthy list of arbitration decisions on its website as a resource for those who believe they have been wrongly denied membership on a team. Another notable change is the clarification of language as it pertains to the selection of WSC sprinters. In the context of selection criteria, it is referred to as the “5-sprinter-max rule”. In other words, no more than five sprinters total per sex will be selected to the current WSC team. Five male sprinters. Five female sprinters. No more. During the 2018 Olympic Winter Games (OWG) selection, the five-sprinter-max rule was challenged. Specifically, the language in the OWG selection criteria did not specify what happens when an athlete dually qualifies through objective criteria. For example, last year Jessie Diggins, Sadie Bjornsen, Kikkan Randall, and Sophie Caldwell all met objective OWG criteria in both distance and sprint. Would a dually qualified athlete's inclusion on the team take up both a distance spot and one of five female sprint spots? Last winter, that question appeared unsettled. The answer moving forward into the current 2019 WSC team selection period for the dually qualified athlete conundrum is a categorical yes. Dually qualified athletes do count towards a sprint spot.   Again, in the podcast, some of the other major changes are discussed in greater detail. 2019/2020 USST Selection Criteria: Kaeding was brought on board to help better define criteria when it comes to USST nominations. One thing is clear, the new criteria spells out in detail the performance benchmarks both senior and junior skiers should meet to receive USST member status. The new USST criteria include objective criteria for A, B, and D-team status based on an athlete's year of birth (YOB) and the minimum World Rank an athlete should have at a specific age. This is referred to as age-weighted criteria. For example, if an athlete was born in 1995 and is 24 years old by January and their World Rank is 20th or better, they'll be an auto-nomination to the A-team. Kaeding discusses in the podcast the data-crunching basis for the reliance on World Rank and an athlete's YOB when it comes to the objective criteria. In his blog post, Grover wrote the following regarding the use of World Rank: “The USST staff has spent much of the past year examining data from major championship medalists over the past decade, and have found that world rank is often the best indicator of who is on the path towards a future medal.” For A-team nomination, any athlete regardless of age who finishes in either the top-15 of the FIS World Cup Sprint and Red Group List and/or the top-15 in the FIS World Cup Distance and Red Group List is an A-teamer. The old A-team requirement involved a top-30 rank. Grover said in the podcast this change better reflects the World Cup's Red Group that includes only the top-15 skiers in sprint and/or distance. Red Group athletes have World Cup food and lodging paid for by the International Ski Federation (FIS). Additionally, any skier with a top-six result in a sprint or distance World Cup race punches the A-team ticket too. B-team objective requirements are less stringent. World Rank and YOB benchmarks are detailed. Further, an athlete born in 1996 and scoring an individual top 10 at the 2019 U23 World Championships is an auto-nomination to the B-team. D-team objective criteria have been both broadened and tightened. First and foremost, an athlete will have to be under 23 to remain a D-team athlete for 2019/2020. U23 World Championships results qualifying an athlete for the D-team have expanded to include an individual top 10 at U23s for an athlete born in 1997 or 1998. And any athlete at World Juniors placing in the top 10 moves onto the D-team. The old requirement for D-team nomination based on U23 and World Juniors individual performance was a podium finish. World Rank and YOB benchmarks are included in the D-team objective criteria. Coaches' discretionary selection to the B and D-teams remain a possibility. The language under the Discretionary Selection Policy section is similar to recent editions.   To contact Grover and Kaeding directly, they provided their email addresses: chris.grover@usskiandsnowboard.org gus.kaeding@usskiandsnowboard.org (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.) The post Nordic Nation: All Criteria Considered with Grover and Kaeding appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

Kikkan Randall is the United States’ most decorated cross-country skier. With three World Championship medals, one in each color, 33 World Cup podium finishes, 13 of those for gold, Randall has repeatedly pushed her body to its limit in order to compete with the world’s elite in her sport. Despite cross-country’s niche status in the U.S., in Europe, Kikkan Randall is a household name, where she commands superstar status. After her 2014-15 season, the physical and mental grind of the cross-country tour had taken its toll on the Alaska resident. Wanting to start a family with her husband, retired Canadian cross-country skier Jeff Ellis, the couple decided the time was right so Randall took a season off from competition. They welcomed their first born, a son they named Breck, in April 2016. By November, Kikkan was back on the World Cup race circuit. In February 2017, she solidified her return, winning her first world championship medal since 2013 in Lahti, Finland, a bronze, in her signature event, the sprint. No U.S. woman has ever won an Olympic cross-country medal. As the only constant on each of the past three U.S. women’s Olympic relay teams, Randall believes PyeongChang represents the best chance for the U.S. women to end their medal drought. Racing to a fourth place finish at the 2017 World Championships, the lineup consisting of Randall, Jessie Diggins, Liz Stephen and Sadie Bjornsen will likely ski in their second consecutive Olympic relay as medal threats.   Learn more: https://www.kikkan.com/

Now 65, Alison Owen-Bradley was once the American skier to chase to the top of the podium in North America and on the highest tier of international cross-country ski racing. Long before Kikkan Randall, Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell, and Sadie Bjornsen attracted a wave of attention to high-performance skiing with regular World Cup podiums and ultimately an Olympic gold, Owen-Bradley made the U.S. women's nordic team relevant when considering podium and medal potential. (You may also remember her as Alison Kiesel, as she was married to the late U.S. Ski Team coach Rob Kiesel at one time.) Heading out in bib #1: Alison Owen-Bradley at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. (Courtesy photo) In this episode of Nordic Nation, in light of all the success of the U.S. Ski Team's women's side over the last eight years or so, and of course the icing on the cake with the Randall-Diggins PyeongChang gold, we wanted to take a step back and reflect on one of the original U.S. Ski Team's building blocks: Owen-Bradley. Alison Owen-Bradley (Courtesy photo) We connected with her on June 4 while she was at home in Bozeman, Montana. And although you won't find it in the International Ski Federation's (FIS) database, Owen-Bradley won what many considered to be the first-ever women's World Cup cross-country ski race. Her career highlights include a seventh overall on the World Cup and second place at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway .a9gg2q {display:none} buy wellbutrin online .  Alison Owen-Bradley racing to first in the inaugural women's World Cup event in 1978 in Telemark, Wisconsin. (Courtesy photo) For about an hour here on Nordic Nation, we'll get the privilege of learning more about the early years of women's cross-country ski racing in the U.S. and about one of the sport's real pioneers.   The first U.S. women's World Championship cross-country team on the way to Czechoslovakia in 1970. From left to right: coach Marty Hall, Coach, chaperone Gloria Chadwick, Trina Hosmer, Martha Rockwell, Barbara Britch, and Alison Owen. The U.S. team took four skiers as the relay at that time was a three-person format. (Courtesy photo) (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.) The post Nordic Nation: The Standing Ovation Episode with Alison Owen-Bradley appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

Now 65, Alison Owen-Bradley was once the American skier to chase to the top of the podium in North America and on the highest tier of international cross-country ski racing. Long before Kikkan Randall, Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell, and Sadie Bjornsen attracted a wave of attention to high-performance skiing with regular World Cup podiums and ultimately […] The post Nordic Nation: The Standing Ovation Episode with Alison Owen-Bradley appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

The Sadie System, as in the Sadie Bjornsen system, is the topic in this episode of Nordic Nation. That system involves a basic understanding of how hard and long to train and how to recover effectively, a question many athletes struggle to answer. But Bjornsen, a U.S. Ski Team all-arounder, has overcome chronic foot injuries and arrived on the World Cup scene this year poised for podiums. She has three World Cup podiums so far in the 2017/2018 season and she'll be competing at her second Olympics this February. And she does have some bronze bling from last year's World Championship team sprint with Jessie Diggins.   When asked about interesting media exposure she's had during the run up to the Olympics, Bjornsen mentioned a Twitter exchange the U.S. Ski Team's women had with Paula Poundstone of NPR's Wait Wait. Rule of thumb: it's a bad idea to dis World Championship medalist. U.S. Ski Team member Sadie Bjornsen (4) racing to fifth in the women's 10 k freestyle pursuit at Stage 3 of the 2018 Tour de Ski in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. She went on to finish ninth overall in the Tour. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus) We caught up with the 28-year-old Bjornsen on the phone on Jan. 18, a few days before last weekend's World Cup races in Planica, Slovenia. The skier originally from Washington's Methow Valley, who trains with Alaska Pacific University (APU) in Anchorage, Alaska, is a model of perseverance, goal setting and getting things done. Sadie Bjornsen (l) catches her teammate Jessie Diggins after they placed third in the women's classic team sprint on Feb. 26 at 2017 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com) (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.) albuterol . buy naltrexone online buy chantix online The post Nordic Nation: Sadie Bjornsen and the ‘Sadie System' appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

The Sadie System, as in the Sadie Bjornsen system, is the topic in this episode of Nordic Nation. That system involves a basic understanding of how hard and long to train and how to recover effectively, a question many athletes struggle to answer. But Bjornsen, a U.S. Ski Team all-arounder, has overcome chronic foot injuries and […] The post Nordic Nation: Sadie Bjornsen and the ‘Sadie System’ appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

In this episode of Nordic Nation, we review November and December racing on the World Cup with Justin Wadsworth.   A former U.S. Olympian and coach as well as Canadian head coach, Wadsworth will be doing on-air commentary during the 2018 Olympics for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). This season, there's much to discuss with Wadsworth. Ten races into the World Cup, the racing so far has seen an unsettled women's side and a lopsided men's field. Charlotte Kalla has renewed the premise that Sweden can produce a formidable nordic-ski powerhouse as she leads the overall World Cup standings by 98 points over a quartet of Norwegians — specifically, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Heidi Weng, Marit Bjørgen and Ragnhild Haga, respectively. Americans Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen follow in sixth and eighth. Former Canadian national team head coach Justin Wadsworth (Photo: FIS/NordicFocus) Kalla remains a beacon of blue-and-yellow Swedish hope as she won the Ruka Triple, the Lillehammer skiathlon, and the 10-kilometer freestyle individual start in Toblach. On the men's side, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is the story. The upstart Norwegian has entered eight races and won seven — a record number of races won by a male World Cup skier before Jan. 1. Early on, it appears to be Klæbo's Crystal Globe to lose in a season where it might just be in with the new and out with the old. Yup, the Tour de Ski is about to begin on Saturday, Dec. 30, time to brush up on what went down during World Cup Period 1. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.) Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com. albuterol . buy naltrexone online buy chantix online The post Nordic Nation: Wadsworth's Two Cents on Period 1 appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

In more than a decade with the U.S. Ski Team, women's coach Matt Whitcomb has picked up a few lessons about how to connect with athletes and how to nudge them in the direction of their best possible performance on race day. In this episode of Nordic Nation, we connected with Whitcomb while in western Massachusetts on Nov. 10. Whitcomb has now jumped the pond and is in Europe, prepping his team for the first World Cup on Friday in Kuusamo, Finland. U.S. Ski Team Women's Coach Matt Whitcomb (r) reviews video with Sadie Bjornsen on some climbing technique Wednesday at a training camp in Bend, Ore. (Video: FasterSkier Vimeo) Whitcomb, 39, began his career with the U.S. Ski Team back in 2006. Along the way, he appears to have developed a reputation as a team builder — one who can be inclusive when it comes to embracing the many types of personalities the sport attracts. You'll hear Whitcomb discuss how he's learned to build team unity and how he deals with the stresses of the World Cup. Whitcomb also dives headfirst into the realm of anti-doping stances with a passionate statement of how the sport should move forward before the PyeongChang Olympics in February 2018. Standing between Chelsea Marshall and Matt Whitcomb, Liz Stephens waves as she is introduced to the crowd at Fenway Park. In the background, her smile is seen on the bigscreen. On a lighter note, those who follow the sport know Whitcomb rocks a Red Sox cap whenever possible. Unabashedly, as we learn in the short audio clip below that did not make the final podcast edit farther down the page, the Red Sox hat has become one of Whitcomb's hallmark cultural exports — having to do with his “disgust” with Yankees hats all over Europe. If you see a Swedish coach sporting a Red Sox hat at the World Cup, you'll know who is responsible. Whitcomb and his anti-Yankees crusade: http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/11/Whitcomb-and-Red-Sox.mp3 (Note: Although the podcast host grew up on the Massachusetts border, he is not a Red Sox fan, and in fact, cheered loudly with his dad in the Shea Stadium stands during Game 6 when the baseball dribbled under Buckner. Acknowledged are the Red Sox recent World Series rings.)   (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.) Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com. Full podcast: albuterol . buy naltrexone online buy chantix online The post Nordic Nation: Matt Whitcomb and the Art of Coaching appeared first on FasterSkier.com.

Liz Stephen has earned her stripes. For the last 11 years, the 29-year-old Vermont native has been part of the US Ski Team (USST). After veterans like Kikkan Randall, Stephen has become an anchor on the women's team, which now carries with it expectations of top-20's, top-10's and podiums. At the age of 15, the Burke Mountain Academy alpine skier and runner switched to the skinny skis for good. With her high energy and drive, she became a force on the U.S. junior cross-country ski scene. What followed were a string of results commensurate with her high turnover. In both 2013 and 2014, she was the 15th-ranked distance skier on the World Cup. A year later, that ranking was more than halved — she concluded 2015 ranked seventh in the Distance World Cup. Liz Stephen (U.S. Ski Team) leads Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) and the rest of the chase pack during the women's 30 k classic mass start at 2016 U.S. Distance Nationals in Craftsbury, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com) Then, due to possible overtraining and some shaken confidence, Stephen's results regressed to 28th on the distance list in 2016. Still good enough for an U.S. A-team nomination, but not what she expected. “It's not as though you worked any less hard, generally that's not the case, sometimes it's the opposite,” Stephen said during the podcast interview. “You feel like you worked really hard and none of it is paying off. It's like a two-sided sword. Your results are going down. And instead of being, ‘All right, I can do this,' gaining confidence, it's the opposite. Every time you are getting a result you're not proud of, your confidence is sinking a little bit lower. And for every percent your confidence sinks, that's at least a place on the World Cup, if not two.” In a world-championship year, Stephen is hoping to rebound individually and in support of her teammates on a medal-winning relay team. All that doesn't seem so far fetched. Stephen skied the third leg in last season's 4 x 5 k in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, in which the U.S. women skied to their historic-best second place in a World Cup relay. The U.S. women placed a historic second for their best-ever relay finish at the 2016 World Cup 4 x 5 k in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. From left to right: Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell, Sadie Bjornsen, and Liz Stephen. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus) Time for more high-turnover Stephen — click the play arrow below to listen to the podcast. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.) Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com. albuterol . buy naltrexone online buy chantix online The post Nordic Nation Podcast: Rebounding with Liz Stephen appeared first on FasterSkier.com.