Celebrating 100 Days to Sochi

Celebrating 100 Days to Sochi
By Riley Steinmetz

NEW YORK, NY (Oct. 31) – On Tuesday, the U.S. Olympic Committee threw a party to celebrate the 100 day countdown to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. The venue? Times Square. U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Freeskiing athletes were out in full force, showing their Olympic spirit both at the Times Square event and at the New York Gold Medal Gala, the USSA's largest fundraising event.

The day began bright and early with several athletes appearing on the Today Show and continued into the evening, when musician Gavin DeGraw put on a free show.  In between, athletes signed autographed and demonstrated their sports to fans on jumps and rails brought to Times Square for the event.

“It’s awesome to see all the support for the athletes,” snowboarder Chas Guldemond said, “The excitement is building! It’s awesome to be able to be snowboarding here in New York City.”

The demonstrations, set up by Park City Mountain Resort and Powder Corp., brought tricks from the mountain into the urban core of the city.

“It’s just like a melting pot of every different culture and language in New York City,” freeskier Gus Kenworthy said, “It’s cool to be able to showcase what we do to all these people and hopefully garner a bunch of attention and awareness of our sports and ourselves as athletes before the Games.”

With only 100 days until the Games begin, many of the athletes participating were also preparing for the beginning of competition season.

“It's so great to be here in New York City to celebrate with all the other athletes as we hit an important milestone,” nordic combined Olympic Champion Billy Demong, who roller skied with Matt Lauer to kick off the day, said, “Right now, we’ve started transitioning and are at this turning point between a successful training season and competition season. It's a good breaking point as we all prepare to hit the road.”

The day presented athletes with a variety of opportunities. The newly-minted U.S. Olympic SportsMan of the Year, Ted Ligety, received his award from the USOC. Lindsey Vonn, fresh off of a Monday Today Show appearance, was featured as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman. The following day, athletes celebrated 100 days to the Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony at the New York Gold Medal Gala.

One of the highlights for many athletes, though, was the chance to meet and share their excitement with athletes from other sports.

“I look up to all of these Olympians a lot,” ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson said, “So, it's really cool to be involved in these activities with them and meet a bunch of athletes that we don't get to see that much.”

For others, the enthusiasm surrounding the day’s festivities was a preview of things to come.

“There’s a lot of positive energy,” freestyle aerialist Dylan Ferguson said, “That’s what the Olympics are all about—bringing athletes together to represent their country. It’s amazing to bring everyone together and feel that energy that we’re going to feel when we walk into the Opening Ceremony.”

For freeskiing athletes, the excitement began a day early. The night before the USOC’s celebration, The North Face hosted an event to unveil the Olympic freeskiing uniforms. The uniforms, produced in the United States, are meant to be a celebration of the rebellious American spirit.

“I’m really impressed with The North Face uniforms,” slopestyle skier Nick Goepper said, “They’re super stylish and you can definitely tell that they really took in the athlete input. I’m pretty stoked to wear them at the Olympics.”

For more news and information on the latest events in your favorite sports, visit usskiteam.com,ussnowboarding.com and usfreeskiing.com.

Interns Train the Best in the World

Interns Train the Best in the World
By Riley Steinmetz


PARK CITY, Utah (Oct. 30) - In sports where wins are calculated in hundredths of seconds, athletes need a skilled team to make them Best in the World. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team High Performance staff is constantly innovating and creating new programs to ensure athletic success. The department's internship program takes some of the brightest students in the country and gives them the tools they need to continue the evolution of sport science while working with the sport's most accomplished athletes.

“It's been an eye-opening experience when it comes to sport science and high performance,” intern Bret Kelly said, “You learn a lot in school and undergraduate studies, but when you come here and actually work with some of these athletes, you just learn on a different level.”

The program gives interns the opportunity to not only work with world-class athletes, but also to take responsibility for creating programs and running tests.

“Since day one, they put us in a role. I really got thrown into it,” Alex Bunt said, “It's more just observing the whole time-they trusted us to test World Champions. It's an awesome environment."

USSA High Performance's integrated staff includes physiologists, strength coaches, dietitians, physical therapists, athletic trainers, sport science/technology and a full-time chef, providing services such as physical testing, athletic development programming, sports medicine and nutrition services, technology research and athlete education. The interns play an integral role in the high performance team.

“The strength and conditioning internship has been a phenomenal opportunity to help educate and develop young, up-and-coming coaches,” said Strength and Conditioning Coach Michael Naperalsky, “The interns get to work with elite-level athletes and see what it takes to prepare for competition on the world stage. It's very fulfilling to help mentor them through the summer. Their hard work with our program has been a tremendous help in preparation for this year's Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.”

The first six weeks of the internship are spent completing an extensive educational curriculum, with lectures, presentations, hands-on skill sessions and practical assessments on a variety of topics. The interns learn about energy systems, measure blood lactate, teach Olympic lifts and progressions, test athletes using a force plate, and refine their coaching and teaching styles while understanding different training philosophies.

“In the beginning, it was a little overwhelming with the amount of information,” Bunt said, “Now, everything is just kind of second nature. It feels good to just understand why we're doing everything. I now have all of this practical exercise physiology knowledge that I can take back to school.”

Once intern coaches have a sound understanding of coaching methods and procedures, they are fully immersed among the staff to coach, test and work with athletes. While the internship is focused on strength and conditioning, it also incorporates facets of physiology, professional development and high performance athletics, with each intern completing a variety of presentations, projects and programming for his or her teams.

“We're working with some of the best coaches in the world,” Bret Kelly said, “After the first month here, I think all of the interns were talking about how much more we had learned than at school. We're definitely on the cutting edge of high performance here and, hopefully, can take that into future jobs.”

With a variety of sports science professionals from all over the world, the high performance staff at the USSA includes individuals from every imaginable background. According to the interns, though, this unique blend of people coming together is part of what makes everything work as well as it does.

“A lot of people have different philosophies on training and come from different backgrounds,” Bricker said, “It's cool to see how they all mesh together, changing and adapting based on what other people are doing. Everyone takes some points from each other and molds it into a new training system.”

While based out of the USSA's Center of Excellence in Park City, UT, the interns also had the opportunity to take part in activities outside of the gym, exploring the area and trying out new sports. 

“My first few weeks, getting to know the area, the staff and the athletes-everything was new and exciting,” Kerry Kelly said.

With the Olympic season already underway, the interns are looking forward to seeing the athletes they have worked with aim for gold in Sochi.

“I'm so excited, but I think I'm going to be nervous, too,” Alexandra Stadnik said, “I've become good friends with a few of the athletes so I'm really going to be cheering for them. I'll probably be yelling at the TV or computer screen at work or home. I know it'll be at weird hours because I'm going to want to watch it live.”

“I'm a lot more personally invested in the Games now,” David Bricker said, “It's going to be cool just to know a lot of the athletes that you see competing more personally. It's been great and they've all been really friendly.”

Even though the Games are still months away, though, the interns have already had the opportunity to witness athletic feats that left them impressed.

“I was doing bike tests with some of the nordic combined guys,” Bricker recalled, “They're riding at these amazing numbers while carrying on a conversation.”

Ultimately, the program rewarded the interns for the hard work they put into it. All agreed that they were leaving the USSA with the skillset they needed to take their careers to the next level.

“If you want to be in the strength and conditioning field, then this internship is what you need to do,” Stadnik said, “The USSA and the staff here are leading the country in sports performance technology. You're going to have to work hard and make sacrifices. If I didn't put in the time, I know I would not have gotten out of it everything I wanted to.”

The internship period runs for seven months, from April through October each year, with the application process starting in early January. Successful interns have a strong desire to be a professional strength and conditioning coach, and previous experience with exercise physiology and strength training.

To learn more about the USSA High Performance Internship Program, contact Michael Naperalsky at mnaperalsky@ussa.org.

2013 USSA High Performance Interns 
David Bricker
Alex Bunt
Sherrie Johnson
Bret Kelly
Kerry Kelly
Alexandra Stadnik
Brendan Wall