January 25th, 2010
I’m going to interrupt Reese and David’s reports from Germany with an update from Finland. Different part of Europe, different athletes, same Team USA, same objectives.
It’s amazing how fast time flies when you are having fun. I know that is the classic saying, but it obviously has been tried and trued. So here I am already in day five of my Finland trip with the U.S. J1 team. The team all arrived in Helsinki on Thursday, and then spent a couple of days in the famous skiing town of Lahti. After that we drove north to the town of Kuopio.
Although that is the skeleton of our trip so far, there were many crazy experiences witnessed along the way. Learning the works of Finland is a long process. One of the first odd things we encountered here were the street signs. It was great watching the coaches try to navigate through downtown Helsinki not knowing what a circle with a horizontal line going through it means. Also, unlike the U.S. where most rental cars come in the automatic option, our big vans turned out to be manuals. Yeah, that pretty much adds a whole new level of craziness to the scene.
We skied for a couple of days on the World Cup trails of Lahti. One of the most mind-boggling things of this place is the stadium. Where else but Scandinavia do you see a twenty thousand plus seat stadium at a ski venue? Also over here they use an adjustable track setter. This took some serious getting used too, because the tracks are normal on the uphills, but then widen to about a foot apart in the middle for the downhills. This place is on the cutting edge of snow grooming technology!
Kuopio is really nice, and it is just like home. Nice, cold snow and cold temperatures make it seem that I have not even left home. All these things make everything really easy to adjust to, except for the food. I was reminded that I was in Finland after the coaches made all of us down a squeeze of Caviar. Pretty crazy!
Will Wicherski questions the un-imaginably wide tracks.
Can you imagine these things full?
January 25th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
That stadium is absolutely amazing when it’s full. I’ll never forget all those Fins cheering for Rob Whitney down the home stretch at World Champs in 2001.
Do the track setters machines automatically adjust themselves to the grade, or does the driver adjust it himself?
January 26th, 2010 at 1:16 am
the tracksetting technology has been around for a while. it is a dimension that the NSAA grooming has been considering and actually has some homegrown concepts. it would also aid the little shavers since most centers on tracks are a little wide for the Otter crowd at junior nordic. stay tuned.
January 26th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Good luck Logan – you’ll have a great series! I can help you with Finnish swear words if you need it.