Great Strides to the Olympics: Thoughts and memories on
training an Olympic athlete
by Kevin Brochman with Steve Waryan
December 9, 2002
Lindsey Weier was a 17-year-old high school student from
Mahtomedi, Minnesota when she was picked to be on the 2002
Olympic Cross-Country ski team. I'd been her coach for six
years as part of the Minneapolis Ski Club and the Community
Olympic Development Program, and I watched her grow into an
extraordinary athlete. Here are some thoughts and memories
from the great year of training that led up to Soldier Hollow.
It was mid-May 2001, the time was 11:45 a.m., and it had
been pouring rain all morning. Channel 17 radar showed a great
big green blob of rain all across the state and it looked
like it would rain all afternoon. At noon Lindsey Weier called
and asked if we were going to have practice in Afton at 3
p.m. I mentioned the green blob and asked her if she wanted
to. She said "Yes." I remember thinking that I really
didn't want to do it, but knew that this is what it takes
to be the best. Sometimes you must train when you don't really
want to.
I arrived at 3 p.m. in downtown Afton, where we would work
on technique, hills and distance training. Lindsay Williams,
also a top-level teammate of Lindsey's, was patiently waiting
for Lindsey and me to get ready. I smiled and thought, "She
didn't even call," as if she must have thought, "Of
course we are going to have practice."
It was still pouring rain as I put on my boots and wondered
how long they would stay dry. This was not where I wanted
to be, rollerskiing in the cold rain. But Lindsey and Lindsay
needed to learn that this is what it takes to be the best.
Maybe they already knew it but I felt I needed to be positive
and reinforce it. Sometimes, to make it to the top, athletes
must suffer more than their competitors.
My boots were soaked before we got halfway up the Coulee,
a long hill running out of town. This brought back memories
of how much I disliked rollerskiing in the rain, especially
true in October and November when it was around 37 degrees
and I knew it was so close to snowing. I was always willing
to keep going when others had had enough. I was willing to
train when it was too cold, too wet, too hot and I felt too
tired. Now, I had to try and teach this to the two most dedicated
athletes I had ever worked with.
Up until 1997, very few U.S. juniors trained much for skiing
after their last race until track ended in June. A few years
ago Jan Buron from the Alaska Winter Stars ski club told me
his year-round ski program started April 10th. His athletes
were winning more gold medals than any other club in the country
at Junior Olympics. So in April of 2000 I began to train Lindsey
and Lindsay year-round, mainly with technique and distance
workouts, but sometimes we added some sprints. Though both
athletes were on the track team, their coaches didn't mind
them skipping a day to train for skiing. The idea was to get
ahead and stay ahead. American skiers at the high school age
had traditionally been quite far behind other nations at this
level. It's since changed in the past five years, with more
year-round programs.
After an hour and a half it finally stopped raining, and
I wasn't quite as cold when we finished as I thought I would
be. It was nice to get back to the van where, thankfully,
I had a nice dry shirt. The athletes' silence meant they had
already learned a little something about the extra suffering
it took to be the best. I remember a coach telling me when
I was a junior skier that for every day you train in bad weather
you are rewarded one great race during the season.
At the end of the month, Lindsey, Lindsay and I did some
skate intervals in North St. Paul. A young woman who had made
World Juniors the previous year happened to be in town and
joined us in the workout. I heard that she had told one of
the girs that we were training way too hard. At the time I
wondered what she meant by the comment. I felt that both athletes
were in very good shape and this was another indication of
their fitness.
June
This day's workout would be a timed double poling up the Coulee
- 2km of gradual uphill. One of the most simple aspects of
ski racing is the ability to double pole fast. In skating
there are two different techniques for going fast across the
flats. I teach that there are also two ways to double pole.
One way that most people use is with the arms doing most of
the work; the other is a "new" one where the legs
and core area do most of the work. Most people don't think
about double-pole training and prefer instead to spend hours
on skate technique and training.
The fastest time any female had double poled up the Coulee
was in July 2000 at the Regional Elite camp, when two females
ranked 4th and 11th in the country both did it in 9 minutes.
Today I would find out how the girls would rate compared to
the year before. We had been working on the new style of double
pole that I thought would bring more power and speed into
the motion. Lindsey had done a 10:25 at the camp in 2000,
so you can imagine how happy I was when she posted an 8:10.
Lindsay was close behind in 8:25.
If you could take an athlete and have him or her become the
best at double poling, running up a steep hill, skating without
poles up a hill - make him or her the best in the country
at those three components - that athlete would be a very fast
skier. Sometimes training is quite simple. Lindsey Weier had
improved 25 percent in 11 months. I remember thinking, if
this translates onto snow she will be one of the best in the
country.
July
The workout for the day was a 650-meter uphill run. The fastest
time by a male was 2:30, with most top males able to do it
in the 2:45 to 3:00 range. The best time for a female was
3:17. The course was a long steep uphill that was pretty consistent
from time to time. We did our warm-up, some plyometrics, some
ski walking, then the hill for time. Sonja Bostrom ran a 3:04
to set a new record. Stephanie Howe did a 3:11, Lindsey Weier
3:14, Lindsay Williams 3:16. The old record was history.
During the winter of 2002, Sonja, Lindsey and Lindsay all
placed in the top 12 for Americans at U.S. Senior Nationals.
Sonja was also one of the top competitors at NCAA Championships,
Lindsay was the J1 National Sprint Champion, and Stephanie
Howe was the Minnesota State Classic Champion. The ability
to run up a steep hill fast is one way to measure a person's
fitness. A very painful way at that!
August
We held a training camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
The first three days were easy distance so everyone was pretty
rested and ready for something hard. The workout for the day
was a long two-hour run that began at Mt. Rushmore. We would
ascend about 1,500 vertical feet up to the campground, which
was at 6,200 feet. I was feeling pretty good so I decided
to see if I could drop Lindsey Weier. I wanted to see how
tough she was, and today would be the day to find out. At
the bottom of the hill the whole group was in a pack and the
boys were talking about making a break in a joking manner.
I moved up to the lead and began to gradually pick up the
pace. Some of the less speedy runners began to drop back.
After 10 minutes the lead pack was four guys, a 42-year-old
coach and Lindsey! I picked up the pace even more and then
the boys were actually breathing hard, too. The closer we
got to the top the harder I went. As I reached the top I was
whipped. The boys - Kevin Johnson, Josh Korn, Garrett Heath,
Adriaan Ostrander - were all there, of course. And Lindsey
was also there! By now I was starting to wonder if I could
train these athletes any better? I couldn't think of anything
else they should be doing.
Looking at the data from the past 20 years, I've noticed that
the top 5 ranked athletes on the national points list from
year to year don't change much. You can throw out one and
bring in one new skier each year. Athletes ranked number 6
through 15 fluctuate, with many being in that range their
entire career. Lindsey Weier began the 2001-2002 year ranked
35th. She was not even on the radar screen in terms of making
an Olympic team.
September
The workout for the day was classic intervals. We went up
the Coulee four to five times with some timed efforts, some
just for strength. I led Lindsay and Lindsey up the hill,
then they pulled ahead and I lost some time. We did it again
and I tried harder to stay with them but got the same result.
They were both dropping me, and Lindsay Williams was having
a great day. Two days later we did the running hill intervals
at Afton State Park. Lindsay Williams was ahead of Lindsey
Weier again. For the first time since I had been training
them Lindsay had been tougher in both running and on rollerskis.
Lindsay Williams was setting P.R.s, while Lindsey Weier was
a bit off her bests. This was great news for Lindsay Williams,
but I was a bit concerned about Lindsey Weier, as she was
a little slower than in August. I felt that she may be a bit
tired and I told her to take it easy and skip some of the
hard workouts for one week.
There are many ways that I monitored how the athletes were
doing. Each athlete took his or her morning pulse, for example.
If their pulse was high, they told me and I would consider
it when planning the day's training. Another way to monitor
athletes is to test them with hard workouts. If they improve,
that's a good sign; if they stay the same, that's OK, and
if they're slower, that's a warning signal. I tested Lindsey
and Lindsay a few times per month in the summer with time
trials through intervals. In the fall we did it more often,
sometimes twice a week. I don't know of many other coaches
who are willing to use this simple way. Most prefer to use
some method that may or may not be stressing the athletes
in the best way. As an athlete, I often felt as though I didn't
know if my training was getting me faster. With weekly tests,
it was easy to see who was doing well and who needed more
rest. That was important because some athletes can train harder
than others. Each athlete trained a little differently.
October
As the temperatures get colder, rollerskis get slower. Times
that are fast on a hot summer day can be totally different
on cold blacktop. At the Regional Elite camp in 2001 we did
a time trial that started in Seeley, Wisconsin, on 00, and
basically rollerskied up to the Birkie trail. Both Lindsey
and Lindsay skied 1.5 minutes slower in October than in July.
This had the athletes more than a little concerned. I assured
them that the grease in their skis just plain makes the skis
go slower in the cold than in the heat.
November
Everything was going so well that I told one of the skiers
in the training group that I thought both Lindsey and Lindsay
had a chance of making the Olympic Team. One of the skiers
told me that first I had to get an athlete to make the World
Junior team, a feat I had yet to accomplish as a coach. This
made me bristle, as I thought both skiers had the potential
to make it. It also brought me back to reality, as if to say,
come on Kev, nobody goes from being ranked 30-something in
the country to making the Olympic team.
All of the athletes in the training group had set personal
bests in the running intervals at the beginning of the month.
This told me that everyone was headed in the right direction
even though the rollerski times were slower. I decided that
we should go to Silver Star Ski Resort in Canada as it often
has the best snow, and the top skiers in North America would
be there for the Continental Cup ski races. I thought that
if the girls were going to make the Olympic team they would
need to ski well against the top skiers in those races. This
proved to be the most critical decision I made the whole year.
The training was good at the beginning of the week and then
became excellent. We did three races - a sprint, a classic
and a skate. The first was the classic race. It was a bit
unclear which category to register for and the girls both
registered for the wrong class. I talked to the organizer
and he put them at the end of the race, which was good because
it snowed and the track got faster, helping them both. Lindsey
Weier had her first big day as she took 7th overall and was
the 5th American. I was simply stunned to see her come by
with a km to go, being ahead of so many of the top females
in the country. Everything we had done in the summer and fall
had indicated she was capable of skiing at this level, but
to see it happen was a great feeling.
I figured this had to be about a 70-point FIS race with all
the top North American females in the race. I believed if
she could average five races at 80 points she could make the
Olympic team. The second race was the sprint, and it had some
180-degree turns that caused some problems for both girls.
They lost a lot of time on each sharp turn. This was frustrating
as they were going just as fast as many top people on the
flats and hill. Neither had a stellar race, placing about
17th and 19th. Both were excellent results, but not times
that would send them to Salt Lake. The last race was a 10km
skate. Lindsay Williams and the rest of the gang had gone
home, leaving just Lindsey Weier and me. This time she would
be one of the first racers out. When she came by me at 4km
her technique looked perfect. Soon all the skiers in the white
group had come by and Lindsey had the fastest split time of
them all. The white group consisted of skiers ranked from
16 to 30 in the race. The red group was the fastest group
with athletes ranked in the top 15. Lindsey placed 7th again
and was the 5th American with another 80-point race. This
gave her one 70-point race and an 80. I felt she needed three
more like that to make the Olympic team.
December
Lindsey and I traveled back home to a snowstorm. It was December
3rd and we had 7 inches of snow on the ground. We began to
have practices at Como Park Golf Course and then the temps
went up and the snow began to disappear. Each day we had to
drive farther north from the Twin Cities area and closer to
St. Cloud. We skied in Elk River, which was a long, long drive
from Hastings. Then it was all gone - winter was over in just
five days. The temperature was in the 50s and it was mid-December.
This ended up being a blessing, though, as we could plan every
workout and train very well. It began to get colder and soon
the downhill ski areas, Hyland and Trollhaugen, opened and
allowed cross-country skiing in the mornings. They were the
only places to ski.
Lindsey and I traveled out to the Gold Cup race near Salt
Lake at the Olympic site, Soldier Hollow. The Gold Cup is
a one-day pursuit where the winner qualifies for the Olympic
team. It was tough for me to leave during the holidays as
I wanted to spend more time with my daughters. I scheduled
us to arrive on Wednesday night, race on Friday, and then
return home on Friday. Lindsey didn't have enough time to
get ready for the altitude, and I was only hoping for a top
15 but knew for her to make the Olympic team she would need
a top 7. In the classic race, Greg, her father, was helping
me out too. I tested the wax and was quite confident that
it would work. Greg wanted to apply the wax and did so. Lindsey
tested it and found it to be too slick. I realized in our
confusion that the wax had been left in the waxing trailer
about a 1/4-mile away. I was getting a bit stressed out and
Greg knew it. He ran back to the wax hut and returned in record
time. We applied more wax and it was perfect.
Lindsey had been one of the last people to make the 20-person
invitation-only cut, so she went out early again. Once again
she came by with a fast time and I waited and waited until
another skier had a faster one. All of the fast women were
stacked at the end and Lindsey ended up with the sixth fastest
time in the classic race. I couldn't believe how close she
was to being the second best skier in the country. She dropped
one place to 7th in the skate even though she had two excellent
races. Both were right around 90-point races, and making it
to the Olympics was going to be close. Lindsey was invited
to stay with the National Team and train in Utah before going
to U.S. Nationals. This was great news - she had impressed
Miles, the coach, enough to be named to the World Junior Team.
January
With just enough time to catch my breath after the Gold Cup,
I had to drive back out to Bozeman and coach athletes at Nationals.
Chris Sachs helped me test, test and test again. The first
race was the sprint, and the five days of data proved useful
as we had good skis in the race. Lindsey Williams had a great
race - she was the 8th fastest American. Lindsey Weier was
the 10th. Imagine having two high school athletes place in
the top 10 of Americans at Senior Nationals. In 1997 I had
set a goal of getting one high school skier to place in the
top 10 at Senior Nationals, today we had two! It was a great
feeling.
The second race was the 15km skate. The temperature had
gone from 30 to 45 degrees with new snow, and our skis were
painfully slow. The U.S. Ski Team women had much faster skis
than anyone and cleaned up. I was kind of mad that the race
had come down to who had the fastest skis - and in the women's
race, we had the slow ones. By now I was about to give up
on Lindsey making it to the Olympics, even though she had
demonstrated that she could ski with all of the U.S. women
except for Nina Kempel.
The third race was the 5km classic. It got cold and everything
turned to ICE. I had waxed five skis the night before and
simply went out and tried them all, which took about 15 minutes.
I liked one wax in particular and applied it on Lindsey's
and Lindsay's skis, as they were early starters. Both had
pretty good kick and I sat down and waited and hoped the conditions
wouldn't change. All of the coaches were running around in
their panic. I was calm and knew I couldn't find any better
wax than we already had. My uncle had watched a World Cup
race once and noted that the last two teams to finish their
wax testing were the United States and Canada, and they finished
last and second to the last. I hoped being the first one done
wax testing would mean we'd have great skis. Lindsey told
me hers were great, and I was pretty sure she would have a
great race.
Ten minutes after Lindsey left, it started snowing hard.
Then the split people were telling me that she was leading
the race. Soon Lindsey finished and I timed a skier who had
started a minute behind her - she finished 56 seconds after
Lindsey, so I knew Lindsey hadn't won. All of the fast skiers
had passed the top portion of the race and Reid Lutter, from
the Minnesota Valley Ski Club was doing splits and had Lindsey
in second place at 2km. She ended up 4th and was the 3rd American,
just 4 seconds from being a National Champion at age 17. I
was quite pleased but still had six skiers to worry about
with a snowstorm on my hands. Now all the coaches were in
a real panic. Several skiers began the race with klister on
their skis and they practically had to run down the hills
with the snow piling up, and run up them, too. It was kind
of a bad joke, seeing that. Lindsay Williams had placed 24th
and was the 5th Junior. With Lindsey Weier placing 2nd, both
had pretty much locked up spots on the World Junior Team.
They became the first high school female skiers to make it
to World Juniors. Lindsey Weier qualified for the 2002 World
Junior team 2nd overall, Lindsay Williams, qualified 4th overall.
They were the number 1 and 2 high school athletes at the tryouts.
This made my week.
My thoughts again turned to Lindsey making the Olympic team.
I calculated the points and figured she was ranked about 8th
in the country. The problem was they had announced they were
only taking six. Lindsey was so close to 6th, and the 6th
American was seven years older than Lindsey. I thought of
how other countries would select a young promising skier and
just bring them for the experience. Norway had done this with
the great skier Bjorn Daehlie. Sweden had also done it with
some of its skiers.
Lindsey and Lindsay went off to Germany to ski at the World
Junior Championships. I went home wondering how close Lindsey
had come. About a week later, Jay Weiner, a sports writer
for the Minneapolis Star/Tribune, called me and said that
Lindsey had just been named to the Olympic team. I was so
happy. I had begun working with the Community Olympic Development
Program in 1997, and the goal of the program was to get a
young skier to qualify for the Olympics. Now that goal had
become reality. I called Lindsey's parents, Greg and Pam,
and they were really excited.
February
As The Olympics began I saw Lindsey on TV during the opening
ceremonies. The first race came and went and only three American
women raced? I was getting the feeling that they were not
going to race Lindsey. Greg Weier was trying to get me to
talk to the coaches but I knew I wouldn't have much impact
on their decision. I talked to the head coach Luke Bodensteiner
and he informed me that Lindsey was too young to race and
she was just there to observe. Everyone was asking me what
I thought and I, too, had mixed feelings about what was best.
In some ways it was wrong and in some ways it was right. The
real answer will not be known until 2006. No one can say for
sure what the best decision should have been, but a week later
a parent asked me if Lindsey was going to ski at Junior Olympics
and I said, "yes." He then asked if she was going
to race or if the coaches would make her wait four years.
I had to laugh.
I thought about some factors in Lindsey's improving so much
in one year. She was able to handle the training load that
consisted of training long distance and hard intervals. She
was very focused on getting adequate sleep, proper hydration,
and stress management, and she had a pretty good time in the
process. From a technical standpoint she was also an A+ student,
and her technique may be as good as any skier in the country.
From a coaching standpoint, I think that my experience competing
and coaching in the Olympics was an added benefit in helping
her achieve her success.
Because of her tremendous talent and dedication she was able
put all of this together into a total package and become the
first high school cross-country skier to make an Olympic team
in cross-country skiing.
It's enough to make a coach proud.
Lindsey Weier, Lindsay Williams and Stephanie Howe are currently
skiing for Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan.
Lindsey Weier recently placed 6th and 13th at the Continental
Cup ski races in West Yellowstone and is part of the U.S.
Ski Team's development team. All three will be competing at
this year's National Championships and World Junior Tryouts,
which will be held in Rumford, Maine, the second week of January.
For comments or questions contact, [email protected]
 About
the author, Kevin Brochman:
Kevin Brochman is a three-time Olympian, competing
in 1984 and 1988 and coaching the team in 1998. He runs
the Minneapolis Ski Club Junior Program and coaches
the St. Louis Park High School ski team.
Brochman offers various training programs during
the year through the Minneapolis Ski Club, including
a Winter Training
Program for adults.
About Steve Waryan:
Steve Waryan is an editor, writer, and avid masters
skier from the Twin Cities.
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