International Coach seminar and exchange 2019
Sep 01, 2019·Cross-Country
International Cross-Country Coach Seminar in Trondheim (NOR)
On 24th and 25th August, the first international Cross-Country coach seminar, organised by FIS, the Norwegian Ski Association, NTNU Centre of Elite Sports and Research and the City of Trondheim took place in Trondheim.
The seminar was used as a platform for an exchange of experiences and knowledge between 22 top coaches from eleven countries. A key point of the seminar was to give the head coaches the opportunity to learn about each other’s structures and thus to provide a better understanding for their respective needs and challenges, which is pivotal for the overall development of the sport.
Main topics on the agenda included the importance to support building up a sustainable group of female skiers. It was made clear that for this topic, smaller nations struggled with more challenges than the big nations, despite it being an overall benefit to have diverse and balanced teams for each race.
An outlook to the upcoming season showed the challenges of teams in combining the endurance and sprint skiers during the busy FIS Cross-Country World Cup season 2019/20. Marcus Cramer, head coach of the Russian team gave an example of their pre-season planning and preparation. Marco Selle explained the strategy and planning for the Italian team.
The agenda also included lectures and discussions about how Anti-Doping work is organised in Norway. Anders Solheim, leader of the National Anti-Doping Organisation: Anti-Doping Norway introduced key players and their responsibilities while Anti-Doping Russia, Canada, Austria and Estonia explained how they deal with situations in their countries. “It is an important factor regarding our ambitions to get the sport clean. Receiving practical introductions from key players and exchanging experiences to show the importance and responsibility of working together against doping is a great step forward – especially as the top notch of our FIS Cross-Country family were here in Trondheim”, said Vegard Ulvang, Chairman of the FIS Cross-Country Committee.
FIS Assistant Race Director Michal Lamplot concluded the seminar with an insight into the finals preparations before the FIS Cross-Country World Cup season 2019/20 starts on 29th November 2019 in Ruka (FIN).
FIS would like to thank Guri Hetland, the Norwegian Ski Federation, NTNU Centre of Elite Sports and Research as well as the City of Trondheim for the organisation of the seminar, as well as all participants for their open and constructive engagement.
