Everyone to Skis!

Everyone to Skis!
Author: William D. Frank
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1501756974

Nowhere in the world was the sport of biathlon, a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship, taken more seriously than in the Soviet Union, and no other nation garnered greater success at international venues. From the introduction of modern biathlon in 1958 to the USSR's demise in 1991, athletes representing the Soviet Union won almost half of all possible medals awarded in world championship and Olympic competition. Yet more than sheer technical skill created Soviet superiority in biathlon. The sport embodied the Soviet Union's culture, educational system and historical experience and provided the perfect ideological platform to promote the state's socialist viewpoint and military might, imbuing the sport with a Cold War sensibility that transcended the government's primary quest for post-war success at the Olympics. William D. Frank's book is the first comprehensive analysis of how the Soviet government interpreted the sport of skiing as a cultural, ideological, political and social tool throughout the course of seven decades. In the beginning, the Soviet Union owned biathlon, and so the stories of both the state and the event are inseparable. Through the author's unique perspective on biathlon as a former nationally-ranked competitor and current professor of Soviet history, Everyone to Skis! will appeal to students and scholars of Russian and Soviet history as well as to general readers with an interest in skiing and the development of twentieth-century sport.

Cross-country Skiing for Everyone

Cross-country Skiing for Everyone
Author: Jules Older
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1998
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780811727082

In only six inches of snow, in any place, and at any age, anyone can take part in cross-country skiing. It combines safe, low-impact activity with a complete cardiovascular workout: there is simply no healthier total body conditioner. In this guide Jules Older examines technique, equipment, preparations, safety, and ski touring centres, all in a conversational and entertaining style that emphasises the importance of going at your own pace and enjoying the outdoors.

Brave Enough

Brave Enough
Author: Jessie Diggins
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1452962006

Travel with Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins on her compelling journey from America’s heartland to international sports history, navigating challenges and triumphs with rugged grit and a splash of glitter Pyeongchang, February 21, 2018. In the nerve-racking final seconds of the women’s team sprint freestyle race, Jessie Diggins dug deep. Blowing past two of the best sprinters in the world, she stretched her ski boot across the finish line and lunged straight into Olympic immortality: the first ever cross-country skiing gold medal for the United States at the Winter Games. The 26-year-old Diggins, a four-time World Championship medalist, was literally a world away from the small town of Afton, Minnesota, where she first strapped on skis. Yet, for all her history-making achievements, she had never strayed far from the scrappy 12-year-old who had insisted on portaging her own canoe through the wilderness, yelling happily under the unwieldy weight on her shoulders: “Look! I’m doing it!” In Brave Enough, Jessie Diggins reveals the true story of her journey from the American Midwest into sports history. With candid charm and characteristic grit, she connects the dots from her free-spirited upbringing in the woods of Minnesota to racing in the bright spotlights of the Olympics. Going far beyond stories of races and ribbons, she describes the challenges and frustrations of becoming a serious athlete; learning how to push through and beyond physical and psychological limits; and the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels. She openly shares her harrowing struggle with bulimia, recounting both the adversity and how she healed from it in order to bring hope and understanding to others experiencing eating disorders. Between thrilling accounts of moments of triumph, Diggins shows the determination it takes to get there—the struggles and disappointments, the fun and the hard work, and the importance of listening to that small, fierce voice: I can do it. I am brave enough.

Trail to Gold

Trail to Gold
Author: U.S. Olympic Women Cross-Country Skiers 1972-2018
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9780578963327

Fifty-three American women have participated in cross-country skiing in the Winter Olympics between the years of 1972 and 2018. In 2018, forty-six years after the first team competed, Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall won Olympic gold in the Team Sprint, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the first Olympic medal for U.S. women's cross-country skiing. Five decades of women skiers stood up and cheered, celebrating this long sought after achievement. This book shares the collective journey of these women Olympians, with the skiers themselves telling the story. Part I combines individual stories along a variety of themes, to collectively demonstrate the challenges of competing against the best in the world. In Part II, virtually every one of the fifty-three wrote her own profile to describe her skiing career and post-Olympic life. Photographs throughout put faces with the stories and add vibrancy to the narrative. The anecdotes in Trail to Gold: The Journey of 53 Women Skiers, paint the picture of women's cross-country skiing over 50 years--a fascinating history recorded in personal heartbreak and triumph and in fun vignettes from life on the trail.

World Class

World Class
Author: Peggy Shinn
Publisher: University Press of New England
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1512601810

What makes a great team? Sports journalist Peggy Shinn answers this question in her enthralling account of the dramatic rise of the U.S. women's cross-country ski team, winners of eight medals at three world championships over the past five years. Shinn's story - based on dozens of interviews with athletes, coaches, parents, spouses, and friends - paints a vivid picture of the obstacles that America's female athletes must overcome not just to ski with the world's best, but to beat them. In a sport where U.S. women have toiled for decades, mostly in the middle or the back of the pack, the development of a world-class team attests to the heady combination of a transformational leader, a coach who connects with his athletes, the super-fast individual skiers who are also conscientious teammates - and a bit of good luck. This is the story of Kikkan Randall, Liz Stephen, Holly Brooks, Jessie Diggins, Ida Sargent, Sadie Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell, Rosie Brennan, and coach Matt Whitcomb - and how they created the perfect team.

Cross-country ski training

Cross-country ski training
Author: Them Entor
Publisher: epubli
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2023-12-09
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 3758443458

The snow-covered expanses are calling, and cross-country skiing is more than just a sporting activity - it's a dance with nature. 'Cross-Country Ski Training: Tips for Beginners and Intermediates' guides you through the fascinating world of cross-country skiing, whatever your current ability. From the right technique and equipment to specific training plans and nutrition tips - this book is your comprehensive companion. Discover the joy of criss-crossing the winter landscape and improve your technique and endurance step by step.

Beginning Cross-country Skiing

Beginning Cross-country Skiing
Author: Margaret Church
Publisher: Children's Press(CT)
Total Pages: 52
Release: 1979
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780516043715

Introduces an increasingly popular winter activity that was practiced in Scandinavia more than 4,000 years ago.