With four babies on tour, U.S. Ski Team resembles nursery
SAN VIGILIO DI MAREBBE, ITALY » Diaper bags and baby backpacks are in just as much demand as skis, boots and poles on the U.S. Alpine team this season. So is a good night’s sleep. Four members of the men’s squad — two skiers and two coaches — welcomed newborns into their families in the offseason. Add in Andrew Weibrecht’s daughter, Adalina, who was born two years ago, and it often makes the team hotel resemble a day care center.
“The team life is shifting gears,” said Steven Nyman, the captain of the downhill squad.
Nyman’s girlfriend, Charlotte Moats, gave birth to the couple’s first daughter, Nell, in June. Also that month, Ted Ligety’s wife, Mia, had a son named Jax.
Giacomo, the third child of head coach Sasha Rearick, and Trudi Anne, the daughter of tech coach Forest Carey, were also born recently.
All four babies were within about a month.
“It was funny last winter, all of the ladies were on tour and none of them were partying,” Rearick said. “Nobody kind of knew and then near the end of the season everybody knew.”
Now, it’s like team
“That makes it easier actually in a sense that everyone is going through the same thing and you can share the stories and talk about how each other’s babies are sleeping and all that stuff,” Ligety said.
The biggest challenge for skiers bringing their families along to World born parenting. Cup races in Europe is keeping them fresh amid all of the crying and midnight feedings.
“It’s tough,” Rearick said. “You do your work, you do your job and you come home when you want to support your wife, you want to take care of your child, but it’s also the time where you have to really rest.
“In order to compete with the best you have to be super fresh in the mind and physically fit, and sleepness nights or even just a few hours in the afternoon where you would just lay low, it’s easy to get distracted,” the coach added.
At races, separate rooms are recommended for athletes and their families. Family members also will not be able to stay with the team during the Pyeongchang Olympics.
But the advantages of taking family members on the road far outweigh the disadvantages — especially for a team that competes so far from home season.
Nyman’s daughter played a significant role during his recovery from left knee surgery entering this season.
“It’s been awesome. Just watching her grow, watching her learn, being there with me. Helping me kind of throttle back down after I train,” Nyman said. “I probably would have overtrained and pushed too much and wouldn’t have been as far ahead now with my knee. So she’s been a good regulator for me.” for most of the
Mutko says Russia’s Olympic athletes will be young, clean
MOSCOW » A new generation of young, talented and, above all, clean Russian athletes will compete at next month’s Pyeongchang Olympics, according to Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko.
The Russians must compete under the Olympic flag in South Korea after the International Olympic Committee ruled the country operated a sophisticated doping and cover-up program when it hosted the 2014 Sochi Games.
Mutko — who was sports minister at the time — has been banned from the Olympics for life along with 43 athletes, though he and all but one of the athletes have filed appeals.
Those bans, which include 14 medalists, have helped clear the way for younger talent in Russia, Mutko said. While there would usually be about 40 percent changeover in the Russian team between Olympics, he said, this time 80 percent of athletes will not have competed in Sochi.
“In practically every event it’s an absolutely new, young team,” Mutko said in an interview Saturday in a VIP box at the European figure skating championships in Moscow.
Although Mutko is no longer sports minister, he is still in overall charge of sports policy and the government’s preparations for soccer’s World Cup.
Despite the Olympic bans, Russian officials expect about 200 athletes to compete in Pyeongchang, though not all would have normally been the country’s first choice. That’s fewer than in Sochi in 2014, but more than in Vancouver in 2010.
It’s not yet clear which Russians will go to the Olympics — where they will compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” because the country’s team is formally banned. The IOC is vetting lists of athletes submitted by Russian officials before issuing invitations.