The US Team is discussing goals for the team. I put together some info that might be relevant to those discussions. In 1995, Tim Derrick wrote an interesting analysis of elite O' in the US. You can read it at:

http://www.geocities.com/okansas.geo/tim.html

A few years ago, I looked at the history of US relay teams at World Champs. Here is a summary of the results:

http://www.geocities.com/okansas.geo/wocrelays.html

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), November 18, 2000

Answers

I found an interesting summary of the goals of the Norwegian x-c skiing team (yet another model of goals of a national team). It was a news item from www.wintersport.as.

Steinar Mundal, the Norwegian head coach for cross country, did map out his team's expectations for Lahti, here is what he considers crucial for the future.

- Pursue to be the best overall cross country nation in the world.
- Improve skating.
- Lead and expand in sprint racing.
- Improve the waxing team.
- Look long term towards Olympics in Torino 2006.

The Norwegians, originally having been against sprint races, have created their own sprint team, yet most skiers on the team will ski all other races as well. This season will see 7 world cup sprint races and a separate cup, and the world championships. 3 races will count in the overall cup.

As for skating, many athletes just cannot skate good enough and need improvement in terms of strength and technique.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), November 21, 2000.

My humble and unbiased analysis points to the obvious conclusion that in order for the Men to have any shot at all of finishing within 30% or less of the winners, Swampfoxes are desperately needed. Some Observers of the Scene may therefore already be getting disconsolate about US WOC results next year in Finland, and guards should probably be posted at the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, and the 84 Diner to prevent suicide attempts.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), November 29, 2000.