Think Racing, Inc.

Seventeen men and women will represent the United States in cross country skiing in the Winter Olympics. For some of the skiers, getting to the Olympics has been especially hard — many had to find traveling money themselves. NPR Producer Adam Burke tells the story of one of those skiers.

PARK CITY, Utah (Jan. 17) - Kris Freeman (Andover, NH), who has posted the best U.S. cross country skiing results since the Bill Koch era two decades ago, and three-time Olympian Carl Swenson (Park City, UT) headline a group of 17 cross country skiers named Tuesday to the 2006 U.S. Olympic Team.

Freeman, a diabetic who self-injects insulin six or eight times a day, is a former University of Vermont skier who won the first Under-23 championship in Italy in 2003, finished fourth in the World Championships two weeks later, and since then has produced a pair of top-6 results. Swenson, a Dartmouth College graduate, anchored the men’s relay team, which finished a U.S.-record fifth at the 2002 Olympics and was fifth a year later in the 50K freestyle race at the World Championships.

The 2006 U.S. Olympic Cross Country Team:
MEN
Chris Cook, 25, Rhinelander, Wis.
Justin Freeman, 29, Andover, N.H.
Kris Freeman, 25, Andover, N.H. (2002)
Lars Flora, 28, Anchorage, Alaska (2002)
Andrew Johnson, 28, Greensboro, Vt. (2002)
Torin Koos, 25, Leavenworth, Wash. (2002)
Andy Newell, 22, Shaftsbury, Vt.
James Southam, 27, Anchorage, Alaska
Carl Swenson, 35, Park City, Utah (1994, 2002)
Leif Zimmermann, 22, Bozeman, Mont.

WOMEN
Rebecca Dussault, 25, Gunnison, Colo.
Sarah Konrad, 38, Laramie, Wyo.
Abigail Larson, 32, Bozeman, Mont.
Kikkan Randall, 23, Anchorage, Alaska (2002)
Wendy Wagner, 32, Park City, Utah (2002)
Lindsey Weier, 21, Mahtomedi, Minn. (2002)
Lindsay Williams, 21, Hastings, Minn.

Think Racing supports the athletes of the 2006 U.S. Olympic Team through Team Today.

Eli talks to Steve Scott on the eve of the sprints
Eli talks to Pat Casey on changes in sprint racing
John Dyste on Olympic sprint racing
Chris Hall on the Olympic Trials
Ben Husby on coaching junior athletes
Jim Fredericks, Team Rossi
Jim Fredericks on the US Biathlon Team Olympic Selection
Kevin Sweeney, Swix Racing US on wax

Soldier Hollow, UT - Eli Brown has been filing race reports from US Nationals all day.
Opening Remarks
Women’s 15K
Men’s 30K
Men’s 30K at 15 K
Men’s 30K Break Away
Men’s 30K Final
Closing Remarks w/Pete Vordenberg
Andrew Johnson’s Birthday Bash

The athletes of the US cross-country team have developed a fundraising project that will help them raise the level of their preparation in anticipation of the 2006 Torino Olympic Games and beyond. These increased measures of support will enable America’s best skiers to win Olympic medals, and at the same time raise the level of cross-country ski racing in America to new heights.

Think Racing, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes and develops amateur endurance athletes for national and international competition, and the athletes of the US cross-country ski team have joined forces to create an independent fundraising program that will raise the standards of excellence and athleticism for the US cross-country ski team in preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Games.

Our goal is simple: To immediately address a crisis facing the U.S. cross country skiing community at all levels – from the National Team to the smallest Junior program – a critical lack of support for developing world-class skiers. Despite being one of the richest and most geographically diverse countries in the world, the U.S. funds an Olympic Team that is a small fraction the size of the teams funded by countries 1/50th our size. As the U.S. Ski Team faces budget cuts for even its core elite athletes, it is in no position to nurture the younger skiers who are the future of U.S. Cross Country Skiing. After college, promising athletes have no support system in a sport that requires years of intensely demanding preparation where they typically reach their peak in their late 20’s and early 30’s. Our program gives these athletes a place to develop talents that might otherwise go untapped. Sponsorship of this initiative is not just a good marketing play – it is a chance to inspire future Olympians to greatness.