BSF Nordic Program Director Andrew Morehouse is supporting Team USA as a service tech at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Andrew is working alongside former BSF Coach Tim Baucom. We asked Andrew and Tim to report in throughout the winter games and provide BSF athletes with a unique insiders' look.
First up: Andrew and Tim answer a series of questions from BSF Executive Director Evan Weiss.
A. The food has been great so far! We (the techs) are staying at a brand new hotel that has a breakfast and dinner buffet with a mix of traditional Chinese food and western food. Favorites so far are the build your own stir fry bar and the breakfast chowmein.
A. We've got a team of 9 techs over here and we all work together to do the bulk of ski testing for athletes. For instance, today Tim and I tested 11 pairs of skis for his athlete JC Schoonmaker and 8 pairs for my guy Kevin Bolger. We then tested the top four from those tests with the athletes as they did their race prep later in the day. This way we can knock out most of their skis and have the athletes focus on the top pairs. We'll each test roughly 4 pairs with our athletes again an hour before the race starts tomorrow. The tech staff has spent between 8 and 10 hours at the venue each day doing a combination of product testing and testing of athlete skis.
A. To me, the strength of the US team is the atmosphere that the coaches, athletes, and techs have worked hard to create. The vibe is definitely different this year than it was in Korea due to COVID restrictions. For instance, techs are staying at a hotel outside the Olympic village and the athletes and coaches are in the village. We aren't allowed to visit the village and vice versa, which has made communication a bit of a challenge. We're also staying about a 20 minute walk from the venue but the only way we can leave the hotel is in Olympic-sponsored transportation, which we have to schedule well in advance. So things aren't as fluid and easy as they might normally be, however we are able to interact directly at the venue and when we're skiing with the athletes. The coaches are constantly having meetings with athletes and checking in with techs to make sure we're all on the same page and supporting athletes as best we can.
There is obviously a lot of pressure on the athletes at an event like this and it can be hard to keep a positive atmosphere when people don't have the races they were hoping for. I think the coaches do a great job at maintaining perspective and helping the athletes find little victories to celebrate even with hard days. Of course there are highs and lows, but that is ski racing and there are so many events for these athletes that they just have to process one event and then refocus for the next. The tech staff especially does a great job of sticking to the process to make skis as fast as possible and then going back to the hotel and decompressing with some food and laughter. We all enjoy each other's company and that makes the long days feel easy!
Stay tuned for more updates!
