As It Happens

About a year ago, Alaska Public Radio started airing an evening news program called "As It Happens". As It Happens happens to come on the air right about the time you'd like to hear the evening news. All of the stories covered on As It Happens have one common thread: none of the stories have anything to do with anything that anyone would consider interesting. It wouldn't be so bad if the show aired at one o'clock in the afternoon when everyone's busy doing important mid-day-stuff, or at three o'clock in the morning when most people are asleep, but this CBC (Canadian) show, with it's wacky Canadian accents, comes on right at the time when most right-thinking people are driving home from an evening ski workout at Kincaid Park. As D asks, "Why do we have Canadians doing the news on our Alaska Public Radio station anyway?!"

This edition of the UAA Ski Team Blog is a news roundup, sort of like "As It Happens", with one important difference: You actually care about the people I'm about to write about here.

Lasse Moelgaard-Nielsen has left skiing behind to focus all his energy on becoming an elite Copenhagen lawyer ...or so we thought.  Lasse was spotted in Liechtenstein this week coaching the Danish team at the European Youth Olympic Games.  And that's not all; rumor has it that he'll be a ski serviceman at the World Championships in Falun in a few weeks. Face it Lasse, ski racers and coaches get to wear red spandex all the time while lawyers are restricted to the occasional red bowtie.  It's not too late to change your career track!

Steffi and Karl Schauer are going to have a baby in May!  Steffi is now the director and head coach for the Partenkirchen junior ski team, while Karl is studying in Innsbruck to be a school teacher. Congratulations to the Schauer family!

Nice lid, Steffi!

Meanwhile in Sweden, Viktor continues his gradual, steady climb up the ranks in the Swedish ski racing scene.  He finished eleventh yesterday at the 30km skiathlon at the Swedish Championships, and first in the under-23 class. Viktor's steady progress toward the Swedish national team continues...

I don't know about you, but I see an uncanny resemblance between Viktor Brännmark and...

Spongebob Squarepants!

And Kjetil Hagtvedt Dammen has apparently recovered from his horrific rollerski accident last August, as he's back on the full schedule for Team Leaseplan Go.  He finished 27th in the Marcialonga this past weekend. Not bad, especially considering his injuries pretty much kept him from training all fall. Good luck in Vasa'n, Kjetil!

Pick a winner, Kjetil!

This must be some kind of inside joke - all the sponsor names are written backwards.

And finally, though we don't have a ton of snow around here in Anchorage, we have gotten enough so the skiing isn't half-bad at Kincaid Park. Here's what the ski stadium looked like this morning: