For the week of January 23 - 29, 2002

Benoit, Flora among 16 Nordic Olympians

2002 American team is named

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By JEFF CORDES
Express Sports Editor

Two Nordic skiers with local connections, Tessa Benoit and Lars Flora, were among 16 cross-country skiers named Monday to the 2002 Olympic Cross Country Ski Team.

Tessa Benoit. Express photo by David N. Seelig

Benoit, 24, a star for the University of Vermont powerhouse, currently lives in Hailey and works at the Hailey Coffee Company. Flora, 24, of Anchorage, Alaska, was a member of the Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team in 1995.

Eleven of the 16, including Benoit and recently-crowned U.S. men’s freestyle sprint champion Flora, will be going to their first Winter Olympics.

But the squad, one of the largest American Nordic teams ever named for the Olympics, features plenty of experience.

Nina Kemppel, 31, of Anchorage, the all-time U.S. record holder with 18 national titles, is the first U.S. woman named to the Olympic team four times in cross country.

Justin Wadsworth, 33, of Bend, Ore., and John Bauer, 32, of Duluth, Minn., will be competing in their third Olympics. Carl Swenson, 31, of Boulder and Patrick Weaver, 32, of Bend are in their second.

The skiers were chosen on the basis of international results, U.S. Nordic Director Luke Bodensteiner said. "This is an impressive mix of veteran skiers and some promising young racers."

Tessa Benoit of Hailey, named Monday to the 2002 Olympic Cross Country ski team, tunes up for the big event during Saturday’s Sun Valley Ski Club Nordic Championship race on the Galena Lodge trail system. Express photo by David N. Seelig

Benoit, a native of Pomfret, Vt., is one of the youngest, although she was a 2001 world championship team member. She earned 11 points on the 2001 World Cup, finishing 20th in the sprint at the Olympic site of Soldier Hollow, Utah.

While competing in the eastern college ranks, Benoit was a contemporary of Middlebury’s Hilary Patzer and Dartmouth’s Abi Holt, locals who competed on the Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team.

Flora spent his junior and senior years of high school in the Wood River Valley. He made the U.S. Junior Development team for the first time while living in Sun Valley.

According to his father, Sam Flora, "they were two intense development years skiing for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation and playing soccer and running cross country for Wood River High School."

His father said Lars believes that his coach, Rick Kapala, and the SVSEF were important to his success and can make major claims on him as a product of the Sun Valley ski program.

"In his infinite wisdom Rick Kapala decided to put up wity whatever Lars said while he was in Sun Valley," said Sam Flora.

"This wisdom and all the fun, inspiration and intense cross-country ski experiences that Rick provides his skiers are major reasons why Lars is in the Olympics."

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The 2002 Olympic team:

Women: 
Kemppel; Benoit; Wendy Wagner, 28, of Utah; Aelin Peterson, 26, of Fairbanks; Barb Jones, 25, of Bozeman; Kikkan Randall, 19, of Anchorage; Lindsey Weier, 17, of St. Paul, Minn.; and Kristina Joder, 23, of Vermont.

Men: 
Wadsworth; Bauer; Weaver; Swenson; Flora; Torin Koos, 21, of Leavenworth, Wash.; Kris Freeman, 21, of Andover, N.H.; and Andrew Johnson, 24, of Vermont.

The first Olympic cross-country race at Soldier Hollow is Saturday, Feb. 9.

 

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