As the coach of the Alaska Pacific University nordic ski program, Flora is one of the primary architects of what so far has been an unprecedented season of success for American women in cross-country skiing.
Long an after-thought in the sport, the United States boasts two women in the top 25 of the World Cup overall standings — both of them from APU — and has claimed four medals in the first month of the season — all of them won by APU athletes.
those medals and heady rankings belong to APU skiers Kikkan Randall, Holly Brooks and Sadie Bjornsen, whose performances in Europe the last few weeks are mind-blowing in the context of a sport that hovers on the fringe of American culture.
but they also belong to Flora, 38, who has watched it all happen from afar.
usually with eyes blurry from lack of sleep.
"I get up in the early morning to look at results," Flora said, "and to wake up and see first places and silver medals, it makes the day."
More often than not, he gets up early or stays up late to watch the races live online, "anywhere from 2:30 to 6 in the morning," he said.
all of this happens while he continues to coach others in the APU program. Flora directs a program with 250 skiers, ranging from juniors to masters to elites like Randall, Brooks and Bjornsen.
He’s a hands-on coach of the elite group, 25 skiers who until the holiday break were scattered across the globe in three groups — the ones racing World Cup races in Europe, the ones racing Nor-Am and SuperTour races in Canada and the Lower 48, and the ones racing in Alaska.
Earlier this month Flora was with a group of APU skiers at a Nor-Am race series in Silver Star, British Columbia, on the day Randall won a sprint race in Davos, Switzerland. Well, it was daytime in Davos. it was the middle of the night in Silver Star.
"(The races) happen early enough in the morning that the athletes are still asleep so I watch them alone, but that Sunday’s sprint was a little unique in that the finals were on at 6 a.m., so it worked out perfect," Flora said. "I watched the qualifying rounds, where were much earlier, then I was going to pick up the wax technician where the men’s team was staying and watch the finals with the men’s team. everyone was really excited. before I arrived, I had plenty of text messages — "Hurry up!"
"it brings such a positive energy to our team when we wake up in the morning and our athletes overseas are racing so strong."
We talked with Flora about the international impact the APU program and athletes are making and what the future may hold.
Q: What’s it like for other skiers to see what Randall and Brooks and Bjornsen are doing?
A: The biggest thing that happens is they gain confidence. A year ago Sadie and Holly were both in the SuperTour field. to be one of the athletes who was racing against them last year see them this year making these great successes inspires them that they’re on the right track.
It’s a lot different than a few years ago when no U.S. athletes were in that top position. they didn’t have that same feeling. now everyone has been in the same field racing against Kikkan, Sadie and Holly.
Q: People with the U.S. Ski Team have mentioned that Kikkan is having a Pied Piper effect by attracting more kids to the sport. Do you see that happening?
A: Kikkan’s effect brings a lot of excitement. and it’s a confidence thing too. this idea of being a World Cup champion or being a professional athlete, before it was a foreign idea, and now you watch it happen. (Kids here) all get to see Kikkan, and here’s this pro athlete, and it starts looking like a viable thing to follow. The biggest thing is her success is bringing (nordic skiing) more in the public eye, and it gives the kids confidence to chase after it.
We’ve had a lot of success within our APU women’s elite team, with Sadie and Holly and Morgan Smyth and Katie Ronsse and lots of others, and I think (confidence) is a lot of it. maybe it’s their first time racing against Kikkan and they think, oh my goodness, she’s so much above our level. then they start training with her, and somewhere in that training year they get a glimpse — "I can hold on. I can hold on to her for 30 seconds, well, I’ll try for 45 seconds next time."
That confidence is absolutely critical. A lot of the reason behind our success is they start to see, "yes I can do this."
Q: how critical is Eagle Glacier (APU’s training facility near Girdwood) to this success?
A: It is absolutely critical. It’s amazing that we’ve developed one athlete capable of being a World Cup skier, but now to have Sadie and Holly climbing to the top levels, everything we have adds up to that — the ski community in Anchorage, the facilities at Hilltop and Kincaid, and then Eagle Glacier.
A few years back I was looking at other programs internationally and the one thing that stood out was internationally people were skiing more throughout the year than we were. So we really pushed how much time we spend on the glacier. this summer was one of our record years on the glacier (about one week each month). It’s like magic for working on technique, for having athletes ski high volumes, to get a little altitude training. It’s good on the body, easy on the joints, and we can just train and prepare a large amount. The opportunity to change and improve technique is really good on the glacier.
without the glacier we could still reach high levels, but with the glacier we’re able to be competitive internationally.
Q: National team coaches have singled out APU for its role in developing and training Randall and Brooks. What does that praise mean to you?
A: Seeing those comments confirms the energy we’ve put forward (to be) cooperative in our coaching and training (with the U.S. Ski Team). We’re training here in the summer and fall, and at some point those athletes need to step up and join the national team and be racing internationally.
We had two goals this year. one is to have our coaches help more with Alaska development and spread out into high school programs. The other one is for me to be more involved with the U.S. Ski Team. As part of that we’ve extended invitations to skiers all over country to come ski on the glacier. That’s one of our greatest ways of helping the U.S.
Q: you also have a wax technician, Casey Fagerquist, who is working with the U.S. team in Europe, right?
A: Casey has been developing as a wax technician for us the last few years, and he’s taking the next step and working on the World Cup. He’s been gradually increasing his role with the national team — he worked with U-23 team for a couple years — but this is the first time he’s been on the World Cup.
A lot of our motivation for having wax techs on the (national) team is when our athletes get over there, (waxing) is a very important part of the racing process. So having someone you know is incredibly comforting.
right now we’ll get him back, but we hope he continues working on the World Cup in the future.
Q: What are the plans now for Randall, Brooks and Bjornsen?
A: Kikkan is staying (in Europe). one of our goals this year was to keep her on the World Cup for the full year. It’s a stepping process to go over and live for a period in Europe, it takes getting used to, and she’s learning to ski a longer and longer season. Because her training base has been improving every year, it makes sense for her to go over for the entire year.
for Kikkan, it was time to start working on how she can do on the overall rankings. by contrast, Sadie was there for Period 1 (the first five weeks of the World Cup season) and now she’s home and she’ll do some training and then go back.
for Holly, last year she won the overall SuperTour, which gave her the opportunity to race in Period 1. We didn’t know there would be any opportunity for her to stay past (last) weekend, but because of her exceptional showing she has been invited to stay for the Tour de Ski. it was quite an accomplishment.
She has very much skied her way into this opportunity. Holly really has a strong background in high volume training and I’m confident she’s going to get stronger and stronger. The more experience she can have in Europe the better her racing will be.
Q: As a member of the U.S. Ski Team and a top-30 skier in the World Cup standings, much of Kikkan’s expenses are taken care of. how about Holly and Sadie?
A: Sadie’s World Cup experience was totally funded by Sadie. That’s different from a lot of countries — in most countries you would have national-team funding for a silver medalist like Sadie. but they moneys just aren’t available from (the U.S. Skiing and Snowboarding Association).
Holly is (last season’s) overall Super Tour winner so her Period 1 has some financial support from the FIS (International Ski Federation). not 100 percent, but a percentage of it.
APU is raising money to try to help them with expenses. (World Cup) expenses is not one of our normal things to cover. The nice part about it is our athletes are outstanding — athletically they have great results, but there’s also all the community work they’ve done. they make going out and trying to find money a little easier.
Reach Beth Bragg at or 257-4335.
Have you read or watched any of these new releases? Would you recommend them to others? Share your comments with us. by Observer Staff
