An Introduction!

Yesterday may have been a bit confusing for some – I really didn’t announce my presence very well.

My name is Kieran Jones – if you are a regular FasterSkier reader, you may recognize it from my by-line as the Canadian guy, or most recently from a sojourn to Dusseldorf, Germany, and Davos, Switzerland, for the World Cup action there. If you’re into that sort of thing, check out my race report from the sprint in Davos, which I happen to think is the best thing I have ever written for FasterSkier, despite what some others feel.

I’ve also done the FasterSkier World Cup preview series two consecutive years, and while it hasn’t made me any better at predicting results, it has made very familiar with the FIS database, using Google Translate, and the fact that the Norwegian Sprintgutta website is perhaps the most ridiculous in existence.

Joining the Nordic Commetary Project seemed like the natural choice for me because it’s owners have offered me the use of the company Learjet, a million dollars in small unmarked bills, and access to a fridge full of cold beers, something which FasterSkier refused to furnish. But I’m limiting myself to a few Half Arsed Predictions TM, some random musings, but not much more.

What’s my story?

I’m Canadian, and sucked hard at skiing for a significant portion of my career, but I love it, so there’s that. Go ahead, make fun of me for it – you can’t say anything worse about my skiing ability than I already have, and I guarantee you I coach a junior girl that is faster than you if you really want to get into that pissing match.

I recently departed FasterSkier due to a hectic winter schedule that his me appearing in no fewer places than U.S. Nationals in Rumford, ME, an Ontario Cup in Thunder Bay, ON, Canadian World Junior Trials in Callahan Valley, BC, and Canadian Nationals in Quebec City, QC as my role of coach of the Nakkertok L2C program demands.

I’ll also bring my self-deprecating sense of humor, a rack of hopefully-cool pictures, and a massive love of World Cup skiing in general.

Enjoy the show!

Half Arsed Predictions

In my first outing, I did not too badly. My women all finished in the top 10, which was handy, but I was stung by my gut feeling that the Canadians have to get a medal soon, as Kershaw dropped to 16th, and my belief in Roenning's ability to classic ski.

For tomorrow, barring unforseen circumstances, I can't see anyone beating Kikkan Randall. Trust me, she's just that good right now. Mens sprinting is notoriously fickle, but Emil was impressively on his game last weekend given the fact that he had a nasty injury, and I think a week to train and get his sea legs under him won't have hurt - update - Joensson isn't racing, and I'm a hack and can't get in and change my World of XC predictions, but here in writing, I'm going to replace the Swede big man with Teodor Petersen. Yup, off the list to first in one fell swoop - nice work, T.Pete.

Here goes nothing...