Here’s a roundup of �ֲ���ý-relates Olympic news from home and abroad.

Emily Bamford ’15

Australian Olympic skier Emily Bamford ’15 talks with reporters about her preparations for her events. If you thought snow was snow, she notes that the Sochi snow “is really different from what we had in Europe. It’s taking some getting used to.”

At one point she references salt, which is sometimes applied to a course on a warm day though it seems counter-intuitive. The salt thaws the snow, which then refreezes into a harder and more consistent surface.

Her events, the giant slalom and slalom, are scheduled for Feb. 18 and 21, respectively.

Amy Bass ’92

Amy Bass ’92 is a scholar of the Olympics and professor of history at the College of New Rochelle.

A scholar of the Olympics and an Emmy-winning researcher for NBC Sports, Amy Bass ’92 recently penned essays for about the political backdrop of the Sochi Games and for on the apparent devaluation of bronze and silver — at least in terms of Olympic medals.

For all the criticisms of Russian politics and calls for a boycott, critics forget that “the Olympics have never been a freezing of world politics, but, rather, an opportunity to cut through the horror with moments of greatness,” she writes.

Still, “it is naive to think that sport is above politics, that any kind of level playing field exists, or that sport allows the world to put its problems on hold.”

Writing for CNN Opinion, Bass says that even for medal contenders who fall short, it is “enough just to be there.” Yet for others, winning a gold medal is all there is.

Bass, professor of history and director of the Honors Program at the College of New Rochelle, has worked eight Olympics for NBC Sports. She supervised the Research Room for the 2012 Summer Games in London, winning an Emmy along with her team.

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Erica Rand

The college’s Whitehouse Professor, Erica Rand is an avid figure skater, shown here doing a catch-foot spiral. (Mike Bradley/�ֲ���ý College)

�ֲ���ý professor and cultural critic Erica Rand is an amateur figure skater who wrote Red Nails Black Skates: Gender, Cash, and Pleasure On and Off the Ice, a book that brings her academic expertise about sexuality, race and gender to bear on the curiously gendered world of figure skating.

Writing for the , Rand comments about the selection process that snubbed skater Mirai Nagasu, noting that the three skaters chosen over her “have a key credential that Nagasu lacks: the glorious glow of flowing blond hair that signals, if not always accurately, the highest echelons of whiteness and proper heterosexual femininity.”

Rand, the college’s Whitehouse Professor, has appointments in the Department of Art and Visual Culture and the Program in Women and Gender Studies.

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Peter Carlisle ’91 is the managing director for Olympic and action sports for Octagon. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Peter Carlisle ’91

Sports agent Peter Carlisle ’91 is once again at the Olympic Games.

Carlisle to Portland Press Herald columnist Steve Solloway about the feel of the Games.

The security presence in Sochi, he says, is like Goldbug, the little creature found on each page of Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. “Sometimes it’s hard to locate, but it’s always there,” said Carlisle.

Carlisle represents snowboarder Kelly Clark, among other athletes. In this prior to the games, Carlisle comments on the drive his client possesses.

 

 

�ֲ���ý student Emily Bamford ’15 pulled an all-nighter on Monday, but it wasn’t for studies. She stayed up waiting to hear if she’d been selected to the Australian Olympic team.

At 9:47 a.m. (in Austria, where she’s been competing), Bamford got the word: She’d been selected.

Or, as she emailed �ֲ���ý head coach Rogan Connell, “I’m in!!!”

Bamford is the 11th Bobcat Olympian, and with her selection, �ֲ���ý has now been represented in five straight Olympic Games. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

“I’m so psyched for Emily,” said Connell. “I think walking into the stadium for the opening ceremonies is going to be one of the coolest feelings she’ll ever have.”

A nationally ranked Australian junior skier growing up, Bamford competed on the �ֲ���ý alpine ski team in 2012 and 2013 before taking this year off to pursue her Olympic dream.

“She made a big decision last summer, and it has worked well for everybody,” Connell said. “I think it’s just awesome. Not many people get to represent their country at the Olympics.”

“It just proves that we compete at an extremely high level.”

Emily Bamford ’15

Connell notes that quite a few skiers in Sochi will come from the ranks of �ֲ���ý’ ski conference, the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association. “It’s pretty cool to see,” he said. “It just proves that we compete at an extremely high level.”

Bamford is the 11th Bobcat Olympian and the first alpine skier, and with her selection �ֲ���ý has now been represented in dating back to the 2006 Winter Games in Turin when Nordic skier Justin Freeman ’98 represented the U.S.

Bamford will also be the first �ֲ���ý student to compete in the Olympics. Arnold Adams ’33 was a student when he was selected to the U.S. track and field team for the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics but did not compete due to injury.

Connell expects that Bamford will compete in the giant slalom and slalom events, Feb. 11 and 14, respectively.

Emily Bamford ’15 zooms past a gate in the giant slalom at the NCAA East Regional Meet in February 2013. (Photo: Cory Ransom)

Bamford and fellow skier Lavinia Chrystal had to wait until Monday to learn of their selection after two male Australian skiers appealed the team’s nomination of three female alpine skiers to the team. The appeal was turned down, and Bamford and Chrystal now join Greta Small on the alpine team.

“I know Emily’s very excited and very relieved to be done with the process,” said Connell.

How excited? Bamford of herself and Chrystal jumping for joy. And she , “I’M GOING TO SOCHI! Cant wait to wear green and gold!I!!!!”

�ֲ���ý’ other 2014 Olympic contender, Sylvan Ellefson ’09, impressed observers by winning the U.S. Cross Country Championship 30K freestyle race earlier in January but he was not selected to the U.S. Olympic team.

In this audio slideshow, �ֲ���ý skiers Emily Bamford ’15 and Avril Dunleavy ’15 talk about life as an alpine skier at �ֲ���ý:

https://vimeo.com/69562041

Sylvan Ellefson ’09 and Emily Bamford ’15 share a pedigree as Bobcat skiers, but they’re taking very different trails toward their goal of skiing at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Olympic hopeful Emily Bamford ’15 is on leave from �ֲ���ý this year as she seeks a spot on the Australian Olympic team. (Photo: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Their paths are, quite literally, polar opposites.

An Alpine skier, is from Melbourne, Australia, and she’s been a member of the Australian national ski team since she was 16.

Ellefson is a Nordic skier from Vail, Colo. Though he did earn All-America honors as a �ֲ���ý skier, he graduated with little hope of achieving success as a professional skier, and he’s never been a member of the U.S. ski team.

Emily Bamford ’15 zooms past a gate in the giant slalom at the NCAA East Regional Meet in February 2013. (Photo: Cory Ransom)

Their paths and backgrounds differ. But, say their �ֲ���ý coaches, what they share besides �ֲ���ý is a decent chance at earning berths on their respective Olympic teams, both of which will be chosen in January.

On leave from �ֲ���ý this winter, Bamford is training with other Aussie skiers in Colorado, where her most recent effort was a 27th, the third Australian skier, in a slalom race.

“Emily is going to be ranked either the second or third skier from Australia,” says Rogan Connell, head coach of the �ֲ���ý alpine program. “If she is second, she is guaranteed to make the Olympics.”

Follow the hopefuls on Twitter: Ellefson , Bamford .

Emily Bamford ’15

And if she is ranked third, “she would need help,” Connell says, from complex selection criteria that can expand or limit the number of athletes a country can send to the Olympics.

Connell describes Bamford as a “talented athlete, hard worker and determined person.”

Though he’s lost a top skier for the year, Connell says it was a no-brainer when it came to offering his unconditional encouragement.

For one thing, he asks rhetorically, “How many opportunities does someone get to represent their country in the Olympics?” Second, he notes, a current �ֲ���ý student earning an Olympic berth would spell gold for the �ֲ���ý skiing program from a recruiting perspective.

If Bamford is something of an insider, Ellefson has been knocking at the door.

Never named to the U.S. Ski Team, he’s had to fund his training and equipment himself. He works as a property manager part-time, and gets support from 22 sponsors, big names like Fischer and L.L.Bean and hometown Vail supporters like Happy Valley Grill and Big Delicious Catering.

Olympic hopeful Sylvan Ellefson ’09. (Photo: Steve Fuller ’82)

He races under the name Team HomeGrown, an elite-level club begun in 2009 by Ellfeson and his ski buddies, part of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail.

However unconventional his route, Ellefson can ski, and he gets faster and faster each year.

Doing very well in Super Tour races in 2011-12 allowed him to jump to the elite World Cup circuit, and he raced in Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

“It’s super exciting,” Ellefson told the “It’s definitely something you have to get used to, though. Every week you’re racing Saturday and Sunday and you’re traveling between 300 miles and 2,000 miles.”

His former �ֲ���ý coach, Becky Flynn Woods ’89, says that World Cup experience is a big plus when it comes time for the U.S. Ski Team to select its Olympians.

Experience aside, “in reality his selection will come down to points earned in races and slots available,” the latter determined by complex selection criteria, as is the case with Bamford.

Ellefson competes at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in 2012 at Black Mountain in Rumford. (Photo: Steve Fuller ’82)

Ellefson has one clear route to the Olympic team: win a race at the in Soldier Hollow, Utah, during the second week of January. “If he wins, he’s likely to go” to Sochi, Woods says. A win is not out of the question, as Ellefson snagged a bronze at the 2012 championships.

Racing in North America this year, Ellefson picked up points as the second American, and third skier overall, in a 15k Super Tour race at West Yellowstone, Mont., three weeks ago. He skipped a subsequent Super Tour race in Bozeman due to extreme cold weather, then finished fourth in a Rossland, British Columbia, race last weekend, Dec. 14 and 15.

Woods says that skipping Bozeman was the right thing to do. “I think he’s still in a good place, and racing in extreme cold can really compromise your immune system. Given what he has to do in the next few weeks, he can’t risk that.”