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.

 

 

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.”

(For race results from the World Championships, go to the site and scoll down to “Cross Country.”)

Classmates Justin Freeman ’98 and Dave Chamberlain ’98 are members of the U.S. cross country team competing in the World Championships Feb. 18-March 1 at Val di Fiemme, Italy. Freeman and Chamberlain join Nancy Ingersoll Fiddler ’78 as the only �ֲ���ý alumni to represent the United States at a Winter Olympics or World Championships.

“This is incredible for our program and for collegiate skiing,” said Nordic ski coach Becky Woods. “Justin and Dave were standout student-athletes here at �ֲ���ý. They are humble, down to earth and set great examples.”

The World Championships team, in many respects a precursor to the Olympic team, comprises eight men and five women and all but three have international competition experience. Chamberlain, a Rumford native, competed in the 2001 World Championships while Andover, N.H., native Freeman will be making his first appearance for Team USA, He joins his brother, Kris, who competed in the 2002 Olympics and the 2001 World Championships.

Although being named to the World Championship team does not guarantee selection to the 2006 Olympic team, there is a high probability of seeing Freeman and Chamberlain in Turin, Italy, in three years, Woods says.

“We are so proud to be represented on the World Championships team by Justin and Dave,” said Director of Athletics Suzanne Coffey. “These two men are shining examples of what can be achieved when you combine the rewards of a �ֲ���ý education with the hard work and dedication it takes to be a world-class competitor.”

At �ֲ���ý, Freeman, an honors major in mathematics and physics, and Chamberlain, a mathematics major, earned NCAA All-America honors and participated in NCAA national championships. “It was at �ֲ���ý where Justin and Dave got to compete and succeed against other colleges that have predominantly foreign rosters,” said Woods. “That gave them the realization that they could take it to the next level.”