SMS coach Alex Jospe is one of three New England coaches awarded a 2024-25 Trail to Gold fellowship by The National Nordic Foundation, The Olympic Women’s Book Project, the Women’s Ski Coaches Association, and the U.S. Ski Team. A continuation of the Trail to Gold Olympic Book Project, the T2G Program funds World Cup coaching grants to talented women coaches, allowing them to join the US Ski Team coaching staff during the course of the World Cup season. Here she shares her reflections on this experience and the lessons she brings to the athletes who have the privilege to work with her at SMS and at NENSA. Congratulations, Alex!
I am sitting in a flying tube somewhere over the North Atlantic, en route home from a whirlwind week coaching at the Tour de Ski. My younger self had no idea that future-Alex was going to do something this cool in her life! I was granted the opportunity to take part in this fellowship program known as the Trail to Gold, a brainchild of the National Nordic Foundation and the Women’s Ski Coach Association.
The Tour de Ski, for anyone who hasn’t followed this sport as avidly as the true nerds, is a stage race in Central Europe, modeled after the Tour de France, but scaled back and smooshed into the regular World Cup season. What started as nine races spanning three countries and 12 days has been streamlined in the last two decades to seven races, two locations, and nine days. Despite the narrowing of scope, the Tour still represents a huge feat of endurance, logistics, and energy management to complete, and the athletes are now at a carefully managed “recovery camp” to ensure that their bone-deep exhaustion from completing this beast turns into a supercompensation bump, rather than a season-ending dysfunctional overreach. The techs… are probably managing their own recovery camps, after doing 20+ km of glideouts each morning!
Somewhere along the way, I started to pick up on a central theme. The team culture currently in place on the US Ski Team is no accident – it is a deliberate practice of excellence, in every aspect, led by Matt Whitcomb (an SMS alum!). The higher an athlete rises in sport, the broader their network of support, and it was a true pleasure to get to be part of such a large, integrated, and positive team. I get to watch Jessie and Julia and Ben train in the summer with the SMS T2 Elite Team when they train with our SMS juniors, so I am well aware of how much work these athletes are putting in, but it becomes so clear that it’s not just the athletes doing athletic things that puts them on the podium. From a nutritionist who wrangled Italian chefs into feeding us at very American suppertimes, to a masseuse, a PT, and a doctor who donated their limited vacation time to come here and work to the bone, to two professional coaches, seven professional wax techs, one Trail to Gold fellow, and a slew of diehard friends and family cheering wildly, it really takes a village.
You can list out the roles in that village, put the schedule on the wall, and hit the play button. Very functional. Very efficient. But when each little villager takes the effort to truly buy in, the music feels louder and the colors look brighter. Despite the exhaustion that was creeping through each and every one of the villagers, and the athletes are central to that statement, the vibes were great. I heard giggles, and gentle ribbing, and saw tears get hugged away, and thank-yous meant from the heart, and illness met with kindness and support. In the wax truck, I was surprised (though I shouldn’t have been) by the frank and open debriefs at the end of the day. Techs would share what they thought worked, what didn’t, things they were psyched for. And, importantly, nobody shied away from admitting a mistake if they thought they made one. But what truly warmed my heart was the passing of the trophy. I don’t know its heritage, but there is this janky wood and plastic trophy that might be a pair of skis (?), that lives in the truck. And you can award it to anyone who deserves some recognition for the day. This part is important – you need to award it unironically, and the recipient has to give a speech. There is also a backup trophy, which appears to be a hockey puck, that can be given to multiple people on a given day. No speech required with the backup trophy. It’s the little things like this that help create an environment where each villager feels supported, encouraged to speak their mind, and ready to give their all. This is a similar vein of our primary team culture goal at SMS, where every team member should feel valued and supported. That environment is part of the foundation for each athlete’s success.
Of course a race has winners and losers. Your name on a results sheet is pretty cut and dry, and even if you have cultivated the mindset where you can celebrate the small wins, any racer is bound to be disappointed some days. This is magnified when it’s your job to ski, and it takes a lot of mental fortitude to turn around a disappointment for another race in less than 24 hours. But I watched the athletes (and techs!) manage that feat, and their villagers supported them in the little ways they could, time and again. In addition to all the new technical ski service knowledge, I think these are the lessons I take forward with me to the SMS junior team and beyond. In the end, the Tour de Ski was just another set of ski races, but watching the USST functioning from within was an experience that sets it apart. Thank you to everyone in my village for making the trip possible for me!
