U.S. Ski Team – Flyingpointroad Blog

Accreditation-1-Edit While I’ve (obviously) been planning this trip for a while, it wasn’t “official” until my credentials arrived this morning. (Long story. The good news is that it was spelled right.)

Truly looking forward to this trip. My assignment in Pyeongchang is to shoot all the nordic events — a US cross-country team with a chance of making history, biathlon with Americans defending World Championship gold and silver as well as nordic combined / jumping teams that could provide a few surprises.

On a more personal level, it’s incredible to think that I’ve known & photographed many of these athletes for decades through coaching here in Maine, my work with the New England Nordic Ski Association, the National Nordic Foundation and L.L.Bean’s U.S. Ski Team partnership. It’s a privilege to be part of their Olympic journey.

Out of respect for the people who are helping to make this trip happen (and fear of getting tangled in the IOC’s considerable rules governing photographs), I won’t be posting to flyingpointroad.com during the Olympics. At this point, here’s where you can follow along :

www.fasterskier.com – This site will have full coverage of all the nordic races.
Alaska Pacific University – I’m helping them with coverage of their athletes. They’re planning frequent email / social blasts.
Here on the blog. I’ll publish additional photos, some behind the scenes material and — with any luck — alpine, freestyle and other events that I hope to shoot. (flyingpointroad’s chief meteorologist highly recommends the Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe.)
Occasionally to the @flyingpoint instagram and twitter accounts.

Some of you know that one of my first jobs was as a photo stringer for the Lewiston Sun Journal here in Maine. Really cool to add the Olympics to that resume.

And with that question from FasterSkier editor, Alex Kochon on June 30th, this next adventure began.

To be honest, the idea of going to South Korea had come up in an earlier conversation. Tom Kelly, the venerable press officer of the U.S. Ski Team had mentioned earlier in the Spring that he might be able find an extra “EP” credential — the prized photo pass — if I thought I’d like to shoot the events. The normal procedure requires an application two years prior to Opening Ceremonies, but Tom is part magician and thought he could expedite the process. I was in the middle of a work project and never followed-up on the offer.

So it was an easy decision when Alex reached out. Turns out it was the same pass that Tom floated earlier. I’d be responsible for shooting all the cross-country, biathlon and nordic combined races for Fasterskier. I’d go as part of a three person team — Jason Albert and Chelsea Little. Jason is best known for his fantastic Nordic Nation podcast. And Chelsea has been part of Fasterskier for as long as I can remember. Now a doctoral candidate in Switzerland, she’s has also become one of the most knowledgeable writers on PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) and doping in sport.

On my end, I’d need to clear it with a few folks. February is a busy time across my assorted responsibilities. But as Stephen Kircher – the CEO of Boyne Resorts told me — “Once in a lifetime opportunities don’t come around too often.”

So it’s off to PyeongChang in February. In the meantime, I’ll keep this blog — somehow I think this will be a process worth remembering.

Tag: U.S. Ski Team

It’s official.

“Any interest in shooting the Olympics for us?”