Miscellaneous
A conversation with John Caldwell, the 'Father' of Nordic skiing in the U.S. John competed in the 1952 Olympics in Nordic Combined and coached the U.S. Ski Team and the U.S. Olympic Team at the 1960, '64, '68, '72 and '84 Games. He coached Nordic and taught math at The Putney School from the mid 1950s until his retirement in 1989. His athletes at The Putney School included Bob Gray ('68 and '72 Olympics), Martha Rockwell ('72 and '76), Mike Gallagher ('64, '68 and '72), his son Tim Caldwell (4-time Olympian and World Cup podium skier) and Bill Koch (the only American to have won an Olympic medal in cross country skiing). John authored The Cross Country Ski Book which sold over half a million copies and helped popularize cross country skiing in America. He founded the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) and was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. He has 2 grandchildren currently on the U.S. Ski Team and his nephew, Zach Caldwell, is my coach. In early August John was interviewed by Jason Albert of FasterSkier.com for the Nordic Nation podcast. In this conversation I tried not to replicate what Jason did, so I focused my questions on things that are more personal to me. I also kept it casual. You can find Jason's conversation with John here: http://fasterskier.com/fsarticle/nordic-nation-calling-john-caldwell/