American team named for Nordic Worlds

“We have a great team of athletes who have taken a very professional approach to training and building upon last season.”

US Paralympics, a division of the United States Olympic Committee, has announced its roster of nine US athletes who will represent Team USA at the IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Cable, Wisconsin, from 24 January - 1 February.

The Championships will mark the third time the United States has hosted the event. More than 150 athletes from 20 countries are expected to compete.

“We are thrilled about the rare opportunity to race in the World Championships at home,” said John Farra, High Performance Director for US Paralympics Nordic skiing. “Central Cross-Country skiing and the Cable Organising Committee have invested a great deal to hold two great World Cups and now a World Championships event, and we are thrilled to bring them a strong Team USA.“

All nine members of the US team also competed at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. Oksana Masters and Tatyana McFadden won a combined three medals to lead a revived US programme that tripled in size since the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

“We have a great team of athletes who have taken a very professional approach to training and building upon last season,” said US Nordic Head Coach Eileen Carey. “We are thrilled to get another chance to test out some of our training and racing strategies, ultimately focused on improving in each race. Having the opportunity to do that on home snow is a great bonus for us.”

Masters won silver and bronze in Sochi and has already had a strong 2014-15 campaign with three medals at the World Cup opener in Finland in December. Masters won gold in the 1km cross-country sprint sitting, silver in the biathlon 6km biathlon sitting and silver in the 5km cross-country sitting.

"I raced in Cable for my first World Cup, a few weeks after I started skiing in 2013,” Masters said. “It will be a good challenge for me to see what I have learned since then. And hopefully I’ll come out of it with fewer broken poles."

Cable 2015 will also mark the competitive return to Nordic skiing for McFadden, who won silver in the 1km cross-country sprint sitting in Sochi. McFadden went on to defend her grand slam of marathons as she returned to the roads to win the London, Boston, Chicago and New York City marathons in 2014. McFadden was slated to return to Nordic competition at the US Paralympics Nordic Skiing Nationals, but was unable to compete due to illness.

Andy Soule leads the men’s team as a 2010 Paralympic bronze medallist. Soule did not miss a single shot during Sochi 2014, and he was on the cusp of the podium with two fourth place finishes.

Dan Cnossen also looks to be a strong contender after notching two first place wins at the US Paralympics Nordic Skiing Nationals last week in Midway, Utah. Cnossen won the men’s short and sprint cross-country sitting races, while he finished as the runner-up to Soule in the long distance cross-country and biathlon sprint races.

There are five active duty or retired military veterans on the US roster, with two from the Army, and one each from the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy.

The Championships begin on Saturday, 24 January, with the sprint biathlon race, and run through to Monday, February. All races are free and open to the public. For more information on the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships, visit Cable 2015 .

US roster for the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships

Women

Oksana Masters

Tatyana McFadden

Men

Omar Bermejo

Lt. Cmdr. Dan Cnossen

Sean Halstead

Augusto Perez

Aaron Pike

Bryan Price

Andy Soule