Sophie Hamilton

If you are a beginner on roller skis, it's best to get a pair with brakes. For those without brakes, the most important thing is to scout the route before going and look for any hills that may be too steep or fast. Additionally, there are some makeshift techniques, such as dragging your poles or performing a snow plow, that can help slow down the roller skis.
 
Transcript: "How do you stop on roller skis? This is a great question and there are a lot of different types of rollers. He's out there and some have brakes. And so if you're a beginner on roller skis, I would definitely highly recommend getting a pair that has brakes on them. We usually trained on roller skis that didn't have brakes and so there was no obvious stopping mechanism. And so I would say the most important thing for us was really scouting Our Roots before we went on them and our coaches would usually go out and make sure every Hill ran out. There was a flatter and Uphill after the downhill, and you wouldn't get going too fast because we didn't have brakes to stop ourselves. There are also some pretty funny techniques. You can do like a kind of a makeshift snow plow and roller skis. So there are ways to dragging your poles. There ways to slow yourselves down but yeah, most rulers, he's we use, did not have A braking system."

For young skiers under 8 years old, it is better for them to ski on fish scales rather than skins. Fish scales provide a reliable kick and allows them to learn classic technique, whereas skins can be faster but also slicker in certain conditions.
 
Transcript: "The question is, is it developmentally better for young skiers around you, 8 age to ski on fish scales or skins? Great question. I think both fish scales and skins have come a long way in the last few years. I think for that young of age, you know, under 8 years old, I would almost leaned towards fish scales. I think at that age, the goal should be to give them bomb-proof kick and skins can be a lot faster in some conditions. But There are also slick in some conditions. I think, at that age, putting them on fish gills, that always give them good kick and let them get the hang of the classic technique is probably the way to go and then maybe you can shift to skin skis, once they're a little older and I know they're trying to make some skin skis more like race caliber skis, but I think at that young of an age, slapping him on the pair of fish scales is perfect."

I have become good friends with a few international athletes, particularly a French national team skier that I met while attending a camp in New Zealand. We have stayed in touch and I have visited her family in France. Now we stay connected by sending photos of our children back and forth.
 
Transcript: "Are there any athletes of the years that you've become good friends with? I became good friends with a lot of athletes on on my team, but I think it was also fun to become close with a couple of the other International athletes. In particular, one of my good friends was a French national team skier and she came over and came to one of our camps and New Zealand One Summer and we just hit it off and got along really well and stayed in touch and I ended up going to visit her and her family over in France in the summer and we've just become very close and I think we remain friends for the left the rest of our lives these days it's more like sending photos of our children back and forth but I really value our friendship and that was formed through ski racing. And there are a couple other stories like that becoming friends with International Racers, which is a lot of fun."

I forgot my skis when traveling to the Olympics, but luckily a teammate brought them for me later.
 
Transcript: "My worst travel experience was actually when I forgot to bring my skis to my first Olympics in 2014, I had qualified for the Olympics in Sochi and we were going through processing and Munich and I was pretty shy and nervous. And I think I just, I assumed that our texts were packing our skis and text assumed, we were packing our skis, but I guess maybe I was too shy to clarify or confirm that. And when we, Arrived in Sochi, I did not have my skis and I was absolutely mortified. Luckily the Nordic combined team was coming a couple days later and and they brought my skis for me and no one made me feel too bad about it but that was definitely a pretty embarrassing bad travel experience for me."

Double pole and stride are the most common techniques used in sprint racing, but doppel kick can be a great transitional technique between the two for when you're starting to get bogged down double polling but it's still a bit too flat to stride.
 
Transcript: "When should I do for kick during a race? Great question. And as I was mostly a Sprint racer on the World Cup and I have to admit that, I rarely used double pull kick Sprinter. So short that I think I tried to transition between techniques as as little as possible because each transition takes some time. And so as a result I was mostly double polling and striding and in Classics Prints, but now has retired athlete. I find myself using dope. We'll kick a lot more. My upper body isn't quite as strong and so I can't double pull everything. I used to double pole and I find up old kick to be a great technique, gradual ups and just a great transitional technique between double colon striding. And I think it's also used quite a bit in distance racing. I think it's a great technique for when you're starting to get bogged down double coin but it's still a little too flat to stride."

I use the Polar Vantage watch when I train because it's simple and has everything I need without extra functions that I don't use.
 
Transcript: "What watch do. I use when I train? I've been using the polar Vantage for a long time. Now I feel like it's pretty simple and has everything I need, but doesn't have too much of what I don't need. I think sometimes watches have a lot of different functions on them now that I personally don't use and so sometimes that can just make a watch that I feel is too big or I just don't utilize everything. It has to offer. So So I find that the polar Vantage has everything I need, and no more than that and I really like the size and the look of it."