Zak Ketterson: The Pressure to Finally Break Through
Show notes
Too much snow cancels a ski camp. Naturally, we end up at Zak Ketterson’s house talking about how to save skiing. Just another week on Skirious Problems.
Zak joins Mika and Jimmy from somewhere approximately halfway up the atmosphere above Holmenkollen, where every session ends with a massive uphill and his wife Julie occasionally operates the rescue service. We talk moving from Minnesota to Norway, juggling three teams, and how long your partner should reasonably have to wait for that “breakthrough season.”
Then we get into what actually made Zak faster. Spoiler: it wasn’t a secret Norwegian interval session. We discuss his four-day training cycle, ditching heavy gym work, and why sometimes the best thing you can do is ignore the plan. There’s also the slightly uncomfortable experience of winning a big roller-ski race and suddenly having everyone tell you that you’re definitely getting a World Cup podium this winter. No pressure, mate.
Obviously, we also solve all of cross-country skiing’s problems. Why make races easy to watch when you could hide them behind an expensive subscription? Why race in front of excited American fans when you could argue about another European venue? And why spend money growing the sport when you could buy an even bigger wax truck? Some very calm, measured opinions all round.
Plus: Jimmy gets his ankles broken playing basketball before a World Cup, Zak explains that people can apparently have a personality outside skiing, and Mika considers taking up golf after discovering that it involves getting angry and occasionally having a drink. Finally, Zak tells us about the Norwegian skier who introduced himself as his biggest fan—then went straight onto the podium. The admiration quickly became mutual.
Training nerds, ski-politics enthusiasts and anyone waiting for Mika to find a hobby: this one’s for you.
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