{"id":210087,"date":"2024-08-06T15:31:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T19:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/?p=210087"},"modified":"2024-08-06T15:56:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T19:56:14","slug":"getting-to-know-fin-bailey-one-of-the-newest-members-of-the-stifel-u-s-ski-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/2024\/08\/getting-to-know-fin-bailey-one-of-the-newest-members-of-the-stifel-u-s-ski-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting to Know Fin Bailey: One of the Newest Members of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New England’s Fin Bailey (SMST2 \/ University of Vermont) won his third consecutive JNs sprint title in the U20 Boys race. (Photo: Philip Belena)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finnegan Bailey\u2014a resident of Landgrove, Vermont, and team member of SMST2 and the University of Vermont\u2014was selected this spring to become one of the newest members of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team at the staggering age of 18. So how\u2019d he do it?<\/span><\/p>\n

In the last twelve months, Finnegan (Fin) Bailey has received quite the accolades in the competitive nordic skiing scene. To name a few: he was named to the SMST2 club team, he won his first Super Tour race and he demolished the field at the 2024 Junior Nationals U20 sprints. So it\u2019s no surprise that Fin was amongst the latest batch of rising athletes selected to the Stifel U.S. Ski Team. While technically it\u2019s this last year’s performances that led to Bailey’s selection, his journey to the top level of American skiing is a lifetime in the making, and it\u2019s been filled with highs, lows, and lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n

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New England’s Fin Bailey (SMST2 \/ University of Vermont) crosses the line, Alaska Cup in hand, to win the U20 Team Relay at Junior Nationals in Lake Placid, New York. (Photo: Phillip Belena)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fin\u2019s father Jack is an alpine ski coach, so his exposure to snow sports didn\u2019t begin on nordic skis. He started skiing at the age of two\u2014alpine, that is\u2014before exploring the nordic world a year or two later. And he played other sports, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI played both soccer and baseball quite competitively. I\u2019ve played baseball since fourth grade, and I love it. I also played soccer all through my time at Stratton,\u201d Bailey said. Through last spring, Fin was a competing tri-sport athlete, and \u201cpretty happy that [he] wasn\u2019t solely focused on Nordic\u2026because (he) doesn\u2019t think that’s the best way to do it.\u201d During their respective seasons, Bailey said he was \u201ca lot more focused\u201d on those sports than he was on skiing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, despite his diverse athletic experience it\u2019s no secret that time on skis is a key ingredient to success, Bailey had plenty of it. But forget specific speed or endurance training: Bailey largely spent his time on skis having fun \u201cjibbing.\u201d What\u2019s jibbing? It can essentially be defined as hitting makeshift jumps and rails and doing things on nordic skis that aren\u2019t meant to be done on nordic skis. (Technically, there was one pair of nordic skis made with jibbing in mind \u2014 the discontinued Fischer Jibskates \u2014 but they were the exception rather than the rule.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A young Fin Bailey gets some style points with the grab. (Photo: Charles Swabey)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Asked how his \u201cjibbing career\u201d impacted his success on skis, Bailey lit up. \u201cThat\u2019s huge! That\u2019s all I remember and it’s how I started,\u201d he said. Fin skied for a ski club in the Bill Koch League (BKL) called West River up through the end of elementary school, and following every BKL race \u2014 which he\u2019d typically have won \u2014 Fin could be found handling the more important business of building and hitting massive jumps, throwing impressive grabs, spins, and even backflips. He credits his ability to move on skis largely to his youthful jibbing career.<\/span><\/p>\n

As he moved into the later years of elementary school, Fin, along with his group of friends dubbed \u201cThe Peru Crew” \u2014 Fin and his friends Wyatt Teaford, who skis for Bates College, and Chip Freeman, who skis for Williams College \u2014 began to take skiing and training more seriously under the tutelage of Vermont coaching legend Sverre Caldwell.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he got me into nordic skiing was probably the best way I could have been introduced to it,\u201d Bailey said. He credits Caldwell for guiding him from one step on his pathway to the next. Caldwell broadened his horizons from a passionate jibber into a more multi-dimensional skier who could have just as much fun in rollerski agility sessions that mixed \u201ctraining\u201d with the fun of jibbing. These sessions were also the first exposure that Bailey had to training alongside the Stratton teams. With Caldwell\u2019s guidance, Bailey began climbing SMS\u2019s ladder of programs, from winter-term all the way up to SMST2. Caldwell\u2019s influence, he said, was huge.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fin Bailey Racing for SMS at a Bill Koch Youth Ski League race at Prospect Mountain in Woodford, VT. (Photo: Charles Swabey)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere was no forcing or anything like that. He truly guided me into the SMS team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When Bailey arrived at the Stratton Mountain School, he kept a wide array of athletic interests but gradually became more serious about a future in skiing. He began to focus on training year round, and with this shift in mentality, his goals shifted beyond an aerial career and towards making it, as he remembers, \u201cas far as I can.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Finn Bailey racing alongside the author, Ollie Swabey from Williamstown, Mass., who will join the Bowdoin College Ski Team as a first year next month. (Photo: Charles Swabey)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fin describes himself as a \u201chugely competitive\u201d person, among other things, so it is no surprise that he aspired to the next level. But he was also exposed to that level early on, thanks to his upbringing in the stomping grounds of some of the best American nordic skiers of all time. During his time at West River and during the coined \u201cSverre agility sessions,\u201d he found himself surrounded by the likes of Simi Hamilton and Sophie Caldwell. More recently, during his time at SMS and later on SMST2, Fin has had the opportunity to train with Jesse Diggins, Ben Ogden, and Julia Kern, among other massive names in American skiing.<\/span><\/p>\n

If they served as Bailey\u2019s inspiration, it was largely subconscious.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I probably took it for granted,\u201d he said. It would really only hit him when he\u2019d take a step back and think, \u201cWow! I\u2019m training behind Jessie or Ben.\u201d But mostly it was just normal. Bailey does acknowledge that just being around professional skiers was massively influential in his development as a skier.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you aren\u2019t thinking about it, you\u2019re looking at what they do, watching their technique. Even if you aren\u2019t trying to, it’s just that when you look up to somebody like [I do], it’s natural. So, I think that without even thinking about it, just being around them made me better, my technique a lot better, and me a lot more invested in the sport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As he gains a greater understanding of the influence that high-level skiers have had on him, Bailey understands his own impact more, too, and wants to emphasize to younger, aspiring athletes the value of using knowledgeable, experienced, and more established (while still cool) skiers like himself as a resource.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it’s just great to reach out to anybody. Jessie and Ben and Julia\u2014they\u2019re so easy to talk to and they love sharing their experience,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody loves talking about themselves and what they know.\u201d Still, he stressed that young athletes should trust their instincts, too. \u201cFind what works for you, but you can base that off of what the more professional athletes do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bailey also made sure to note that even pros still have lessons to learn when asked about his skiing idol. His answer was Dartmouth junior Jack Lange, a teammate of his this summer as well as at SMS for a few years prior. Lange is an incredible distance skier, and splits from a large spread of races will tell you that he tends to get faster and faster throughout races. Bailey, on the contrary, is best known for his sprinting ability, and he made note of a dynamic between them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fin Bailey and Jack Lange cool off in Little Hosmer Pond after a NENSA roller-ski race earlier this summer at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Craftsbury, Vermont. (Photo: Phillip Belena)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe gains sprinting knowledge off of me, and I gain distance knowledge off of him.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Improving his distance skiing prowess is one of Fin\u2019s big goals for the future, especially as he overcomes a strange set-back from over-lifting. Yes, over-lifting is a thing in nordic skiing. \u201cTwo years, five-plus days in the gym a week, and I was just way too big to move my body in a 10k or a distance race,\u201d he said. \u201cThe gym has been like my safe space\u2026 and I\u2019ve had to totally dial it back. I\u2019m now at two times a week in the gym, just to translate that strength that I have now into using it in nordic skiing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This, believe it or not, has been \u201csuper hard\u201d for Bailey, but as much as he loves the gym, he also understands that \u201cyou eventually get to a point where you are building too much muscle, and you don\u2019t necessarily need that for nordic skiing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Staying consistent with an interview he gave at Junior Nationals a few years back, Fin also mentioned UNH incoming freshman David Shycon as one of his idols, noting that David is \u201csuch a happy kid\u201d and \u201calways himself.\u201d \u201cI love that about him,\u201d Bailey said.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s clear that Fin has done a lot right. What\u2019s the one thing he feels he\u2019s done exceptionally well in developing as a skier? As it turns out, it has nothing to do with training or nutrition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve had fun. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Friends Jack Lange (Dartmouth), Wyatt Teaford (Bates) and Fin Bailey (UVM \/ SMST2) keeping it fun during a summer training session. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Bailey heads off to the University of Vermont in the fall, he hopes that this next year skiing on the EISA circuit will mark another step in his competitive skiing progression. But he understands that there is more to life than just skiing. \u201cMaking the [US] Ski Team this year has been a pretty good step,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I keep going, that’s great. If not, that\u2019s also great.\u201d He\u2019s looking forward to everything else college has to offer; Bailey is going into the academic scene undecided but would love to get into some sort of study in sports physiology. And he has really enjoyed playing around with photography and media.<\/span><\/p>\n

But come wintertime weekends it\u2019ll be worth watching out for Bailey in the black, green, and yellow of UVM this Winter. Most of his competition might just be watching from behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lots of hard work has been logged and laughs had this summer in and around Stratton and Peru, Vermont. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finnegan Bailey\u2014a resident of Landgrove, Vermont, and team member of SMST2 and the University of Vermont\u2014was selected this spring to become one of the newest members of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team at the staggering age of 18. So how\u2019d he do it? In the last twelve months, Finnegan (Fin) Bailey has received quite the accolades in the competitive nordic skiing scene. To name a few: he was named to the SMST2 club team, he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103805,"featured_media":210123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19538,10809,13446,77],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103805"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210087"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210139,"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210087\/revisions\/210139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fasterskier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}