The Charlatan: How did you first get into skiing?

John Langstone: I was into motorsport when I was in university, and I had a little extra money after an income tax refund. It was either buy an expensive mechanical calculator and take on car rallying seriously, or buy skis. I bought downhill skis. I did that for several years, and one year, there wasn't much snow, so I bought cross-country equipment. I had friends doing the Canadian Ski Marathon, so I got into that, and then into loppets, and eventually racing. I wanted to learn more about the sport, so I took a coaching course. Then people asked you to take on coaching roles. And it went on from there.

TC: What made you want to be a coach at Carleton?

JL: I had been an assistant for several years, along with people who have been assistants since I became head coach. I was retired, so had some time for this.  As a coach you want to help develop your teams to have the best possible results they can have. I enjoy the young people and I enjoy the people I have coached with.

TC: Two of your Carleton's skiers were chosen to test the ski courses as the 2010 Olympics. How does this make you feel as their coach?

JL: This selection to be forerunners for the Olympics has performance requirements, so I'm proud of their achievements. They had to ski at Callaghan at a fairly high pace to perform the job properly. 

TC: Are you concerned about the [Ontario University Athletic championships] since two of your strongest players will be absent?

JL: Steffan Lloyd just won a race at the Canadian World Junior/U23 Championships trials in Quebec on Jan 2.  He was the fastest junior male athlete in the country on that day. If he continues this pace, he may well be selected to the Canadian National Junior Team for the World Championships in Hinterzarten Germany the last week of January. From what I have seen so far, Kyle is skiing quite a bit faster this year, so we will miss both these athletes.

TC: Is there anything else non-skiers should know about competitive skiing?

JL: It is unfortunate that Nordic Skiing isn't well covered on television. A lot of people seem to view it as an activity taking place on a flat terrain at slow speed, where in fact there are exciting uphills and downhills with fast corners. Average speed cross-country events are usually in excess of 20 km/hr, and this includes climbing steep hills. Competitors are among the fittest of athletes, and require great skill to be successful. 

There is much more than individual start distance races in the woods. Today we have sprint events, continuous pursuits (where equipment is changed during the race), and many mass start events, where tactics a bit like you see in cycling are used.

I'd like to encourage people to experience some of the Olympic cross-country skiing events. In addition, the Eastern Canadian Cross-Country Ski Championships will be held at Nakkertok Ski Club just north of Gatineau on Jan. 30-31. It is combined as a university event and we will be there. We'd love to see some Carleton spirit out there.