The Next Turn - skiing, ski racing and sport

We are doubly lucky here at The Next Turn and that means our listeners are too, because we were able to chat with American ski legend Ted Ligety not once but twice! In this interview Martin goes one-on-one with Ted, who reflects on his career, sharing his experiences with discovering speed, the influence of freeskiing on his development, and delves into the motivations behind his business, Shred....

Swiss Alpine skier Daniel Yule joins The Next Turn this week for a conversation you won’t want to miss. Yule talks about his talent as a big event skier and about how he feeds off the energy of fans. He also reflects on his favorite venues, shares thoughts on World Cup sets, and discusses what he's focusing on technically in his own skiing, and in his equipment. As a member of the Swiss ski team d...

The Next Turn is thrilled to sit with the most successful French skier in World Cup history, Alexis Pinturault. His wife, Romane, joined the conversation, offering a unique behind the scenes look at the life of a World Cup athlete. Alexis shares insight into his somewhat shocking announcement that he will no longer be starting World Cup slalom races, instead shifting focus to GS and speed events,...

What better way to kick off our fourth season than to host two of the greats. Ted Ligety and Bode Miller join us at The Next Turn, speaking to their respective journeys and how they pushed the limits, address and reflect on the stark contrast between themselves, and discuss how their techniques and approaches defy categorization. They talk through the grueling reality of life on the World Cup circ...

In a conversation with two important and influential leaders in our sport from opposite corners of North America, Johnny Crichton Vice President of British Columbia Alpine and Sam Damon of US Ski & Snowboard Eastern Development Manager join The Next Turn to share their thoughts on everything from cost of sport, ski IQ, skier development and big picture thinking. They give us ideas on the challenge...

Joining the Next Turn this week is sixteen year World Cup veteran Ilka Štuhec. A three-time Junior World Champion (in three different disciplines) and two-time Downhill World Champion from Slovenia, Štuhec has battled multiple injuries and has managed to claw her way back to fighting shape, time after time. She’s stood on the top step of the podium twice this season, a full four years since her la...

Greek-American alpine athlete AJ Ginnis joins The Next Turn this week along with his coaches (and former athletes themselves) Sandy Vietze and Gaby Coulet. Ginnis, who skied for the US for seven years before making the decision to move to the Greek team, discusses the impetus for the switch and the resulting impact on sponsorship, funding, and his coaching team. Ginnis discusses his confidence, al...

The Next Turn is lucky enough to be joined by Italian powerhouse Federica Brignone this week, along with her brother and coach, Davide. We had the opportunity to speak with Fede early in the season, before she’d found her groove, and part of this conversation revolves around what’s changed for her since then, as she’s clearly hit her stride and has been having an incredibly successful season. In t...

We are joined this week by Kathy Okoniewski and Pierre Ruel, two coaching professionals who have spent the majority of their careers working with high-level athletes, as well as coaching coaches. In this conversation they talk about the characteristics of a good coach, as well as the changing job description that many ski coaches are experiencing. They talk about adaptability, interacting with par...

In part two of our athlete parents series, we are joined this week by three fathers of established World Cup athletes, Angus Crawford (Jack and Candace Crawford), Hugh Merryweather (Alice Merryweather) and Mark Moltzan (Paula Moltzan). These three experienced “World Cup Dads” share valuable insight, including how they handle the highs and the lows of ski racing, the often prohibitive cost of the s...

U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief of Sport, Anouk Patty, joins The Next Turn for a fascinating discussion about the organization’s development initiatives, the process of talent identification, and both the certification and education process for everyone from clubs, to coaches, to high performance athletes. Along with being a world-class ski racer, Patty has worked in corporate America, during which tim...

America’s Brian McLaughlin and Belgium’s Sam Maes have taken two different paths to the World Cup, but both were facilitated by Global Racing, an organization based in Austria that helps support and develop world-class ski racers. In this conversation we speak with Global Racing Coach Paul Epstein, as well as McLaughlin and Maes –both of whom scored multiple World Cup points this season– and learn...

It’s always a pleasure to talk to Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin, and we were thrilled to have her back on The Next Turn. Gisin, a rare four-event skier, won back-to-back gold medals in the Alpine Combined event at the last two Olympics, a Bronze medal in Super G at the Beijing Olympics, has won medals at the World Championships, and she has World Cup podiums in every discipline. However this season...

The Next Turn is shifting gears somewhat this week, giving the microphone to three insightful women, all of whom are mothers to World Cup athletes. Joanne Gray (mom of Canada’s Cassidy Gray), Barbara Ann Cochran (mom of America’s Ryan Cochran-Siegle), and Karen Monsén (mom of Sweden’s Felix Monsén) speak to us about the role of the parent vs. the role of a coach and illuminate the life lessons tha...

In the two years since we first spoke with him, American World Cup athlete Ryan Cochran-Siegle has added a few accolades to his resume— namely a silver medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. We connected with him and learned about the ups and downs of his recent equipment change, as well as his return to racing after a minor spine fracture sustained in Kitzbuhel. RCS talks through his current focus i...

No stranger to injury and to the comeback, American World Cup athlete Breezy Johnson joins The Next Turn to talk through her ski racing journey to date. In this interview Johnson talks about the difference between skiing with confidence and without it, as well as the harsh reality that hard work doesn’t always guarantee results. Johnson is very candid about her high expectations and frustration wi...

Two of the world’s best slalom skiers hail from the small ski nation of Croatia: 25 year old Leona Popović, who now is coming into her peak, and reigning World Junior Champion, 18 year old Zrinka Ljutić. The new teammates join The Next Turn to discuss their paths to the World Cup. While these two women are quite different from one another, they work and train together, motivating one another in th...

If you haven’t heard of Lara Colturi, you haven’t been paying attention to alpine racing. Colturi is the young, Italian-born prodigy who has grown up being coached by her parents, former Olympic champion Daniela Ceccarelli and ski coach Alessandro Colturi. Colturi, who skis under the flag of Albania rather than her birthplace of Italy, made her World Cup debut at just 15 years of age and is alread...

The Next Turn is thrilled to host Brandon Dyksterhouse, who is Green Mountain Valley School’s High Performance Consultant, and Patrick Biggs, who serves as Executive Director of Alpine Ontario, for an insightful conversation. Lifetime athletes, turned coaches and leaders, Biggs and Dyksterhouse discuss the state of the sport, from entry level through the World Cup, providing enlightening commentar...

Bulgaria’s Albert Popov joins The Next Turn for a conversation about his career thus far along with his intentions and plans for the next phase as a World Cup contender. A strong junior racer, Popov won Topolino in 2013, transitioning onto the World Cup in 2015. At 5’5” tall, he is one of the shorter athletes on the tour, and he speaks about the advantages and disadvantages of his height as well a...

Tommy Ford joins The Next Turn for an interview that covers the range of highs and lows he’s encountered in his career to date. Ford talks very candidly about the injuries he’s faced and what he’s learned each time he’s pushed through a comeback to racing. He discusses the value of proper mental health, highlighting how he has spent time and effort into understanding how he works and learns best....

Austria’s Katharina Liensberger joins The Next Turn for a conversation about her career to date and her aspirations for the current season. At the age of 25, Liensberger has earned 14 podiums, three wins, Olympic gold, Olympic silver, and a Slalom Crystal Globe. A tech specialist at a time where the talent and depth of the field is unimaginably deep, Liensberger is working with a completely new su...

French alpine athlete Clément Noël joins The Next Turn for a candid interview about his career to date, covering topics such as risk taking as well as internal and external pressures and expectations. In addition to winning Olympic Gold, Noël has reached the podium 17 times, with nine wins over six seasons on the World Cup tour. An incredibly self-aware and thoughtful athlete, Noël shares his inte...

France’s Tessa Worley, who won her second Giant Slalom World Cup title in front of a home crowd last season, joins The Next Turn for a great conversation about where she’s been and where she’s headed. In 17 seasons on the tour, Worley has had 16 wins and 36 podiums. In this interview she talks about putting in the hard work and gaining confidence, discusses the team she surrounds herself with, and...

Croatia is a small skiing nation, but it has an oversized history of success in skiing, and Filip Zubčić has risen to the occasion to carry the torch. Born in Zagreb, Zubčić has competed for Croatia in three Winter Olympics and six World Championships. The three-time World Cup winner was third in the giant slalom season standings in 2020 and 2021. Zubčić joins the Next Turn to discuss his upbringi...