We need to talk about Devon Kershaw’s hair …
In a sport dominated by square-jawed, well-manicured Scandinavians, Kershaw is easily recognizable by a wild mop of hippie hair flowing from behind a red headband. After long trips on the road with a flannel shirt and an acoustic guitar, he often resembles a roadie for his beloved Neil Young rather than a cross-country ski racer.
But last year, like Samson, the hair was shorn off, as was his speed. This, of course, made no sense at all. Heading into last season, Kershaw was in tremendous shape. His training was impeccable. He spoke freely of his desire to end Canada’s 100-year men’s ski medal drought at the Olympics.
During the previous year, he had been plagued by injury and poor recovery and Kershaw wanted more than anything to prove he was still one of the top skiers in the world on the biggest stage in the world.
He fell far short of those goals, managing only one medal on the Tour de Ski, and cracking the top 10 twice (excellent results, but far short of his capabilities).
In Sochi, his best personal result was a 35th-place finish in the 15 kilometre classic race. Some blamed the wax, some wanted to blame the coaching strategy, and some argued Kershaw tied himself in mental knots at the Olympics. But the only outward difference was the hair.
So it’s worth remarking that when Kershaw crossed the finish line five seconds ahead of American Kris Freeman to win the 2014 Frozen Thunder 15 km skate race, Monday (Oct. 27) he did so with long hair and, to be safe, a nasty hipster beard to boot.
His strong result likely has more to do with an incredible off-season, where he proposed to his now fiancée Kirsten Stormer Steira on a Nepalese mountain peak, and increased his training volume to 875 hours, while working closely with new coach Tor Arne Hetland, who challenged Kershaw to work even harder. While Frozen Thunder is a tuneup race, Kershaw exhibited a lot of good signs.
“I wanted to go hard for four laps and see if I could hold on for the fifth, and I did that today. It’s kinda fun. I’m surprised I won. I’ve been training a lot. It was close. I was by no means crushing it out there,” Kershaw said.
Downplaying his expectations for the upcoming season, he’s taking a much more cautious approach to the year. He and Ivan Babikov, Lenny Valjas and Alex Harvey will leave for the world cup in mid-November with much to prove, and Kershaw has a new goal.
“The goal is world champs. I love the Tour de Ski and in my heart of hearts I’d love that to be the focus, but after the last couple of tough years, it makes more sense for me this year to see if I can get to the level where I should be,” Kershaw said.
The Tour de Ski should be a natural for all-around skiers like Kershaw, but he’s fallen short in his last two competitions. The world championships in Falun, Sweden are also tied to team funding, so a strong result there would help the entire ski organization.
That’s not to say a win on Frozen Thunder means a world champs medal is in the bag.
“Let’s not count the money before the cheques are in the bank,” Kershaw said.
He has worked more closely with Hetland (who also sports a Viking beard), who will travel with the team on the world cup. Hetland previously coached Swiss and German ski teams, and with two Olympic medals and 30 podiums on the world cup, knows what it takes to win.
