Johnny Spillane finished a modest 24th in his first nordic combined sprint event at Val di Fiemme earlier this week, but he made history today. After sitting in fourth place following the ski jumping portion of the competition, Spillane skied himself into the lead. Four kilometers into the 7.5 kilometer race, the 22 year-old Spillane made contact with German skiers Ronny Ackermann and Georg Hettich and Austrian skier Felix Gottwald. He told reporters he was...
The Payette Lakes Marathon has been held for many years at the Little Ski Hill in McCall, ID. The race attracted about 150 people, and features 1 or 2 laps of a 15 km loop.  The course has great variety and challenging terrain; flat open meadows which can be sunny one lap and wind-swept the next, into the trees for gradual meduim-length climbs and shorter sharp climbs, followed by respective short and steep (yet not too technical) downhills to long relaxing downhills...
Not many americans have been able to watch the World Chamionships, and those actually at the race might not get to see the entire race since they are out on the course. So I wrote up a summary of what I saw on TV. Of all the exciting relays of the past decade, the men's 4x10km relay today at the World Championships in Val di Fiemme Italy probably tops them all. The story of the...
FasterSkier.com is helping xcskiworld.com bring the 2003 US Masters Nationals home to you. It was a wild and windy first day at Glen Alps outside Anchorage, Alaska. For a complete report and results, go to
News items from the World Championships From VG.no: Thomas Alsgaard has been selected as one of four Norwegians who will ski the 50 km, but he is uncertain that he will race. After two tremendous performances during these championships, both of which netted him gold medals, Thomas admits that he is tired and his top form may be gone. Unless he feels that his body is capable of fighting for a medal in the event,...
In a race with 8000 people, there will be at least 8000 stories by the time the day is over. Torbjorn has gathered talked to a lot of skiers since the Birkie last weekend and here is a selection of the stories he has heard. Quotes from various skiers:  “My skis were fast and might have been even faster had I not hit some sharp rocks and put some nasty gouges in the bases....
Racers in the 2003 National Masters Championships were promised racing at Kincaid Park, and today they finally got it. Organizers were able to use tons of snow, which were trucked in from canceled sleddog races, to create a 0.75 kilometer loop around the stadium for today's sprint relay. The event was held under the lights from 6:30 to 8:30 pm and features a Men's race, a Women's race and an Open/Mixed race. The white ribbon...
RMISA REGIONALS The Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) championships that were held in Winter Park, CO on Feb. 23rd, and 24th and hosted by Denver University were a great success. The Alpine program was at Winter Park Mountain Resort, and the Nordic side was at perhaps the most beautiful of all Nordic venues: Snow Mountain Ranch. The snow was falling on and off throughout the whole weekend depositing an abundance of the “fresh stuff.”...
Anchorage race organizers have put in a monumental effort to make the National Masters races go off this week. But covering 50K Tour of Anchorage trail with snow is one miracle that probably won't happen. Only Mother Nature can do that, and she has been extremely uncooperative for the past month. Officials canceled the Tour of Anchorage on Tuesday evening due to warm, rainy weather. Race officials and racers alike are holding out hope for...
VAL DI FIEMME, Italy (Feb. 26) — Sweden's Thobias Fredriksson and Marit Bjoergen of Norway captured the 1.5-km freestyle sprint titles Wednesday night at the 2003 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships as Norway picked up four more cross country medals. No American qualified for the finals (top 16) during the afternoon qualifying round, which was run in 50-degree heat at Lago di Tesero. Andrew Newell finished 31st, Torin Koos 32nd, Carl Swenson 38th, Lars Flora...
Here at FasterSkier, we have received a lot of inquires about how those of us in the USA can watch World Cup and World Championships races on TV or on the Internet. As I said in my article about the WC Relay, I have been following the results of the World Championships live on the internet. But sometimes that is just not enough. I wanted to see the skiers in action – to watch the...
It was another day where the toughest skiers excelled. The winds were not blowing at 40 knots like they were on Sunday, but the “breeze” was still stiff. A consistent snowfall throughout the day also added to the excitement and adventure. In the races, Kelli Boonstra (M1 – Fairbanks) and Tim Kelly (M4 – Anchorage) posted the fastest times of the day. For
Yesterday’s competition at the Nordic World Championship, the 4 x 5-km Women’s Relay, did not include an American team. It would be appropriate to hope that with the improvements of the men’s team and results this year, the American women will also soon step up to the same level. In last month’s National Championship in Rumford, Maine, we saw that the quantity of skiers is as high as for any nation participating here in Val...
As some of you might know, the official website of the 2003 Nordic World Championships has a page that posts live results during the races. You open up a page with the start list on it, then you can select any checkpoint along the course, such as 1.6K, 6.4K , etc to see live results at that point once the racers come through. As a North American fan, this is as close as we can...
The following is the last in a series of daily event descriptions from the Cross-Country events at the 2002 Olympic Games, celebrating the first anniversary of the Salt Lake City Games. For more information or requests for lectures, presentations of planning and preparation phases, or the “behind the scenes” operations during the Games, contact John Aalberg at kjaalberg@aol.com Feb 23rd 2002 Olympic Games Men’s 50 km Recovering from the first wave of the doping scandal,...
Norway built a lead on the two classic legs of today's World Championship Relay, but in the end it was Germany who came home victorious. Germany's Kuenzel skied a great third leg to build a lead after Hilde G. Pedersen fell for Norway, allowing both Germany and Finland to pass. Evi Sachenbacher controlled the race for Germany on her achor leg, while Skofterud (NOR) and Manninen (FIN) battled for silver. In the final kilometer, Manninen...
It’s official! Today, Feb. 23 2003, marks the first day that the United States is once again a major player in international cross-country skiing. It has taken many years for the US to rebound from the days when Bill Koach and the Putney crew dominated the world cup scene, but the bridge between Scandinavian countries and us has finally been crossed. Several events have led up to this success in American XC skiing, including last...
Heavy snow at Bohart Ranch turned the inaugural Dick Walter Subaru Sacagawea Ski Marathon into a slow, grinding war of attrition. A 35K classic-only race, the Sacagawea course covers much of the same hilly terrain as the 30K from the 2002 US National Championships, but added Bohart's classic Loggers Loop, a steady 3k climb, to the mix. Each of the 17.5 km loops featured four major climbs with steady snowfall filling the tracks. In the...
The US Men are now officially back in the World elite in Cross-Country skiing. In todays phenomenally exiting double pursuit race (perhaps called Skiathlom next year)both Carl Swenson and Kris Freeman was in the lead group the entire race to the end. The race started out with a field on 86 skiers in a mass-start format. The entire 3.3km classical course had 4 tracks, and Carl and Kris were able to ski up from their...
(Beginning of book’s 3rd chapter: “Why I Became Good”) I was lucky. Time after time I was at the right place at the right time. I lived in Nannestad with its club, Bjerke, which had one of Norway’s best and most exciting cross-country skiing communities. We had top skiers like Lars Erik Eriksen and Anette Bœe and the dynamic and inspiring leader Terje Bogen. Naturally it was great for development to be a young and...