Bente Skari (32) wants to help the Norwegian women’s team and will be a part of the coaching staff at their August camp at Kvitfjell, Norway. Skari will be focusing on helping with classic technique and championship preparations. The Women’s team coach Svein Tore Samdal had expressed interest in getting help from Bente even before she was back from her “trip around the Worldâ€. Skari considered the offer when she came back and said yes...
Havard Skorstad (31), Norway has found new challenges in his skiing career. He is now focusing 100% on the FIS Marathon Cup. Havard has for a long time been a very promising cross country skier. He captured a medal at the Norwegian nationals already in 1998. He has however struggled the last few years reaching the results he hat set. Havard has now said goodbye to competing in regular races. He is no longer trying...
Canadian national team skier Sarah Renner (28) is gradually getting closer to the World Cup podium. Is this going to be her “break-through†season? FastersSkier.com got a chance to ask her some questions about her training and racing. Photo by Arnd Hemmersbach You are getting closer and closer to the podium – have you decided that there are certain things you have to focus on in your training in order to take that “next step”?...
The American Birkie race is a little longer than 50-kilometers. Here is an article about two skiers that rollerskied a distance longer than six 50-kilometer marathon races in four days. Havard Skorstad and Sjur Borsheim, Norway recently rollerskied from Oslo to Ulvik. – I’m not interested in skiing back and fourth on a 5 kilometer long road when I’m doing long workouts. I need new challenges said Havard Skorstad. Skorstad converted from regular skier to...
Swedish SkidSport.com reports that National team skier Anders Sodergren (Sweden) is in good shape at the moment. He recently won the 13-kilometer cross country running race, Alglunken, in dominating fashion. It looked like he had recovered well from the two- person marathon relay running race/hill climb at Wolf-mountain in Norway two weeks ago where he placed second along with teammate Mathias Fredriksson. Anders winning margin was 3 minutes and his time was more than four...
I did not do any rollerskiing for the first eight days of our Norway vacation. That changed dramatically to three sessions in a row after I had made arrangements to get together on August 1st for some rollerski workouts with FIS marathon cup skier and leading authority on double-poling, Fredrik Aukland. Since I live and train at 2000 meters (6500 feet) in the Utah mountains, I felt I should do some fast double-poling for a...
The third set of my vacation photos from Norway are from are short bike ride up and around the two nearby small towns of Stathelle and Brevik. We stayed on the bike path using the “new road†on the way up, and rode the old coastal road on the way back. The ride took us across the old bridge to Brevik and I’m excited that even this has a bike and walking lane separated with...
Norwegian junior national team coach Jon Arne Schjetne is feeling fine about coaching skiers involved in multiple sports at a high level. He currently has two skiers on the team that are also on other sports junior national teams. Marte Elden ( www.fasterskier.com/news.php?id=1273 ) is involved with the orienteering team. Competing in these summer sports makes it impossible for the two athletes to participate at all the cross county skiing camps, but the national team...
Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reports that the Norwegian ski federation’s membership numbers increased by 21% last year. “That’s nice, but we are going to get even bigger,” says ski-president Sverre Seeberg. There are 146,000 registered members in the Norwegian Ski Federation. Norway’s population is 4.5 million. The increase from the previous year was 26,000 new members. “We are increasing in all disciplines and all age groups” said an excited vice-president Kristin Felde to Aftenposten. She believes...
There has been a lot of discussion about skating technique in this country in recent years. Unfortunately, it has almost all been misdirected. Instead of asking “How can we apply the advances that have been made in skating technique?†many coaches and writers ask “Has skating actually changed?†or “Are the changes in skating a good idea?†This article is written most specifically in response to Marty Hall’s three Hallmarks articles in Ski Trax last...
Norwegian Vidar Lofshus was recently hired as new assistant coach for the US cross country ski team. Norwegian Trond Nystad is currently head coach for team USA and he has now brought in Lofshus to the coaching staff. The team consists of 12 skiers. Two of them placed top five at the 2003 Worlds. Vidar Lofshus was once a member of the Norwegian development team and also studied and raced college racing in the US....
The July issue of Fasterskier.com’s Club subscription service was sent to subscribers on July 20. The Club provides detailed, in-depth coverage of modern and interesting issues in the sport of Cross-Country. Most of the Club’s articles will cover issues related to training and racing, and will also include material for all ages and abilities, from World Cup skiers’ training to important elements of youth and age group training and skiing. This month we include three...
Robert Gjerstad: Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reported this spring that cross country skiing is trendy again after being considered “out†ten years ago. Some examples of the trend: “On-hold†lines when you call for track condition reports even on weekdays Longer lines at the cross country sport shops on Fridays than at the liquor stores Children’s cross country ski-school classes offered at day-care. Cross country skiing is “in†again. Cool and hip are words describing the...
Fifth Place At Junior Worlds Skier: Said No Thanks To The Development Team Betty-Ann Nilsen (17) is one of Norway’s biggest cross country skiing talents. She was offered a chance to be a member of the prestigious â€Impuls†team for the upcoming season. The Impuls team has occasional camps with the national team and is very hard to make. Betty-Ann is doing other sports as well and was afraid of having more on her plate...