2008 October

The IOC’s Coordination Commission, of which FIS President Gian Franco Kasper is member, made its seventh visit to Vancouver last week. The Commission confirmed that the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee (VANOC) continues to be on the right track to host top quality Olympic Winter Games in February 2010. The Commission was particularly pleased to see that VANOC’s participation in the IOC’s Beijing 2008 Observer’s Program had a positive impact on its planning and that the...

Read Kikkan's personal account of the trip, and view photos on her FasterSkier blog – http://blogs.fasterskier.com/kikkanrandall CANMORE, ALB (Oct. 28) – The U.S. Cross Country Ski Team's Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) found herself in some very good training company recently as she took to the terrain of her neighbors up north to train with Canadian cross country all-star Chandra Crawford, who won the sprint gold medal in the 2006 Olympics. “Oftentimes on the World Cup,...

New Gloucester, ME – The International Competition Committee of the US Biathlon Association named a team of five men and four women who will compete in the upcoming December Biathlon World Cups. The nine-person team is the largest in several years, due to recent changes by the International Biathlon Union in allocating start positions. Under the new start rules, based on Nations Cup Points and World Cup Points, the US men can start five athletes,...

CALGARY — Brian McKeever never hesitates. He won't; he can't. He races against the best cross-country skiers on the planet in a permanent blur, with eyes that are 90 per cent blind and without a guide to warn him should someone fall in his path. It is an arduous undertaking, as much an act of trust as a physical challenge, yet Mr. McKeever never falters. He wants to be the world's first Paralympics athlete to...

CANMORE, Alta. — Chandra Crawford and Devon Kershaw count themselves lucky that they travel the world with the person they love. Canada's cross-country ski couple live and train together in Canmore, Alta., with the mutual goals of being the fastest skiers in the world and winning a medal at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Crawford, an Olympic gold medalist in Turin, Italy in 2006, and Kershaw find ways to keep their job pressures separate from their...

MORA, MINNESOTA – CXC and the US Ski Team Joined the Minnesota High School Coaches for Their Fall Meeting, Coaches Education and Certification Clinic. This past Saturday the Vasaloppet club house and trails in Mora, Minnesota hosted the 2008 Minnesota Nordic Ski Coaches Association fall meeting. CXC Ski Association and the US Ski Team were on hand to offer a coaches clinic following a very productive annual fall meeting. US Ski Team development coach Matt...