Photo set from Steve Kotvis – Minneapolis Based Photographer http://f-go.smugmug.com/Sports/Nordic-Skiing/2010-lympics-XC-Ski-Relays/
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2010 February
Photo set from Steve Kotvis – Minneapolis Based Photographer http://f-go.smugmug.com/Sports/Nordic-Skiing/2010-lympics-XC-Ski-Relays/
The American Birkebeiner *FIS Marathon Cup and Worldloppet Race *Years in the running: 37th annual *Number of participants in all races: 10,000 (last year: approx. 8,500) *Number of participants in 50k skate and classic: 8,300 *Countries represented: 20 *States represented: 47 *Most represented countries other than U.S.: Canada, Norway and Finland *Top five U.S. states represented: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Colorado *Volunteers: 2,000 *Spectators: 15,000 *Last year’s winners: Elite sprint: Kevin Hochtl, Rebecca Dussault...
I’m headed to Sweden to ski race! I have dreamed of doing a big Scandinavian race for years, with the Swedish Vasaloppet or the Norwegian Birkebeiner at the top of my wish list. This year’s Masters World Cup (MWC) seems the perfect fit. The MWC is in Falun, Sweden, and wraps up just as the Vasa week begins. My wife, Stefani, and I will head to Falun, race three times at the MWC, and wrap...
Matt Liebsch won the 2009 American Birkebeiner by 43 seconds. This season he has been on fire, always a podium contender at the SuperTour and NorAm series, and as a result of his earned points in those events he was sent to the World Cup races in Canmore, where he placed 29th in the 15km skate. Liebsch races for team CXC and will join a number of his teammates this weekend in Hayward to race...
Feeling crappy? ……..only 11 days left.
Johnny KlisterFebruary 23, 2010
img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxyqsoNuIq1qzt3xbo1_400.jpg"/br/br/pFeeling crappy? ……..only 11 days a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Birkebeiner"left/a./p
“He’s in the wax cabin. Drinking.”
Johnny KlisterFebruary 23, 2010
““He’s in the wax cabin. Drinking.””br/br/ - emTim Tscharnke, when asked where one might find German sprint coach and legend in his own right Tor Arne Hetland./em
“That’s a stupid question.”
Johnny KlisterFebruary 23, 2010
““That’s a stupid question.””br/br/ - emAxel Teichmann, when asked whether he won the silver, or lost the gold./em
“No.”
Johnny KlisterFebruary 23, 2010
“No.”br/br/ - emAge Skinstad (Norwegian head coach), when asked whether he had any doubt that Petter Northug would catch Axel Teichmann./em
“You might think it is because of what is between my legs. But it is actually because of what I look…”
Johnny KlisterFebruary 23, 2010
““You might think it is because of what is between my legs. But it is actually because of what I look like in my racing suit.””br/br/ - emOystein Petterson, in the press conference, when asked why he is called “the sausage.”/em
Whistler, British Columbia – The US men’s sprint relay team of Torin Koos and Andy Newell finished 9th after advancing out of the semifinals with a strong performance, before falling off the back with a lap and a half to go. Koos and Newell finished 2nd in their semifinal, edging France in a photo finish. The top three automatically advanced so the lunge at the line was not critical. It might have been had not...
Whistler, British Columbia – Another race, another record. The Canadian men’s cross-country team upped the ante once again, setting the third new mark for best Canadian men’s finish at the Olympics for the third time in the past 10 days. Ivan Babikov bettered Pierre Harvey’s 14th in ’88 with his 8th in the 15km. He then placed 5th in the pursuit, and now the team sprint of duo of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey did...
German Women Knock Off Swedes for Team Sprint Title
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 22, 2010
The prolonged, brutal physical demands of the team sprint make the event a fickle friend. Just ask Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag. After blowing the doors off the eight other teams in their semifinal, the Swedish women came into the gold-medal round as an irresistible force. But they ran head on into the immovable object of Claudia Nystad and Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, a pair of veteran German women without the speed for the first round, but...
Whistler, British Columbia – He had to wait, but Petter Northug finally got to show off his dominating sprint finish against his perennial whipping boy Axel Teichmann. Northug and teammate Oystein Pettersen won the first gold by the Norwegian men’s cross-country ski team since 2002 in the team sprint competition at Whistler Olympic Park. The high-pressure system that has brought unusually sunny weather to Whistler held out for one more day. Firm tracks in the...
Team Sprint!
Garrott KuzzyFebruary 22, 2010
Today was arguably the most exciting day at the Games, especially for the US cross country team. Both the women and men “cruised” through the semi and into the final. The forerunners are definitely my favorite group of volunteers at the Games. They’ve been valiantly skiing the course before the racers, making sure everything is fast [...]
Dear Governor Pawlenty:
Garrott KuzzyFebruary 22, 2010
Dear Governor Pawlenty: Garrott Kuzzy here, writing from Vancouver as a Minnesotan representing the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympics. I am a Minneapolis/Golden Valley resident and grew up 3 blocks from Wirth Park. I’ve witnessed Wirth improve significantly over the past couple of years, becoming a much safer, more beautiful park, and more active [...]
It was a an thrilling day in the team sprint with crashes, broken poles and most of all fast ski racing. Here are a few photos from the semis with more to come.
Top Skiers are Human too……
Holly BrooksFebruary 22, 2010
Sorry for the absence of a Sunday blog. I guess I needed a day off!br /br /I just got back from the venue after watching the team sprint. I was able to watch the finals from the grandstand which was a new, fun experience. Congrats to Germany and Norway that both skied gutsy races and took home gold medals. Also congrats to both the men's and women's USA teams who skied solid races in the finals after moving on from the semis. I had a great classic ski through the "rec" trails this morning after going back for a "second round" of klister.br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MS7gDcXzI/AAAAAAAAA00/i88WaWd6BPo/s1600-h/DSC06901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MS7gDcXzI/AAAAAAAAA00/i88WaWd6BPo/s320/DSC06901.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(Check out this AK fan!)/divbr /Perhaps my greatest realization from my Olympic experience is the realization that the best skiers in the world (Olympic Champions, World Champions) are real people; they have good day, they have bad days. nbsp;Sometimes they make mistakes, and other times, they pull off miracles. nbsp;Here is a list of things that I've seen that have brought me to this realization:br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MVOtr3kXI/AAAAAAAAA08/oh9ieNN8Nsg/s1600-h/Holly+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MVOtr3kXI/AAAAAAAAA08/oh9ieNN8Nsg/s320/Holly+4.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(waving at the camera before my start the other day)nbsp;/divbr /*The gold medal favorite today, the Swedish men, fell on a fairly straight-forward hill in the semi-finals and didn't even make it to the final.br /br /*Bjorgen may seem unstoppable but she needs a day off too - and sits this race to rest up for the rest of the games.br /br /*Someone watched Tobias Angerer eat THREE Big Macs before winning a silver medal in the men's 30k pursuit. nbsp;(Virpi has been seen eating them too)br /br /*Astrid Jacobsen of Norway was still crying after the men's final because of her sub-par (for Norway) performance in the team sprint.br /br /*Team Belarus was having an awesome race in the semi-finals, neared the finish in second place and accidentally took the LAP lane instead of the finish lane - that happens EVEN at the Olympics - opps.br /br /*The strong Finnish women's team has yet to bring home a single medal from any cross country event.br /br /*I saw Charlotte Kalla struggle to get in a fifth pull-up in the weight room!?!br /br /*Olympic Champions snow plow too!br /br /*Even super-star Northug finishes races outside the top 40.....br /br /*Ola Vigen Hattestad, one of the best sprinters in the world didn't start today for Norway due to a sore throat.br /br /I'm not suggesting that we all start eating Big Macs or snow plow rather than step turn but it's great to realize that these guys are human, they aren't untouchable, and that someday, hopefully sooner rather than later we will be winning medals too.br /br /Here are a couple more pictures to end the post with:br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MYjCb0l-I/AAAAAAAAA1E/z5HVYwR0yUo/s1600-h/IMG_0574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MYjCb0l-I/AAAAAAAAA1E/z5HVYwR0yUo/s320/IMG_0574.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"In the Whistler Village....br /br /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MaNbN05HI/AAAAAAAAA1k/ZH9slIktk48/s1600-h/DSCF0238.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MaNbN05HI/AAAAAAAAA1k/ZH9slIktk48/s320/DSCF0238.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Check out this BELL!/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4Magiq-abI/AAAAAAAAA1s/SVBlpKRTrss/s1600-h/DSCF0223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4Magiq-abI/AAAAAAAAA1s/SVBlpKRTrss/s320/DSCF0223.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Norwegian Spirit/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4Mar7iEMcI/AAAAAAAAA10/Pgpfsb8pqTw/s1600-h/DSCF0241.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4Mar7iEMcI/AAAAAAAAA10/Pgpfsb8pqTw/s320/DSCF0241.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"My family at the venue.....nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MZDgq0fPI/AAAAAAAAA1U/EMXod7NPMwI/s1600-h/DSC07736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S4MZDgq0fPI/AAAAAAAAA1U/EMXod7NPMwI/s320/DSC07736.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"I thought I would end with a blue-sky post as the weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse here in a couple of days...... Thanks so much for all the wonderful cheering and kind words of encouragement. You are all great.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Thanks for reading - more to come soon!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"~Holly :)nbsp;/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-4552304141164271634?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
In this photo Devon gives a shrug for the bitter-sweetness of 4th place at the Olympics but I am stoked! My boyfriend, Devon Kershaw, was spectacular today - playing it cool through the semifinal and final of the race and launching an attack at the per...