These nominations include athletes who qualified for nomination based on the published criteria and the CCC High Performance Committee selection process April 12-14, 2013. An announcement of the athletes who accept their nominations will take place later this spring.
The U.S. Ski Team formally announced its 2013-2014 nominations on Monday, and seven women in total were named to the squad. In contrast to the men's team there were no cuts, and the addition of Sophie Caldwell reflects an expected expansion of the U.S. women's World Cup quota by one more spot in both distance in sprinting.
After a one-year hiatus, our Skier of the Year awards are back. We start with the collegiate category, where for the first time in FasterSkier’s history of giving such prizes Americans took both of the top honors: NCAA freestyle champions Miles Havlick (University of Utah) and Joanne Reid (University of Colorado).
Mantra Wax, a new wax company created by U.S. Ski Team servicemen Randy Gibbs and Oleg Ragilo, promises to deliver high-performance waxes to consumers in a fresh way. At SuperTour finals they turned heads by waxing successful skis for the Liz Stephen and the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, and by fall they plan to be ready to ship their line of powders and liquids directly to your wax box.
(UPDATED) Kris Freeman, three-time U.S. Olympian in cross-country skiing and member of the U.S. Ski Team since 2002, was not renominated to the national team roster for the 2013-2014 season. Freeman said USST coaches notified him this week of the news, citing limited medal potential at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. "For whatever reason the USST no longer believes in me," he said.
When it comes to 50 k's, not many skiers in the U.S. can match Kris Freeman when he's on form. The 32-year-old claimed his third consecutive U.S. distance title on Thursday, beating a tenacious Andy Newell and Einar Ulsund in the last lap of a warm, sloppy 50 k mass start classic at Royal Gorge.
Watch Erik Bjornsen hold off Kris Freeman on the final climb up Sugar Bowl Resort to win SuperTour Finals on a blustery day on the mountain.
Liz Stephen certainly likes her hill climbs. Starting at a 2-minute, 26-second deficit in the pursuit start of the last stage of SuperTour Finals, she obliterated the field on the 6 k course to both win the tour and post the fastest time of the day by nearly two minutes. Kikkan Randall, who started the hill climb in the lead, settled for second after skiing off the course partway through the ascent.
Kikkan Randall expanded her SuperTour Finals lead on Saturday at the Auburn Ski Club, skiing to a commanding win in the stage three classic sprint. Ida Sargent took second and Sadie Bjornsen finished third. Our footage of the heats.
As the fifth-ranked sprinter in the world this year and the only guy on the World Cup to qualify for the heats in every sprint he started, Andy Newell returned to the domestic sprint scene on Saturday as the odds-on favorite. Despite a challenging wax day at SuperTour Finals, he delivered the win he'd hoped for, besting Pat O'Brien and Erik Bjornsen in second and third, respectively.
There's something about SuperTour Finals that seems to agree with Kris Freeman. The veteran skier looked more like his usual self on Friday in the 15 k mass start classic — he gapped the field early and won the race by 47 seconds. Erik Bjornsen took second, beating Andy Newell in third by less than two seconds. Freeman now leads the tour by 12.2 seconds with the conclusion of two stages.
The two-time World Cup sprint champion at SuperTour Finals surprised no one in clocking the fastest women's 3.3 k prologue time on Thursday through a wet snow squall. In fact, Kikkan Randall's time held up as the second-fastest of the day once the men's field had finished. Jessie Diggins took second, 8.0 seconds back, and Sadie Bjornsen claimed third in the opening event of the series.
At 7,000 feet and with a serious climb smack in the middle, the 3.3 k freestyle prologue will open up SuperTour Finals on Thursday with a bang. The Americans, Canadians, Europeans and biathletes in Truckee will quickly find out what they have left in the tank as the season begins to close.
Snow trouble at major championships is the new normal, apparently. Race organizers for the 2013 SuperTour Finals and Distance Nationals, faced with driest winter on record and insufficient snowpack on the newly-homologated courses at Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski Center, were forced to move three events to higher ground last week. The 30/50 k will now take place at Royal Gorge and the freestyle prologue and 10/15 k classic will be at Auburn Ski Club.
It's been a week since World Cup Finals wrapped up in Falun, Sweden, and the dust has more than settled on the international season. The American women had their best run yet: World Championships gold, all six athletes in the top ten at some point and another sprint crystal globe in the bag. When asked to recall their personal season highlights, these were among the moments they pointed out.
Cross Country Saskatchewan is looking for a uniquely independent, spirited technical director/high performance coach to inspire young skiers to experience success while carving new innovative futures.
With the conclusion of Period IV of the 2012-2013 season we tally who's in and who's out of the coveted Red Group in the most recent World Ranking Lists, from the American and Canadian perspectives.
Athletes hit a breaking point on Thursday before the last three stages of World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden, where they threatened not to race on courses they deemed too dangerous. In successfully pressuring FIS and the race organizers to make the requested changes to the trails, athletes hope they've drawn a firm line between what they will and will not compete on in the future.
Kikkan Randall did just what she needed to on Sunday, finishing 7th in the 10 k skate pursuit with the second-fastest course time to hold onto third place in the overall World Cup standings. Three other Americans finished World Cup Finals in the top 30 to end the season "better than I could have imagined," Randall said.
Recently back from Europe, Sophie Caldwell has dominated Craftsbury's mini-tour so far, winning the 3.6 k prologue by over 30 seconds and the sprint qualifier by ten. The men's field is tighter, after Pat O'Brien and Paddy Caldwell dueled it out in the prologue and then the sprint final came down to a drag race between SMST2 teammates Eric Packer and Skyler Davis.