Last week, Norwegian national-team staple Kristin Størmer Steira announced her retirement following a dozen years on the World Cup. "I’ve experienced so much as a cross-country skier and I love ski racing, but the time has come to find a new track," she said in a press release. "And that won’t be a ski track."
FasterSkier tracked down Petter Eliassen, the 2014/2015 Swix Ski Classics overall winner in his rookie season, for an exclusive interview this month. The 29-year-old Norwegian happily shared everything from training and recovery tips, to advice on double poling.
In a shortened 30 k competition, Holly Brooks of APU placed 10th in the Ugra Ski Marathon in Khanty-Maniysk, Russia, not enough to hold onto the FIS Marathon Cup lead. She finished third overall, the best ranking ever for a North American skier. Tatjana Mannima of Estonia and Petr Novak of the Czech Republic took home the titles.
Inge Scheve's take on racing at her fifth Masters World Cup, which took place last month in Syktyvkar, Russia. In all, eight members of Team USA collected seven medals at this year's championships.
Caitlin Gregg finished third in her first Engadin Skimarathon in Switzerland on Sunday for another bronze to add to her collection following World Championships. Holly Brooks was the second American woman in the top five and reclaimed the FIS Marathon Cup lead in fifth.
FasterSkier’s coverage of the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, Sweden, is brought to you by the generous support of Kikkan Randall training wear. Norway’s Didrik Tønseth was looking at a podium finish in his very first FIS Nordic World Ski Championships event. Now he’s looking at doing more pushups. Twenty-three-year-old rookie Tønseth was leading for part of the way in the men’s 30-kilometer skiathlon on Saturday. “I was thinking that, ‘This is it. I’m...
Sweden's Charlotte Kalla won the last World Cup before 2015 World Championships by more than 36 seconds over Norway's Marit Bjørgen, leading from start to finish for the clear-cut victory. It was her first World Cup win since March 2010, and Bjørgen locked up her fourth Overall World Cup crown.
After individual racing was completed at their national championships - you can find the results inside - Norway named a 23-member team for World Championships in Falun, Sweden. It includes season-long favorites as well as Kristin Størmer Steira and Astrid Jacobsen, who only just returned to the World Cup.
Russian Yulia Tchekaleva won the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon Sunday by 15.6 seconds, earning her first-ever World Cup victory and delivering her best result of the season on home turf in Rybinsk, Russia.
Sweden's Stina Nilsson surged past Norway's Ingvild Flugstad Østberg to win the World Cup women's 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint in Otepää with the same crew that won the Olympic bronze medal at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Therese Johaug surprised nobody as much as herself when she passed Marit Bjørgen in the final meters of Saturday's 10 k classic mass start. Norway swept the podium again, but Aino Kaisa Saarinen of Finland turned in her best performance all season in fourth place, and American Liz Stephen finished an assertive fifth.
Sunday’s 50-kilometer classic race Jizerská Padesatka near Liberec, Czech Republic, is the next event in the 2015 Swix Ski Classics long-distance circuit and racers are eager to hit the tracks after a long break since mid-December.
A bitter Evgeniy Belov of Russia, who finished fourth in today's sprint finish of the 25 k Tour de Ski pursuit, pointed his finger at Petter Northug - the Norwegian skied 24.7 kilometers with the lead pack of four, but never actually led the race until he won it. He now leads the Tour by seven seconds over Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Calle Halfvarsson.
Norway’s Marit Bjørgen was untouchable again, for the fourth day in a row as she won the 5k classic in Toblach, Italy, and widening her overall gap to 1:34.3.
For the second sprint in a row, Italy's Federico Pellegrino came out on top of a stacked World Cup field. Petter Northug of Norway, however, finished second, and retained his overall Tour de Ski lead. “Today, one of my big dreams has come true: to beat Petter (Northug) in the sprint final,” Pellegrino said.
Unsure of whether she can win the Tour, Marit Bjørgen nonetheless set an impressive pace: she won the first race of the seven-race series by ten seconds, despite it being only 3.3 kilometers long. Norway swept the podium again in a World Cup season that's turning out to be all red.
When Norway's Didrik Tønseth got appendicitis right before Christmas, replacement Simen Sveen called off the holidays and stayed in Davos to train. “I’m not nervous, just excited," he told FasterSkier in an exclusive interview. "There’s a big difference. Being excited helps me bring out the best in me."
Norwegian star Marit Bjørgen has never won the Tour de Ski. On the one hand, who cares - she's won everything else, mostly several times over. But she'd like a win and thinks that if she can have a minute lead on teammate Therese Johaug going into the final climb, she can do it. Read the rest of our Tour de Ski preview inside!
There was no shortage of action in the men’s 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprint on Sunday as 24-year-old Federico Pellegrino fought his way to his first-ever World Cup win and Italy’s first victory of the season. “I hope it's a good omen," he said after the race. "I hope it is the first in a long series of triumphs.”
They called her a wild card -- the International Ski Federation, that is. And according to Holly Brooks, she wasn’t sure what she was capable of either. After a second-place finish in the first marathon of the season, she's excited about what's ahead of her.