This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. We’ve arrived at the final weekend of World Cup racing. After the cancellation of the finals scheduled to take place in Tyumen, Russia and the difficulty of finding a last-minute...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, embrace the idea of pulling a “Klæbo” or deciding to “Klæbo” a course. On Tuesday at the Alpensia cross-country venue in PyeongChang, his name gained even more light in the glimmer of cross-country skiing stardom. He raced to a convincing win in the men’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint at the 2018 Winter Olympics amidst freshly falling snow and frigid winds. While most racers were bundled in buffs,...
There was no mistaking Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in Friday’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint, even with no natural light illuminating the course in Kuusamo, Finland, by the time the men’s final left the start line. The 21 year old’s distinct runner-like, high-tempo stride could be seen leading the five other men’s finalists on every climb, distinguishing him from the light fog and densely packed trees lining the course’s firmly packed tracks. Making his World Cup debut...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Liz Guiney, Caitlin Patterson and Jessica Yeaton.) Sometimes just being there is half the battle, as the saying goes. No Maiken Caspersen Falla. No Stina Nilsson. On Friday at the site of next year’s Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, three athletes who had never made it to a World Cup podium before prevailed in the women’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint. And right there was...
FIS Nordic Junior World Championships (Midway, Utah): 10/20 k skiathlon A Junior World Championships medal has been on Katharine Ogden’s mind for some time — two years, to be exact. “Every day in training, it’s kind of something that I think about. It’s the little thing that helps me push myself,” Ogden, a 19-year-old member of the Stratton Mountain School and U.S. Ski Team D-team, said in a post-race interview with the U.S. Ski Team on Friday....
The first races of the 2016/2017 World Cup season opened with a 1.4-kilometer classic sprint in Ruka, Finland. Besting some of Russia and Norway's top sprinters was Sweden's Stina Nilsson, who raced to her first ever classic win on Saturday. "This is...my first victory in classic so I'm very, very happy," Nilsson said during a T.V. interview.
The two men who landed on the first and third steps of the podium in Saturday’s World Cup opener in Kuusamo, Finland, weren’t even slated to start as of a week ago. But 20-year-old Johannes Høsflot Klæbo’s chose to skip the opening World Cup weekend because his energy wasn’t where he wanted it to be. “It’s just so competitive [this] time of year,” Canadian Alex Harvey observed in a post-race phone interview. “The Norwegians that were first and...
At Western Canadian Championships last weekend in Prince George, B.C., Dahria Beatty and Kevin Sandau locked up the overall NorAm lead before the Ski Tour Canada while others duked it out during three days of races Feb. 19-21.
Andy Newell remembered a thing or two about the Kuusamo course, and he shared them with his U.S. teammates before the World-Cup opening classic sprint there on Friday. His calculations worked, as Newell ended up just over a second off the podium in fourth for his best result in three seasons.
This time last year, Ida Sargent had a career-best fifth in the first Word Cup of the season: the Ruka classic sprint in Kuusamo, Finland. She came close on Friday, finishing seventh and missing the final by 0.37 seconds. Teammate Sadie Bjornsen won her quarterfinal and placed 12th overall.
Lenny Valjas was the lone Canadian to qualify on Friday in the first World Cup race of the season, the Ruka Triple classic sprint in Kuusamo, Finland. “Today’s goal was just to qualify and to make it into the points," Valjas explained. "There was no huge expectations."
Out of six U.S. Ski Team members who advanced to the heats in Thursday's World Championships classic sprint, Sophie Caldwell and Simi Hamilton went the farthest, making it to the semifinals before finishing 10th and 12th, respectively. Andy Newell placed 17th and rookie Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess led his quarterfinal at one point before ending up 30th overall. Sadie Bjornsen was 19th and Ida Sargent placed 29th.
Marit Bjørgen overcame the spectator roars for Sweden's Stina Nilsson to hold off the home-crowd favorite by 0.42 seconds in the women's classic-sprint final on the first official day of 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. Bjørgen captured her 13th World Championships gold, Nilsson notched silver and Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla took bronze.
Alex Harvey wasn't the only Canadian to race in Thursday's World Champs classic sprint. Lenny Valjas finished 14th overall for the men after placing third in his quarterfinal, while Perianne Jones placed 24th.
Four North American women advanced to the heats on the first day of medal competition at the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, with American Sophie Caldwell leading the crew in 21st in Thursday’s classic-sprint qualifier. Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk won the qualifier by 0.24 seconds, and Kikkan Randall missed advancing by 3.22 seconds in 36th.
Eirik Brandsdal repeated his Kuusamo feat from last year, winning the classic sprint there for the second-straight year. He led a Norwegian sweep of the men's top four, outlasting Northug in a double-pole showdown to the finish, and 21-year-old Sondre Turvoll Fossli placed third in his first World Cup final.
In the middle of the day under the lights in Finland, Marit Bjørgen opened the season with a result that likely only surprised herself. "I am grateful to win today,” she said. "It’s still a sprint." Two other Norwegians joined her in the final, as did Slovenia's Katja Visnar, American Ida Sargent, and Russia's Natalia Matveeva -- but not Justyna Kowalczyk.
The first race of the season was no problem for U.S. Ski Team member Ida Sargent, who said she had a lot to think about during Saturday's classic sprint -- the first World Cup race of the season in Kuusamo, Finland -- but she used it to fuel her best-ever result on the international circuit.
Regulars for the last week in Gällivare, the Canadians put themselves in the mix in Saturday's classic sprints with Perianne Jones winning the women's final, Alex Harvey taking second to Russia's Sergey Ustiugov in the men's final, Lenny Valjas placing fourth and Jess Cockney bringing it home in sixth.
A questionable lane change fewer than 100 meters before the finish left jury members to decide whether or not Andy Newell's move in front of Reese Hanneman warranted a penalty in the men's classic sprint final at SuperTour Finals on Sunday -- thus relegating him from first to last. Hanneman ultimately won and Newell was demoted to sixth.