For this week’s Wednesday Workout (WW), FasterSkier is featuring Knute Johnsgaard, a native of Canada’s Yukon Territory. A 2018 Olympic cross-country skier and former Canadian World Cup Team member, Johnsgaard, 25,
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Canadian World Cup Team
Canadian World Cup B-team member, Len Valjas was beaming. Valjas, along with podium-regular teammate Alex Harvey, had won a World Cup team sprint in Toblach, Italy. The next weekend, Valjas and three teammates (including Harvey) rocketed to individual classic sprint and ended the day in seventh for his best result at his second Olympics. Canada’s Olympic sport-funding system emphasizes championship medals and results. Harvey and Valjas set new Olympic benchmarks this February for Canadian men’s cross-country...
Strength. Balance. Agility. Jesse Cockney had all of those qualities as a child growing up in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories — just like most Inuit kids — according to his father, Angus. But what he could do with that talent was what Angus hoped to nurture. Since he had put his son on skis at age 3, Angus reflected in an email that he “knew then that [Jess] had incredible potential to succeed.” And so the...
On April 26, Devon Kershaw posted a photo on social media of Alpina boots hanging on a line. The next day, he spoke on the phone with FasterSkier from his new home in Lillehammer, Norway, after a day of running around outside with his 15-month-old daughter, Asta Isabel. Kershaw was tired, but in a good way. For the first time in 17 years, he was ready for a new challenge, a new focus and much...
Canada’s Dahria Beatty closed out her World Cup season with the rest of her international-racing peers on March 18 in Falun, Sweden. After three straight days of races, the 24-year-old Whitehorse, Yukon, native finished World Cup Finals in 54th overall. Five days later, she endured a three-day 160-kilometer classic race in Greenland, 65 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. And Beatty didn’t just survive the 22nd-annual epic adventure, she won it. In her first Arctic...
Is Johannes Høsflot Klæbo better than Petter Northug* was at his age? It’s hard to say, reigning Norwegian World Cup winner Martin Johnsrud Sundby told NRK. But his performance in the last two days is pretty unheard of, Sundby said after Saturday’s 15-kilometer classic. On both Friday and Saturday at the Ruka World Cup opener in Kuusamo, Finland, Klæbo (who’s still a U23 athlete at just 21 years old, although he’s on Norway’s exclusive World...
TDS Stages 5, 6, 7: Toblach/Val di Fiemme Quotes
FasterSkierJanuary 8, 2017
That’s a wrap, folks! With the 11th Tour de Ski coming to an end on Sunday with the infamous Alpe Cermis final climb in Val di Fiemme, we wanted to share some of the athlete and coach comments that didn’t make it into the race reports. Below are quotes from the last three stages of the Tour, all in Italy. *** Stage 5 (Toblach, Italy): 5/10 k freestyle Men’s report On pre-race feelings: “I think nerves were...
DAVOS, Switzerland — The evening before the skate sprint in Davos – Andy Newell’s last World Cup competition of 2016 – the U.S. Ski Team veteran stood in the dark outside the temporary trailer his team was using as a wax cabin and talked about doping. In particular, he talked about systematic doping in Russia and has maintained his innocence since , in her extensive investigation of retroactively-awarded Olympic medals, called this “the butterfly effect...
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Lillehammer, Östersund & West Notes & Quotes
FasterSkierDecember 6, 2016
Three days of racing, more than a dozen North American skiers, and one FasterSkier on-site reporter was there to witness it all — including Women | Women | Women | Diggins’s 5 k victory “Jessica can be either in the front or in the back when it comes to classic. I thought that if she has a good day, then we and Marit can try to chase Heidi, and that would be a really nice group....
To kick off this World Cup season, Cross Country Canada (CCC) had planned to send four women for Period 1. After its men’s team has gathered most of the attention in recent years, the Canadian women are now in a position to develop depth at the top level of the sport. In her third full World Cup season, Emily Nishikawa, of Canada’s World Cup B-team, will be joined for Period 1 by national U25 Team members Dahria Beatty...
Harvey Takes a First and Second in Davos Tune-Up Races
Alex KochonNovember 19, 2016
Alex Harvey had a bone to pick with Davos, and he made strides in resolving it on Friday and Saturday at the Swiss World Cup venue. Top-15 World Cup distance results have eluded him there, but not in Saturday's preseason tuneup. "It's always rough for me to race at altitude, so I was very pleased with the result and the way the body worked,” he explained.
Harvey Seeks More World Champs Hardware and a Possible World Cup Overall
Jason AlbertNovember 15, 2016
Canadian World Cup Team member Alex Harvey is no stranger to success. Always lurking near the top end of the World Cup overall, Harvey has his sights set on more World Championships hardware -- specifically a second skiathlon medal -- and the season-culminating Crystal Globe.
On Friday, Cross Country Canada announced its veteran skier Ivan Babikov has retired from racing to help coach the Canadian World Cup Team. Babikov will work specifically with Devon Kershaw and the men’s World Cup level athletes based in Canmore, Alberta, while also serving as B-Team coach.
Sundby Seizes Stage 7, Solidifies Tour Lead; Harvey Seventh in 15 k Classic
Jason AlbertJanuary 9, 2016
Martin Johnsrud Sundby showed he's still got it, winning Saturday's 15 k classic mass start ahead of Norwegian teammate Niklas Dyrhaug and Kazakhstan's Alexey Poltoranin, for nearly a 1 1/2-minute head start in Sunday's final climb. Alex Harvey notched seventh on the day for 12th overall heading into the final stage.
Finn Hågen Krogh knows a lot about ups and downs, and has formed somewhat of a pattern at this year's Tour de Ski. However, the Norwegian had one of his career-best races on Friday, winning the 10 k freestyle by 3.6 seconds ahead of teammate and overall Tour leader Martin Johnsrud Sundby. Noah Hoffman placed 19th to lead the U.S., and Canadian Alex Harvey finished 37th and is now 15th in the Tour.
Valjas 0.01 Seconds Out of Qualifying; Other North Americans on Their Tour Starts
Alex KochonJanuary 1, 2016
In a World Cup sprint, 31st has a little extra bite. Ask Len Valjas. He’s been in that position twice in the last three freestyle sprints. On Friday, the Canadian World Cup Team sprinter finished one-hundredth of a second behind 30th, which would have qualified him for the heats in the 1.5-kilometer skate sprint, the first stage of the Tour de Ski in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Just over two weeks ago at another Swiss race site...
Sundby Bests Bessmertnykh, Double Poles to Undefeated Distance Streak
Jeremy BlazarDecember 20, 2015
Martin Johnsrud Sundby double poled all 15 k of Sunday's classic race in Toblach, Italy, for his fifth win in as many World Cup distance races this season. Russia's Alexander Bessmertnykh rivaled him for most of the race, but finished 12.6 seconds back on kick wax. Canada's Alex Harvey placed 16th and Devon Kershaw was in the points in 28th.
“The skis felt sticky,” is what Canadian National Team Head Coach Justin Wadsworth said about his team’s thoughts on their shortcomings on Saturday in the World Cup freestyle sprint in Toblach, Italy.
Weekend Roundup: Podium in First World Cup of the Season? No Problem for Canada
BrainspiralDecember 1, 2015
Regardless of when winter officially starts, it's here as far as the ski world is concerned, and there's a lot to be excited about in North American racing. Canadian biathletes Rosanna Crawford and Nathan Smith jumped out to a relay podium in the first IBU World Cup race, and Canadian cross-country skier Alex Harvey took second in the men's 10 k skate in Kuusamo, Finland, for his first early season podium.
Valjas Qualifies for Canada, 22nd on Kuusamo Course He Calls Both ‘Terrible and Amazing’
BrainspiralNovember 27, 2015
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."