This Sunday, a lesser-heralded chapter of American history will close when Jessie Diggins enters her final World Cup event. She will leave the sport at the absolute top of her game, for the fourth time as the overall Crystal Globe winner, having slogged it out over a season that began the day after Thanksgiving above the Arctic Circle in Finland and will end 33 races later right here in Lake Placid, NY. She is the...
The April 4 event pairs a live global broadcast with on-snow programming at Tahoe XC. The inaugural Tahoe Nordic Expo will take place April 4, 2026, bringing together some of the most accomplished names in Nordic sport for a live, global virtual panel focused on the past season, the Olympic year, and the future of the sport. Designed as a hybrid event, the Expo centers around a live virtual panel featuring Olympic, Paralympic, and World...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped us put our Nat Herz on the ground reporting at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. PREDAZZO, ITALY — Eight years ago, on a different continent, the words “Here Comes Diggins!” by Chad Salmela vaulted American cross-country skiing into a new era. On Wednesday in Val di Fiemme, the event...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. PREDAZZO, ITALY — By day, Andrew Kastning’s life sounds conventional: He’s a father of three, with a desk job in Alaska doing permitting work for a federal agency. During the winter? It’s another story. On periodic Friday and Saturday mornings, you’ll find Kastning awake at 1 a.m., 2 a.m. or 3...
On a late-October morning, Julia Kern sat in San Diego, sunlight spilling through the window after cradling her infant nephew. “He’s a cutie for sure,” she laughed. In a few short weeks, she’ll trade baby giggles for the squeak of ski pole baskets on the cold Finnish snow, but the warmth in her voice already says a lot about where she is mentally this Olympic year: grounded, grateful, and still having fun. “It’s been a...
ANCHORAGE — Alaskans like to think of their home state as the center of American cross-country skiing. Minnesotans might quibble. But consider the more than 200 volunteers who turned out to help host the U.S. National Championships in Anchorage this week, and the dozens of local athletes who signed up to race. There was just one problem: Through five of six of the championship events, athletes from Norway, Sweden, Colorado and Idaho had denied the...
Skiing with kids can feel like, well, a daunting junk show. The gear explosion, the logistics puzzle, and the constant battle to keep everyone warm and happy can make you wonder if it’s worth stepping foot out of the door. As a mom of two, I live this reality, staring down the barrel of a long winter filled with wrestling squirmy little bodies into layers upon layers of wool, fleece, and down. Can kid-pulling ever...
For those of us suffering from the post-ski-season let down—or for those who simply can’t get enough ski-related content—an effective way to help address these issues will be to take 46 minutes to view “Kikkan,” a nicely produced short documentary about the life of Kikkan Randall. Presented (sponsored) by L.L. Bean and Providence Health Alaska, the film includes details of Randall’s childhood, ski career, cancer struggle, and personal life. The movie is a candid chronological...
From her debut in Salt Lake City to a decisive sprint finish in PyeongChang, Kikkan Randall defined her career through Olympic aspirations. Immediately following a gold-medal performance in PyeongChang she received a cancer diagnosis, and barely had a chance to catch her breath before finding herself navigating life as a single mother. The film, KIKKAN, presented by Fischer Skis US, L.L.Bean, and Providence Alaska, chronicles the life of the five-time Olympian from childhood through her...
A tale of how I skied faster than Kikkan Randall for exactly five minutes and 39 seconds until I got tired and she hit more rifle targets than I did. Once upon a time, I was a serious, though definitively not successful, cross-country skier. I raced for my college team in Maine, then kept at it afterward and one time finished 17th (I think, I can’t find the results any more) at the Tour of...
It’s been a couple weeks since you last heard from us. The World Cup and the Devon Kershaw Show are back from a hiatus with a recap of the high altitude sprint weekend in Livigno. Devon and Nat break down the individual and team sprints from the Italian Alps, including some strong American performances. We’re still planning a mailbag episode in the not-too-distant future, so keep those questions coming: devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com. We’ll be back...