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World Championships

Sweden Wins Gold, America Shows Heart in Exciting Women’s Team Sprint

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...

Is Norway’s Monopoly on Gold Hurting the Sport?

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers.  If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.   The Norwegian men are in a league of their own—but when a league is contested by just one team, will fans still watch? TRONDHEIM, NORWAY – As the morning gales gave way during last Thursday’s men’s 4×7.5 kilometre relay, the crowds at the Trondheim World...

Inside — okay, actually, outside — Johannes Høsflot Klæbo’s Trondheim victory party

TRONDHEIM, NORWAY — Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, the Norwegian gold-medal winner of all six competitions at this year’s World Championships here, was refreshingly blunt when asked about his plans to celebrate. “You need to remember that I’m allergic to gluten, so I don’t drink much beer,” he told an audience of reporters at a news conference following his last race. But, he added: “If you ask me about vodka-Red Bull, it’s a little bit different.” The 28-year-old...

How Olympic athletes teamed with climate advocates to save a World Championships race from disruption

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers.  If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.   TRONDHEIM, NORWAY — At 9 p.m. on the evening before she would vie for a relay medal at the cross-country skiing World Championships here, American Julia Kern was not sleeping. Instead, she was sending phone messages — announcing that competitors had reached an agreement with climate...

The Devon Kershaw Show: A nail-biter in Trondheim as World Champs hits homestretch

Devon and Nat return to recap a surprisingly lively women’s relay as the weather continues cooperating. And we preview Saturday’s men’s 50-kilometer race. A full week into World Championships and we’re starting to get a little punchy, but keep the emails coming. We’ll be back tomorrow. We’re at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.

‘I’m really looking forward to being inside’: An oral and visual history of Trondheim’s wettest weather in a century

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers.  If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.   TRONDHEIM, NORWAY — Chris Grover, the U.S. cross-country ski program’s director, was wearing his backup clothing against the heinous weather Wednesday at the World Championships here. His first set, he said, was still drying. The clothing, he said, was a casualty of a team van...

The Devon Kershaw Show: More duels in Trondheim as world champs hit halfway

The colors on the podium were the same, but the individual start distance races brought more drama in Trondheim on Tuesday. Devon and Nat return with the full recap. We’ll be back tomorrow after the team sprint. Write us emotional support letters to get us through the next day of precipitation: nat@fasterskier.com and devon@fasterskier.com.  

Campfires, screaming crowds and flaming moonshine: A day of worship in Norway, where skiing is religion

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers.  If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.   TRONDHEIM, NORWAY — A few minutes before 11 a.m. on the side of a ski trail Saturday, a Norwegian plumber named Sven has handed me a cup of karsk: hot coffee mixed with moonshine. Sven touches a lit match to the surface. It is now...

The Devon Kershaw Show: It’s go time in Trondheim

The eagles have landed in Trondheim: Devon and Nat are both on the ground (emphasis on ground, not snow) for World Championships. Here’s a quick dispatch from the scene before racing kicks off here. We’ll be back after the sprint tomorrow. We are definitely aiming to do a live show at some point during the championships though, semi-seriously, we need an event planner to help us pull it off, not to mention still a venue....

A ‘huge party’ of a World Championships is ready to kick off in Norway

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers.  If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.   TRONDHEIM — It’s back. It’s been 14 years since Norway hosted a cross-country skiing World Championships, with the 2011 event going off along Oslo trails mobbed with Scandinavian fans. The championships return to the skiing-mad nation again Thursday, with the first of six medal races,...

Countdown to Trondheim: What to Expect from the FIS World Championship

The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2025 in Trondheim, Norway, promise to be a monumental event in winter sports, running from February 26 to March 9, 2025. With its rich history in skiing and the newly modernized Granåsen venue, the championship is set to host exciting races across cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Let’s dive into what you can expect from this world-class event and how the odd look like on gamblingguy.com. A...

Rosie Brennan isn’t a sparkle chipmunk. But “every human” can still relate to her hard-fought career.

PLANICA, SLOVENIA — Anyone who knows Rosie Brennan, and the ups and downs of her professional cross-country ski racing career, can relate to her mother’s experience at the World Championships here. Walking among the crowds in U.S.-themed clothing, Wiggy Brennan heard the same thing, over and over, from European fans: “We love Jessie Diggins!” — a reference to Rosie Brennan’s gold-medal winning teammate. “And I say, ‘Okay. But what about Rosie?’” Wiggy said. That question...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Quick bonus episode with the Canadian relay men

Canada threw down an impressive fifth place finish in Friday’s men’s 4×10 k relay, finishing just seconds from the medals. We caught up with the team afterwards in the mixed zone — here are our interviews with, in order, Tony Cyr, Graham Ritchie and Olivier Leveille. (We interviewed scramble leg skier Xavier McKeever earlier in the day, which is why he’s not featured in this clip.) We’ll be back tonight with a recap of the...

The Devon Kershaw Show: IgNor-way and it was an awesome men’s World Championships relay

Yeah, Norway smoked everyone in the men’s 4×10 k relay at World Championships in Planica, Slovenia. But the race for silver and bronze was a thriller, with Canada delivering an electrifying performance. Chris Jeffries, the Canadians’ high performance director, joins us from on site to break the race down. Get at us at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com. Ten races down, two to go.  

Jessie Diggins won gold. Now, she and all adjacent Americans are basking in European adulation.

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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.  PLANICA, SLOVENIA — Rita White, Oumar Cherif and Anna Dehler arrived in Slovenia from Minnesota on Monday. The next day, they headed up to the World Ski Championships competition venue at Planica,...

Bonus World Champs episode: Hear straight from Diggins, and her coach

We wanted to let you hear straight from the medalist’s mouth. So we’re posting these short interviews Nat did yesterday with World Championships gold medalist Jessie Diggins and her coach Jason Cork. We’ll be back later today with coverage from the 15-kilometer men’s race. Stay tuned, and email us at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.  

After Olympic near-misses, Planica binding mishap postpones Brennan’s medal quest

PLANICA, SLOVENIA — From the stadium at this Slovenian ski venue, Wiggy Brennan watched on the jumbotron as her daughter, Rosie Brennan, raced with the lead pack in Saturday’s World Championships skiathlon race. Brennan, who trains with Anchorage’s Alaska Pacific University team, was feeling good and gunning for a medal against the best in the world. It’s easy to pick her out, Wiggy said, with her bright orange Rossignol skis. Then, someone crashed. “And I’m...