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World Junior Championships

FasterSkier’s Juniors of the Year: Ben Loomis and Hailey Swirbul (Updated)

With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding North American junior athletes across all nordic disciplines.  *** Ben Loomis, U.S. Nordic Combined Team In late January,...

Halvorsen Eighth to Lead U.S. in World Juniors Sprint, Canada’s Ritchie 12th

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from American Hannah Halvorsen.) 2018 World Junior Championships is off and running and two brand-new champions have been crowned. Moa Lundgren of Sweden took the women’s skate sprint title while the men’s final went to Tom Mancini of France. On a perfect blue-sky day nestled deep in the Swiss Alps, the world’s best skiers under the age of 20 raced around a hilly sprint course with...

Sunday Rundown: Seefeld, Goms, Ridnaun, Craftsbury

IBU Open European Championships (Ridnaun-Val Ridanna, Italy): Single mixed & mixed relays Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey teamed up for the final day of the 2018 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Open European Championships in Ridnaun, Italy, and raced to a bronze medal in the single mixed relay. The American duo, both of which earned individual medals at last year’s IBU World Championships, finished just 9.1 seconds out of first, which went to Norway’s Thelka Brun-Lie...

American Juniors, U23s Face Stricter Pre-Qualifying Criteria for Liberec

For developing skiers all over the globe, the chance to compete at Junior and U23 World Championships can be the high point of an entire young career. American athletes compete for a spot on the team every year at U.S. Nationals, but before nationals even gets under way, up to two men and women in each age class can pre-qualify for the team if they meet a specific FIS-point standard at certain races. That standard...

Nilsson Charges Down Homestretch to Take Sprint Victory in Erzurum

ERZURUM, Turkey — Stina Nilsson (SWE) trained all summer for the World Juniors sprint, and on Monday she got what she’d worked for with her victory at the Kandilli Nordic Ski Center. She led a 1-2-4 Swedish team performance in the freestyle sprint, which exceeded ever their coaches’ expectations. Jonna Sundling (SWE) was fourth. Unlike the men’s sprint outcome, which featured a repeat winner, Nilsson came from a 12th-place showing in the classic sprint at...

Trailside in Erzurum for World Juniors and U23s (Video)

ERZURUM, Turkey — Less than a day remains before the start of the 2012 FIS Junior and U23 World Championships. Despite language barriers and transportation confusion, the excitement at the Kandilli Nordic Ski Center was palpable in anticipation of Monday’s junior freestyle sprints. The sun even came out for the occasion, revealing a mountainous, moon-like landscape that had previously been hidden behind clouds. Kandilli lies about 40 k to the west of Erzurum, where athletes...

Injury Behind Her, Stock Ready for World Juniors

Highlighted by her fourth-place performance in the senior freestyle sprint at U.S. Nationals, 17-year-old Corey Stock (Cambridge Sports Union) earned her first trip to Europe with the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) World Junior Championship squad this coming February. It’s difficult to determine the most remarkable part of that statement. For starters, Stock’s age would normally make her a candidate for the J1 trip, and yet as the top junior finisher in the skate sprint in...

After Three Races at Nationals, USSA Announces Junior Standings

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association released its final ranking lists used to select the teams for the J1 Scando trip (J1S) and World Junior Championships (WJC) teams. World Junior Championships will be held in Erzurum, Turkey from February 20 – 26, with an optional pre-camp of Scandinavian Cup races in Madona, Latvia and Elbu, Estonia. The J1 Scando Cup trip is in Mammaste, Estonia from February 13 – 27 with an optional pre-camp in...

With a squad composed of four individual medalists, the Norwegians skied to victory in the women’s relay at the World Junior Championships on Monday. The Norwegians were trailing slightly to Germany after a tough first leg by Ragnhild Haga.  But Martina Ek Hagen took over, closed the gap, and handed the race off to Heidi Weng, who broke the Russian and Swedish teams with a big attack on the skate course’s steepest, toughest climb in...

The question may not have been burning on Thursday, but at the very least, it was smoldering: Would any of the junior men attempt to double-pole Friday’s classic sprint? At last weekend’s World Cup races on the same course in Otepaa, Estonia, Norway’s Eirik Brandsdal double-poled through his qualifier and all three heats to edge out his teammate, Ola Vigen Hattestad, for the win. Only a handful of others tried the maneuver in the preliminary,...

More Medals? A World Youth and Junior Biathlon Championships Preview

When the World Youth and Junior Biathlon Championships kick off in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on Saturday, both the U.S. and Canadian teams will have high hopes. How high? In 2010 in Torsby, Sweden, Canadian Rose-Marie Cote won a bronze medal in the youth 10 k individual. In 2009 in Canmore, Canada, American Grace Boutot won silver in the same event, and Canadian Yolaine Oddou was one spot behind her. That was a banner year...

Skar Wins Junior Champs 10 K; Patterson Leads N. Americans in 28th

Even by Norway’s standards, four out of six ain’t bad. After the country’s women swept the podium in the World Junior Championships 5 k freestyle on Wednesday morning, Sindre Bjoernestad Skar collected the country’s fourth medal of the day by winning the men’s 10 k event, topping Germany’s Markus Weeger and Finland’s Perttu Hyvarinen. With the first of seven events down in Otepaa, Estonia, Norway is in possession of two-thirds of the hardware. While Skar...

Otep-What? Who-ffman? FasterSkier’s Guide to 2011 U-23’s and World Juniors

For U.S. ski fans, this year’s World Junior and U-23 Championships, which begin Wednesday in Estonia, have the potential to be pretty sweet. On paper, the American squad is as good as any from the last five years, and deeper, too. No fewer than five of its athletes will go on to compete at the World Ski Championships in Oslo later this winter. With Estonia experiencing one of its best winters in years, and two...