FIS Cross Country World Cup 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint Cogne, Italy Amidst sunshine and sporting rolled up sleeves on Saturday in Cogne Italy, American Jessie Diggins took the women’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint win in nail-biter fashion. After making it into the semifinals and the final as one of the day’s lucky losers, Diggins outlunged Germany’s Sandra Ringwald […]
Friday Race Rundown from SoHo
IBU World Cup Soldier Hollow Men’s 10 k Sprint It was a career first IBU World Cup win for Norway’s Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen in the men’s 10 k sprint on Friday. Christiansen won in a time of 23:39.7 minutes while shooting clean for the day. France’s Simon Desthieux earned his first World Cup podium of […]
Thursday Race Rundown from the IBU World Cup at SoHo
IBU World Cup Soldier Hollow (Midway), Utah women’s 7.5 k Sprint The name itself carries with it a reputation for high heart rates. Nestled on the East slope of Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, Soldier Hollow (SoHo), the sight of this week’s IBU World Cup races, features tracks well above 5,000 feet in altitude. Junior and senior […]
Wednesday Workout: Recovery and Nutrition on the Road During the U18 Nations’ Cup Trip
Kate Oldham is a U18 athlete from Carbondale, CO who skis for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club. After strong results at US Nationals, Kate was selected as one of the six female U18 skiers to travel to Otepää, Estonia from January 20th – 30th to race in the Nations’ Cup races, where she […]
Canadian Western Championship: Weekend Wrap-up
KELOWNA, B.C — One week after Easterns, it was time for Westerns, and the Polar Vortex made the trip for both weekends. At Easterns, the air was cold enough to keep the organizing committee on edge at the start of the weekend, and freezing rain complicated driving plans. At Westerns, the cold weather held off to […]
Bringing Change: Clare Egan and the Season She Hoped For
Having the season you hope for and actually having that season is the rarefied magic of sport. “I am having the season I hoped for but didn’t expect,” US Biathlon’s Clare Egan said in a telephone call on Jan. 30th. “I got the balance right for the first time since I started training full time. […]
Nordic Nation: The Finding Your Voice Episode with Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson
Putting yourself in another’s shoes – or ski-boots — is an age-old tenant. But it would be truly hard to imagine being twenty-one years old and thrust into the biathlon world spotlight. At least year’s Olympics in PyeongChang, Swedish biathlete Sabastian Samuelsson literally arrived on the scene in his canary yellow race suit — he […]
Sweden Snags First and Third in Lahti Classic Team Sprint
It was a weekend of sprinting in Lahti, Finland, with many World Cup athletes closing out Sunday having traversed the famed 1.4-kilometer 2016 World Championships sprint loop at top speed close to ten times. By the time Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist got on course for the final lap of the women’s classic Team Sprint, she had […]
Norway goes One-Two in Lahti Men’s Team Sprint
Norway placed first and second in today’s World Cup 6 x 1.6-kilometer classic team sprint in Lahti, Finland. Skiing for Norway I were overall winners Emil Iversen and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. They won the ten team final in a time of 18:57.19 minutes. In a photo finish for second place, Sindre Bjørnestad Skar and Eirik […]
Sunday Rundown from Lahti and Canada (Canmore Biathlon Sprints Cancelled)
FIS World Cup Lahti, Finland Classic Team Sprint Sunday in Lahti, Finland the women raced a 6 x 1.4-kilometer classic team sprint. U.S. fans saw their hopes for a podium snuffed out in the two semi-finals that determined the 10 teams advancing to the finals. In the first team sprint semi, the U.S. Ski Team’s […]
Falla First in Lahti; But Calling it For Caldwell
Out of the famed Lahti, Finland ski stadium and up and over the initial punchy climb, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla, 40 seconds into the final of the women’s 1.4-kilometer sprint, charged ahead. In her draft, and sitting in fourth place around the hairpin that slung skiers back towards the stadium was the U.S. Ski Team’s […]
Klæbo Tied for Second-Most World Cup Sprint Wins; US Skiers Looking for More
After two weeks away from competition, athletes revved their engines in Lahti, Finland for an individual 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint, one of the final stops on the way to the World Championships. After a string of what he deemed “bad luck” in the first sprint races of the season in Ruka and Lillehammer, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot […]
Saturday Race Rundown; Caldwell Second in Lahti; Canadian Westerns
FIS World Cup Lahti, Finland 1.4 k/ 1.6 k Freestyle Sprint In the women’s skate sprint qualifier in Lahti, Finland Slovenia’s Eva Urevc laid down the fastest time in 2:40.67 minutes. Swiss skier Nadine Faehndrich was the second fastest qualifier, 4.21 seconds back, with the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Sophie Caldwell third (+4.36). Canada’s Dahria […]
Canadians Westerns Rundown: Skate Sprints
Canadian Western Championships started off Friday with free technique sprints on the Telemark trails near Kelowna, B.C. The sun was out for the qualification round, followed by cloud, and light snow as the day progressed with the temperature hovering at -10C. A major road closure combined with icy morning highways and a large number of accidents […]
Day Two in Canmore: IBU World Cup Relay Day Rundown (Updated)
Canmore, Canada IBU World Cup 4 x 7.5 k/ 4 x 6 k relay Friday in Canmore was team relay day. Norway’s Lars Helge Birkeland, Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, Erlend Øvereng Bjøntegaard and Johannes Thingnes Bø won the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in 1:16:36.6 hours while acquiring no penalties on the shooting range and […]
Canmore IBU World Cup Race Rundown: Warm Enough for Bø and Eckhoff
IBU World Cup Canmore, Canada 15 k/ 12.5 k Short Individual Races Sun, mountains, and what may have seemed like relatively warm temps allowed the IBU World Cup events to proceed on Thursday in Canmore, Canada. It’s been Polar Vortex cold in Canmore. Cold enough to thwart the original plans for traditional length 20-kilometer and […]
Wednesday Workout: Race Prep with UNM’s Kornelius Grov
For this week’s Wednesday Workout, FasterSkier talked to University of New Mexico (UNM) racer Ben Berend about how his teammate, Kornelius Groev, the fastest skate skier on the RMISA circuit this season, gets ready for a race weekend. We are already over halfway through the collegiate race season and Groev has established himself as a […]
Canadian Eastern Championships: Weekend Wrap-up
The NorAm series went to Duntroon, Ontario, for the Canadian Eastern Championships: three days of varied weather, new race formats, and new faces on the podium, all hosted by Highlands Trailblazers. Easterns is possibly the most storied ski race in Canada. Most years, it is the largest FIS event in North America. This year, the […]
Cold in Canmore and Juggling the IBU World Cup
“Polar Vortex” has become part of the oh-so-cold vernacular when describing seemingly locked in place artic air. Last week’s weather-related news cycle was dominated by all things “Polar Vortex”. In Canmore, Canada, the term is still being thrown around: the cold temperatures have not abated. On Thursday, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) is scheduled to […]
Becoming Northug
(Some details and insights in this story come from a book recently published in Norwegian, Min Historie: Northug as told by Petter Northug to Jonas Forsang. This piece was written by twenty-one-year-old Maks Zechel, a Canadian cross-country skier living and training in Norway.) *** Arguably the greatest male cross country skier of all time. […]