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. Since the mid-1980s, I’ve had the good fortune of working with the late Dr. Jim Stray-Gundersen on several projects. Our first conversation was at a training camp in Hatcher Pass, Alaska, either in October 1985 or 1986. We were discussing how we could better assess...
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. These “Bad Sports”installments have allowed us to spend mid-summer days reflecting on ways that the world’s best skiers have been tempted tempted to misbehave in seasons past, and in the season to come. But the world’s best are not the only ones who may resort...
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. In recent years Zone 2 training has become the latest fad. It seems like everyone has a different definition or interpretation of the infamous Zone 2 training. When discussing training zones, it is important to understand a couple of key points. Training zones are typically...
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. Over the past three decades of coaching—monitoring dozens of athletes and using tools like Firstbeat analytics to track training load and recovery—I’ve developed my training theory that I call “continual improvement.” Some exercise physiologists, sport scientists, and coaches question whether this is even possible. Others...
Dear Cross Country Community, We are pleased to announce the XC Team for Period 1 of the 2025-26 World Cup season: Ruka, FIN 10 km C Men John Hagenbuch Objective 24-25 Overall SuperTour Leader Gus Schumacher Objective 14th Distance World Cup 24-25 Ben Ogden Objective 22nd Distance World Cup 24-25 Zanden McMullen Objective 35th Distance World Cup 24-25 Luke Jager Discretion 21st Les Rousses 20 km C JC Schoonmaker Discretion 23rd Falun 10 km...
The nefarious use of performance enhancing drugs is not limited to shadowy old communist nations that once hid behind the Iron Curtain. There are also those many cases involving relatively believable (though equally questionable) explanations of the circumstances—food contaminations, mistaken prescriptions, innocent mistakes, misunderstood limitations and/or applications. As FasterSkier cited in an earlier article, Martin Johnsrud Sundby claimed to have had no knowledge of the illegality of the mechanism (a nebulizer) with which he administered...
Williams College, a Division III institution and member of the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) and New England Small College Athletics Conference (NESCAC), is seeking applicants for the position of Assistant Nordic Ski Coach. This is a 40 hour per week, 10-month position with a full meal plan and a benefit package spread over 12 months, and also provides full tuition-remission of graduate school after six months of employment. Williams Skiing, has a long history...
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. There are many famous innovators and trend-setters in the sport of cross-country skiing: I’m not one of those, though I was around at a time when cross-country skiing was changing fast, and when many voices participated in discussions of what the sport would become. A...
The Utah Nordic Alliance is based in Salt Lake City and is a member of the Intermountain Division. Our mission is to create the process and the pathway that challenges each skier to grow to their fullest potential, both in competitive Nordic skiing and the lifelong love of outdoor sport. Our vision: There is a place in the program for everyone Entry for skiers, youth, parent, and adults can happen at any age Skiers must...
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. Norway’s great champion, Martin Johnsrud Sundby, would lose his overall World Cup title and his Tour de Ski championship in 2015 over doping infractions related to the use of asthma medication nebulizers. Sundby had been the dominant figure in distance racing for a number of...
Start Skiwax Oy has started the operations and will continue the production and development of the traditional Start brand. The company has acquired all rights, including production equipment, formulas, and other immaterial rights, to ensure the continuity and quality of Start products. Behind the company is a Finnish group of ten shareholders, combining both new expertise and former employees who bring extensive experience and a strong belief in Finnish know-how and the future of cross-country...
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. I’ve been using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) to guide endurance training for nearly 20 years. As with every innovation, we do research and test it extensively before we introduce the use with athletes. I was introduced to HRV by Tiina Hoffman the former skier and...
Position Title: Events and Officials Manager Reporting Structure: Reports to: Chief Executive Officer Summary Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the Events and Officials Manager is responsible for leading and managing the domestic events program and the official’s development pathway. Duties and Responsibilities Provides input to the development of the strategic direction and annual plans to ensure sustainable domestic competition opportunities for development, high performance and recreational skiers Lead the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation...
Comp Coach Details: Reports to BBNT Head Coach & Program Director, and Executive Director Flexible start date (September – October) Part-time in September and full-time October-March Would consider a candidate for winter only Pay is dependent on experience and availability Due to the seasonal nature of this job (much more is required during winter than in summer), we can build this position/schedule around the right candidate. The Bogus Basin Nordic Team (BBNT) in Boise, ID,...
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. A Winter Olympics on the horizon in 2026 reminds inherently-skeptical ski-journalists of Sochi in 2014. At those Olympics, a whole host of Russian athletes were disqualified due to their involvement in a government-sponsored doping scheme. Remember that one? The secret hole in the wall of...
Over the past couple of decades coaching endurance athletes, I’ve noticed a consistent relationship between three key performance metrics. Whether this relationship is push-pull or more synergistic is still up for debate—but one thing is clear: when these three improve, so does overall performance. These metrics are: Power or velocity at aerobic threshold (AT) Average power during a 6-minute max effort Peak power during a 10-second sprint When we pair this external data with internal...
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 Olympics are designed to be a simple thing: “The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight,” said Baron de Coubertin (founder of the modern Olympic Games)” The essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.” Those...
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. “A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.” So said the inimitable and irascible vaudeville and film comic, W. C. Fields. We can assume his statement was made in jest . . . sort of. What we do know is that plenty of...
Job Title: Nordic Program Director and Junior Team Head Coach Job Status: Full-Time. Salary range $40,000-$50,000 based on experience and qualifications. Evenings and weekends required. Description: The Nordic Program Director and Junior Team Head Coach is responsible for the design, management, and oversight of all Nordic ski programming and all aspects of each of these programs, with a particular emphasis on the Junior Nordic Ski Team. Duties and Responsibilities: Develop yearly plans for all Nordic...
The U.S. Cross Country Junior National Championships—originally known as the Junior Nationals, then called the Junior Olympics for a stretch, and now again the Junior Nationals—were first held in 1965 in Bend, Oregon. Those early events included all ski disciplines: cross-country, alpine, ski jumping, and nordic combined. They were hosted at venues that could accommodate the full spectrum of competitive skiing. In digging into history, I found it surprisingly difficult to track down hard dates...