Lumi Experiences guest Ron Sawdey from Salt Lake City, Utah took time to reflect on his 2023 trip to the Marcialonga & König Ludwig Lauf Worldloppet events in Italy, Germany and Austria. Ron’s reflections share some insider insights for both the uninitiated and Worldloppet Masters alike. Read on to learn more about the trip. – – – – – – – – – – For the uninitiated, you may have heard the words, “World Loppet”,...
The colleges of New England cannot escape the dark, cold weeks of winter. Long ago, they decided to celebrate it, and the tradition of collegiate Winter Carnivals stretches back more than a century. Carnivals are a time-tested celebration of the winter season, the arrival of winter snow, and the activities that the season allows: sledding, ski jumping, Alpine races, Nordic events, ice sculpting, bonfires on the quad, and the tradition of campus-wide snowball fights. Over...
Cross country skiing is an aerobic sport: the amount of oxygen entering our lungs is one of the factors directly affecting our performance. It seems to make sense: more oxygen in, more fuel provided to the muscles, greater levels of performance in endurance events. On the other hand, some athletes suffer from external factors limiting the amount of oxygen they can utilize to give energy to their muscles. One such factor is asthma, a condition...
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...
Goms! These races, in Switzerland, were unambiguously awesome. Wipeouts, sun, fondue, North American podiums and breakout performances. And an Alaskan guest who watched the races firsthand. We really went above and beyond the call of duty this week — we’ve got sounds from the side of the trail and even a profanity-laced tirade from Devon if you stick it out to the end of the show. We’ll be on scene at the next round of...
This 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. Jessie Diggins (USA) continues to pursue the season-long World Cup Overall title, having successfully defended her lead in those standings through the recent weekends of sprints and mass start races. And with so...
This 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. As the eyes of cross-country World Cup competitors begin to turn their gaze toward North America, one task remained for them before they could begin to focus on packing their bags for the...
Marcialonga—the seventh Ski Classics stage, and first Grand Classics event, Season XV—took place today in Trentino, Italy. The traditional Italian race—starting in Moena and finished in Cavalese—saw Runar Skaug Mathisen (Lager 157 Ski Team) and Emilie Fleten (Team Ramudden) mastering their respective races and winning the 51st edition of Marcialonga. MEN’S RACE In the men’s race, which started at 8:00 CET, the action started early with Team Ragde Charge, Team Eksjöhus, Team Ramudden, and Lager...
(Plus! Which 3 passports does Julia carry with her in the winter?!) Lumi Experiences is excited to support athletes on the US Ski Team like Julia Kern. Julia won a bronze medal in the Team Sprint at the World Championships last winter, and she is also a great representative off the race course. Like several of the top-US racers who hold dual-citizenship (Jessie Diggins: US/Canadian, Sophia Laukli: US/Norwegian), Julia Kern holds US/German citizenship and speaks...
Many of the season’s biggest races are a month away: The American Birkebeiner, High School State Meets, Junior National Qualifiers, and countless important citizens’ races. Here at BNS, we get a lot of questions in the weeks leading up to races about how to make your skis the fastest possible on race day. Truth is, much like training your body to be fast on race day, you have to prep your skis for the big races, too....
This 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. Goms, Switzerland has never hosted a World Cup Sprint competition before, so prior experience would offer no tactical advantages to racers in today’s Freestyle Sprint. The playing field would be level, and everyone...
This 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. When it comes to World Cup racing, the Mixed Relay is the new kid on the block. And, like many new kids, not everyone is certain what to make of them. Today in...
We are pleased to announce that the EnjoyWinter Factory Team launched it’s 2024 season this past weekend with great success. We participated at the SkideShe run by the American Birkebeiner ski foundation. This women’s only camp and race weekend is title sponsored by two key EnjoyWinter retailers GearWest and Riverbrook. Factory Team athlete Annika Landis did our brands proud by sharing her expertise as a coach for the camp, and then dominating the 30Km...
Team Norway has swept most distance race podiums this season, and has consistently placed a rotating series of Norwegian stars atop those podiums, as well. It’s become a foregone conclusion that a Norwegian man will win the Overall World Cup title this season. Even so, if any of those Norwegian contenders miss a couple of races, their chances of contending for the season-lone Crystal Globe all but evaporate. Just ask Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo; He’s podiumed...
By: Kay Hummel Hailey, Idaho’s Molly Maybach placed 27th out of 94 women biathletes at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea on Monday evening. (Tuesday morning in Asia.) Maybach was the top American woman in the six kilometer sprint that was won by Italian Carlotta Gautero. American teammates Alexandria Taylor of Lincoln, Massachusetts and Emily Campbell of Park City, Utah finished 67th and 78th respectively. In the earlier mens 7.5 km sprint, U.S. biathletes...
Watching the Stifel U.S. Ski Team during the first half of the 2023-24 World Cup season has, at points, been a sublime experience. That feeling of overwhelming exhilaration when looking out from the mountain top has been something literal for American athletes on top of podiums—and literal Alpes too—as they’ve traveled week-to-week, race-to-race, across Europe this winter. From Jessie Diggins’ Overall World Cup lead and Tour de Ski win, to career firsts way into her...
Prince of Quebec Alex Harvey and his protege on the Canadian team, Tony Cyr, check in with us after a three-day weekend of racing in Germany. We went kinda long. Also: We have a first-of-its-kind waxing and service report from U.S. Ski Team technician Eli Brown. Let us know what you think: We’re at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com. We’ll be back after another weekend of racing in Switzerland before the World Cup circuit heads to North...
Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, WI/Army World Class Athlete Program) and Campbell Wright (Wanaka, NZL/U.S. Biathlon) skied to a ninth place finish in the single mixed relay at the sixth World Cup of the season in Antholz, Italy. Between the pair, both Irwin and Wright held top-10 ski times throughout the race, finishing only four seconds back from the eighth place Estonia and 30 seconds back from a top-five finish. “It felt good to ski with everyone...
This 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. This weekend in Oberhof framed the Men’s World Cup’s hierarchy in stark terms. Coming into Sunday’s 4 x 7.5 k Men’s Relay, five different Norwegian skiers had combined to sweep both Friday’s classic...
This 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. When it comes to success in cross country relay finishes, national nordic pride is a vital concern in only those countries where national nordic pride flourishes: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany (and, of...