Kris Freeman Interview Sept 10th, 2004 By Eli Brown. Nordic Race Director, Fischer USA Did your experience in the Marcialonga last year effect your strategy of which races to do this year? Racing the 70km Marcialonga World Cup last year was both a mistake and a good learning experience for me. I learned that as a diabetic, I could do it. It was a great test of stamina, but was very hard to recover from....
The regular World Cup opener is next month in Düsseldorf, Germany, while the rollerski World Cup concluded last weekend in Italy. The final races were held in Sestola, about 100-kilometer outside Bologna. The first of the final races was pursuit and took place on Saturday. Italian Alfio Di won the men’s race and Russian Elena Veedeneva won the women’s race. The same skiers were leading the overall World Cup ahead of the final race on...
Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset captured sixth place in the Norwegian 10-kilometer cross country running championship in Lillehammer on Saturday. Anders Aukland, who had also planned to double up by doing both the rollerski race and the running championships, did not participate in the running event after finishing fourth in the rollerski race. Â Â Â
Oystein Solbjorg (21) beat both Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset and Anders Aukland in a short rollerski race in Gjovik, Norway on Saturday. Solbjorg placed seventh in the Norwegian pursuit championship last season and was on the winning sprint-relay team at the2004 U-23 Worlds at Soldier Hollow, USA. His victory Saturday against some of Norway’s best skiers might put Solbjorg in an “outsider†category to make the Norwegian Worlds team this season. Hjelmeset ended up in second, two...
Swedish SkidSport.com reports that the Swedish Vasaloppet week is on track toward new participation record for the upcoming season. 28,000 skiers have already entered. The old record of 47, 500 was set last season. – We can end up with 50,000 and a new participation record if this positive trend continues, says Vasaloppet's general secretary, Rolf Hammar. Vasaloppet is already the World’s biggest cross country ski race but the dream of the challenge and adventure...
Swedish Skidsport.com reports that the Swedish men’s team completed a very successful ten day long Ramsau, Austria camp on Thursday this week. National team captain Per Erik Ronnestrand says that the team experienced perfect ski conditions throughout the entire camp, with hard tracks and sun every morning on the Ramsau glacier at 2700 meters. In addition to skiing, the skiers did quite a bit of rollerskiing on the closed-to-traffic rollerski course, and on the nearby...
Swedish SkidSport.com reports that last years overall World Cup winner, Rene Sommerfeldt of Germany is slowed down by an injury.
: Not A Mainstream Marathon Skier Rune Torseth (31) is the only skier on the Norwegian long distance national team who is focusing on skating. The rest of the team is (still) entirely looking to do well in the big classic marathon World Cup races. The Norwegian victory in last years Swedish Vasaloppet made Torseth change his priorities.
Norwegian national development team coach Morten Aa Djupvik “put the breaks†on his skiers during their first high altitude camp with the elite team.
Norwegian newspaper VG reports that WADA director Rune Andersen isn’t nearly as pessimistic as the Norwegian women’s national team coach Svein Tore Samdal regarding possible dopers chances of getting away with cheating. Samdal is afraid that DYN-EPO can cause doping situations similar to what happened during the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. – I believe that DYN-EPO might have been mistaken for other blood-products available on the market. Our science department is working closely...
The ski season is quickly getting closer. Here is the Norwegian team selection for the World Cup opener in Düsseldorf, Germany. The sprint races in Düsseldorf will be held October 23 and 24. Individual sprint and sprint relay is on the agenda. The Norwegian results in Düsseldorf last year were not great. Best male skier in the individual race was 9th for the men, and Marit Bjorgen lost her only World Cup sprint race last...
Norwegian women’s national team coach Svein Tore Samdal fears extensive doping this season.
A crash with a sheep could have wrecked the season for Norwegian skier Krister Trondsen who was selected to race the upcoming sprint World Cup races in Düsseldorf the day before the accident.
The upcoming Saturday should be quite busy for Norwegian World Cup skiers Anders Aukland and Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset. They will be competing in both the Norwegian cross country running championship and in a rollerski race. The day will start in Gjovik with the Markensrennet rollerski race. Many top skiers will be on the starting line, but Aukland and Hjelmeset should fight for the victory. Recovery and warm-down following the race will be slim to none. The...
FasterSkier.com is happy to announce that we have teamed up with Italy's most popular cross country ski web site, SkiTime.it – It is FasterSkier.com's goal to bring you the best coverage of ski news from around the world. With the 2005 World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany and the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy, working with Skitime will give our readers additional valuable and interesting articles, results and perspectives from central Europe. We expect this partnership to be espeically valuable...
Norwegian newspaper VG reports that Biathlon skier Lars Berger (25) is hunting for gold in both biathlon and cross country skiing. Biathlon has however first priority. Berger reached the World’s biathlon elite as rocket last winter and the expectations are enormous before the upcoming season. Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjorndalen says that Berger can become as good as he desires. Berger won three biathlon World Cup sprint races in 2003, took individual silver in the...
Swedish SkidSport.com reports that the 2003 50-kilometer skate World Champion Martin Koukal of the Czech Republic will be racing for the Swedish club Arvika this winter. Koukal will wear the Swedish club’s race uniform already in the season premier race at Bruksvallarna in November. Koukal is however not allowed to race and participate for Arvika at the Swedish national championship this season since he has not lived long enough in Sweden. – We hope that...
Kristin Stormer Steira won a running and rollerski pursuit time-trial on September 5th in Livigno, Italy. This time-trial was for the Norwegian women’s national team. The running portion of the race was 4.5 kilometer long and the skate rollerski section was 6-kilometer. Steira had the fastest running time in 13.33 while Kristin Murer Stemland had the second fastest time in 13.43. Sprint World Cup winner Marit Bjorgen was second overall and had (by far) the...