2006 February

The NENSA website has a video of Andrew Newell's Olympic Quarterfinal. Its about a 2 minute clip, but its 18 megabytes, so make sure you have a fast connection.

Pictures from Sharbel Dussault of the Olympic Individual Sprints on Wednesday Feb 22.

Andrew Newell of the U.S. Ski Team posted a phenomenal 2nd-place time in the individual qualification round of the men's Olympic sprint race earlier today, before struggling somewhat in the quarterfinals to finish 16th overall. His rank in the qualifiying run tied teammate Torin Koos' recent record for the best-ever US finish (or North American male for that matter) in a World Cup or Olympic sprint qualification. Koos Koos, who is coming off of recent...

Below is a link to an article by Canadian Television company CBC, with photos and post-race comments from A-Finalists Chandra Crawford and Beckie Scott. http://www.nbcolympics.com/crosscountry/5125982/detail.html http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/photogallery/gallery_191_1.html And to top it off, a feature article on the official olympic site on Chandra's big win:

Source: Cross Country Canada It was a good effort by the Canadian men in sprint qualifying this morning, but a quarter second of speed made the difference as Drew Goldsack and Sean Crooks just missed advancing to the knockout round at Pragelato. The fastest qualifier was Sweden's Bjorn Lind and Andy Newll from the US continued with his strong sprint preformances with a second place qualifying performance. It was heartbreak for the Canadians as Drew...

PRAGELATO, Italy (Feb. 22) – American Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) made history Wednesday as she was ninth in the Olympic cross country sprint, the best all-time Olympic finish by any U.S. woman. Canadian Chandra Crawford won the gold and was followed by silver medalist Claudia Kuenzel of Germany and bronze winner Alena Sidko of Russia. Canadian Beckie Scott was fourth. Other U.S. finishes today included Wendy Wagner (Park City, UT) in 35th and Lindsay Williams...

Canada's Crawford wins gold in sprint Chandra Crawford upstaged two of her better-known countrywomen and pulled off an upset in the women's 1.1km sprint Wednesday, skating across the finish for Canada's first cross-country gold medal of the Torino Games. Crawford, with tiny pigtails peeking out of her hat and a huge smile on her face, is hardly her country's biggest star — previously staying out of the spotlight behind Beckie Scott and Sara Renner, silver...

Links to some recent FasterSkier.com articles about newly-minted Gold Medalist Chandra Crawford of Canada. Chandra Crawford: – I'm planning to go to the Olympics performance-focused By Torbjorn Karlsen, Thu Feb 02, 2006 Canadian Chandra Crawford was 8th in the recent Oberstdorf World Cup classic sprint. She is now racing at the U-23 Worlds and we got a chance to ask her about training, Worlds and the upcoming Olympics. http://www.fasterskier.com/racing3048.html Chandra Crawford Talks About Last Season,...

American Best Performances By Randall, Newell It was a banner day for North America at the Olympic Individual Sprint races. Canadian Chandra Crawford shocked the world by winning the gold medal in the event, besting the top sprinters in the World. Beckie Scott, just missed out on her second medal of these games finishing fourth in the A Final. Kikkan Randall finished 9th, the first Olympic top ten finish ever for an American female cross...

Beckie Scott Wins Prelim, Three XC Skiers Advance to Sprint Quarterfinals US cross Country skier Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, Vt.) qualified second in the qualification round of the men's cross country sprint race from Pragelato to advance to the quarterfinals later today. Newell finished in a time of 2:14.79, finishing just behind the qualification winner Bjoern Lind of Sweden. Joining Newell in that quarterfinal will be Chris Cook (Rhinelander, Wis.) who finished 16th in a time...

Photos from the women's Olympic relay on Saturday. Kikkan Randall

USA Men's Relay Team 12th PRAGELATO, Italy (Feb. 19) — Italy gave the home country fans something to cheer about in Pragelato, winning the men's 4 x 10-km cross country relay. The USA was 12th, a disappointment after finishing fifth in 2002. The Italians took gold by 15.7 seconds over Germany, with Sweden taking bronze. The USA started strong with Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) skiing strong in the first pack, only 10.8 seconds off the...

Editor's Note: At the time of this writing, the French had just filed a complaint that a Swedish racer allegedly took the wrong track but didn't retrace his steps and continued to take the most direct route unlike Frenchamn Jonnier who did retrace his steps after skiing off the course on the third leg of the relay. If by chance the Swedish racer is disqualified the French team could jump into Bronze position. The results...