At the USSA Congress in May, the Cross Country Committee approved the following changes to the policy for seeding in USSA scored races (including SuperTour and National Championships), and for the awarding of prize money at SuperTour competitions: Seeding: Competitors will now be seeded according to the FIS/USSA points on the current points list, and not in a competitor's athlete profile. This means that in order to be seeded according to their FIS/USSA points in...
25 skiers were on the starting line when the Aukland brother’s privately supported ski-idol talent scouting program started in Tonsberg, Norway on Thursday with a 120 kilometer long bike race with sprint preems and climbing bonuses. All the participant met for a barbecue at the brother’s home on Wednesday night. Starting with a bike race – The athletes are healthy and ready for three challenging and hard days. We are starting up with an exciting...
Kris Freeman(25:07) and Ilke Van Genechten (36:26) finished first place in their respective fields in the first of the NENSA Summer Rollerski Series races in New Durham NH. Optimal weather and a fantastic course lined by over 200 spectators made for a great kick off of this series. New England’s top skiers raced on matched V2 850 skate skis generously donated by V2/Jenex. Andrew Johnson finished second in a time of 26:54, followed by Samuel...
Three Right To Play teams participated in this year’s Gigathlon, a grueling seven-day, 1’400 km and 30’000-meters-of-altitude adventure race across Switzerland, raising funds for Right To Play’s project in Sierra Leone. What is more, skiers were well-represented on the Right To Play teams: Along with Hippolyt Kempf, Olympic gold medalist in Nordic Combined, Matthias Remund, Director General of the Swiss Federal Office of Sports and past member of FIS Cross-Country Committee, coach and former skier,...
The Marathon Cup will again kick-off with the 42-km-long La Sgambeda (ITA) on 16th December 2007. Jizerska padesatka (CZE, 50km, classical), Dolomitenlauf (ITA, 60 km, free) and Marcialonga (ITA, 70 km, classical) will follow in January 2008. In February, the Cup will feature the König-Ludwig-Lauf (GER, 50 km, classical), La Transjurassienne (FRA, 54/76 km, free) and the Tartu Marathon (EST, 63 km, classical). Finally, in March, the skiers will have to race another 186 km...
Led by the intrepid Erik Flora, twenty-one Alaska Pacific University Athletes spent last week, July 8-15, living at the Thomas Training Center and skiing on the Eagle Glacier. The wide range in experiences, skills, personalities, and ages of the athletes created a dynamic group with everyone having something to contribute. In addition to skiing everyday on beautifully groomed trails, the group cooked, cleaned, entertained each other and generally created a functional and self-sufficient community for...
Editors Note: FasterSkier.com is primarily a cross-country ski news source. However, we are providing coverage of the current doping issues at the Tour de France. As our readers know all to well, the use of banned substances is a significant issue in international cross-country ski racing. The events at the Tour provide insight into the current state of cheating in sport, and serve to remind us that this issue remains one of the largest challenges...
PARK CITY, Utah (July 18) – The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association broke ground Wednesday on its $22.5 million Center of Excellence – “the most significant event in our 102-year history,†according to USSA President and CEO Bill Marolt. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said the national training and education center will be “unlike anything else in the world today†as athletes prepare for more Olympic success. “No national governing body has anything to rival...
Cross Country skier third at U-18 Track & Field Worlds Karoline Bjerkeli Grœvdal of Norway captured bronze in the 2000 meter steeple chase during U-18 Track and Field championship.
Trond Iversen (Norway), second in last season’s sprint World Cup has decided to race for at least three more seasons. The 31-year old wants to fight in the sprint-top toward the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. More interval training is on the agenda. Sponsors have signed up His sponsors have committed to support him all the way through 2010, and everything is now up to Trond. – The package is there. I need to keep the...
Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen has been dropped from the Danish National Team due to a disagreement over drug testing. Rasmussen has not tested positive for any banned substance, but the director of the Danish Cycling Union (DCU) Jesper Worre told DR1 television station that Rasmussen has received a number of warnings for failing to inform doping authorities of his training whereabouts. Additionally, the New York Times reports that the Team Rabobank rider has...
It has been reported that German cyclist and T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz failed an out-of-competition drug test, showing an elevated testosterone ratio, on June 8 of this year. Sinkewitz has since abandoned the Tour de France after a crash in the eighth stage. The T-Mobile team has suspended him, though his B-sample has yet to be tested. As a result, the German Television stations, ARD and ZDF have suspended all coverage of the Tour. “We...
Australian skiers are enjoying one of the best starts to the ski season for years with regular heavy dry snowfalls over the last several weeks. The recorded snow depths are the best since 1990 for early skiing. Last week’s independent Snowy Hydro reading at Perisher Blue, New South Wales, of 136.6cm confirmed that this is the best start to the season since 1990, surpassing the oft-referred to 2000 and 2004 bumper years. Other Australian resorts...
Had enough of doping: German television cancels Tour du France coverage The German TV-channels ARD and ZDF cancelled their Tour de France coverage after it became known that T-Mobile rider Patrick Sinkewitz had tested positive for doping. Source: VG.no http://www1.vg.no/sport/sykkel/tour-de-france-2007/artikkel.php?artid=152971 The TV-channels made it very clear ahead of this year’s Tour de France that they would pack up and go home if a single rider was caught for doping in 2007. They now showed that...
The Soldier Hollow rollerski course and surrounding Olympic trails are bustling with activity these days. US Ski team members, Canadian and US biathlon skiers and some top juniors are all currently training outside Heber, Utah. Some members of the Canadian cross country team are supposed to arrive this week and will stay for the rest of the month. Here are some photos from early this week. Related article: Soldier Hollow's rollerski course has been greatly...
While the masses are heading to the beach and enjoying their holidays, Cross-Country skiers are already hard at work to be in top shape for the upcoming season which will include the 2nd Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski. Most nations already started with their training programs at the beginning of May, and some athletes have even spent their training-free time with athletic challenges. For example, Jens Filbrich, the German bronze medalist in the 50km race...
Besides electing the Host City for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City, Guatemala, made several other decisions. One of the most influential decisions was the approval of the Youth Olympic Games, with the first editions for the Youth Olympic Summer Games in 2010 and the Youth Olympic Winter Games in 2012. As the flagship of the IOC’s strategy outlined for young people, the Youth Games are planned to take...
The Callaghan Valley Training Centre, a new Canadian National Athlete Development Centre based out of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Venue, along with the Cross-Country BC Team just finished up a successful 6-day glacier camp at the Haig, located near Canmore, Alberta. Athletes were able to train 18-26 hours during the 6 day period and got in some quality technique and agility training as well. Monitoring was a high priority for this camp due to the...
Editor's Note: This article incorrectly reported the four banned cross-country skiers as Christoph Sumann, Daniel Mesotitsch, Ludwig Gredler and Juergen Pinter. These four men are biathletes and have been cleared of any wrongdoing. The article has been amended to correctly identify the four banned cross-country skiers as Martin Tauber, Juergen Pinter, Johannes Eder, and Roland Diethart. (ATR) The Austrian Ski Federation's disciplinary commission ruled that two biathletes, Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann, and coaches Emil...
15 athletes participated in the first Mt. Sunapee Invitational up Mt. Sunapee in New Hampshire. Top ranked U.S. distance skier and New Hampshire native Kris Freeman performs the time trial on a regualr basis throughout the summer as a fitness benchmark. This month, the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) teamed with the Cambridge Sports Union (CSU) to open the event to the public. The course is a challenging 3.1 mile climb to the summit...