The World Cup season parallels and occasionally intersects with the Marathon Cup, the FIS-sponsored circuit of long, really long, and crazy long races that are also held under the Worldloppet banner. This season, the Marathon Cup includes ten races, starting in the middle of December with La Sgambeda, a 42km skate race in Italy, and concluding in late March with the famed Birkebeiner in Norway,
LIBEREC, Czech Republic – Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) upgraded his bronze medal performance with a gold Saturday, winning the final nordic combined event of the 2009 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships. Demong’s gold marks the fourth for the USA at this year’s Championships. Demong started the cross country race in seventh, but quickly pulled into third and then second around the 3.5K mark. At 6K, he took over first, but was neck and neck with...
Liberec, Cazech Republic. Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) won her second gold of the 2009 World Championships, skiing to victory in the woen’s 30km freestyle mass start. Liz Stephen led the US in 17th. Kowalczyk made a move with under a kilometer to go, opening a gap she was able to hold to the finish. Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS) was second, +8.8. The battle for silver was extremely tight. Medvedeva outsprinted bronze medalist Valentina Schevchenko (UKR) and 4th...
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Stephen and Arritola 17th and 22nd. Good one-two punch for the youngsters. Geek it up inside with some numbers.
Stephen and Arritola 17th and 22nd. Good one-two punch for the youngsters. Geek it up inside with some numbers.
Stephen and Arritola 17th and 22nd. Good one-two punch for the youngsters. Geek it up inside with some numbers.
Today I skied like a rookie. It's only my second international relay... but I'm still pretty annoyed with myself. divbr //divdivOther than the sections of the course that were salted (few) it was a full on slushfest out there. 5 inches of dirty wet cor...
Liberec, Czech Republic – Petter Northug is on his way to cementing his position as one of the all time great Norwegian relay anchors, once again overcoming a deficit before powering it on in the finish to claim the men’s 4x10km relay gold over Germany. Northug, at 23, already has anchored a number of impressive relay victories, and now has a World Champinship gold in the event. This was Norway’s fifth consecutive World Championship relay...
Well, the first night here I slept pretty much straight through – I guess I must have been tired from travel, because last night and tonight haven’t gone so smoothly. I’ve been up from 2-4 for the second straight night, and can’t make my eyes tired enough to fall asleep right now… and to think racing in 36 hours. Sleeping would be good.
Gus Kaesing races for the CXC Elite Team and recently won the classic race at the American Birkebeiner. This article first appeared in Ski Post –
LIBEREC, Czech Republic – The USA suffered a blow in the nordic combined team event at the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships when Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) was disqualified for not having a starting bib. In a surprise, Japan won the event in a photo finish over Germany, as Norway faded in the final 500 meters. Demong was disqualified by officials at the top of the jump as he prepared for his single competition jump....
If you haven’t checked in with TeamToday recently, it is worth a look. Photos from the the women’s sprint medal ceremony. Read more and view the photos
FIS announced the Sprint Red Group for the final World Cup period of the 2008-2009 season. The Red Group consists of the top 30 skiers in both sprint and distance as measured by total World Cup points earned over the preceeding four World Cup periods. Athletes that are part of the Red Group have travel and lodging expenses paid by the organizing committees, so this ranking can be very important for national programs. Kikkan Randall...
My favorite place on Earth is "flat, desolate, and muddy as sin" -JCL. The mudflats used to be my summer infatuation, but I have discovered they can be a playground in the winter months as well. Mom running out to the ocean to try a few yoga moves. Mt. Redoubt-- the volcano that's been in the news lately for its seismic activity-- is to the right of my right leg. I guess it runs in the family. I
Note: The actual names in the following account have been changed to protect the innocent … Thinking back to 1994 and watching the Lillehammer Olympic races, it’s not hard to remember that American ski coverage has come a long way. I was 16 at the time and will never forget watching the EuroSport coverage with the father (we’ll call him “Gunde”) of another kid on my high school ski team. That was the first world...
As the saying goes, there is more than one way to “skin a cat”, or in this case, since we are not into killing cats, to have fast skis. We had a great showing at the Birkie this year with a quick recap of results as follows:br /Webskis/Solda skiers...