It’s World Championships time! All of the nordic disciplines – cross country, nordic combined, and jumping – converged on Val di Fiemme, Italy, for the every-other-year festival for bragging rights.
One thing was clear right off the bat: that New Years heart scare hasn’t slowed down Norway’s Marit Bjørgen one bit. She climbed to victory in the classic sprint, besting Ida Ingemarsdotter of Sweden, then led a four-deep Norway sweep of the 15 k skiathlon. Another double winner was Nikita Kriukov of Russia, who won both the individual sprint and the freestyle team sprint along with Alexei Petukhov. Switzerland’s Dario Cologna interrupted the Russian party, winning the 30 k skiathlon for, at last, his first world title.
Another thing was clear, too: watch out for North America. In Thursday’s sprint Alex Harvey won Canada’s first individual World Championships medal, collecting bronze behind Kriukov and Petter Northug. A day later Lindsey Van ceded the women’s ski jumping world title to American teammate Sarah Hendrickson. Then, on Sunday, more fireworks: Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins skied to an incredible seven-second victory in the team sprint, and later that afternoon the American nordic combined team collected bronze in the team event, their first team medal at World Championships.
Over in the Midwest, a different sort of “championships” was taking place. The biggest ski marathon in the U.S. and the country’s entry onto the Worldloppet schedule, the American Birkebeiner traversed from Cable to Hayward. Caitlin Gregg won the second title of her career, but in the men’s race the U.S. squad missed out on the prize money as an Italian team controlled the race from start to finish and Sergio Bonaldi edged teammate and former Birkie champ Fabio Santus for the win.
A lot of other high-level racing was happening around the world too; all three U.S. college divisions hosted their regional championships, with competitions hosted at Bohart Ranch in Bozeman, by Michigan Tech in Houghton, and by Bates College in Rumford. U.S. juniors competed in Norway; U.S. and Canadian junior and senior biathletes raced at Open European Championships in Bansko, Bulgaria. We’ll have a NorAm report up soon from Western Canadian Championships, as well as coverage from at least a couple of these other races. Results are listed below regardless.
FIS World Championships, Val di Fiemme, Italy
Cross Country | results
Wednesday 5/10 k qualifying races: men’s blog post | women’s blog post | photo gallery
Thursday individual sprints: men’s & women’s reports | American & Canadian | Sophie Caldwell | men’s & women’s photo galleries
Saturday 15/20 k skiathlons: men’s & women’s reports | Canadian & American | men’s & women’s photo galleries
Sunday team sprints: men’s & women’s reports | Canadian women | American men | women’s photos | U.S. women bonus report
Nordic Combined | results
Friday normal hill: report
Sunday team race: report
Ski Jumping
Friday women: blog post | results
Saturday men normal hill: results
Sunday mixed team competition: results
American Birkebeiner, Cable to Hayward, Wisconsin
men’s report | women’s report | results
NorAm/Western Canadian Championships, Grand Prairie, Alberta | blog post
Friday freestyle sprint: qualifying, men’s, and women’s results
Saturday 10/15 k classic: men’s & women’s results
Sunday 15/30 k freestyle pursuits: men’s stage times & final standings | women’s stage times & final standings
EISA Championships / Bates College Carnival, Waterville, Maine
RMISA Regional Championships, Bozeman, Montana
Friday 5/10 k classic: results
Saturday 15/20 k freestyle: results
CCSA Regional Championships, Houghton, Michigan | results
Norwegian Junior National Championships, Lillehammer, Norway
IBU Open European Championships, Bansko, Bulgaria | results
Chelsea Little
Chelsea Little is FasterSkier's Editor-At-Large. A former racer at Ford Sayre, Dartmouth College and the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, she is a PhD candidate in aquatic ecology in the @Altermatt_lab at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. You can follow her on twitter @ChelskiLittle.
