The Canadian women missed out on advancing to the final by one place on Sunday, finishing seventh nearly 18 seconds behind sixth, while the top six teams made the World Cup 6 x 1.3 k classic team sprint final in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
In her third race of the season with CXC after studying, training and racing in Russia, Natalja Naryshkina won the women's classic sprint at U.S. nationals on Friday with a flawless run through the qualifier and heats. Rosie Brennan (APU) was second for her second national title in two years.
A crowd favorite, Sylvan Ellefson (SSCV/Team HomeGrown) put down a bold move and broke away with 7.5 k to go in the men's 30 k freestyle mass start at U.S. nationals. “Whether they pick me for the Olympics this year or not, I’m just happy to have a national championship under my belt," he says.
Rounding Soldier Hollow’s 2.5-kilometer sit-ski course on Tuesday, Oksana Masters and Lt. Dan Cnossen muscled through methodically, powerfully. Even with two victories apiece behind them from earlier in the week at U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing Nationals, these two had business to tend to.
Jennie Bender rose from fifth to first in the final stretches of Sunday's 1.5 k freestyle sprint to complete the Bridger Ski Foundation's podium domination at U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow.
Fairbanks native Becca Rorabaugh (APU) pulled off the best result of her career in Saturday's 10 k classic individual start, winning the first race of U.S. nationals on an unforgiving 2002 Olympic course by 14 seconds over Caitlin Gregg.
Todd Lodwick hadn’t felt nerves like he experienced last Saturday in a long time. The U.S. Nordic Combined veteran was about to see if he could make his sixth Olympic team at the U.S. Olympic trials on Dec. 28. He came out on top of the individual 10-kilometer competition in Park City and made history as the first American to qualify for six Winter Olympics. "If I touch one kid to help them achieve their dream, then I consider my career a success," Lodwick says.
A tough wax day plagued the Canadians, but Ivan Babikov persevered and knocked off 56 places to finish 19th in Wednesday's 15 k classic mass start at Stage 4 of the Tour de Ski in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Meanwhile, Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw finished 40th and 47th.
Kerttu Niskanen proved there are plenty of others outside of Team Norge that can win Tour de Ski stages, and the 25-year-old Finnish national team member did just that on New Year's Day winning the first race of her career in the 10 k classic mass start in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
Gus Kaeding literally had one foot out the door and his vehicle running Tuesday morning, but he couldn’t draw himself away from what was unfolding some 3,700 miles away in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Two of his skiers were in their first sprint finals of their career, one of which was on his way to making U.S. history.
Simi Hamilton had to look behind him inches before the finish to make sure it was actually happening. Yet the 26-year-old U.S. Ski Team (USST) member hadn’t fully realized what he’d accomplished two hours after his freestyle sprint victory on Tuesday in the third stage of the Tour de Ski.
Another American landed in the top 10 for the first time this season, this time with 30-year-old Andy Newell as the lone U.S. Ski Team member in the heats Sunday at the second stage of the Tour de Ski in Oberhof, Germany. "I know my fitness and speed is at a world cup top 10 level I jut need to make smart decisions out there," he says.
Four Canadians made the heats on Saturday in the second stage of the Tour de Ski, with Alex Harvey placing 11th to hang onto the overall Tour lead and Devon Kershaw finishing 18th to rank third in the overall standings. Dasha Gaiazova and Perianne Jones made it to the quarterfinals, where they placed sixth for 27th and 28th on the day.
FIS Athlete Representative Kikkan Randall weighs in on the format changes to this week's Tour de Ski, which she opted to sit out a while back. Now with the first three stages being short-distance skate events, some racers were not happy and four-time champ Justyna Kowalczyk decided to sit out the Tour altogether. "Sometimes it will be balanced and sometimes it won't," Randall says.
Jessie Diggins doesn't remember much from Saturday's 3 k prologue, but some familiar faces and loud cheers carried her to fifth. Both she and U.S. teammate Sophie Caldwell, whose family was among the supportive spectators, tied their respective World Cup career bests in the first stage of the Tour de Ski.
Justyna Kowalczyk's out and Marit Bjørgen's on top. That was the biggest news of the day coming out of the Tour de Ski's prologue opener in Oberhof, Germany, on a rainy afternoon that was slow for everybody. The Americans weren't complaining, with fast skis that helped Jessie Diggins and Sophie Caldwell tie career bests in fifth and ninth, respectively.
We know, you’ve been on the edge of your seat since the release of “The Adventures of Gregg and Liebsch: Part I,” and you can’t wait to find out what happened to the two Midwest pals in their quest to qualify for the Olympics. Picking up where we left off: the plane ride from Washington state to Bozeman, Mont.
Of the three nations with two teams in the women's final on Sunday, the U.S. was one of them. After qualifying in second and third in the same semifinal (despite a collision between teammates), the Americans were a factor early in the classic-team sprint final -- before Finland and Norway broke away.
Finland's Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Anne Kyllönen dominated Sunday’s 1.25-kilometer classic team event at the World Cup in Asiago, Italy, giving a lesson to more than 20 other teams on how to get out front and stay there, beating the likes of Norway on the way.
Just a few meters ahead coming into the homestretch, Ola Vigen Hattestad stayed ahead and outlunged Alexey Poltoranin of Kazakhstan by a couple centimeters on Sunday, giving Norway I the victory as Kazakhstan placed second and Norway II finished third.