Note: This preview has been updated to include comments from Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane. The way U.S. Nordic Combined Head Coach Dave Jarrett sees it, why tweak something that works? Last year was a success by many measures with four athletes interchangeably placing in the top 20, some often in the top 10. Olympic gold medalist Billy Demong hit the podium in his comeback season after taking some time off to raise a baby,...
Enter for a Chance to Ski the Historic Re-Enactment of the Original Birkebeiner! (media@birkie.com or call 715-634-5025.
The Kingston Nordic Ski Club is gearing up for its 9th annual Kingston Roller Ski Race on Nov. 18 at the Miller Middle School at Lake Katrine, N.Y. Races include a 5 k classic, 2 k novice and 10 k freestyle. Registration begins at 10.m.; races start at noon. (From kingstonnordic.blogspot.com.
This past spring, nine Canadians learned they prequalified for their nation’s World Cups in December. Most had an inkling they were in the mix; last season’s NorAm winners Kevin Sandau and Alysson Marshall automatically guaranteed themselves starts in every Québec and Alberta World Cup race, as did the second-place finishers Brent McMurtry and Emily Nishikawa. But then there were some wild cards, like Canadian national-team biathlete Rosanna Crawford. In March, Crawford jumped into a couple...
One of the first things Lenny Valjas did upon arriving in Östersund, Sweden, on Thursday was put a pole strap on. His Canadian World Cup teammate Alex Harvey went out for a ski shortly after arriving in Europe early that evening, but not Valjas. He stood in his hotel room testing out the strap on his left hand. Valjas, 23, is going to be paying a lot of attention to that hand and more specifically,...
Calling all questions! We want them. FasterSkier is seeking questions on any ski-related topic for a new Q & A series (which will be featured in its biweekly questions@fasterskier.com. Email addresses will not be published.
Fundraise to Help Cure Diabetes and Get an Entry to the 2013 Birkie or Korte! ( We’re glad to hear that 34 skiers have already signed up for these entries! There are still 16 left. Here’s how it works. Raise a minimum of just $500 for JDRF by November 30 and its research to cure diabetes and receive one of these remaining entries to the Birkie or Korte, your choice. SIGN UP NOW! For Your “Second Chance”...
There’s Dasha2: It Takes More.’ If you talk to the 2010 Olympian, that’s exactly how she’s approached this season. After largely individualized plan while complying with national-team standards. In doing so, she chose to train with Louis Bouchard, the World Cup men’s assistant coach and head of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre (CNEPH) in Mont Sainte-Anne. That required a cross-country move and parting ways with Rocky Mountain Racers and its coach, John Jacques. She also signed...
Like some 47,000 others who intended to run the 2012 ING New York City Marathon, Bente Skari had a vision. It went something like finishing the 26.2-mile race, her first marathon, in 3 hours and 20 minutes on Sunday. That went out the window Friday when Mayor Michael Bloomberg called off the city’s signature event for the first time since its inception in 1970, citing widespread power outages and destruction following Superstorm Sandy. Norway’s 2002...
Birkie On-Snow Ski Demo Moves to Sunday, Feb. 24 at Birkie “OO” Trailhead ( The On-Snow Ski Demo at the American Birkebeiner each February is a tradition for cross-country skiers from around the country and the world. Everyone from newbie skiers to elites can try out the latest in new equipment–skis, poles, boots, bindings, and more—with many products that will be new for the following season. Now, the venue will be bigger and better as...
This summer, U.S. Nordic Combined Head Coach Dave Jarrett expressed his frustration with zero-centimeters of leeway when it comes to form-fitting jump suits. If the disqualified because he hadn’t tailored his suit between competitions. Officials randomly checked Demong and discovered his jump suit had 3 centimeters of extra space. Jarrett said in an October phone interview that the +2 centimeter rule, which follows international ski-jumping regulations, was a compromise. “It’s essentially tight suits, but it’s...
This week, World Cup cross-country skiers across North America are checking their lists, checking them twice, loading up on supplies and then cutting their luggage in half to prepare for a long season over in Europe. The Canadian national team is headed over to Sweden next Wednesday on Nov. 7, about 2 ½ weeks before the World Cup opens in Gällivare, Sweden. Meanwhile, several U.S. Ski Team members are flying to Finland within the next...
When Peru’s first Winter Olympian asks you to help him out, you say yes. At least that’s how Leif Zimmermann reacted last year. The two were acquaintances when Roberto Carcelén, a Peruvian cross-country skier who made the Vancouver Games at the age of 39, told Zimmermann – a Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) skier and 2006 Olympian – about his Inca Runners company. Still racing the occasional SuperTour, NorAm and national championship at the age of...
While it was great to hear from several top skiers on the Canadian and U.S. nordic ski teams on Friday, we weren’t able to fit everything into the recaps of the men’s and women’s time trials. Here are some extras and outtakes from the WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic, an unofficial sprint showdown between North American teams in Canmore, Alberta. (Original race stories with link to results: women) On pre-race problems: I was PO’ed because I...
There’s only so much warming up one can do on a 1.8-kilometer course with more than 70 other people using it. That’s why Chandra Crawford spent part of her 45-minute prep before the WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic at the Canmore Nordic Centre dancing with Jessie Diggins. While the first unofficial race of the season and certainly the largest sprint in North America so far tested both Canadian and U.S. national team skiers, it also brought...
Andy Newell didn’t have time to make a game plan. It all came kind of naturally. The 27-year-old U.S. Ski Team veteran (who also skis for the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team) was pretty busy worrying about whether he’d have enough time to warm up for the inaugural WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic on Friday, and how late that school bus he was following was going to make him. Turns out he had just enough time...
Matt Liebsch couldn’t believe the nerves he was fighting before the 2012 American Birkebeiner. A Minnesota ski hero at the ultimate of U.S. cross-country marathons, Liebsch had won the 50-kilometer skate race in 2009. In early February, he took back-to-back victories at the 2012 Boulder Mountain Tour and City of Lakes Loppet. But the last time Team Birkie’s lone elite skier raced the Birkie in 2011, he was ninth. And he hadn’t competed in three...
The U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team strives for a lot of things – medals, depth, continued improvement – but flying under the radar isn’t one of them. Anyone who followed the team and one if its racers, Taylor Fletcher, for the past 10 days in Europe could tell you that. The younger of two brothers on the team, Taylor, 22, ran around in a full-body Captain America costume throughout the trip from Oct. 15-25, which...
Holly Brooks felt like she had been punched in the stomach when she heard the news from Alaska Pacific University (APU) development coach Charlie Renfro. One of their skiers, 13-year-old Mary Robicheaux, had been hit by a car while riding her bike the night of Aug. 28, and it was unclear whether she was going to survive. A driver ran a stoplight and struck the eighth grader, who was in a crosswalk with the traffic...
Thirty-six men in the Spray Drag running race didn’t end up chasing Devon Kershaw up Spray Lakes Road in Canmore, Alberta, on Saturday, but they had one heck of a battle from the start. According to American Sylvan Ellefson (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Team HomeGrown), the pace was fast for a bunch of nordic skiers early on. “Any road runner could have pulled away, but it was a quick pace,” he wrote in an email....