The Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre in Vernon, British Columbia, is mourning the loss of one its employees, 26-year-old Jessica Rose Eaman, a staff member and club coach who died Friday, March 16, after behind injured in a single-vehicle accident the day before. “Jessica gave back far more than she ever received from the few hours a week she spent in Sovereign Lake’s kids’ programs,” Sovereign Lake General Manager Scott Lemon told the
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec — Alex Harvey had a lot going for him on Thursday. The hometown course and its accompanying fans, the helicopter and a little luck were just a few of the things in the 23-year-old’s favor in the 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint final at Canadian Ski Nationals. Heck, organizers even pushed the weeklong event back in March to accommodate Harvey and his national team’s return. When Harvey nearly missed his quarterfinal on Thursday, they gave...
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec — Whipping along the first of two downhills on a chemically enhanced sprint course at Canadian Ski Nationals on Thursday, Chandra Crawford could feel the vibrations in the stadium. Everyone there could. A helicopter soared directly ahead, swaying above one end of the 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint loop to the other for an unrivaled viewpoint of the nation’s cross-country skiing finale. Spectators buzzed that the mayor of Québec was inside. In fact, it...
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec — While Alex Harvey was the man of the day at Canadian Ski Nationals on Tuesday, Devon Kershaw, Lenny Valjas and the remaining World Cup crew (including Chandra Crawford, Dasha Gaiazova, Alysson Marshall and Kevin Sandau) also met a strong welcome after flying into Québec late Monday night and racing the next day. Cross-country ski fans, friends, family and media outlets came out to Mont Sainte-Anne to catch a glimpse of the...
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec –Anyone trying to follow the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle individual start at Canadian Ski Nationals on Tuesday might have found the live splits a little confusing. Emily Nishikawa led at 5 k. No wait, Perianne Jones did. Ragnhild Haga sat in second, but Alysson Marshall later bumped her from that spot. Randomized seeding put some of the closest competitors considerably far apart on the start list, making it difficult to determine where athletes...
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec – Alex Harvey had no idea what he was in for. Or maybe he did. Fourteen hours after he and several other Canadian National Team members stepped off a plane in Québec City and concluded a 32-hour trip back from the World Cup Finals in Sweden, Harvey was back in his native Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Québec, preparing to race again. If it had been up to Harvey, he would have slept in a little...
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec – Four days after flying home from Europe, Ivan Babikov was back in action at Canadian Ski Nationals on Monday. The 31-year-old national team member was also back to his winning ways, hitting his stride as usual at the domestic championships and claiming his seventh Canadian title. Out of nearly 160 men in the 10-kilometer classic individual start, Babikov was the fastest, completing the two loops in 28:38.6. Runner-up Erik Carleton (Rocky...
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec – After a whirlwind tour of Europe, in which Ida Sargent of the U.S. Ski Team/Craftsbury Green Racing Project came home just once for U.S. Nationals in January, the 24-year-old took on relatively simple task in Canada on Monday. She needed to pass one person and push hard in a 5-kilometer classic individual start. With soft conditions and temperatures upwards of 7 degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit) at Canadian Ski Nationals, that...
VALCARTIER, Québec – As she rounded the penalty loop at Myriam Bédard Center on Sunday, Rosanna Crawford looked up and threw down her headband. Winning the pursuit wasn’t going to be a walk in the park at the Canadian Biathlon Championships, and the 23-year-old from Alberta needed all the firepower she could muster. But the shooting portion was over; Crawford missed one shot in each of the last three stages for three total misses. The...
QUEBEC CITY – Two tiny specks charging toward the finish, Graham Nishikawa and Jesse Cockney appeared to merge into a single lane, and then suddenly jolted in opposite directions. Whatever made them move must have been significant, and it could have explained why Nishikawa lost his lead and ultimately the classic team sprint at the Canadian Ski National Championships on Saturday. Turns out it was just water in the tracks on a balmy afternoon at...
QUEBEC CITY – As Alana Thomas stood in the finish pen on the Plains of Abraham and looked back beyond the line, she smiled as Perianne Jones cruised down the final stretch. The Canadian National Team member was going to win by a mile – or maybe a kilometer, figuratively speaking in Canadian terms. While Jones didn’t quite have a full lap on the 11 other teams in the open classic relay at the Canadian...
This year, the Haywood Canadian National Championships have been pushed back a week to accommodate a special group – Canada’s World Cup elite, which are returning in force to put on a show for the home crowd in Quebec. With Alex Harvey, Devon Kershaw, Chandra Crawford and all the major Canadian stars slated to participate, the fields will be some of the deepest in North America all season. The Canadian World Cup squad has turned...
With the Atlantic Ocean to their left and the Pacific Ocean more than 3,000 miles to their right, Carolyn and Santiago Ocariz started striding toward the latter, one at a time across the United States. The newlyweds from Wisconsin weren’t entirely sure where they were going, or the reaction they’d receive while rollerskiing across states like Alabama and Mississippi, but they had a tentative route and plenty of inspiration to keep them going. Every mile...
MIDWAY, Utah — The 2012 Cross Country Junior Nationals wrapped up at Soldier Hollow last weekend, and if you’re longing for more (or missed any of the action), check out our comprehensive videos and photo galleries of each day’s events. For photos, visit our FasterSkier’s YouTube channel and scroll down for the most to least recent.
An update for those planning on participating in the US SuperTour Finals and Long Distance National Championships, March 24-31, 2012 at Craftsbury Outdoor Center: North American Skiers, Like most of New England and the country, Craftsbury has seen unseasonably warm temperatures over the last week. Similar weather is forecast for this week, as well as into the extended forecast. We’ve had great skiing to date at Craftsbury, including outlying trails without man-made snow — but...
SISU Foundation Hires Director of Athlete Development Kask Returns to Minnesota After Work with USAT Prepping for London Olympic Games; Will Run SISU’s Newly Developed D-Team ST. PAUL, Minn. – On March 7, the Sisu Foundation (SISU), a Twin Cities-based organization dedicated to the development, support and promotion of Nordic Skiing in Minnesota, announced that Jason Kask joined its coaching staff. Kask, currently a member USA Triathlon’s High Performance Department, has been hired as the...
All the talk about the Marit Bjørgen/Justyna Kowalczyk rivalry may have been getting a little old. On Sunday, Bjørgen did her best to erase the speculation of who will take the overall World Cup title, winning the 30-kilometer classic mass start at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway. In the last World Cup event before the finals in Sweden, Bjørgen beat Kowalczyk of Poland by 51.9 seconds in 1:26:09.8. The two started off the line at breakneck...
All 2012 Cross Country Junior Nationals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of Complete relay results Audrey Mangan contributed reporting.
All 2012 Cross Country Junior Nationals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of Complete 3×3 k freestyle relay results Audrey Mangan contributed reporting.
All 2012 Cross Country Junior Nationals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of J1/OJ girls 5 k classic individual start J1/OJ boys 10 k All 2012 Junior Nationals photos (Note: We’re in the process of uploading photos from every race on Friday. Stay tuned for the rest. Also, photos are generally in order and with most racers, but some got lost in the shuffle).