The U.S. Ski Team (USST) wrapped up its first full week of a 14-day training camp in Park City, UT on Friday with an individual start classic rollerski time trial at Soldier Hollow. In the crisp Utah air at just under 6,000 feet, 16 men and 11 women completed the 16.5 k and 12.3 k courses, respectively. Noah Hoffman (USST/Team Homegrown), skiing on a pair of Swenors, bested the men’s field by over two minutes...
With three World Cup sprint podiums last season, two of which were at the very top, Kikkan Randall is known for her speed. But even though her forte is in races under three minutes long, one of her favorite workouts to do in the fall is a 50 k rollerski double-pole session. In addition to being a solid level one effort, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) veteran also uses the workout as an opportunity to...
There is only one thing that I really know about Duncan. Duncan truly enjoys punishing himself through endurance activity more than any other human that I know. Training is his drug of choice and he is a serious addict. – Tim Burke Utter the name “Duncan Douglas” to anyone who knows anything about skiing, and you are guaranteed to elicit one of three responses: (1) dismissive incredulity, (2) respectful awe, or (3) idolizing hero-worship. If...
On October 8, 25 elite female athletes from six different sports will come together in Park City for the fourth Fast and Female event in the US this year, and the first one in the States to include athletes from sports outside of cross country skiing. On Saturday afternoon from 1 to 4 pm at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) Center for Excellence, girls ages 9 to 19 will be joining top biathletes,...
Morgan Arritola and Liz Stephen showed the running world what being a cross country skier is all about on Sunday by claiming the top two spots at the Xterra Trail Run National Championship at Snowbasin Resort, Utah. Arritola won the women’s overall division by almost two minutes, finishing the 21 k course in 1:29:09. Stephen, in her third appearance at the race, clocked in at 1:30:54, nearly two more minutes ahead of former US Mountain...
Earlier this month, the Russian Ski Federation made public that current men’s sprint team coach, Yuri Kaminsky, was poised to become the next head coach of the entire Russian National Team. With the Sochi Olympics coming up in 2014, the depth of Russia’s 100-plus athlete program, and the team’s fight to clean up its skiers and its image, much depends on the appointment. If Kaminsky and the Federation can come to an agreement on the...
While most of the spotlight was focused on Lake Placid this weekend, about 60 skiers from around the country toed the line in Duluth, MN for the first ever North Shore Rollerski Marathon on September 17. Topping the podium for the 26.2 mile point-to-point tour of Lake Superior’s north shore were Duluth native Andre Watt (Rossignol), who won a close race against Central Cross Country’s (CXC) Brian Gregg, and Jennie Bender (CXC), who beat runner-up...
Johnny Spillane, three-time Olympic silver medalist in Nordic Combined, returned to competition last week at the FIS Summer Grand Prix. After a long knee injury recovery and subsequently difficult World Cup season left the 31-year-old’s plans for the future up in the air, his participation marked an important decision to continue skiing. The question remains, however: how long will he be back for? When an odd cliff jump landing put Spillane out for four months...
Zach Caldwell’s role within the ski industry is hard to define. In trying to come up with a single phrase to describe his job, ‘ski technician’ isn’t nearly sufficient, as it doesn’t quite capture everything he is—structure designer, snow whisperer, wax chemist, engineer, ski evangelist, and occasional coach (he calls it his “hobby,” as if working with Kris Freeman and Noah Hoffman were as ordinary a pastime as fly fishing). Caldwell’s expertise in everything from kinetic...
The second annual National J2 Talent ID camp was held the first week of August at 6,000 feet in Sun Valley, Idaho. The top 43 14- and 15-year-olds from around the country descended upon the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) training facilities to learn from both their peers and the top coaches from around the country. Gavin Hess, a Pittsford, NY native, qualified to attend the camp by finishing the week at Junior Nationals...
Why is it when a summer time cross-training endeavor such as trail running offers such enormous physical & cardio benefits that more Nordic skiers don’t do it? For some it is a physical dilemma with joint issues. For others the issue is not actually physical but mental. Unlike other summer cross-over sports which can greatly benefit a Nordic skier, trail running seemingly has no glide, no free lunch, no apparent opportunity to look around and...
Bill Demong and Bryan Fletcher led their Nordic Combined teammates to a “reassuring” start of competition this weekend at the FIS Summer Grand Prix in Saturday’s Complete Results (Gundersen start)
The International Ski Federation (FIS) Doping Panel came to a final decision on Monday in Andrus Veerpalu’s case. The Estonian champion’s positive drug test from this winter, which came just before World Championships in Oslo and his abrupt retirement, still stands. His two-year ban from competition was extended to three; the end of the sentence in 2014 falls precisely on the closing ceremonies in Sochi. In February, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found Veerpalu to...
As both an elite team member and coach at Alaska Pacific University (APU), Holly Brooks knows that in today’s racing environments, the ability to ski well with the breakaway is essential. “You have to hang in the pack but also have some speed in your legs for when the pace picks up,” said the 2010 Olympian. To practice the high speed tactics of mass starts and sprints, Brooks and her teammates at APU will do...
Last week, the National Cross Country Ski Education Foundation (NCCSEF) announced on its website that it is now calling itself the National Nordic Foundation (NNF). But changes at the foundation are more than just in name only. Nordic Combined now falls under their auspices, and over the next few weeks NNF will be testing out a new marketing and fundraising strategy. The non-profit foundation was set up as NCCSEF in 1997 to help elite developing...
Mansfield Nordic (MNC) has wrapped up its summer training program with special “celebrity guest coaches” in recent weeks. U.S. Biathlon Team members Susan Dunklee and Corrine Malcolm shared technique and strength drills they hope will propel them to the 2014 Olympic team. MNC skiers also got to do a biathlon clinic with the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club to test their shooting and skiing skills. Skyler Davis made “sprint day” a highlight of the summer with...
About 15 women and their coaches from the U.S. Ski Team (USST), the Canadian National Ski Team (CNST), Alaska Pacific University (APU), and select elite juniors and U23s recently finished up two weeks of training in Anchorage, AK for the first ever “North American Women’s Training Alliance” camp. FasterSkier caught up with former Dartmouth College teammates Rosie Brennan, now at APU, and Sophie Caldwell, a U23 in her senior year, in the days following their...
For Central Cross Country’s Jennie Bender, summer is for both building strength and taking time out for unstructured workouts. The winner of the classic race at last year’s Birkie tries to balance the exact focus of specific strength training with free form over distance. By losing track of time on a long run or canoe paddle, she gets inspired to challenge herself with a grueling intensity session. Her go-to intervals, usually done on classic skis,...
Organizers of the Blink Festival in Sandnes, Norway decided to cancel Saturday’s races in light of the tragic events in Utoya and Oslo that have sent the country reeling. “The situation has changed dramatically over the past day, and all parties agreed to cancel today’s events,” wrote Jan Kvalheim on Saturday, a representative of the festival organizer, World Event. The three-day annual festival, which has been around since 2006, puts on cross country and biathlon...
Holding elite level events, whether World Cup races, National Championships or just FIS points competitions, pose numerous challenges for organizers and National Governing Bodies in the US and Canada. Over the course of the summer FasterSkier will examine the various issues at hand. This is the second installment in the series; the homologated courses this season, which includes the SuperTour and NorAms. Every summer since Craftsbury changed ownership in 2008, Dreissigacker says they have been...