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Ben Theyerl

Ben Theyerl was born into a family now three-generations into nordic ski racing in the US. He grew up skiing for Chippewa Valley Nordic in his native Eau Claire, Wisconsin, before spending four years racing for Colby College in Maine. He currently mixes writing and skiing while based out of Crested Butte, CO, where he coaches the best group of high schoolers one could hope to find.
(News Brief) FIS Delays Fluoro Ban Implementation Again

The International Ski Federation (FIS) is again postponing its ban on the use of fluorinated (fluoro) waxes, originally passed in November 2019. The decision to delay the ban’s implementation until after the 2022-23 season was announced in a press release earlier today. The FIS cites the need for “further refinement of the fluoro testing device and to define procedures to protect the integrity of FIS competitions.” The same concerns over an efficient and effective testing...

Sophia Laukli Wins Norway’s Marquee Rollerski Race, Climbing to Top of Fjord and Podium in Lysebotn

It’s the kind of event that explains Norwegian’s love for cross country skiing – it represents all they want to represent about themselves, and nothing else. In the humid, green summer, some of the world’s best winter athletes come to the coastal town of Sandnes in the country’s south for four days of roller skiing racing – the Blink Festival – in which spectators will pack nearly every inch of town center, mountainside, or arena...

In Bozeman, Jim Bridger Rollerski Races Look to Bring Summer Competition to the West

Logan Diekmann, Nina Seeman win on the streets of Bozeman, and BSF’s Rollerski races look to harness the momentum of summer training out West. Featuring Results and Video Highlights. BOZEMAN – Jim Bridger was a mountain man. One of those figures born firmly entrenched in the old ways back East, before he split for the Mountain West for something new. A character to chart a theme pervasive through the American vision of the West –...

Nordic skiing is growing fast in the United States. How is the largest youth ski organization in the country keeping up?

A Q and A with Amy Cichanowski, Executive Director of the Minnesota Youth Ski League, on developing a more robust, diverse, ski community from the bottom-up. The State of Minnesota has always been good at getting its citizens on skis. Throughout the last century, people with names – some of them specific – Grace Carter Lindley, George Hovland, and Charlie Banks – and others more of a metonym for a kind of spirit – Ole...

Ski Mountaineering is the Newest Olympic Ski Discipline, Nordic skiing is Touchstone for its American Pioneers

“Skimo” will be the newest Olympic ski discipline when it premiers at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games. In 2022, those ready to represent the USA are bringing what they learned from their Nordic skiing background to higher peaks, steeper downhills, and techier technique. The details of ski mountaineering are dizzying. Take the little challenges unique to each discipline of skiing, amalgamate them together into one race, and you’re left with “Skimo,” which may or may not...

Q & A with New Faces on the US Ski Team: Michael Earnhart

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed to development,...

Q & A with New Faces on the U.S. Ski Team: Finn O’Connell

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed to development,...

New Faces on the U.S. Ski Team: A Q&A with Zak Ketterson

U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed...

With Dreams Chased and Achieved, Adam Martin Retires from Professional Skiing

Adam Martin’s skiing has always tended to be best described in conjunctions rather than disjunctions. He could do this and he would do that. Or, that’s always how his mentors looked at it. My most distinct memory of Martin is from a CXC (Central Cross Country Skiing) camp about a decade ago when Sten Fjeldheim, then Martin’s coach at Northern Michigan University (NMU), gathered a group of us J2s (U16) around in the lobby of...

After Three Straight NCAA Championship Victories, What’s Next for the University of Utah?

With a cohort of some of the best U23 skiers in the country, the program is setting a trend for young American skiers pursuing international-level and college skiing simultaneously.   After the first day of this year’s NCAA Championships, held at Soldier Hollow, Utah, the team scoring was close. The familiar schools were all there, the University of Utah (UU) at the front, with the University of Colorado (CU), Denver University (DU), and the University...

MountainFLOW Fluoro Takeback Program: Giving skiers the option to safely dispose of fluoro waxes from anywhere

The ski community has known there’s a problem for awhile now. Fluorinated waxes, whose extreme hydrophobic properties make them ideal for fast skis, also are by that same property impossible to break down in the environment, allowing them to permeate through the soil into water supplies. The compounds are also known carcinogens, and frequent exposure to these compounds, particularly when heating and inhaling the fumes of waxes in which they are contained, is linked to...

The Future in Birkieland: A Q & A with ABSF Executive Director Ben Popp

A look at what’s ahead for the Birkebeiner, and its former home at the Telemark Lodge. When I reached out to American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (ABSF) Executive Director Ben Popp before Christmas to set-up an interview discussing the Birkie’s plans for the now-defunct Telemark Lodge property, he was already putting plans into action. An interview would have to wait until after the holidays, because that weekend ,the Birkie was hosting a SuperTour race which would...

Ben Ogden: Balancing Olympic and NCAA Skiing Ambitions Alongside a New Wave of Top US Skiers

“So after the World Cup, Olympics, and NCAAs, is that it for you this season?” “Well…I think I’m going to race the Rikert Grand Prix this weekend.” (He won). I couldn’t have stumbled upon a more apt soundbite to describe Ben Ogden, and he offered it up ten seconds into our interview. Skiing for the US Ski Team and University of Vermont (UVM), Ogden is primed to write the next chapter in American men’s skiing...

Canadian Nationals/US SuperTour Finals: Team sprint yields another win for Kern with Sonnesyn for SMS T2, University of Utah’s Jager and Keefe take men’s race

“You need some Gordie Howe elbows out there today” said the commentator on the live feed at one point during Friday’s Team Sprint in Whistler. You know, just in case you needed a reminder that this is Canadian Nationals. Alongside his legacy as one of hockey’s greatest players of all time, leaving his mark on the sport as an indomitable force with both his goal scoring and dynamism on the ice,   Howe was known as...

Canadian Nationals/US SuperTour Finals: Julia Kern wins again, while Xavier McKeever takes first Canadian title in Classic Sprint

Racing at the joint Canadian Nationals/US SuperTour Finals resumed on Wednesday, showcasing some of the best racers in North America facing off for a classic sprint.  As the Whistler Olympic Park was home for cross country skiing during the 2010 Vancouver Games, the classic sprint course on Wednesday was one that played host to an important stepping stone in North American skiing history. In that competition, both American and Canadian skiers solidified the inroads they...

2022 Junior Nationals Recap: After Long Wait, Minneapolis Hosts Top US Juniors for Full Slate of Racing

To trace the thread of the past, present, and future of American cross-country skiing, all you have to do is look at a golf course in Minneapolis that touches 3 of those 10,000 lakes in Minnesota; Theodore Wirth Park.  Over the past week, America’s most-skied loop played host to the US Ski and Snowboard Junior Championships (formerly Junior Nationals, or “JNs”), bringing the top under-20 year old skiers from across the nation together for the...

One for the Ages in Falun: Diggins Finishes 3rd as Johaug Leaves Skiing a Champion

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com.   There wasn’t much to be decided, only facts to reaffirmed. In the last individual race of the World Cup season on Saturday, a 10-kilometer individual start freestyle in...

Ian Torchia: An Early Retrospective as he Retires from Professional Skiing

Skiing-wise, Ian Torchia has nearly done it all. And now, in life, he’s ready to do some more. In an Instagram post following the American Birkiebeiner, Torchia announced that he is retiring from professional skiing with his trademark blend of gratitude and humor, saying, “In the end I won’t remember the races won (a few) or lost (many more) but the lifelong bonds of teammates, the support of friends and family, and how special the...

The Legends We All Are Living Out: “Winter’s Children: A Celebration of Nordic Skiing” Book Review

In a history of American skiing centered around the Upper Midwest, author Ryan Rodgers weaves together the stories of individuals who have found joy, love, and purpose in skiing with their heel detached, inspiring his readers to do so, too.  At the intersection of outdoors and pursuits, the street signs read “myth” and “heroes.” And we, those who spend our time outside, are here to patiently listen. That intersection has given rise to classics across...

Norway Sweeps Podium as Revelry Returns at Holmenkollen 50 k; Martin Leads US in 26th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. In Oslo on Sunday, came another sign of the times. The Holmenkollen Ski Festival, the beating heart and center of the modern sport of skiing since Torjus Hemmestveit won...