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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.
After a week of upheavals, the World Cup sprint show goes on in Drammen; France’s Jouve wins, while China gets its first podium

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.   Cross country skiing’s most ancient, classic, weekend of racing in Norway (the Holmenkollen ski festival) began with a sprint through the center of Drammen, about 45-kilometers (30 mi)...

Among the oldest races in American cross country skiing, the 2022 Stowe Derby adds to its legend

A pair of American skiing pioneers skied up Mt. Mansfield, Vermont in 1946, skied down to settle a bet, and in the process created a race that’s remained true to the individual and communal spirit that sustains nordic skiing to this day. At one point in time, skiing was simply a way to get from point A to point B. Take stock of humans gliding on snow at this moment in 2022, though, and it can...

Norway Pulls off a Historic Team Sprint Gold Repeat; Canadians in 5th and Americans in 9th for Strong Team Debut

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.   The team sprint: it’s the youngest event on the Olympic program, having been contested only since the 2006 Torino Games. The event has since become a marquee event...

Opinion: “Her! I do the same sport as her!” Jessie Diggins won a Medal, Who She Is Goes Way Beyond That

Diggins’ historic accomplishment was glanced over by the giants of American media, falling back into harmful tropes that are all-too-common regarding women athletes. Reflecting on it re-centered how meaningful her vulnerability in sharing her struggle to overcome an eating disorder was to the skiing community, and was a source of strength for me. The Olympic sprint race on Tuesday in Beijing was perhaps one of the most nuanced and complex races in Olympic history. We...

Niskanen with the golden stride in 15 k classic, while North American men hold strong on tough tracks

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 the sport of cross country skiing, the Olympic 15-kilometer individual start classic might be considered the “granddaddy of them all.” The technique was classic, as was the...

Klæbo Defends Olympic Gold as Americans Soar to New Heights in the Freestyle Sprint

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.   During the American broadcast of the 30-kilometer Skiathlon on Sunday, NBC Analyst Chad Salmela made the comment that race represented the “old-school” of long-burn, grind-it-out ski racing. That...

News Brief: COVID Outbreak in the Norway Olympic Delegation, and updated plans to get Klæbo, Johaug, and teammates to Beijing

The Planica World Cup cancellations this month brought the skiing world to the perilous edge of what it feared most, but hoped wouldn’t happen – the central focus of this ski season, and the sport’s biggest moment, the Olympics – affected by the Omicron COVID-19 variant. Over the last week in the Italian Alps, the sport went over that edge. This Olympics, as with everything in the world right now, will have to deal with...

EISA Circuit Ready to Start the Carnival(s) Again

As the largest NCAA circuit in the nation prepares for a return to a full schedule, anticipation, anxiety, and lessons from a pandemic year abound in New England. Carnival, as a noun, has perhaps had its moment. We’ve been building towards ennui, not excitement, for nearly two years now. Maybe it’s time to dispel the anticipation, let the moment fade, and let “Carnival” go along with it. But then again, calling a collegiate race circuit...

Klæbo Wins Second Tour de Ski; Røthe Reigns on Alpe Cermis, Ketterson 48th

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.   We began this year’s coverage of the Men’s Tour de Ski with a prelude from 5 time Tour de France champion Bernard Hinault. So let us begin this coda with him as well. On the cycling classic Paris-Roubaix, “the hell of the north”...

Nepryaeva Takes Stage 4 Win and Overall Lead; Diggins Tripped, Karlsson Penalized.

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.   Every Grand Tour must have a Queen Stage. Dreamt up by organizers, meant to stand at the crux of the race, animate its characters, and start the action...

Klæbo Takes the Win in Tour de Ski Stage 1 Freestyle Sprint; Ogden and Bolger Qualify Top 10; Three Americans in Heats

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.   To set the scene for the Tour de Ski, briefly turn to an episode from the event that inspired it. Cue “the Badger,” Bernard Hinault, who at the...

International Biathlon Union (IBU) Joins UN’s Race to Zero Climate Campaign

The sport’s governing body joins a UN campaign to fight climate change, and save Biathlon too. ***   Östersund, Sweden markets itself as Vinterstaden (The Winter City), a reputation it earned a century ago when the Nordic Games – the precursor to our modern Winter Olympics – were moved there from snowless Stockholm in 1905 and 1913. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) routinely puts Östersund at the very beginning of its world cup calendar, as...

Diggins Back on Podium in 2nd; American Women put 5 in Top 30, and Johaug back on Top in Davos

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.   For American ski fans, the Davos 10km on Sunday was one to be anticipated with a mix of expectation and nostalgia. Last season, in a year when the...

News and information from the northern hemisphere over the Australian summer. Also of the Canberra rollerski event coming up at Easter. 2011 World Championship, Oslo, Norway, February 22 – March 6 The general feedback on the 2011 World Championship in Oslo was that it was the biggest most spectacular World Championship ever held. Over 100,000 spectators were in the stands or out around the track each day for the last weekend of competition, and even...

Calgary, Alberta (March 17, 2011) – This past Sunday, Fast and Female hosted its sixth Annual X-Country SkiFest in Canada at the Canmore Nordic Centre in Alberta. Held under clear skies, spring-like temperatures, and highlighted by the impressive Rocky Mountains in the backdrop, the event saw 165 young female X-Country skiers between the ages of 9 to 19 take part in a full day of inspiration both on and off snow. They were joined by...

CANMORE, Alta.—When two-time Olympic cross-country skier George Grey hits the start line for Saturday’s 50-kilometre skate-ski race at the Haywood Ski Nationals, it will be his final competitive trip around thefamed Canmore Nordic Centre. After racing on the World Cup for nearly a decade against the top athletes on the globe, and competing in the Torino and Vancouver Olympics along with five World Championships, the 31-year-old Grey, of Rossland, B.C., has decided to retire. “For...

TD Bank J2 Championships: Team Maine Prevails In Messy Conditions For The Overall Win

Gilford, New Hampshire, March 11-13– This weekend Gunstock Nordic Association (GNA) played host to the 2011 TD Bank J2 Championships, an annual event where top skiers aged 14-15 from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and representatives from Utah, Colorado, New York and a lone skier from Australia race for three days. The event serves as a stepping stone for young high schoolers to experience higher-level competition and to further develop ski racing in New England....

March 6, Gorham, New Hampshire– Advertised “North America’s Toughest 10 k”, the annual Ski ToThe Clouds race had a record turnout of participants despite the drizzling rain. 66 racers toed the line to ski to and up part of the Mt. Washington Auto Road for bragging rights and $1400 in cash purse for the winners. In the spirit of a true freestyle event, skiers are encouraged to use any ski discipline to ascend 700 meters...

March 5, Rangeley, Maine- On the morning of the 13th Annual Rangeley Lakes Loppet hosted by the Rangeley Lakes Trails Center, dry snowfall around a quarter of an inch, adding an element of difficulty to what is an already challenging race. About 100 freestyle and classic skiers had to change their waxing in order to adjust for the colder and dry snow conditions forecasted. Racers had the option of doing one or two laps of...

Telemark’s rebirth as a destination resort for outdoor enthusiasts will be managed by Telemark Partners, LLC.  Ric Ahern and Steve Kaufman, the principals at Telemark Partners, reported that, “Putting this deal together has been a marathon much like the world famous American Birkebeiner cross-country ski race which calls Telemark home.  The negotiations have had their ups and downs and seemed to be never ending. Now we have reached the finish line in the acquisition and...