Chelsea Little – Page 10

Canadian National Ski Team US Ski Team World Cup

For North Americans, First Period of World Cup Creates Short-Term Changes in Red Group, Long Term Changes in Quotas

Chelsea LittleDecember 25, 2011

Lenny Valjas and Ivan Babikov are in, Kris Freeman is out, and the U.S. is looking forward to more quota spots for its women’s team next year During the first period of World Cup racing, the U.S. and Canadian ski teams had plenty of notable results. Kikkan Randall won and won again, much to the delight of the Americans. She and Sadie Bjornsen shared a team sprint podium, while Holly Brooks notched a couple of...

Biathlon Continental Cup

U.S. Finalizes Biathlon World Cup Roster for Period Two, Adds to IBU Cup Squad (Photo Gallery)

Chelsea LittleDecember 23, 2011

For the World Cup athletes, Thursday’s announcement by the U.S. Biathlon Association of team nominations for the second period of racing brought no surprises. Just as in the last weekend of World Cup racing in December, three women (Sara Studebaker, Annelies Cook, and Susan Dunklee) and four men (Lowell Bailey, Jay Hakkinen, Tim Burke, and Leif Nordgren) will represent the U.S. on the trails. But the real excitement of the day came from the selection...

Juniors

Youth Olympic Games Presents: Matt Saurette

Chelsea LittleDecember 20, 2011

With only one boy and one girl representing each country in cross-country skiing at the upcoming Youth Olympic Games, it can be tough to decide which single individual deserves that opportunity. Nobody’s consistently dominant all the time, right? In Canada, however, the decision of which boy to send was easy: Matt Saurette had been the age-group national champion for two years running. The 16-year-old, who grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and lists Alex Harvey as...

Biathlon World Cup

UPDATED – Notes and Quotes from the Hochfilzen IBU World Cup Weekend

Chelsea LittleDecember 19, 2011

Biathletes on the IBU World Cup circuit hit up Hochfilzen, Austria for the second straight weekend after poor snow conditions in France forced the cancellation of a scheduled weekend there. While doubling up in Hochfilzen wasn’t too exciting, U.S. biathlete Lowell Bailey said that it wasn’t as bad as he’d expected, either. “The second week of racing here in Hochfilzen turned out to be quite a bit different than the first even though we were...

Biathlon World Cup

Biathletes Finish World Cup Period I With Mixed Relay, Russia Dominates

Chelsea LittleDecember 18, 2011

After a grueling early-winter schedule of three consecutive three-race weekends, biathletes around the world were ready to head home for the holidays. But they had one last little piece of business to check off their lists before they departed from Hochfilzen, Austria on Sunday: the first mixed relay of the season. Athletes had to survive a quick six kilometers for the women, seven and a half for the men, and two shooting stages each. A...

Canadian National Ski Team World Cup

“Overshadowed” By Crawford, Gaiazova Races to Ninth Place in Sprint, a Personal Best for Skating

Chelsea LittleDecember 18, 2011

Coming off a season in which Canada got its first-ever World Championships gold in the team sprint, the winners, Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw, are the Canadians you’d expect to see in sprint finals. But while the duo certainly haven’t been slacking on the World Cup this year, in Rogla, Slovenia it was the women who impressed in a fast and furious one-kilometer skate sprint on Sunday. 2006 Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford returned to...

US Ski Team World Cup

Hamilton, Sargent Nab Career-Best Finishes in Rogla Heats; Newell Boxed Out and Frustrated

Chelsea LittleDecember 18, 20111

While Kikkan Randall fell in the sprint final (see our Full results

Biathlon World Cup

Snowy Trails and Packed Fields Make a Barnburner in Hochfilzen; Le Guellec, Hakkinen Top-Ten in Pursuit

Chelsea LittleDecember 17, 2011

There were a lot of unusual things about the World Cup biathlon races in Hochfilzen, Austria on Saturday. First, there was the inch of snow that fell during the men’s 12.5 k pursuit. Then, there was the fact that the field was incredibly compressed thanks to some strange weather in the original sprint race. “The snow storm that stopped [mid-race on Thursday] had a bigger effect than I expected,” U.S. biathlete Jay Hakkinen told FasterSkier....

Biathlon World Cup

Un-Retired Zaitseva Picks Up First Win of Season; Imrie Notches Personal-Best 25th in Hochfilzen Sprint

Chelsea LittleDecember 16, 2011

Remember all those Russian shenanigans about returned to biathlon, because recently she’s been on a tear. The 33-year-old Moscow native picked up her first win of the season on Friday in a 10 k sprint in Hochfilzen, Austria, to go along with two podium finishes from last weekend. She’s now finished on the podium four times in seven starts, and that’s the way she likes it. “I would like to be on the podium in...

Biathlon World Cup

Canadian Women “Stoked” About Newfound Depth and Consistency on Biathlon World Cup

Chelsea LittleDecember 14, 2011

Lowell Bailey may be getting a lot of attention these days, but the American biathlete isn’t the only one to have found success in the early days of the 2012 World Cup season. Quietly, the Canadian women have upped their own profile – and their first two weeks of racing culminated in a ninth-place relay finish in Hochfilzen, Austria, tying the U.S. men’s performance. Team member Zina Kocher, who has been racing in senior-level international...

Biathlon World Cup

With Recent Success, U.S. Biathletes Left Hoping for More After Ninth-Place Relay Finish

Chelsea LittleDecember 11, 20112

With three men who have placed in the top twenty so far this World Cup season and one more who was the hero of last year’s World Championships relay, the U.S. had high hopes for Sunday’s 4 x 7.5 k relay, the first of the season. The team chose Lowell Bailey, who has finished as high as fifth in these first two weeks of racing, as their leadoff leg. And in some ways, he lived...

Biathlon World Cup

Kocher Improves to 23rd in Biathlon Pursuit; Dunklee, Studebaker 43rd and 44th for U.S.

Chelsea LittleDecember 10, 20111

Is it possible that Magdalena Neuner has checked out of biathlon? The German biathlete – who recently announced that she would retire at the end of the season at the young age of 24, and Full results

Biathlon World Cup

After Climbing to Fifth in World Cup Pursuit, Bailey Slips to 17th On Back Of Late Shooting Errors

Chelsea LittleDecember 10, 2011

“Today was one of the best biathlon races of my career,” Lowell Bailey told FasterSkier after Saturday’s World Cup pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria. “…Except for the fourth shooting.” The American biathlete started the day ranked 14th, 52 seconds behind leader Carl Johan Bergman of Sweden. Through three stages, Bailey shot clean and skied his way up into fifth place. “This is really only the second time in my career that I have been in this...

Camps Other News

First Half of XC Oregon Masters Camp “Practically Perfect”; Space Still Available

Chelsea LittleDecember 6, 2011

www.xcoregon.org for complete information and daily updates.

Biathlon Juniors

Youth Olympic Games Presents: Stuart Harden

Chelsea LittleDecember 6, 2011

Canada’s hopes for a biathlon medal at the Youth Olympic Games are probably riding on no single athlete more than Calgary’s Stuart Harden. Harden is one of those athletes who seems to be a junior forever, simply because they find success at such a young age. Last season, he competed in his first World Junior Championships – mostly because before then, he had been too young to qualify. As it was, the then-16-year-old was still...

Biathlon Uncategorized World Cup

Snow Woes Continue as First-Ever Biathlon World Cup Weekend in France Is Canceled, Moved to Austria

Chelsea LittleDecember 5, 2011

Biathlon World Cup

Berger Jets to Pursuit Victory, Leaving a Fading Neuner Fighting for the Podium

Chelsea LittleDecember 4, 2011

Sunday’s 10 k pursuit in Ostersund, Sweden was set up to be a barnburner from the moment the previous day’s sprint ended. With Olympic and World Champions Tora Berger and Magdalena Neuner separated by just 0.2 seconds and last year’s overall World Cup winner Kaisa Makarainen lurking 15 seconds behind, there was no doubt that things would get exciting. Germany’s Neuner and Norway’s Berger skied the first lap together, a study in contrasting styles. Berger’s...

Biathlon World Cup

Strength and Depth From a Rising U.S. Men’s Team in World Cup Biathlon Pursuit; France’s Fourcade Dominates Again – Updated With Photos

Chelsea LittleDecember 4, 20111

At the start of Sunday’s World Cup men’s pursuit, there was one man out in front: Carl Johan Bergman of Sweden. After picking up the win in Friday’s sprint in Ostersund, Swedene, Bergman had a seven-second advantage over the rest of the field. But as Friday’s victory was just the second of his career, the big question was how long the 33-year-old would be able to hang onto the lead. The answer, it turned out,...

Biathlon World Cup

Neuner Edges Berger By 0.2 Seconds in Ostersund Sprint, Setting Up Exciting Pursuit

Chelsea LittleDecember 3, 2011

Today in Ostersund, Sweden, two women returned to the spots they’re used to occupying on the World Cup biathlon results sheet. For Germany’s Magdalena Neuner, that spot was at the top. The 24-year-old won her 25th World Cup after placing third in a wind-dominated individual race earlier this week. For any other champion, an occasional bad day is standard. But Neuner is so good that seeing her finish over a minute and a half behind...

Biathlon World Cup

U.S. Continues Strong Start as Lowell Bailey Notches Career-Best Fifth Place

Chelsea LittleDecember 2, 20111

After finishing the 10 k World Cup sprint in Ostersund, Sweden on Friday, Lowell Bailey didn’t have to be chatty. He only needed a few words to describe how his race had gone. “It was a great race for me,” Bailey wrote in the opening of an e-mail to FasterSkier. That might be an understatement. The American placed fifth, the best finish of his career; he was less than ten seconds off the podium. Every...

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