Pursuing my interest in the French women’s team further, I was put in contact with Thibaut Chene, the women’s coach for L’équipe de France. Before coaching the women’s national team, Chene worked with the French junior team for four years. Thus, many of the women now at the senior level have worked with him since they were junior skiers. In 2015, the prior women’s team coach, Anaël Huard, left and Chene took over. An article written at...
Living in France for the past year, and with ski racing never far from my mind, I was interested in learning more about the athletes and system here, particularly for the women. While the French men’s team is a force to be reckoned with, both in sprinting and distance, results, or even athletes, on the women’s side are sparse. For example, at the Oberstdorf World Championships in Germany this past season, the French men’s relay...
In a recent press release from FISI (Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali), the Italian Ski Federation, announced some coaching changes for the upcoming season, notably that this year’s World Cup Sprint Globe winner, Federico Pellegrino, and his teammate, Francesco de Fabiani will join the training group of Marcus Cramer who works with the Russian Ski Team. Cramer’s current squad includes Sergey Ustiugov, Gleb Retivykh, Artem Maltsev and Evgeniy Belov on the men’s side and Yulia Stupak,...
After an unusual and unprecedented season, many athletes have announced their retirement as they move on from professional ski racing. Aside from the three notable retirements from the U.S. Ski Team, Sadie Maubet-Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell-Hamilton, and Simi Hamilton, twelve international athletes have said goodbye to World Cup competitions. Perhaps the biggest name among them is Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway, who after a somewhat inauspicious start to his World Cup career in 2005 when he...
Perhaps this winter you skied 50-kilometers in a day. Maybe you’re a real go-getter and you logged 100 k in one go. Or maybe you’re Gus Schumacher and you recently clocked 200 k in a single outing. Regardless of your season or lifetime distance record, you can be sure that it pales in comparison to what Anders Aukland of Norway achieved this past weekend. Between Saturday morning to late Sunday night, a period of 41...
This year was a big year for women’s Nordic combined racing, not in the way 2020 was a “big year”, but in a record-breaking, moving forward to better things kind of way. For those of you who don’t follow Nordic combined, here’s what you need to know: Competitions involve ski jumping, in which athletes are scored based on style and distance, and later in the day, they compete in a pursuit-start skate race based on...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. Four months after the season debut in Ruka, Finland the women lined up at the start line one last time to conclude a season many were skeptical would even...
As the World Cup season winds down, FasterSkier caught up with two U.S. Ski Team athletes who’ve been living on the road all winter to learn about their strength routines during COVID. Even without a global pandemic, on-the-go strength training can be a challenge. Julia Kern and Katharine Ogden shared their approaches in the following interview: FasterSkier: In a typical week how many times are you doing strength? What does this look like? KO: I...
I am a woman of many jackets, combine my down jacket and exercise jacket collection and you could fill a respectably sized closet. In the months since the lofoten hiloflex200 jacket by Norrøna entered my wardrobe, it has risen through the jacket ranks to become one of my favorite options. That being said, I tend to run warm and since the number of cold days seems to be decreasing here in south-eastern France, the opportunities...
This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. After the tropical conditions of the past week, the men were greeted with heavy snowfall for Friday’s championship 4 x 10 k relay competition in Oberstdorf. Temperatures hovered around...
This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. Overcast skies greeted the skiers as they lined up for a 15 k skiathlon Saturday morning, the second World Championship event in Oberstdorf, Germany. Despite temperatures hovering around 37°F,...
This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. Against the backdrop of hundreds of cardboard cut-out fans, the men battled for the first medals of the 2021 World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. Despite warming temperatures, conditions were...
This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. After qualifying events on Wednesday, World Championships kicked off in earnest in Oberstdorf, Germany with the Classic Sprint event Thursday morning. Due to unseasonably warm temperatures, the start times...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. Ten teams toed the line Sunday morning, representing eight nations (Sweden and Switzerland both having two teams in the final) in the skate team sprint in Ulricehamn, Sweden. After...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. It was a rather cloudy day as the athletes circled Ulricehamn’s sprint loop again and again for Sunday’s freestyle team sprint, urged forward by the cheering of recorded crowds...
By Ella Hall and Jason Albert So many moving parts when considering Alexander Bolshunov’s aggression towards Joni Mäki of Finland in the closing moments of the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in Lahti on January 24. The finish line was in sight for the two skiers as Mäki came around the sweeping left-hand turn into the final straight ahead of Bolshunov. Mäki, it seemed, sensing Bolshunov making a move and advancing in the outermost...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. Another clear, cloudless, and frigid day of racing for the men in Falun, Sweden as they completed three laps of a 5 k loop for Saturday’s classic mass start...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. Sunny skies and cold snow greeted the skiers for the start of the men’s 15 k individual freestyle on Friday, kicking off an extended weekend of racing in Falun,...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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 fog seemed to have thickened since the completion of the women’s race earlier in the day, at times obscuring the skiers with only their silhouettes visible. Eleven teams...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their 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. It was a foggy morning for the women’s 4×5 k relay in Lahti, Finland. With temperatures above freezing and high humidity, the scene was less of a winter wonderland...