The World Cup season wrapped up with World Cup finals in Québec City and FasterSkier was there. Three photographers and three interviewers worked together to gather information from 150 racers, including 56 North Americans. While top skiers chased glory on the tracks, 500 volunteers toiled out of sight. Alex Harvey retired in a public blaze […]
Québec City: Quotes, Crashes, and Setting The Stage
The Québec City World Cup has been a wild ride for the first two days, which are really only setting the stage for the big event. On Sunday, two crystal globes will be decided and hometown superstar Alex Harvey will retire on a course he raced on as a child. Tricky Skiing The first […]
Canadian Nationals 2019: Notes, Quotes, and Galleries
Canadian Ski Championships has come to an end with the mass start classic for the younger age groups. While is is hard to prove that this is the largest nationals ever, it is clear that Évènements Nordique Gatineau Nordic Events (ÉNGNE) has organized a successful week of racing for roughly 700 athletes. ÉNGNE is a […]
Canadian Nationals: Team Sprint and Long Distance Classic
The Canadian Ski Championships party at Nakkertok trails in Gatineau, Québec is in the final days. While ski fans might see this as a pre-party for World Cup Finals in Québec City, the athletes are pursuing titles, personal goals, and the chance to test themselves against 700 peers. FasterSkier, like the World Cup athletes, is […]
Canadian Nationals: Skate Sprint and WCF qualification
This article has been updated with final WCF selections and a video of the sprint A finals. Nationals rolled on at Nakkertok trails with free technique sprints on Saturday. The women raced a 1.3km course while the men added one more hill for 1.4km. The jury described the conditions as ‘soft icy’, which seems to […]
Canadian Nationals: Two Day Pursuit and WCF Qualification
This article has been updated to correct an interpretation of the selection criteria. Day two of nationals was day two of the pursuit at Nakkertok trails in Gatineau, Québec. The two-day pursuit format (classic interval start on day one, free technique pursuit start day two) was held for the second time at nationals. With both […]
Wednesday Rundown: Canadian Nationals
Canadian Ski Championships, better known as ‘nationals’, kicked off today at the Nakkertok trails in Québec with individual start classic racing. 342 men started the 10km and 293 women started the 5km, both using the same 5km loop on an overcast day at -8C. The field is more stacked than usual, with only two athletes […]
Connecting the Dots: World Cup Finals, Nationals, and Developing the Sport
North American World Cups are becoming a fixture on the schedule, with the season ending in Canada in 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020. In 2020, Minnesota will join in with a city sprint- that race falls between the Quebec City and Canmore events. These races are important for athlete development as both Canada and the […]
Canadian Western Championship: Weekend Wrap-up
KELOWNA, B.C — One week after Easterns, it was time for Westerns, and the Polar Vortex made the trip for both weekends. At Easterns, the air was cold enough to keep the organizing committee on edge at the start of the weekend, and freezing rain complicated driving plans. At Westerns, the cold weather held off to […]
Canadians Westerns Rundown: Skate Sprints
Canadian Western Championships started off Friday with free technique sprints on the Telemark trails near Kelowna, B.C. The sun was out for the qualification round, followed by cloud, and light snow as the day progressed with the temperature hovering at -10C. A major road closure combined with icy morning highways and a large number of accidents […]
Canadian Eastern Championships: Weekend Wrap-up
The NorAm series went to Duntroon, Ontario, for the Canadian Eastern Championships: three days of varied weather, new race formats, and new faces on the podium, all hosted by Highlands Trailblazers. Easterns is possibly the most storied ski race in Canada. Most years, it is the largest FIS event in North America. This year, the […]
Saturday Rundown: CEC Two Day Pursuit
The NorAm weekend at Duntroon, Ontario, continued Saturday with an individual start 10km classic race, the opening half of the first two day pursuit at this level in many years. The two day pursuit race format was replaced in 2002 with the same-day pursuit. This is the event in which Beckie Scott famously won all […]
Bishop’s University NorAm and World Selection: Weekend Summary from Canada
The third NorAm weekend of the season was also Canadian selection trials for 2019 World Nordic Ski Championships and a Quebec Cup event on the Bishop’s University trails in Lennoxville, which is a neighborhood in Sherbrooke, Québec. With variable weather the Mont Orford club rallied and held races all three days of the competition schedule. […]
Canmore NorAm: Notes, Quotes, and Selections
Canmore hosted the second NorAm of the 2018/2019 season on December 13th, 15th, and 16th. The event also served as U23 and Junior World trials. By the end of the weekend, starts at the U23/Junior World Championships and the World Cup’s Tour de Ski would be earned. This event was originally scheduled for Whistler Olympic […]
A Sovereign Lake NorAm/SuperTour Weekend Rundown
For the third consecutive year, the SuperTour and NorAm series met up at Sovereign Lake near Vernon, BC, for a combined race weekend of skate sprints and classic interval starts. Over 450 athletes competed each day in four age groups. According to many attendees, combining the two Continental Cup series was an unqualified success. While […]
Meet the Coach: CCC’s Erik Bråten
Cross Country Canada hired Erik Bråten as the new national team coach on November 1st, joining Louis Bouchard. After a short delay to get a work permit, Bråten arrived in Canada on November 15th. Regular readers will know the highlights of his resume: Graduate of the Norwegian School of Sports Science. Winner of the coach […]
Cross Country Canada: The Reboot Part Two
This is the second part of FasterSkier’s report on the state of high performance cross-country skiing and athlete development in Canada. You can read part one here. Cross Country Canada (CCC), as the national governing body for cross-country skiing in Canada has the difficult task of steering a rather large ship. The idea in steering […]
Cross Country Canada: The Reboot Part 1
Cross Country Canada (CCC) has begun a reboot process as the new Olympic cycle starts. Corporations call this a reset, a rebranding, a new direction, restructuring, and various other names that try to disguise the challenges and issues that come with enacting real change. The reboot process traditionally starts with an acknowledgement that the current […]
World Cup Preview #10: Canada
Welcome to FasterSkier’s World Cup Preview, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts. The World Cup begins with a classic sprint in Ruka, Finland on Nov. 24th. *** Canada Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: 10th Women’s Ranking 2017/2018: 18th Men’s […]
Frozen Thunder Race Day 2: Going the Distance
Frozen Thunder racing continued in Canmore, Alberta, on Tuesday with a 7.5 kilometer freestyle individual start for the women and 10 k for the men. Once again, the athletes were more focused on training goals than finish order, which is summarized in the rundown. Team R.A.D.’s Ty Godfrey, the faster of the siblings today, expressed […]