Gerry Furseth – Page 2

A Pandemic, Virtual Harvard, and the World Cup: Checking In With Rémi Drolet

Gerry FursethDecember 17, 2021

Rossland, BC native Rémi Drolet had a lot going on during the first year of the pandemic. In his first year on the Canadian senior national ski team, he was studying theoretical physics at Harvard. His junior career ended with a silver medal and an individual fourth place in the 2020 World U20 Championships, right before COVID cancelled the final World Cups and Canadian Senior Nationals. This was also his first season living in a...

Continental Cup News Racing

Eastern Canada Cup #1 & 2: Getting Started in Nakkertok

Gerry FursethDecember 16, 2021

Once again, there was a great weekend of racing on the Nakkertok trails in Gatineau, QC. It was almost like the pandemic pause hadn’t happened: lots of racers, live results on Zone4, great support for media. But it isn’t really just Nakkertok. ENGNE, a coalition of local clubs, puts on great races using Nakkertok trails and the NakkerTrak snowmaking magic. As with the first Western Canada Cup (WCC) race, the theme of the weekend was...

Continental Cup News Racing

Western Canada Cup #3 and #4: Déjà Vu

Gerry FursethDecember 14, 2021

Race, rinse, repeat. The Western Canada Cup series returned to Sovereign Lake for race days 3 and 4 of the new season. Originally scheduled for Rossland, BC, the event had to be moved after an ‘atmospheric river’ event delivered warm rain to almost all southern BC trail systems on December 1st. Sovereign Lake was the least damaged, able to hold WCC #1 and #2 on the 4th and 5th as scheduled. By December 11th, skiing...

Canadian National Ski Team Continental Cup News Racing

A 2021 Overview of Developments for Nordiq Canada

Gerry FursethDecember 8, 2021

Last season, Canada held no races, posted no domestic results, and, in general, vanished into the pandemic fog. Travel restrictions meant that many Canadian skiers didn’t see any skiers from other regions. Which skiers made progress and which regressed over the last 20 months? We finally have hints after the first races last weekend. What is new? Lots. What happens next? Keep reading. Athlete Progress Following the opening FIS races, part of the Western Canada...

Continental Cup News Racing

Western Canada Cup #1: Back to the Bibs

Gerry FursethDecember 6, 2021

Racing returned to Canada after a lost season, and there are plenty of storylines to follow. This weekend, The Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre in Vernon, BC hosted a freestyle sprint and a classic 10/15-kilometer individual start. It sounds so familiar, a re-run of the annual NorAm kickoff with a new Western Canada Cup name. Travel to the venue became more challenging when a November 13th ‘atmospheric river’ destroyed the two main highways between Vancouver and...

Feature News Olympics Racing Training

Preparing for Beijing 2022: The Science

Gerry FursethMay 19, 2021

The Journal of Science in Sport and Exercise recently published a paper titled ‘Preparing for the Nordic Skiing Events at the Beijing Olympics in 2022: Evidence-Based Recommendations and Unanswered Questions’, written by Øyvind Sandbakk, Guro Strøm Solli, Rune Kjøsen Talsnes, and Hans-Christer Holmberg. This is essential reading for anyone who is hoping to represent their country next year, covering the basics of elevation, time zone changes, cold weather, and the possibility of race format changes...

Racing Resources

Virtual Event Hosting: the Strava Club Recipe

Gerry FursethDecember 21, 2020

There are many kinds of virtual events, and many ways to run them. Look here for context and alternatives. This is a simple and free solution to running a temporally distanced event on a fixed course. Summary: Create an invitation-only club on Strava. Create a segment. When the event concludes, select the club from the segment leaderboard options to view results. Advantages: Free. Low effort for OC. Strava provides tools to detect groups skiing together...

Racing Resources

Virtual Event Hosting: Things to Think About

Gerry FursethDecember 21, 2020

This is part of the Virtual Event Hosting series. With all the ideas and potential solutions out there, here are some things that might help you narrow down your choice. Safety Issues And Compliance There are many things to consider when hosting an event and health restriction rules related to COVID differ for every community. These rules also tend to change weekly, which may be awkward for a series of events. Some of the safety topics...

Feature

Hosting a Virtual Ski Event

Gerry FursethDecember 21, 2020

COVID19 has brought many changes to the nordic world. In many places, we can still ski. Some people can travel, some cannot. Some people live near snow, some don’t. There is no one size fits all solution to having fun while the pandemic rages, but there are a lot of potential solutions to specific needs. The race organizers among us know how to host traditional large group races. If that is allowed, you just need...

Canadian National Ski Team Continental Cup Racing

Canadian Racing Update

Gerry FursethDecember 8, 2020

Nordiq Canada’s first major change announcement on November 16th was the decision to cancel the Period I trip to Lillehammer, Dresden, and Davos. (The Lillehammer races have been postponed, and have not been officially rescheduled.) “For us, it was chatting with our medical experts, assessing the situations here at home and what we were seeing happening overseas,” said Nordiq Canada’s High Performance Director Kate Boyd. “We had never planned to go to Ruka. And then...

Canadian National Ski Team Racing

Meet Stéphane Barrette, Nordiq Canada’s Acting CEO

Gerry FursethJune 4, 2020

Nordiq Canada had a changed-filled month of May, culminating with Stéphane Barrette taking over the CEO role for the next five or six months, with the possibility of permanence if both parties are happy. The former CEO Shane Pearsall was an administrator with experience in both business and sports federation leadership. Barrette is a skier: “Cross country skiing is an intense passion of mine, and has always been.” Barrette is well known to the Canadian...

Canadian National Ski Team Racing

Canadian Update: Shane Pearsall Resigns, Dave Dyer Retires, Athletes Protest Selections, Welcome to May

Gerry FursethMay 18, 2020

The ski world has been rattled by COVID19 and Canada is no different. One thing hasn’t changed, the new year starts on May 1st and brings changes. Nordiq Canada’s CEO Shane Pearsall resigned effective May 22nd. In the press release below, Nordiq Canada (NC) describes ‘mixed emotions’ about Pearsall’s decision to focus on family time in the pandemic era. Stéphane Barrette, NC’s Directeur du développement des athlètes et entraineurs, will be acting CEO. Barrette’s work...

General News

Tour d’Uncertainty 2020: A Personal Journey

Gerry FursethMarch 15, 2020

Road Trip Day 1 (Tuesday) It all started at home, grinding out quality training hours in spectacularly good ski conditions. The plan was simple: A skiing road trip with three World Cup events, followed by Nationals/SuperTour finals at home, culminating in a 50km against the best skiers in North America. Start Wednesday March 11th, arrive home on the 24th, and closing out the racing season on April 2nd. With restricted training opportunities during the trip,...

Racing World Cup

World Cup Finals in Canmore: Hosting Challenges

Gerry FursethMarch 12, 2020

FasterSkier dropped in at Canmore on the way to Québec City and got an update from Norbert Meier on the challenges of hosting in North America, all the activities that aren’t ski races, and the challenges of dealing with daily updates on managing the Coronavirus pandemic. While the World Health Organization upgraded Coronavirus to a pandemic a few hours before this interview, the status change is not a surprise as it was simply a matter...

Book Review Training

Book Review: High Performance Nordic Training by Stuart Kremzner

Gerry FursethMarch 11, 2020

Stuart Kremzner has published a new book with a bold title — High Performance Nordic Training: A Guide to Taking Your Athletic Ability to the Next Level. Kremzner is an exercise physiologist and nordic coach and also the author of the Bill Koch League leader manual, last updated in 2008. Training, even restricted to a single sport, is a complex topic with unending opportunities to dive into bewildering detail and unexplored research topics. Anyone who...

Canadian Nationals Masters Racing

Masters Racing: Getting Lapped At Nationals

Gerry FursethFebruary 17, 2020

A middle of the pack master would have to be an idiot to sign up to race 50km against the best skiers in North America on a FIS-approved World Cup course. The top skiers will be fresh from World Cup Finals in Canmore and competing for important titles, national team selection, and future World Cup starts. With 2020 Nationals combined with US SuperTour Finals, the field will be deep. So why is my name on...

Continental Cup Juniors Racing

MSA Trials Wrap-up: Tactics, Selections, Photos, and Videos

Gerry FursethFebruary 3, 2020

Mont Sainte-Anne brought great ski conditions on a weekend where the best in Canada fought to qualify for four different race trips: U20/U23 World Championships in Oberwiesenthal, Germany; Falun and the Scando Tour; the sprint tour of Québec and Minnesota; and World Cup finals in Canmore. Combine this with the usual NorAm action and COC leader competition and you have all the ingredients for a great weekend. Over 400 athletes raced in five age groups...

Continental Cup Juniors Racing

MSA Trials Rundown: Classic Interval Starts

Gerry FursethFebruary 1, 2020

Fresh snow greeted day two of the Mont Sainte-Anne Trials for the interval start classic. With athletes battling to qualify for U20/U23 World Championships in Oberwiesenthal, Germany and three separate World Cup trips (Falun/Scando Tour, Sprint Tour, Canmore), it was never going to be a simple matter of skier against the clock. Racing started with the open men’s 15km on a 5km loop that was shared by all the elite categories. Early on, it looked...

Continental Cup Juniors Racing

MSA Trials Rundown: Qualifying for U23, U20 and More

Gerry FursethJanuary 31, 2020

In Canadian domestic ski racing, it doesn’t get much bigger than this. Mont Sainte-Anne (MSA) is hosting the NorAm weekend that also serves as U23/U20 World Championships qualification and has special significance in selection for World Cup starts. Any skier who hasn’t already qualified for National Team selection for next season start with top 30 results on either the World Cup or U20 World Championships. Most of these paths start at MSA Trials. For U20...

Continental Cup Racing

Canadian Racing Rundown: Westerns, Pragelato, and Lausanne

Gerry FursethJanuary 21, 2020

Canada took a step back from the World Cup circuit this weekend and focussed attention into development series. As the country tries to build momentum in a post Alex Harvey world, the focus has moved away from World Cup podiums and towards a consistent presence in the top 30. The road to the World Cup goes through local and regional races on the way to national/continental races. One of the development challenges in Canada is...

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