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Jason Albert

Jason lives in Bend, Ore., and can often be seen chasing his two boys around town. He’s a self-proclaimed audio geek. That all started back in the early 1990s when he convinced a naive public radio editor he should report a story from Alaska’s, Ruth Gorge. Now, Jason’s common companion is his field-recording gear.
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After 42 Years, U.S. Strikes Olympic Gold with Randall, Diggins in Team Sprint

Jason AlbertFebruary 21, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, Diggins and Randall won gold. Before Wednesday, the two had not contested a team sprint together since those 2013 championships. Much has changed since then. Randall, 35, took the 2016/2017 winter off to start a family. After a difficult return to World Cup racing, she earned an individual freestyle sprint medal (bronze) at last year’s 2017 World Championships...

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Monkey Off Its Back, Norway Wins First Men’s Olympic Relay Since 2002

Jason AlbertFebruary 18, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, women’s Olympic 4 x 5 k relay on Saturday when Norwegian Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen fell adrift of the front skiers. Both were haunting Sochi déjà-vu moments. Passing his 6.6 k checkpoint Sundby looked spent. He uncharacteristically let France and Italy take over the pacing. By then, Bolshunov had gapped the chasing trio by a full 41 seconds. In the post-race press conference, Bolshunov explained he had been hospitalized in the...

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U.S Women Fifth for Best-Ever Olympic Relay Finish; Canada 13th

Jason AlbertFebruary 17, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, link to the 4 x 5 k women’s relay start list. It’s a wow-type list. The Norwegians, the Swedes and the Finns, all loaded lineups. And the Russians were seated fifth. Natalia Nepryaeva and Yulia Belorukova, both Russian skiers that have already medaled at these Games, led off the first two relay legs. They were a big unknown who pulled through for the bronze.   “It was really interesting...

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BiathlonBiathlon CanadaCanadian National Ski TeamGeneralLifestyleOlympicsRacingResourcesUS BiathlonUS Ski Team

FasterSkier’s Unofficial Guide to 2018 Olympic Cross-Country and Biathlon Suits

Jason AlbertFebruary 16, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Olympic cross-country and biathlon cheat sheet, and not long after, we received a comment from a reader asking for a uniform cheat sheet. We, too, found ourselves sometimes befuddled. During Saturday’s skiathlon, this reporter found himself looking for the emblematic stars on the U.S. Ski Team’s new unis. There were stars, think Diggins and Kalla, just no obvious stellar-like branding on the USST suits. So for you and for us,...

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Sweden’s Öberg Breaks Through for Gold; Dunklee 19th & Reid, Crawford, Beaudry Top 30
GeneralNewsOlympicsRacing

Sweden’s Öberg Breaks Through for Gold; Dunklee 19th & Reid, Crawford, Beaudry Top 30

Jason AlbertFebruary 15, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Crawford earned her first career IBU World Cup individual podium in in a 15 k individual in Ruhpolding, Germany. Her third place in the individual was followed by a fourth place, also in Ruhpolding, in the mass start. Even in disappointment, Crawford said the upside was learning a hard lesson as she moves forward. “As I was warming up, I was like, ‘you have to trust...

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GeneralNewsNordic CombinedOlympicsRacing

Frenzel Defends Title in First Olympic NoCo Comp; Bryan Fletcher 17th

Jason AlbertFebruary 14, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, postponed to Thursday due to high winds, the nordic-combined jumping portion went off earlier in the day as planned. The men’s individual normal hill/10-kilometer Gundersen competition saw Austria’s Franz-Josef Rehrl scored the highest number of points off the jump with a jump of 112 meters and 130.6 points. Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber jumped to second, flying 111 meters and scoring 126.9 points, and Japan’s Akito Watabe posted the third-best...

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Diggins Sparkles in Sixth in PyeongChang Sprint; Caldwell 8th; Bjornsen 14th

Jason AlbertFebruary 14, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, event’s gold-medal. Diggins was the leading U.S. skier in qualification, slotting into seventh place, 7.02 seconds off Nilsson’s time. Sadie Bjornsen placed ninth (+7.38) and Sophie Caldwell 12th (+8.32) in a qualifier featuring a 15.28-second spread from Nilsson to 30th-place Aino-Kaisa Saarinen of Finland. The fourth U.S. starter, Ida Sargent, just missed the quarterfinals in 33rd. She finished 17.06 seconds behind Nilsson’s time. Three American Women in the...

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GeneralNewsOlympicsRacing

Nilsson Nabs Long-Awaited Gold in PyeongChang Classic Sprint

Jason AlbertFebruary 13, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, bronze in the classic team sprint with teammate Ida Ingemarsdotter. A year later in Falun, Sweden, at World Championships, Nilsson placed second in the individual classic sprint. When you are close, you begin to think more about achieving a singular goal and less about overall season-long outcomes. Nilsson last raced a World Cup the weekend of Jan. 20-21 in Planica, Slovenia, where she raced to 13th...

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Canadian National Ski TeamGeneralNewsOlympicsRacingUS Ski Team

Kalla Opens Games with Skiathlon Gold; Diggins Makes Her Mark in Fifth

Jason AlbertFebruary 10, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, won the last World Cup distance race, a 10 k freestyle mass start, in Seefeld, Austria. That win wasn’t a surprise, rather it was an affirmation of her third overall ranking on the World Cup. So while it was an all-Scandinavian podium (or more accurately, all-Nordic nations podium) on Saturday, Diggins is knocking. During the classic portion of the skiathlon, there were moments when it appeared the U.S. Ski...

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Nordic Nation: Vordenberg’s Call to Action/Climate Challenge
InterviewsLifestyleMultimediaNordic NationPodcasts

Nordic Nation: Vordenberg’s Call to Action/Climate Challenge

Jason AlbertFebruary 9, 2018

Part 1, and here. Does your team already have a climate or climate activism project?  Let us know what it is and we can share it with our community! Contact Pete Vordenberg with questions, ideas and to register your team. pvatuphillskier@gmail.com (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

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GeneralInterviewsNewsOlympicsUS Ski Team

Opening Acts in PyeongChang: USST Press Conference and Catching Up with Sargent

Jason AlbertFebruary 8, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Sophie Caldwell in the freestyle sprint, weather events so everything was a little more energy intensive and a little hectic. I came in with a lot more training than I have in the past, I trained a little harder during Period 1 in hope to be sharp for the Olympics, and I think I didn’t respect that as much as should have and was a little tired afterwards. And also...

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U.S. Olympic XC Team Selection: An Initial Look
NewsOlympicsTeam nominationsUS Ski Team

U.S. Olympic XC Team Selection: An Initial Look

Jason AlbertFebruary 7, 2018

If you read FasterSkier, two aspects of our coverage generates the most reader comments: doping violations and their adjudication, and team-selection criteria. Although here we are, two days away from the PyeongChang Olympics’ Opening Ceremony with At the time, U.S. Ski Team Head Coach told FasterSkier that the small team was by design. “With seven women and seven men, we have our start positions filled,” Grover said in 2014. “Seven and seven was the magic number...

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Nordic Nation: Andy Newell on a Greener World Cup
MultimediaNordic NationPodcastsUS Ski Team

Nordic Nation: Andy Newell on a Greener World Cup

Jason AlbertFebruary 2, 2018

A few weeks ago we released our interview with climate-justice activist and Vermont resident Bill McKibben. After the interview, we received a few comments that spoke to the perceived large carbon footprint of World Cup skiing and possible changes that might be implemented to curb that environmental impact. With that in mind, we called up Andy Newell, who himself is a climate activist to address some of the questions. We spoke to Newell on Jan....

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Klæbo Wins Seefeld Skate Sprint; Harvey 8th, Hamilton 9th
Canadian National Ski TeamGeneralNewsRacingUS Ski TeamWorld Cup

Klæbo Wins Seefeld Skate Sprint; Harvey 8th, Hamilton 9th

Jason AlbertJanuary 27, 2018

There are no brakes for the World Cup until Sunday afternoon in Seefeld, Austria. The Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics is Feb. 9. For the champing-at-the-bit thoroughbreds in Seefeld, Saturday featured the last sprint before the Games: a 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint. If you were thinking the World Cup’s sprint leaders were taking a “taper” weekend in the run-up to PyeongChang, you’d be wrong. Jumping into the mix were overall Sprint World Cup leader...

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Poltoranin Owns Planica 15 k Classic; Klæbo Second
Canadian National Ski TeamGeneralNewsRacingUS Ski TeamWorld Cup

Poltoranin Owns Planica 15 k Classic; Klæbo Second

Jason AlbertJanuary 21, 2018

Sunday’s World Cup 15-kilometer classic in Planica, Slovenia was a coupling of efficiency, power transfer and patience. Three laps of the course on which skiers climbed roughly 650 feet per 5 k cycle required the low-revving thump-thump-thump of a diesel engine and just the right timing for speed bursts to close time gaps. Kazakhstan’s Alexey Poltoranin covered the 15 k distance in 36:45.7 and won the race by 13.2 seconds over overall World Cup leader,...

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Klæbo Dominates in Planica; Hamilton 19th, Newell 20th
GeneralNewsRacingUS Ski TeamWorld Cup

Klæbo Dominates in Planica; Hamilton 19th, Newell 20th

Jason AlbertJanuary 20, 2018

Sunny skies. Craggy Slovenian Alps. Fresh snow and firm classic tracks. The perfect backdrop for the coiffed hair and pink sunglasses. On Saturday in Planica, Slovenia, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo again proved his form is on another level. Sometimes calm with tens of meters to spare, sometimes allowing others to draft momentarily on his ski tails, Klæbo won the World Cup men’s 1.6-kilometer classic sprint in 3:27.35 minutes. In a final that featured three Norwegians,...

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