The cowbells, lycra, and the spine of the Northern Rockies as the serrated backdrop would have been part of the World Cup scene in Canmore, Alberta this past March. We all know the story: the global pandemic became a whip crack. The racing was canceled. Now, imagining the scene in Canmore, it’s easy to become wistful. Beyond the racing, visitors to Canmore missed an opportunity to experience six temporary art installations near the World Cup,...
Although the training cycle has officially begun, it decidedly has a different vibe and look. Adding some complexity to our short-term new normal are a crosshatch of state, county, and city regulations as it relates to mitigating the community spread of Covid-19. The core question elite cross-country ski programs are asking is this: How can we most responsibly promote safe and effective training for their athletes? (The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has...
For someone who traditionally does not watch videos, I’ve been streaming my fair share lately: Some are mindless; some resonate. Of those that resonated, Coming Home – Ag Teacht Abhaile was a highlight. This trail running documentary follows Paddy O’Leary on his quest to complete the “self-navigated 115 kilometer Wicklow Round.” One cool aspect of Ireland’s Wicklow Round is the reliance on old-school tech: A map and compass. Runners navigate up and over 26 Wicklow...
A year and more has elapsed since a doping scandal rocked the 2019 cross-country World Championships in Austria. Over that time, we have learned a bit more about what transpired at the micro-level. In the broader picture, those covering doping in sport often scour The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) annual release of a voluminous document titled “Anti-Doping Testing Figures”. The data dump runs hundreds of pages. Looking for figures on the number of tests per...
A slight reshuffling of positions at U.S. Ski and Snowboard and longtime coach Matt Whitcomb has a new title: Head Coach. Whitcomb held the title of World Cup Coach last season. As the pandemic took hold in mid-March here in the U.S., Whitcomb holed up at his cabin in rural Vermont for a two-week solo quarantine. We caught up with Whitcomb via phone on April 23 from his cabin. This was a broad ranging interview....
Bright lights in PyeongChang. The men’s second semifinal of the Olympic freestyle team sprint was a career highlight moment for Erik Bjornsen. Fourteen teams would crowd the start lanes with Martin Johnsrud Sundby in bib 1. The Norwegian was paired with Johannes Høsflot Klæbo: The duo blessed with Sundby’s stamina and his younger counterpart’s break-from-the-pack speed. With Simi Hamilton racing the second, fourth, and sixth legs for the U.S., and Bjornsen leading off, the semi...
If you’re an avid reader of The New York Times sports section, you’ve most likely read the work of writer-journalist Matt Futterman (50). Futterman is the Deputy Sports Editor at the NYT, a fan of nordic sports, and an avid runner who was slated to run the Boston Marathon this past Monday. Futterman’s love for endurance sports, running in particular, is evident as he peppers readers with in-depth running stories. He helped cover the recent...
During some conversations, there’s a moment of clarity. Talking to Corinne Prevot, the founder and CEO of Vermont based Skida Headwear, I had such a moment. Like many other companies skilled in prototyping and working with fabrics, Skida — an advertiser with FasterSkier — has retooled to make cloth masks. That’s the story to tell – but the fact that Skida is positioned to help Vermonters acquire masks has as much to do with the...
Many of the World Cup race photos featured on FasterSkier come from NordicFocus, a European bases photo agency. NordicFocus, as the name suggests, features images from the world of nordic sport: cross-country, biathlon, nordic combined, and ski jumping. If you have buzzed around the media center at any big cross-country event, it’s likely you have seen Federico Modica. Modica wears a mountain endurance-fit look as if he’s just descended from some alpine climb; there’s a veneer...
Masks or no masks for the general public? The messaging pivoted like a sailboat running downwind then upwind. All along states reported a scarcity of masks approved by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The type of masks needed by health care workers on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic. In early April, the CDC reversed course — that 180 degree pivot — and...
On April 8, Estonian news outlet ERR published an article revealing more details about doping by Estonian cross-country skiers Andreas Veerpalu and Karel Tammjärv. The two skiers both previously admitted to autologous blood doping — the process of removing blood from one’s system and re-injecting it at a later time for a performance boost. The doping came to light in 2019 when the two Estonians, Kazakhstan’s Alexey Poltoranin, and Austria’s Max Hauke and Dominik...
This past fall, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center (COC) updated its wax use policy. The New England institution was one of the first and among the largest cross-country ski centers to implement a policy curbing the use of perfluorinated wax on its premises. The Craftsbury Outdoor Center supports values and practices that try to minimize its impact on the environment while still providing recreational opportunities for visitors. The Craftsbury Outdoor Center hopes to help lead the...
This story could be about many things; developing coping mechanisms when a stay at home order is in effect; finding ingenious ways to elevate the heart rate in a small space; fighting the urge to deem outsiders as outsiders; knowing when to check the urge to be selfish. Obvious disclaimer here, I live in a tourist town, Bend, Oregon where it’s clear tourists and fresh-air-seeking coronavirus “refugees” should abide by the city’s discouragement of...
We’ll be publishing a few select gear reviews moving forward. It’s not business as usual for FS or readers: we are posting gear reviews as a brief respite from grim news. We know minds are on more serious Coronavirus related issues. The sock drawer: part no-person’s land, part nod to orderliness with pairs folded using techniques like the roll & tuck, the fold over, the konmai, and part Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds kaleidoscope...
Live, from Vermont, it was Ben Lustgarten of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project — we spoke to Ben about his recent retirement announcement from full-time training and racing at the elite level. Lustgarten’s name is synonymous with the SuperTour’s sharp end. He’s also known to throw down burly strength workouts. He qualified and raced in two World Championships and claimed a 30 k classic National Championship in 2017. In this episode, we discuss the reasons...
Swirling around social media yesterday was the announcement that Swedish ski star, Stina Nilsson (26) has swapped cross-country for biathlon. She has yet to make the national biathlon team, yet she is committed to pursuing biathlon at the highest level. On the World Cup, she was feared as a sprinter, winning the sprint cup in 2019. She earned a total of 23 World Cup wins in 108 starts. The Swede could also rise to the...
At fifty-years-old, University of Vermont’s head cross-country ski coach Patrick Weaver is in a sweet spot. Since May 2010, the two-time Olympian has been at the helm in Burlington, Vermont guiding student-athletes on the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) ski circuit. With a long tenure and accompanying success, Weaver has become a leading voice in New England when discussing reforms in the sport. As the debate heated up this past September when FasterSkier published an...
A time of unsettling news. How else to describe the global specter? With all do respect to those involved in the cross-country world, including FasterSkier, we understand our place in the prioritization hierarchy. A line from The New Yorker online, in a piece titled ‘When Tom Brady Said Goodbye’ by Louisa Thomas, resonated: “Among the many functions that sports serve is to give people something silly to argue passionately about during serious times.” True words....
A return to semi-normal: Devon is back from World Juniors and better for it. It was a big week in Germany for North America. This episode is a return to our discussion of the World Cup. The famed Holmenkollen hosted the weekend’s 30 k / 50 k classic mass start races. Hindsight is 20/20, the Norwegian women should have swapped skis, and frankly, not much anybody can do about a steamrolling Bolshunov.
Oslo in late winter – it’s be hit or miss. Fog. Bluebird. A maritime climate, with plentiful moisture in the air, a slight drop in temps can morph the Holmenkollen ski complex into a ping-pong-ball-world. Athletes were mere shadows striding into and out of view on a foggy- drizzly day at the Holmenkollen. As spectators were limited to trail side spots as the main stadium was closed due to the Covid-19 virus, for some concerned,...