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John Teaford

John Teaford has been the coach of Olympians, World Champions, and World Record Holders in six sports: Nordic skiing, speedskating, road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking, triathlon. In his long career as a writer/filmmaker, he spent many seasons as Director of Warren Miller’s annual feature film, and Producer of adventure documentary films for Discovery, ESPN, Disney, National Geographic, and NBC Sports.
He Just Wins—Klaebo Again in Lahti 10 k

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo may be tired, but far more daunting than any mere fatigue is what Klaebo’s rivals find themselves facing: futility. Weekend after weekend, race after race, kilometer after kilometer, finish...

Lahti Sprint—Klaebo Remains Unbeatable

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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’s Johannes Klaebo’s ski world,” said skiandsnowboardlive.com’s on-air commentator, Andrew Kastening. “And we’re all just living in it.” Truer words were never spoken . . . “I didn’t have a plan,” said...

A Different Skiathlon—Weng Bests Diggins by .1

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. Cross-country ski racing fans know how the Women’s field races—flat out, wire to wire, merciless. That’s what made Falun’s 2 x 10 k Skiathlon look like an indicator of just how challenging...

More Than One Tactic—Svahn Masters Falun Sprint

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. Falun’s Sprint course rewards experience . . . but not every skier who possesses that experience pays very close attention. Skiers can get distracted by how they feel, by how their heat...

Ebba Andersson’s Golden Redemption—Olympic 50 k

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. TESERO, ITALY — Two weeks of Olympic cross-country ski racing all comes down to this . . . fifty grueling kilometers of this, to be precise; a distance that women have raced only a few times...

Klaebo’s History, USA’s Glory—Olympic Team Sprint

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. PREDAZZO, ITALY — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo still had something special to do. American skiers still had something special to prove. But the Team Sprint is never as simple as just lining up and racing. Contending nations need...

When a Plan Comes Together—Norway’s Relay Gold

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. When it comes to relays, Norway doesn’t need much of a plan. In place of a plan, what Norway has are the four fastest guys in the field. And it looked like the entirety of Norway’s plan...

Sweden Upended—Norway Claims Relay Gold

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. On paper, no one beats Sweden. After the first three events of these Olympics, Sweden had won all three gold medals. Before the games began, most ski-experts gave few other nations a chance of grabbing any gold...

Klaebo Races Toward Olympic Immortality

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Two days ago, at the finish line of the Men’s Classic Sprint, Norway’s Oskar Opstad Vike celebrated like a lottery player who had just scratched the winning ticket. Fist-pumping, chest-thumping, wild gesticulating toward fan-filled grandstands and visceral...

Gold at the End of Linn Svahn’s Long Path

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. PREDAZZO, ITALY — Checking today’s ESPN home page makes it clear that the Olympics don’t seem to occupy the American imagination like they once did. I remember the Olympics as being a bigger deal—a set of...

So Many Red Suits . . . And Klaebo In a League of His Own

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. Klaebo wins . . . we saw that coming. Let’s face it: cross-country ski racing can be kinda boring. Races are long (even the short ones), speeds are really not that high,...

Schumacher! Two Days, Two Podiums

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. Maybe the Americans really are that good . . . With the Olympic Games just around the corner, American men (lots of them!) are surging toward the front of the World Cup...

Olympic Preview, Sort Of—USA Third in Goms Team Sprint

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. For the skiing stars of Norway, World Cup victories are commonplace—almost expected. For the skiers of most other nations, any World Cup podium appearance is a career-defining event. That said, some of...

Ilar Surges, Diggins Rebounds in Oberhof 10 k

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. When it comes to World Cup cross-country ski racing, season-long progress can be difficult for spectators and commentators to assess. It’s always hard to tell: are skiers getting faster? Are they fading?...

Oberhof Freestyle Sprint—Lars Heggen Proves His Point

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. Some day, Norway won’t be the only force in Men’s World Cup cross-country skiing. Some day, the participation of other nations will truly matter. Other nations will hear their anthems played, other...

Steep Climbs to Olympic Dreams

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. So, Norwegian Olympic selection continues to be a stressful and chaotic process for Team Norway. After eight exhausting days of Tour de Ski competition—and six grueling events—it seemed the only result that mattered to the committee selecting Norway’s Olympic Team was a win in the final stage atop the Alpe...

Stenshagen Conquers Alpe Cermis, Klaebo Rules Tour de Ski

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. In its original configuration (and for many seasons that followed), the final stage of the Tour de Ski was a Pursuit race—perhaps the only Pursuit race that actually made sense in the...

Diggins Flawless in Toblach 20 k Pursuit

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. During her long and illustrious career, Jessie Diggins has won eight World Cup races in Toblach, a record of success that began with her very first World Cup win, a 5 k...

Diggins Victory Completes Historic American Day

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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. At one point early in her career, Jessie Diggins (USA) had become the pre-eminent World Cup racer at the 5 k Freestyle. She was fast, she could endure bucket-loads of lactate, and...

Slind Crushes TDS 10 k Classic, Diggins’ Podium Earns Overall Lead

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and 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 Tour de Ski seems originally to have been designed to reward the efforts and abilities of the best all-around skiers. If that’s truly the case, then it comes as no surprise...