John Teaford – Page 2

Stifel Loppet Cup Sprints—Norway and Sweden Win, but It’s Definitely Jessie’s Victory

John TeafordFebruary 17, 2024

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. A week ago, golfers in shirtsleeves were playing the course that abuts Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A narrow white ribbon of just-skiable snow had been preserved on the course laid out...

Feature News World Cup

The First World Cup

John TeafordFebruary 16, 2024

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. On February 17-18, the FIS Cross Country World Cup returns to the USA with events in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It’s been a long time since a World Cup was staged in the United States:...

Feature News World Cup

Karlsson Duels Niskanen in 20 k Mass Start Classic

John TeafordFebruary 11, 2024

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. Frida Karlsson, Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan, Linn Svahn, Heidi Weng, Tiril Udnes Weng: plenty of the primary contenders for season-long World Cup accolades played significant roles in Saturday’s Freestyle Sprint races in Canmore,...

Feature News World Cup

Tactical Canmore Sprints—Klaebo and Skistad Dominate

John TeafordFebruary 10, 2024

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. Canmore, Alberta features a World Cup Sprint course that climbs right from the start, two back-to-back inclines that would produce lactic acid and technical challenges if anyone chose to sprint up them. Almost...

Community Feature News

Homecoming

John TeafordFebruary 4, 2024

At the edge of the parking lot at the Wild Wings Ski Touring Center stands a strategically placed, much used, and much loved snow pile. Getting up speed by dropping down the short slope in front of the main building, young skiers catch air off the top of the pile, daring each other to ever-bigger, ever-trickier leaps. They’ve been doing it for years. Ben Ogden, Sophie Caldwell, Simi Hamilton, Katharine Ogden, Bill Koch, Fin Bailey....

Feature News World Cup

Diggins Thrills at 20 k Finish, Laukli Fifth, Brennan Seventh

John TeafordJanuary 28, 2024

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. Jessie Diggins (USA) continues to pursue the season-long World Cup Overall title, having successfully defended her lead in those standings through the recent weekends of sprints and mass start races. And with so...

Feature News World Cup

Svahn leads Sweden in Goms Sprints, Klaebo Lunges Past Chanavat

John TeafordJanuary 27, 2024

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. Goms, Switzerland has never hosted a World Cup Sprint competition before, so prior experience would offer no tactical advantages to racers in today’s Freestyle Sprint. The playing field would be level, and everyone...

Feature News World Cup

Picking a Winner—Team Norway’s Unique Dilemma

John TeafordJanuary 24, 2024

Team Norway has swept most distance race podiums this season, and has consistently placed a rotating series of Norwegian stars atop those podiums, as well. It’s become a foregone conclusion that a Norwegian man will win the Overall World Cup title this season. Even so, if any of those Norwegian contenders miss a couple of races, their chances of contending for the season-lone Crystal Globe all but evaporate. Just ask Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo; He’s podiumed...

Feature News World Cup

Sweden Dominates Oberhof Relay

John TeafordJanuary 21, 2024

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 success in cross country relay finishes, national nordic pride is a vital concern in only those countries where national nordic pride flourishes: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany (and, of...

Feature News World Cup

Second Day in a Row—Valnes Emerges at the Front

John TeafordJanuary 20, 2024

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 World Cup racers, mass start racing is always tense, nervous, high-risk, rough-and-tumble. Long skinny skis and long fragile poles make close-quarters racing—on courses seldom more than four tracks wide—a bit of...

Feature News Tour de Ski World Cup

International Flair at Tour de Ski—Amundsen, Moch, Lapalus

John TeafordJanuary 7, 2024

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 origin story of the Tour de Ski suggests that it was invented to mirror cycling’s Tour de France: multiple stages, mountaintop finishes, leader’s jerseys, thrilling competitions, glorious champions. Today’s Stage 7 of...

Feature News Tour de Ski World Cup

Mission Accomplished in Val di Fiemme—Diggins Defends TDS Lead

John TeafordJanuary 6, 2024

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. Jessie Diggins knows how to race for the win, but that wasn’t her job today. Entering Stage 6 of the 2024 Tour de Ski with a lead of 44 seconds over second place,...

Feature News Tour de Ski World Cup

Tour de Ski Classic Pursuit: Amundsen Takes Control

John TeafordJanuary 4, 2024

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. Winter endurance sports represent a quandary: training for endurance events requires that athletes push themselves repeatedly toward exhaustion . . . a condition that makes them especially susceptible to transferable illnesses. Influenza caught...

Feature News Tour de Ski World Cup

Two Sprint Victories in a Row for Chanavat, Schumacher fourth

John TeafordJanuary 3, 2024

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. Lucas Chanavat (FRA) did a pretty impressive thing a few days ago in Stage 1 of the 2024 Tour de Ski: he won. Ask anyone who knows World Cup Sprinting, and they’ll tell...

Feature News Tour de Ski World Cup

Norwegian Men Restore Status Quo: All Red Podium in TDS Pursuit

John TeafordJanuary 1, 2024

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. Pursuit racing is kind of weird—giving an additional head start to those already in the lead, while asking other racers to chase those who have already proven to be faster. It can seem...

Feature News Tour de Ski World Cup

Tour de Ski—Flipping the Script

John TeafordDecember 29, 2023

And—just like that—the script is flipped. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR)—every bookmaker’s favorite to take the Overall and Sprint world Cup Crystal Globes in 2024—today announced that he WILL NOT participate in the 2024 Tour de Ski. This changes everything . . . Klaebo took to his Instagram page to make the announcement: Often the highlight of the International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup season, the Tour de Ski celebrates its 18th edition in 2024. Seven...

Feature News

Dreaming of a White Christmas

John TeafordDecember 24, 2023

The North American skiing world still dreams of a white Christmas. There are some places that are high enough, or shady enough, or uniquely cold enough to offer a few kilometers of skiable trails. But many places where skiers typically go to find silky grooming and endless kilometers of well-tended trails are still waiting for opening day. New England’s holiday season has been swept by heavy rains and surging floods, though Craftsbury (Vermont) and Lake...

Feature News World Cup

Klaebo Sweeps Trondheim Weekend, Ogden Eighth in 10 k Classic

John TeafordDecember 17, 2023

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 (NOR) looks like he’s having fun: winning at will (and in multiple disciplines), crossing finish lines without having broken a sweat (no demonstrative sprawling in the snow at finish lines...

Feature News World Cup

Trondheim Skiathlon: Andersson’s Tactics vs. Diggins’s Grit

John TeafordDecember 16, 2023

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. One of Norway’s most picturesque cities, Trondheim is also one of Norway’s least-wintry cities. The first three weekends of World Cup racing—Ruka, Gaelivare, and Oestersund—were an Arctic blast. The second day of World...

Feature News World Cup

Amundsen Captures World Cup Lead, Hagenbuch 13th in Oestersund 10 k

John TeafordDecember 10, 2023

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. Week after week, the final standings of World Cup distance races are a list of Norwegian names, and the bibs of World Cup leaders continue to pass from Norwegian to Norwegian. Oestersund Sweden’s World...

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