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John Teaford

John Teaford—the Managing Editor of FasterSkier — 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.
Sweden Dominates Oberhof Relay

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...

Second Day in a Row—Valnes Emerges at the Front

  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...

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

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...

Mission Accomplished in Val di Fiemme—Diggins Defends TDS 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. 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,...

Tour de Ski Classic Pursuit: Amundsen Takes Control

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...

Two Sprint Victories in a Row for Chanavat, Schumacher fourth

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...

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

Tour de Ski—Flipping the Script

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...

Dreaming of a White Christmas

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...

Klaebo Sweeps Trondheim Weekend, Ogden Eighth in 10 k Classic

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...

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

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...

Amundsen Captures World Cup Lead, Hagenbuch 13th in Oestersund 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. 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...

Ribom Dominates Oestersund Classic Sprint, Brennan and Diggins Fourth and Fifth

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. While much of North America continues to wait for skiable snow, Europe and Scandinavia are enjoying prime, early-winter conditions. Oestersund, Sweden had excellent conditions on its World Cup sprint track, though freshly falling snow...

The Worst Norwegian . . .

Seven Norwegian men—not even the seven best Norwegian men—entered the most competitive ski race the world has to offer (World Cup 10 k Interval Start Freestyle in Gaellivare, Sweden), and the worst Norwegian finisher was ninth! That’s the apparent nature of men’s cross country ski racing today: Norway shows up, Norway wins, Norway sweeps the podium, and the worst Norwegian in the field still manages to beat pretty much everyone else in the world. Norway...

Norway Dominates 4 x 7.5 k Relay, USA Finishes Best-Ever Fifth

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 farthest north of any FIS World Cup destination, Gallivare, Sweden offered another frigid morning of steaming breath and squeaking snow for World Cup teams lining up for the Men’s 4 x 7.5 k...

Erik Valnes Shows Early Season Form in Ruka Classic 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.  FasterSkier begins its coverage of the 2023-2024 FIS World Cup with the first day of competition from Ruka, Finland. A cold day offered consistent conditions for this Classic Sprint. Even so, Norway advanced seven...

Jessie Diggins: Health and Happiness in the Season Ahead

11/17/2023—Ruka, Finland For American fans of cross-country skiing, Jessie Diggins is definitely the voice of our sport. Following a 2023 season that saw her crowned World Champion in 10k—and finishing second overall in the season-long FIS World Cup—she returned to training and preparing for the season to come; but things didn’t go exactly as planned. Recently, Diggins sat down for a scheduled media interview to discuss her relapse into an eating disorder from which she’d...

IBU World Cup 2023-2024: Scheduling and Viewing

Though biathletes have already seen action in recent races in Sjusjoen Norway—and on the Schutzenski rollerski course at Soldier Hollow, Utah—the real World Cup action only begins this coming weekend. The BMW IBU World Cup Schedule begins November 25 in Ostersund, Sweden, and FasterSkier is eager to provide information on how North American biathlon fans can view those events via live streaming. IBU World Cups and World Championships According to Sara Donatello—USBA Communications Coordinator—Eurovision Sports...

FIS World Cup 2023-2024: Scheduling and Viewing

With the beginning of the FIS World Cup season less than two weeks away, we wanted to remind readers that FasterSkier will continue to post same-day race coverage of all World Cup, Senior National, Junior National, and SuperTour events this season. Like last season, we’ve found that Ski and Snowboard Live is the easiest and most reliable streaming service available for World Cup events, so we’re encouraging our readers to subscribe to this live streaming...

The Future of Roller Ski Festivals—Schutzenski 2023

On a sunny October Saturday, the Path of the Annularity—the shadow of an eclipse—passed directly over Soldier Hollow, Utah. For nearly thirty minutes, the sky was shaded, the air cooled, and the valley got eerily quiet. But the action never stopped: races went on, heart rates remained high, sweat continued to drip, and finish lines were crossed while the solar/lunar show swirled in the heavens above. Something special was happening, that’s for sure . ....