At the top of a hill in Quebec City on Friday were the parents and brother of American sprint star Kikkan Randall; nearby was a retired ski coach on his "fantasy tour" of the World Cup.
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Nathaniel Herz
Nat Herz is an Alaska-based journalist who moonlights for FasterSkier as an occasional reporter and podcast host. He was FasterSkier's full-time reporter in 2010 and 2011.
Friday's team sprint in Quebec put a premium on endurance—endurance that Canadian Chandra Crawford said she was lacking, as her team failed to advance to the finals.
A team sprint win by Kazakhs Denis Volotka and Nikolay Chebotko was not what thousands of face-painted, flag-clad Canadians came to see Friday - but it was what they got.
The World Cup's transatlantic swing has upended the typical order on the circuit, and for the first time in years, North Americans will enjoy the perks of racing on their home turf.
In The Nick Of Time, Randall Returns To Race Circuit
Nathaniel HerzNovember 22, 2012
Kikkan Randall’s season hasn’t started, but she’s already claimed her first victory: healing the stress fracture in her right foot in time for the first World Cup race of the winter. Randall will compete in Saturday morning’s 10-kilometer freestyle opener in northern Sweden—her first race after
You can say a lot about Marty Hall—and, in fact, most of it has probably already been said. The former coach of the American and Canadian national cross-country ski teams is an outspoken and prolific observer of the sport today, but that’s nothing new. He famously implied that the Russians were doping at the 1988 Olympic Games, and an Ottawa newspaper story upon his departure from the Canadian squad referred to him as the “opinionated...
We Have to Go With the Times: Alaver on Estonian Skiing, Veerpalu’s Positive
Nathaniel HerzJune 29, 2012
Mati Alaver is a legend in Estonia. Alaver, 58, is credited with building his country’s cross-country ski program from scratch following Estonia’s independence in 1991. Over the last two decades, its athletes have won more than 15 major medals at World Championships and Olympic Games—not bad for a country with a population of 1.3 million. Alaver is known not just as a knowledgeable and successful coach, but also as a pitchman who found the sponsor...
What do Vegard Ulvang, Bjørn Dæhlie, Marcus Hellner, Charlotte Kalla, Alex Harvey, and Devon Kershaw have in common? Aside from gold medals from the Olympic Games or World Championships? All of them, at one point or another, were coached by Inge Bråten, a fixture on the World Cup circuit who died last week at the age of 63. Bråten led his country’s national team from 1990 to 1994—a period in which Norway collected no fewer...
Kikkan Randall’s New Friends? Emil Jönsson’s Parents. Swedish-American Ties Deepen
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 11, 2012
During Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy, spectators standing at just the right spot on the race course could have witnessed something surprising enough to make them choke on their cappuccinos: two Swedish fans screaming at the top of their lungs for Kikkan Randall, the American cross-country ski racer. The scene made little sense, until one realized that the fans were the parents of Emil Jönsson, the star Swedish sprinter and...
VAL DI FIEMME, Italy – By the time most athletes arrived at the top of the Alpe Cermis on Sunday, in the final stage of the Tour de Ski, they were ready for a nap. Or a massage. Or a beer. Or all of the above. Not Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephen, though. No fewer than eight hours after crossing the finish line here, they were already competing in another race: a team sprint on...
VAL DI FIEMME, Italy – Tour de Ski winners are all alike; every Tour de Ski loser is a loser in his own way. Petter Northug (NOR), Marcus Hellner (SWE), Devon Kershaw (CAN), Lukas Bauer (CZE)—each had his own problem that torpedoed his hopes for a Tour victory, whether it was bad skis, a broken pole, a weak discipline, or an uncooperative body. Dario Cologna, on the other hand, had nothing go wrong. The Swiss...
Randall Mixes it Up in Stage 8; The Alpe is Next
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 8, 2012
VAL DI FIEMME, Italy – If anyone wanted a preview of how next season’s World Championships here might unfold for American skier Kikkan Randall, they had to look no further than the women’s lead pack in Stage 8 of the Tour de Ski on Saturday. For half of the race, a 9 k mass start classic competition, Randall skied at the front with big names like Marit Bjoergen (NOR) and Justyna Kowalczyk (POL)—and even led...
Eight Down, One to Go, as Kershaw Guns for Podium
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 7, 2012
VAL DI FIEMME, Italy – For Canadian Devon Kershaw, the toughest thing about the nine-stage Tour de Ski may not actually be physical pain of racing. It might, instead, be keeping his head screwed on straight. “I overanalyze a lot,” he said Saturday. “I’ve been pretty nervous the last few days, and just trying to tick [the stages] off one by one.” For the last two stages of the Tour, though, Kershaw has kept it...
Harvey Powers to Podium in Val di Fiemme, With Help from Secret Weapon
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 7, 2012
VAL DI FIEMME, Italy – Before Stage 8 of the Tour de Ski, a secret weapon arrived at the Canadian hotel here. It didn’t come in a box; it wasn’t a hi-tech ski wax, or special food or drink. And it wasn’t
TOBLACH, Italy – Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski, which took place Thursday, is the event’s crown jewel: a 35-kilometer point-to-point race that sent competitors up an over a mountain pass, with the craggy Dolomites as a stunning backdrop. Or, to be more precise, it sent male competitors up and over a mountain pass, with the craggy Dolomites as a stunning backdrop. The women, meanwhile, skied three laps of a standard five-kilometer course on...
TOBLACH, Italy – Another day, yet another top-10 for Kikkan Randall. Randall skied to fifth place in Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski on Thursday—her sixth time in the top 10 in seven stages, and a result that leaves her in fifth place in the overall Tour. There was a time when a top 10 on the World Cup by an American would be cause for great rejoicing back home. But Randall has...
TOBLACH, Italy – Cross-country skiing has plenty of unlikely alliances, from Norwegians running the Swiss national team to an American heading up the Canadian coaching staff. But few alliances were more curious than the one forged on Thursday between Marit Bjoergen (NOR) and Justyna Kowalczyk (POL). In Thursday’s Stage 7 of the Tour de Ski, Bjoergen outsprinted Kowalczyk on the homestretch here to win by two seconds, taking her fourth straight victory and her third...
TOBLACH, Italy – The Dolomites were the site of brutal battles between the Austrians and Italians during World War I. Nearly 100 years later, members of European and North American countries once again waged war among these mountains in the depths of winter—this time, in a cross-country ski race. Perhaps appropriately, it was a Swiss athlete who rose above the fray here on Thursday, winning a 32-kilometer freestyle pursuit by skiing his own race and...
TOBLACH, Italy – It’s hard enough to finish in the top 30 on the World Cup, but American Holly Brooks did something even more impressive here in Wednesday’s Stage 6 of the Tour de Ski: she finished in the top 30 with a broken wrist. By placing 30th in the skate sprint, Brooks joined an elite club of skiers who have toughed out some top finishes with broken bones. Fellow members include Slovenian Petra Majdic,...
Morilov Waits, Then Pounces for Skate Sprint Win in TDS Stage 6 in Toblach
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 4, 2012
TOBLACH, Italy – Were the Russians drinking vodka in their wax cabin after Nikolay Morilov won Stage 6 of the 2012 Tour de Ski on Wednesday? “A little, yes,” said Mikhail Lukertsenko, one of the team’s staff. “It’s a victory.” Morilov, a 25-year-old Olympic medalist, foiled the Tour heavyweights and big names on the homestretch here, using a combination of perfect tactics, timing, and power. Petter Northug (NOR) was second, missing out on the victory...