Nathaniel Herz – Page 26

Canadian National Ski Team Continental Cup Racing

Canucks Kick Off in Bruksvallarna

Nathaniel HerzNovember 12, 2010

While the Americans started their European campaign Friday with much fanfare in Muonio, Finland, news from the Canadian National Ski Team (CNST) has been more sparse this past week. Nonetheless, the Canucks will kick off their own competition season on Saturday and Sunday with two races in Bruksvallarna, Sweden—albeit a little more quietly. Most of the athletes on the team’s World Cup squad, along with a few up-and-comers, are scheduled to start Saturday’s sprint and...

General News Racing World Cup

Team 8: Poland

Nathaniel HerzNovember 11, 20101

Poland Nations Cup Ranking: 8th (2264 pts) Men: 17th (109 pts) Women: 6th (2155 pts) 2010/2011 World Cup Team Men Maciej Kreczmer Mariusz Michałek Krzysztof Stec Maciej Staręga Sebastian Gazurek Women Sylwia Jaśkowiec Paulina Maciuszek Martyna Galewicz Ewelina Marcisz Agnieszka Szymańczak Justyna Kowalczyk What you may have missed last season: Well, if you tuned into elite-level cross-country skiing at just about any point last year, one thing you did not miss was Justyna Kowalczyk steamrolling...

Continental Cup General Interviews News Racing Regional / Local

No Surfing Here: An Interview with CXC Head Coach Jason Cork

Nathaniel HerzNovember 10, 20102

Bryan Fish’s jump to the U.S. Ski Team from his job running the Central Cross-Country (CXC) program was one of the most significant coaching changes of the spring. Fish, who over the last few years helped to build CXC’s elite team into one of the most powerful in the country, left some big shoes to fill. Enter Jason Cork, who was hired to replace Fish after two years as the assistant coach at Michigan Tech...

Continental Cup General News Racing Regional / Local

Three Inches of Snow for West Yellowstone; Festival Director “Optimistic”

Nathaniel HerzNovember 10, 2010

With less than two weeks to go until the start of the West Yellowstone Ski Festival, snow conditions appear promising. According to Director Sara Hoovler, the Montana town received roughly three inches of snow on Monday into Tuesday. While the trails hadn’t been groomed as of Tuesday morning, Hoovler said that they will probably be rolled within the next couple of days—especially given that additional snow is forecast for the area. “It’s a classic West...

Continental Cup General News Olympics Racing US Nationals World Cup

Via Rumford and Oslo, Southam’s Career Winds Down

Nathaniel HerzNovember 9, 2010

Since the spring, the International Ski Federation’s website has been counting down the days until the World Cup opener. Organizers of the 2011 World Ski Championships in Oslo are quick to inform fans that there are just over three months until the start of that event. But in Alaska, there’s another clock that’s been ticking more quietly: the one counting down the days until the end of James Southam’s career. Southam, who trains in Anchorage...

General Masters News Racing Regional / Local

New Vermont Club Team to Launch This Winter

Nathaniel HerzNovember 7, 2010

Vermont already has one elite racing team in the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, but Ryan Kerrigan still thinks there’s room for another. Kerrigan is the captain of a new squad based in Stowe and organized under the aegis of the Von Trapp Family Lodge, the resort just outside of town. Dubbed VTXC both in honor of the state and the Von Trapps, Kerrigan and his crew are targeting races on the New England circuit, as...

General News Racing World Cup

FIS to Assess Russian Anti-Doping Progress This Weekend

Nathaniel HerzNovember 5, 2010

The International Ski Federation (FIS) will consider further sanctions against the Russian Ski Association this weekend at its autumn council meetings in Oberhofen, Switzerland. After withholding some $185,000 in funding from the Russians at its June meetings in response to a string of anti-doping rules violations, FIS officials will now consider whether to levy additional fines or even strip the country’s membership rights—though such measures are unlikely, according to Luke Bodensteiner, the U.S. Ski and...

General News Racing World Cup

FIS Eyes Moscow and Milan for City Sprints

Nathaniel HerzNovember 3, 20101

For cross-country ski fans, a sprint in Moscow’s Red Square might sound too good to be true. But it just might happen next winter. According to Jurg Capol, the cross-country race director at the International Ski Federation (FIS), two new city sprints, in Milan and Moscow, are on the preliminary World Cup calendar for the 2011-2012 season. And while the exact location of the Moscow event hasn’t been decided, there’s a chance that cross-country skiing...

General News Racing Tour de Ski World Cup

No Prize Money for Bauer, Either; FIS Acknowledges ‘Lapse’

Nathaniel HerzNovember 1, 20101

A second athlete has not been paid more than $2,000 U.S. dollars owed to him under International Ski Federation (FIS) rules. When Russian cross-country skier Evgeni Dementiev was suspended for doping in 2009, FIS rules called for the redistribution of 4,375 Swiss francs in prize money that he won at that year’s edition of the Tour de Ski, after testing positive for performance-enhancing drug use. But in an e-mail to FasterSkier, Czech skier Lukas Bauer,...

General News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

USST Goes Black for 2010-2011

Nathaniel HerzOctober 29, 201024

In the sport of cross-country skiing, most people would agree that competing with New Zealand is probably smarter than picking a fight with Norway. Consequently, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) will be wearing black suits for the upcoming season, eschewing the red spandex that has been the norm for the past few years. After any number of years of being drowned out by a sea of Norwegian crimson, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Nordic Director...

General Interviews News Nordic Combined Olympics Racing US Ski Team World Cup

Matt Dayton: First Jump at Age 19, Olympics at 25

Nathaniel HerzOctober 29, 20101

Ski jumpers don’t usually begin their careers at age 25. Nor do they progress from their first-ever jump all the way up to an Olympic-sized 90-meter hill in the course of one year. But that’s exactly what Australian cross-country skier Ben Sim is trying to do. There aren’t many athletes out there who have taken an approach like Sim’s and met with much success. But in the U.S., there’s one: Matt Dayton, who took up...

Continental Cup General News Nordic Combined Racing

Australian Nordic Combined Program Takes Flight

Nathaniel HerzOctober 29, 2010

One year ago, Australian nordic combined didn’t even exist as a sport. But over the last few months, the country’s program has been gathering steam not just Down Under, but in both hemispheres. Ben Sim, the cross-country skier attempting to make the crossover to nordic combined, has been making consistent progress on ski jumps in Lake Placid and Park City. And in Australia, officials at two ski resorts responded “favorably” to a visit from an...

General News World Cup

Jauhojaervi Still Waiting for Cash After Dementiev DQ

Nathaniel HerzOctober 27, 2010

Hidden away 50 pages into the International Ski Federation’s (FIS’s) anti-doping rules is a policy that has received little publicity in the charged debate surrounding performance-enhancing drug use. “As a condition of regaining eligibility after being found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation,” it reads, “[an] Athlete must first repay all prize money forfeited.” After the 2009 Tour de Ski, Finland’s Sami Jauhojaervi stood to benefit from the application of that rule. In that race,...

General News Olympics Racing

IOC: No Decision on Women’s Jumping Until April – Updated

Nathaniel HerzOctober 25, 2010

Female ski jumpers have waited 86 years for their sport to be included at the Olympic Games, and now they will have to wait six more months. The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) executive board announced Monday that a decision about whether to add women’s ski jumping to the program for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi would not be made until next spring—quashing the hopes of athletes and supporters who had hoped for a definitive ruling....

Collegiate Continental Cup General News Racing World Cup

Estonian Sees Fairbanks as World Cup Launch Pad

Nathaniel HerzOctober 25, 2010

In the early fall, World Cup hopefuls fan out across the globe, fine-tuning their approaches on glaciers in places like Ramsau, Austria, or Tignes, France. This year, you can add an American spot to the list: Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks may not have the same cachet as those European locales, but for Vahur Teppan, it’s got a lot going for it. Teppan, a native of Estonia and an alumnus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF),...

Continental Cup General News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

USST’s European Campaign Set to Start in Finland

Nathaniel HerzOctober 21, 2010

More than 150 training days, countless kilometers of rollerskiing, and dozens of loads of dirty laundry: A summer and fall’s worth of preparation will be put to the test in just over two weeks, when the U.S. Ski Team (USST) makes its departure for Europe. All seven members will fly to Finland on November 7 for a weekend of tune-up racing north of the Arctic Circle in Muonio. From there, the squad will part ways,...

Continental Cup General News Racing US Nationals US Ski Team World Cup

Koos Reloads for 2011, But Quietly

Nathaniel HerzOctober 21, 20103

It’s hard to fly under the radar when you’re 6’2” and one of the best sprinters in the world. But Torin Koos is giving it his best shot. Koos, who was dropped from the U.S. Ski Team (USST) this spring, has been quietly reloading for the upcoming season with the Methow Olympic Development Project (MODP), a two-person team based in central Washington. He has been off the grid, living in a cabin 15 miles from...

General Interviews News Olympics Other News Racing Tour de Ski World Cup

FIS Interviews Charlotta Kalla and Jean-Marc Gaillard

Nathaniel HerzOctober 20, 2010

Charlotte Kalla is Sweden’s rising star of Cross-Country skiing. The 23 year-old youngster stormed into World Cup in 2006. A year later she captured her first World Cup podium in Beitostoelen. In 2008 she won Tour de Ski. She is Olympic Champion from Vancouver over 10 km Free. FIScrosscountry.com had a chance to talk to Charlotte in Ramsau. FIS Cross-Country News: Charlotte, media reported you would be back at Tour de Ski this year. Why...

Continental Cup General Interviews News Olympics Racing US Ski Team World Cup

“A Hitch in the Momentum”: An Interview with Pete Vordenberg

Nathaniel HerzOctober 20, 20101

“Driven,” “opinionated,” and “uncompromising” are probably three of the best words to describe U.S. Ski Team (USST) coach Pete Vordenberg, but you can’t forget “thoughtful,” too. Vordenberg, the team’s head coach from 2006 until this spring, is one of the few ski coaches out there who can claim to have authored a book. With his blend of pragmatism and passion, he sat at the helm of USST for four years, during which the program went...

Dryland Racing

USST Slogs Through Soggy Sprint TT

Nathaniel HerzOctober 15, 20105

Three long sleeve shirts, a short sleeve shirt, two warm-up shells, a hat, extra socks, and two pairs of gloves. And a puffy jacket. “I pretty much put everything in my bag,” Simi Hamilton said. When it’s 38 degrees and raining, and you have a four-heat sprint time trial ahead of you, you’re going to need a lot of clothes. Not to say that the dry stuff would remain that way for long, though: by...

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