We just can’t wait . . . for winter in the air, for the cold in our breath, for fluffy flakes falling from the sky, for snow on the ground. Seasons turn, leaves surrender, days shorten, and our imaginations turn to tracks on the hills and corduroy on the trails. Winter is coming . . . and we just can’t wait. Youth Sport autumn leagues are winding down—soccer, mountain biking, cross country running, all the...
The National Nordic Foundation (NNF), Women Ski Coaches Association (WSCA), and Olympic Women’s Cross-Country Book Project are excited to announce the selection of the inaugural Trail to Gold Fellows. The selection committee determined that the following Fellows represent extraordinary coaching talent, and will have the opportunity to gain international experience and credentials while working with the US Ski Team coaching staff over the course of the upcoming 2022-23 World Cup season: Trail to Gold...
The ASC Training Center on Donner Summit has a long history of promoting winter sport. Founded in 1928, the Auburn Ski Club played a vital role in developing California’s ski culture with initiatives such as lobbying the state legislature to plow Highway 40 during the winter to enable increased tourism. ASC also hosted a 1939 ski jumping exhibition at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay with snow shipped 160 miles by rail car. More recently,...
Practice had ended for the Soldier Hollow Comp and Devo teams, but no one went to take their roller skis off. They were waiting for something that didn’t happen everyday; shortly, their patience was rewarded. The winningest male World Cup skier of all time—Olympic Champion, World Champion—glided around a gentle left-hand bend, dragged his wheels to a perfect stop in front of the crowd, picked up a microphone, and smiled a familiar smile: Johannes Høsflot...
The International Ski Federation’s (FIS) annual Congress held at the end of May this year was an unusually dramatic affair. Fights over media rights – whether to look at serializing the sport of Nordic skiing into something like Formula 1’s Drive to Survive – sent skiing’s international governing body into a metaphorically different part of the Netflix catalog, less Dive to Survive and more House of Cards, West Wing, or Newsroom. If only Aaron Sorkin...
For the first time ever, an American will preside over international governance of a nordic sport. On Tuesday, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced that longtime U.S. Biathlon President and CEO Max Cobb has been named the IBU Secretary General. Cobb will finish up his second term on the IBU Executive Board and leave his post as at U.S. biathlon at the end of September, then begin his new role overseeing international competition, governance, and...
Earlier this month, the National Nordic Foundation (NNF), in partnership with the Women Ski Coach’s Association (WSCA) and the Olympic Women’s Cross-Country Book Project, announced the Trail to Gold Fellowship. The Fellowship aims to correct for a historical gender imbalance in U.S. coaching at the club, collegiate, and international level by providing fellows with funding to complete a two-week internship with the U.S. Ski Team on the World Cup this winter. The Trail to Gold Fellowship...
Logan Diekmann, Nina Seeman win on the streets of Bozeman, and BSF’s Rollerski races look to harness the momentum of summer training out West. Featuring Results and Video Highlights. BOZEMAN – Jim Bridger was a mountain man. One of those figures born firmly entrenched in the old ways back East, before he split for the Mountain West for something new. A character to chart a theme pervasive through the American vision of the West –...
While it’s difficult to get exact numbers, the general distribution of coaches and service staff on the World Cup level is largely male dominated. The recently announced Trail to Gold Fellowship aims to help change that. Following the publication of the Trail to Gold book in November of 2021, members of the book committee began discussing how to use the net proceeds generated by book sales. After bouncing around various proposals, they settled on the...
A Q and A with Amy Cichanowski, Executive Director of the Minnesota Youth Ski League, on developing a more robust, diverse, ski community from the bottom-up. The State of Minnesota has always been good at getting its citizens on skis. Throughout the last century, people with names – some of them specific – Grace Carter Lindley, George Hovland, and Charlie Banks – and others more of a metonym for a kind of spirit – Ole...
Recently I’ve become rather obsessed with the Tour de France. Having never watched a bike race previously, I now find myself glued to Eurosport for upwards of five hours a day. There are a number of factors contributing to this shift on my part: an increased familiarity with the landscape and culture of the host nation, some covid-induced couch time, and a newfound respect for the insane feats of athleticism on display day after day. ...
The NNF Online Summer Auction is open until July 15th at 10:00pm EST. With 24 hours to go, supporters of US Nordic skiing still have the chance to help build the foundation for next winter’s successes while taking a unique piece of US skiing home by participating here: https://www.32auctions.com/NNF2022 The NNF Summer Auction is a crucial component in setting up all of US Nordic Skiing for a successful winter. By participating, supporters make individual dreams...
The 2022 NENSA Summer Series hosted its first rollerski race of the season at the beginning of July. The Lost Nation Roll took place at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center on July 3rd, and by all accounts, was a huge success. Both men and women raced 10 k in an interval start format on the Outdoor Center’s paved rollerski loop. Coinciding with the Eastern Regional Elite Group (REG) camp, around 40 top Eastern juniors boosted the...
“Skimo” will be the newest Olympic ski discipline when it premiers at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games. In 2022, those ready to represent the USA are bringing what they learned from their Nordic skiing background to higher peaks, steeper downhills, and techier technique. The details of ski mountaineering are dizzying. Take the little challenges unique to each discipline of skiing, amalgamate them together into one race, and you’re left with “Skimo,” which may or may not...
U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed...
On Monday, June 20th, the Ski Associations of Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and Croatia made good on threats issued after the FIS Congress in May, and filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) contesting the voting procedure that elected the unchallenged FIS President Johan Eliasch. The four nations argue that it was unlawful to deny them the option of voting no to Eliasch, and that the election procedure violated FIS statutes and...
I grew up playing soccer. Every practice was hard. “No pain, no gain,” and all of that. By tenth grade, I was burned out and quit. I started rock climbing. Every day at the crag was about pushing your limits. This was before indoor gyms or any concept of training other than doing as many pull ups as possible. I plateaued, got frustrated, and quit. Then I had a go at running. I read some...
Woods brings wealth of collegiate Nordic team competition, coaching and leadership to SVSEF SUN VALLEY, Idaho – June 19, 2022 – Effective August 1, 2022, Becky Woods will step into the role of Cross Country Program Director at Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF). Woods comes to SVSEF from Bates College in Lewiston, ME, where she served as the Head Men’s and Women’s Nordic Ski Coach alongside additional leadership roles from 1994 to 2022. “We are thrilled to welcome...
U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed...
U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed to development,...