This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Track and Field’s Sprint Relay is a full-throttle dash of 4 x 100 meters transporting a sometimes-slippery baton around a single lap of the 400 meter track. True sprinters only, please. Track Cycling’s Team Sprint is a one kilometer max effort in which three cyclists...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you want more coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Coach, competitor, correspondent, commentator—Jim Galanes has spent a lifetime on cross country skis, always serving as a keen observer of our sport. A three-time Olympian in both Cross-Country and Nordic Combined, Jim has tested the theories, initiated the instruction, assessed the results. Now, FasterSkier is thrilled to announce...
U.S. Ski & Snowboard officially nominates 21 athletes to the 2025-26 Stifel U.S. Cross Country Ski Team roster. The team is nominated based on pre-determined selection criteria. The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team announces its teams in two phases: nomination and acceptance. The athletes are formally nominated to the Stifel U.S. Cross Country Ski Team in May. Pending their acceptance of the nomination and adherence to the team expectations outlined in the team criteria, athletes will...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. The International Ski Federation (FIS) recently announced its World Cup schedule for 2025-2026. The questions that announcement inpsires are these: does it really matter, and will skiers actually show up? It’s an Olympic year, after all . . . it’s hard for athletes to prioritize...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. With the Norwegian men and Swedish women so likely to dominate the relays, these should be the least surprising races on the Olympic cross-country skiing schedule. But Olympic relays have a long history of not turning out the way that fans, experts, and odds-makers predict....
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo faces a bizarre dilemma of the sort experienced only by stars and legends: either he authors another miracle in 2026—making lightning strike a second time—or he disappoints the whole sporting world. Those are Klaebo’s options as he looks forward to the Olympic...
Signing up for a Master’s B race at U.S. Biathlon Nationals sounded like a fun idea when I was at my computer, a safe 2,259 miles from Bozeman, chatting with my sister on the phone. Chloe would be competing at Nationals, her final races of the season. I hadn’t seen her since she left for the World Cup in December. It was as simple as her saying, “You should do the Master’s race.” And suddenly,...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. In an earlier era of our sport, all Nordic ski races were interval start events; every distance at every championship, individual skiers racing against the clock, disappearing into the woods on a single sinuous track, returning to a finish line after the challenging completion of...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. In 2025, Jessie Diggins won the World Cup overall title for a third time—and for the second year in a row. How can such a terrific achievement end up creating a dilemma? Here’s how . . . American media has numerous and gaping blind spots...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Fast-forward to February 10, 2026—Val di Fiemme, Italy. Day 2 of the Olympic Cross Country schedule is a Classic Sprint, with medals being awarded in both men’s and women’s events on the same day. That means this Classic Sprint takes place after two days of...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Everybody will be fresh on Day 1 of the Olympic Cross Country schedule; the racing is likely to be fast and furious. The 16-day Olympic schedule is more spread out than last season’s 10-day World Championship schedule. Athletes will have the benefit of more rest...
During the ancient Olympics, the Greeks practiced ékécheiria: an Olympic truce, a temporary peace during which wars would pause, combatants would lay down their arms, and athletes competed peacefully and nobly in Olympic contests. The Olympic Games would literally stop wars, the violence and aggression and acrimony of the battlefield replaced with the spirit of the Games. We’re reminded of that notable history during every modern Olympic broadcast, and we’re certain to be reminded of...
The old season just ended. Let the new season begin . . . Ten months from now, the Olympic Winter Games are scheduled to begin in Milano-Cortina, Italy. Ten months is practically enough time to build a ski team from scratch: to cure lingering illnesses, to heal nagging injuries, to initiate new training strategies, to fix any technique foibles, even to learn new secrets for waxing and ski prep. If only Norway and Sweden would...
Here on the other side of winter—snow not yet fully melted, grass not yet fully green—I’ve spent the week sleeping in. It’s been kind of awesome: lolling happily under a fluffy comforter, flipping the pillow to the cool side again and again, dozing luxuriantly, secure in the knowledge that I’m not missing a race, not late on a deadline, not overlooking details that might make a story better or more informative. These spring mornings are...
The FIS Cross Country World Cup season is long and exhausting, and the performers in the World Cup circus are always at risk of illness, injury, overtraining, fatigue. They travel in planes, they live in hotel rooms, they eat in restaurants: all the worst ways to preserve health and wellness. And the world continues to be inundated with lingering pandemic viruses that take advantage of our now-maskless society. It’s no wonder so many of them...
By: Hannah Smith In February, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) launched an investigation into SafeSport’s hiring practices following the arrest of a former SafeSport investigator charged with sexual crimes. While I’m disturbed, given the criticism SafeSport has received since it opened in 2017, I’m not entirely surprised, and I hope that this may signal a long-overdue reckoning not only for the organization, but our athletic community. Back in 2017, Senator Grassley proposed the “Protecting Young Victims from...
Who is the fastest person in the world on cross-country skis? Seems like a straightforward question, but the answer will unquestionably surprise you. An attempt to answer this seemingly easy question might quickly veer straight to the usual suspects. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo would certainly rise to the top of the list—a Sprinter undefeated for an entire season seems like a good guess. But you would be very wrong. Bjorn Daehlie in his prime would be...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. The World Cup season ended a week ago in Lahti, Finland where Jessie Diggins raced to a courageous ninth place in securing (by the narrowest of margins) the Distance World Cup Crystal Globe (to go along with her Overall Crystal Globe secured a week prior)....
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. On Saturday in Lake Placid, NY, mixed relay teams competed for a unique National Championship, for rivalry-fueled bragging rights, and for the possibility of earning National Nordic Foundation (NNF) distinction and prize money for their teams. It was an international party thrown at the end...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Sprint day at the Spring National Championships at Mt. Van Hoevenberg is the day when the best and the brightest showed up. Less than a week since collecting her World Cup Distance and Overall Crystal Globes, Jessie Digins (USA) arrived to lay down the day’s...