Feature – FasterSkier

Biathlon at a Crossroads: Inside the Alliance That Could Reshape the Sport in America

Matthew VoisinJuly 28, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. U.S. Biathlon’s board votes Wednesday on a formal operating alliance with U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Supporters call it the stability the sport has always lacked. Skeptics call it a surrender of independence. Both are working from the same set of facts. Here is what the deal actually says, and what...

Feature Olympics US Ski Team World Cup

Ben Ogden’s Spring of Silver and Setbacks

John SkavlemJuly 22, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. For Ben Ogden, the strangest change since taking home two medals from Milano Cortina has not been that more people started recognizing him around Vermont. He admits he is still adjusting to the newfound fame, but that part has mostly been fun. There have been school visits, community events and...

Feature Resources Training

When a Falling Race Heart Rate Is a Warning, Not a Win

Jim GalanesJuly 16, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. This is a follow-up to my last article, Speed Creates the Load, Not Intensity. Before going further, it helps to define terms. Intensity is reflected in the heart rate response. Load is the physiological stress that drives adaptation. This piece takes a different angle, using high-intensity workouts and race heart...

Collegiate Feature

The Spice in the Soup: How Adam St. Pierre Thinks You Should Train

Matthew VoisinJuly 15, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Part two of a two-part series. Read part one here. A parent once cornered Adam St. Pierre to complain that he was letting the kids play games. St. Pierre had ten-year-olds on skis running sharks and minnows, shrieking and chasing each other across the snow, and the parent was...

Feature Training

Speed Creates the Load, Not Intensity

Jim GalanesJuly 10, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. I originally wrote the following article in 2004. Twenty-two years later, I believe it remains just as relevant. To me it illustrates that while we tend to assume training has changed a great deal, in many ways it has stayed much the same. I have rewritten it here to improve...

Collegiate Feature

The Only Kid He Beat Hit a Tree: How Adam St. Pierre Backed Into a Life in Skiing

Matthew VoisinJuly 9, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Part one of a two-part series. Adam St. Pierre finished second to last in the first cross-country ski race of his life. The one skier he beat had crashed into a tree. He was a sophomore at Fall Mountain Regional High School, a rural school in Charlestown, New Hampshire,...

Feature News US Ski Team World Cup

After the World Cup, Rosie Brennan Still Has More Skiing Ahead

John SkavlemJune 29, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Rosie Brennan has stepped away from the World Cup, though she’s still figuring out exactly how to define the next chapter in her life. Retirement is the easy word, and in some ways, the accurate one. She is done with the World Cup. She is done with the version of...

Feature Resources Training

Why How You Start a Workout May Matter More Than the Workout Itself

Jim GalanesJune 23, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Most athletes view the warm-up as preparation for the hard part of the workout. The reality is that the warm-up is often one of the most important parts of the session, because it largely determines the physiological response that follows. The purpose of a warm-up is not simply to get...

Canadian National Ski Team Feature

Beckie Scott: The Olympic Champion Rebuilding Nordiq Canada

Matthew VoisinJune 15, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. The five minutes Beckie Scott spent at the finish line in Soldier Hollow on February 15, 2002, lasted longer than most things in her career. She had crossed the line in what felt like third place. She thought she had a medal. She did not yet know. “It was actually...

Feature Research Training

For Low-Intensity Training, Consistency Beats the Big Week

Jim GalanesJune 11, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. A new study landed in my feed last week, and I will admit the algorithm has my number. It steered me toward a question I have chewed on more than once here at FasterSkier: when it comes to low-intensity training, are you better off concentrating volume into one big week,...

Feature Juniors

The Wrong 30,000

Matthew VoisinJune 3, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Will Sweetser thinks American Nordic skiing is recruiting in the wrong places. Here is what he is building on Donner Pass to prove it. This is the second of two parts — be sure to read part one, to learn about Sweetser’s background and coaching philosophy — Keep Showing Up:...

Feature Masters Training

Inside the Masters Skier’s Training Equation: Recovery, Strength, and the End of Hero Workouts

Jim GalanesMay 29, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. A Different Equation Masters’ athletes are often told to “train smarter, not harder,” or the current version: “Go easy on the endurance sessions so you can go hard on the intense sessions.” Those phrases get repeated so often they’ve lost context and meaning. But there is a real physiological reason...

Feature US Biathlon US Ski Team

The Case for Transparency in the USA Biathlon–USSS Integration Talks

Jim GalanesMay 26, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. I was reviewing recent U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Sport Committee meeting minutes and came across an interesting note in the April 7, 2026, meeting. The following item stood out: “Rick shared the announcement of adding Para Cross Country and that there is a strong drive from the...

Feature Training

Keep Showing Up: Will Sweetser’s Unglamorous First Principle

Matthew VoisinMay 15, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Two older girls on the Edward Little ski team went looking for bodies. It was the mid-1980s, the boys’ Nordic program at the Auburn, Maine, high school was thin and not very good, and the girls’ team was strong. The two girls, Becky Flynn (SVSEF) and Sarah Pribram (NWVE), knew...

Feature Training

Development in Norway Isn’t Just a Plan. It’s a System.

Jim GalanesMay 12, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. A review of a recently published paper from Norway, “Long-term development culture for sustainable Olympic success: Lessons learned from Norwegian cross-country skiing” by Jacob Walther and Øyvind Sandbakk, is worth the time. Long-term development culture for sustainable Olympic success: Lessons learned from Norwegian cross-country skiing – ScienceDirect We’ve all heard...

Feature Lifestyle Training

If we know better, why don’t we do better?

Jim GalanesApril 25, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Where do High School and USCSA programs fit into our development. In a recent article, I laid out the disconnect between what we say about long-term development in Nordic skiing and what we do and the rewards. “Long-Term Development in Nordic Skiing: What We Say vs. What We Actually Do”....

Feature Strength Training

Plyometrics: Where They Fit Within a Training Program

Jim GalanesApril 16, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Where do Plyometrics Fit Within a Training Program Hint: You Don’t Start with Plyometrics Over the past few years there’s been a noticeable shift in how athletes and coaches talk about training. More emphasis on power. More interest in being “explosive.” That’s a good direction. Cross-country skiing is a power-endurance...

Feature Training

When to Increase Training Load… and When to Wait

Jim GalanesApril 8, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. As this ski season wraps up, many of us coaches are doing similar work. Using spreadsheets or a popular training platform, we map out training for the year. We plan the yearly hours, monthly hours, and weekly hours, along with defining the training intensity distribution. We also plan how long...

Feature Juniors Training

Long-Term Development in Nordic Skiing: What We Say vs. What We Actually Do

Jim GalanesApril 3, 2026

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. As the season winds down, it’s worth stepping back and asking a simple question: Does the way we develop young skiers in the United States reflect the philosophy we say we believe in? I know everyone is probably done with hearing about how the Norwegians do it, so let’s look...

Feature News World Cup

The Story Behind the New World Cup Race Format

Ken RothApril 1, 2026

Yesterday’s announcement of changes to next year’s World Cup schedule came as a dramatic surprise to the cross-country skiing community. But the story behind those changes is just as interesting as the changes themselves. Lars Johansen, the Swedish delegate to the FIS (International Ski Federation) competition committee described how the historic changes came about. “I was sitting glumly in my Cortina hotel room. In nine days, I was due to give my final report to...

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