This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. The World Cup season has definitely gotten long, and the edges are beginning to fray. The FIS World Cup points system favors those who race the most, but the season is just too...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. The World Cup entered its home stretch of the season with racing continuing in Lahti, Finland. Today, the racers competed in the 20 k Classic Individual Start. For the men, the Overall and...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Krista Parmakoski (FIN) has battled the greats: Marit Bjorgen, Therese Johaug, Charlotte Kalla, Justyna Kowalczyk, Heidi Weng, Jessie Diggins. Across fifteen years of World Cups, World Championships, and Olympics, whomever was the dominant...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. As the World Cup returned to Europe in Lahti, Finland, Friday, it was those tricky conditions: temps hovering around zero degrees Celsius; mix of wet, man-made, and natural snow that leaves even the best...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Most people visiting FasterSkier are probably familiar with the lives led by the American “A” team athletes. Their lifestyles and races are thoroughly documented. But, with the addition of new racers for North...
February is here, and Nordic skiers in the Upper Midwest are at a teetering point. Many of us are remaining cautiously optimistic that all we need is “one good snow” to salvage our ski season. The Canadian Birkie, American Vasa, Finlandia, and Vasaloppet USA have already cancelled their races. Many skiers are starting to wonder how races like the Birkie will look this year. What a stark contrast from last year’s record setting snowfall throughout...
MINNEAPOLIS — After Gus Schumacher’s upset win at an international cross-country ski race here last week, one of his first moves was not to celebrate at a bar, but instead, to stand in front of the crowd and talk about climate change. With hundreds listening to the panel discussion from the grandstand, Schumacher, his teammate Jessie Diggins and activist and author Bill McKibben passed a microphone back and forth. The subject, for Schumacher, is immediate...
It hasn’t always been the same race, but it has always been the American Birkebeiner. Courses have changed, directions have changed, ski techniques have changed, conditions have changed, field sizes have changed, reputations have changed. Thin snow conditions across the American Midwest even necessitated that his year’s race was not even contested on the Telemark trail between Cable and Hayward, but over five laps of a ten kilometer loop painstakingly preserved just for this event....
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Just when you thought the Minneapolis World Cup was over, the Loppet Foundation was able to pull one more delightful rabbit out of its hat. Ever wonder how you might fare on a World Cup racecourse? Apparently, lots of people have, and thanks to the Loppet Foundation’s “Share Winter Playday” held Monday after the real racing was over, there was an opportunity for regular Joes and Janes to launch themselves onto the World...
“Short Title Goes Here” “Something cool about my website (65 characters max).” “Lorem ipsum consectetur pharetra elit varius.” Hi, I’m Olivia, and you’ve just read selections from my most recent professional graphic design projects. I am adept at inserting placeholder text into my designs, which, when combined with my ability to cobble together semi coherent emails to colleagues and prowess as an increasingly unhinged political meme content creator, doesn’t come close to making me a...
“You’re skiing along, and you look up at the green of the pines and look down and see golden tamarack needles peeking out of the Wisconsin snow, and you find yourself gliding along thinking, ‘my gosh, how lucky can one guy get…and Go Packers too!” – Grandpa Theyerl, Wisconsinite, Birchlegger. The American Birkebeiner turns 50 years old this weekend. And although it didn’t ask for it, I’m doing some existential rumination on its behalf....
Planica, Slovenia occupies a pretty unique corner of the world, with special emphasis on the “pretty.” Miss a turn in the traffic circle outside the venue, and in five minutes you’ll find yourself at the Austrian border. Miss the next turn, and you’ll find yourself at the Italian border. The valley in the Julian Alps is defined by a kind of beautiful thought—go over the mountains on any side and you find yourself in a...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. CANMORE, ALBERTA — With his fanny pack of kick wax and Kia minivan, you could have easily mistaken Alvar Johannes Alev for a weekend warrior cross-country ski dad in this Canadian mountain town....
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: After a glorious weekend that surpassed all expectations, it’s time to look back at some of the big picture takeaways from the weekend, and to remind our audience of some things...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. MINNEAPOLIS — Gus Schumacher, a 23-year-old from Anchorage, accomplished something Sunday that no American man had done in 40 years: he beat every single Norwegian, Swede, Finn and all other comers in an...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Gus Schumacher has won races before—but never a race like this. World Junior Champion in two relays, World Junior Champion in an individual race, sometime podium contender in a number of World Cup...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Ski racing is all about time, and the magic power of the best ski racers is that they’re seemingly able to bend time the way they want it to go. Lives are lived...
FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship. On Saturday in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, the American quartet of Vincent Bonacci, Sean Doherty, Campbell Wright, and Jake Brown made history for US Biathlon, finishing fifth among 24 nations: the...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. A week ago, golfers in shirtsleeves were playing the course that abuts Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A narrow white ribbon of just-skiable snow had been preserved on the course laid out...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. MINNEAPOLIS—The suspense and the nerves built all morning at Theodore Wirth Regional Park, where America’s cross-country skiers were set to contest their first World Cup race—the sport’s top competition circuit—in 23 years. By...