The first time Rosie Brennan stepped onto a World Cup podium, she was holding a pair of classic skis. That was in Lillehammer eight years ago, December 2015, when she skied the scramble leg in Team USA’s third place finish. Since then, there has been more team revelry, plenty of skate podiums, some fast-starts, some near misses, but never an individual classic podium. Above all, in the intervening time, there has been perseverance. Stride for...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. Day Two of the 2023-2024 FIS World Cup season showcased the individual start 10 k Classic race in Ruka, Finland. The Finn’s were chomping at the bit for an opportunity to break the Norwegian men’s stranglehold on distance racing: last...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. Today, in the near perpetual darkness of Finland’s early winter, the classic sprint competition announced the dawn of the new World Cup season. The new season brings with it a new rule—perhaps the most significant rule change since skating was...
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. FasterSkier begins its coverage of the 2023-2024 FIS World Cup with the first day of competition from Ruka, Finland. A cold day offered consistent conditions for this Classic Sprint. Even so, Norway advanced seven...
IBU 2023/2024: New Rules and Higher Sustainability Standards The IBU season 2023/2024 is set to get underway with the opening BMW IBU World Cup in Östersund (SWE) on 25 November 2023 as new rules and sustainability commitments will be showcased for the first time. Östersund is one of nine World Cup Organising Committees this season, in addition to World Championship host Nove Mesto na Morave, to have voluntarily signed the IBU’s new Sustainability Charter. By signing the Charter,...
11/17/2023—Ruka, Finland For American fans of cross-country skiing, Jessie Diggins is definitely the voice of our sport. Following a 2023 season that saw her crowned World Champion in 10k—and finishing second overall in the season-long FIS World Cup—she returned to training and preparing for the season to come; but things didn’t go exactly as planned. Recently, Diggins sat down for a scheduled media interview to discuss her relapse into an eating disorder from which she’d...
Though biathletes have already seen action in recent races in Sjusjoen Norway—and on the Schutzenski rollerski course at Soldier Hollow, Utah—the real World Cup action only begins this coming weekend. The BMW IBU World Cup Schedule begins November 25 in Ostersund, Sweden, and FasterSkier is eager to provide information on how North American biathlon fans can view those events via live streaming. IBU World Cups and World Championships According to Sara Donatello—USBA Communications Coordinator—Eurovision Sports...
With the beginning of the FIS World Cup season less than two weeks away, we wanted to remind readers that FasterSkier will continue to post same-day race coverage of all World Cup, Senior National, Junior National, and SuperTour events this season. Like last season, we’ve found that Ski and Snowboard Live is the easiest and most reliable streaming service available for World Cup events, so we’re encouraging our readers to subscribe to this live streaming...
Marsha Diane Arnold authored a delightful children’s book: Waiting for Snow. Lovingly illustrated by Renata Liwska, Waiting for Snow tells the story of Badger who is impatient for winter’s arrival. When we were kids, we waited impatiently for everything: for Christmas, for birthdays, for dessert, for recess, and for the first snowy day of winter. In the adulthood of Nordic skiing, the first snowy day is still the source of immense anticipation. Patience, Badger ....
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. In part I of FasterSkier’s interview with Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, we caught up with the former U.S. Olympian and heard updates on her personal life. Today, we hear her views on the current crop of Stifel U.S. Ski Team...
On a sunny October Saturday, the Path of the Annularity—the shadow of an eclipse—passed directly over Soldier Hollow, Utah. For nearly thirty minutes, the sky was shaded, the air cooled, and the valley got eerily quiet. But the action never stopped: races went on, heart rates remained high, sweat continued to drip, and finish lines were crossed while the solar/lunar show swirled in the heavens above. Something special was happening, that’s for sure . ....
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. Transitioning from the life of a professional athlete to the “regular” world can be challenging. Given the heroic number of training hours professional cross-country skiers put in, they may even have a harder time of it than other athletes....
Join us January 1-7, 2024 for the US Cross Country Ski Nationals. See schedule below. Registration is live and wax cabin rentals are now available. Please click on the link below for registration and wax cabin rental. Schedule Schedule is subject to change. Monday, January 1 Official Training Tuesday, January 2 10k Classic Interval Start Wednesday, January 3 Official Skate Sprint Training (8 am-11 am) Sit Ski Sprint (Qualifying 1pm, heats 1:45-2:15 pm) Thursday,...
Imagine toiling tirelessly an entire lifetime to build a successful business. Decades pass. You are now in your sixties contemplating some version of retirement. Standard operating procedure in this circumstance is to put your business on the market, see what it will sell for, and sell out to the highest offer. Most of the time, that’s how the game is played. Maximize return on investment. However, a different model is being played out at Active...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. When the 2023 Golden Trail Marathon series began last spring, Stifel U.S. Cross-Country Team member Sophia Laukli was viewed as a wildcard. Her chances of winning seemed improbable even to Laukli, herself. Now, with the last race weekend of the race...
“Big motor, lousy suspension.” That’s how I often describe the endurance athletes I see in physical therapy. They have the physiology to go fast but are lacking the stability and/or coordination for efficient movement. Decreased efficiency equals increased load. And excessive load has led to injury and a visit to their friendly, neighborhood PT. I used the same description while Greta Anderson, the US Cross Country Development Coach, and I stood trackside last August watching...
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. Simi Hamilton was still in top condition when he retired from his World Cup competitive career in 2021. Lucky for him that he was: he still needs that level of fitness for his day-job. Not one to kick back...
Like most Midwestern states, the majority of Minnesota is an unending grid of corn and soy fields. Land isn’t so much land as it is commodity. Inhabiting that landscape tends to be a constant reminder to think in terms of economy. Life, like farming, is a series of inputs and outputs, costs, and benefits. Unlike most Midwestern states, though, things get wilder the farther North you go in Minnesota. Lakes, lots of them, jut in...
PARK CITY, UTAH — Megan Rowlands Stowe was mostly retired from her career as a physical therapist when Johannes Høsflot Klæbo came to her Utah home for dinner last year. Klæbo, 26, is from Norway — where, as a seven-time Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing, he’s a superstar. But for weeks, he’d been training in Utah, where a lingering hamstring injury was bothering him when he arrived at Stowe’s house. Stowe, 57, has her own...
This is Part II of an article reporting on the recent appearance of the SMS T2 team at an evening where FasterSkier partnered with The Memory Clinic of Bennington, Vermont. The video posted below features the entirety of a wide-ranging Question & Answer session that involved most of the SMS T2 team, including Julia Kern, Jessie Diggins, and Ben Ogden. It was a treat to be among so many of our skiing heroes, and to...