Feature – Page 7 – FasterSkier

Objective, Discretionary, Democratic: Inside the Quiet Machinery of Olympic Selection

Matthew VoisinJanuary 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. There is a persistent fantasy about Olympic selection: that somewhere, behind a closed door or a spreadsheet or a stopwatch, a single correct answer exists. That if you line up the results cleanly enough—World Cups here, Nationals there—the truth will announce itself. The fastest will go. The rest will...

Feature US Ski Team

Zanden McMullen’s Closing Argument

Matthew VoisinJanuary 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. There is a particular kind of quiet that settles in before a decisive weekend—not the calm that follows certainty, but the stillness that comes when outcomes are no longer yours to predict. Zanden McMullen arrived in Oberhof, Germany, this week carrying that quiet with him. Period Three of the World...

Feature The Devon Kershaw Show

The Devon Kershaw Show: The delayed, but not denied, Tour de Ski recap

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 14, 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. Love episodes like this? Help keep them coming. Feature stories like this one take time, access, and care to produce. If you value thoughtful storytelling and independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a Voluntary Subscriber. Your support directly fuels the work we do to cover the people, places, and moments...

Feature US Ski Team

Governing Olympic Sport

Jim GalanesJanuary 14, 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 Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, passed in 1978 and amended several times (most notably in 1998 and 2020), is the statute that created the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and granted National Governing Bodies (NGBs) exclusive, monopolistic, authority over Olympic sports in the United States....

Feature Olympics

Steep Climbs to Olympic Dreams

John TeafordJanuary 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. So, Norwegian Olympic selection continues to be a stressful and chaotic process for Team Norway. After eight exhausting days of Tour de Ski competition—and six grueling events—it seemed the only result that mattered to the committee selecting Norway’s Olympic Team was a win in the final stage atop the Alpe...

Feature US Nationals

Calculations and Consequences: The Men’s Classic Sprint at U.S. Nationals

Matthew VoisinJanuary 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. The last day of the U.S. National Cross-Country Ski Championships in Lake Placid arrived the way honest days in this sport often do. The snow at Mt. Van Hoevenberg had been churned and scoured by a week of racing and changing weather, its surface no longer pristine but revealing,...

Feature US Nationals

A Quiet Argument, Made Loud: The Women’s Classic Sprint at U.S. Nationals

Matthew VoisinJanuary 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. On the morning of the women’s classic sprint at the U.S. National Cross-Country Ski Championships, the quiet around Mt. Van Hoevenberg felt deliberate. Not calm — no one was calm by Friday — but restrained. The week had already taken its toll. Distance races had piled fatigue into legs...

Feature US Nationals

A Narrow Door, Held Open: The Men’s 20 k Freestyle at U.S. Nationals

Matthew VoisinJanuary 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. There are moments in endurance sport when the noise falls away—not because the stakes are small, but because they are too large to announce themselves loudly. The men who gathered on the start line at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Thursday afternoon understood that kind of quiet. The banners said...

Feature US Nationals

Where the Race Breaks Open: Women’s 20 k Freestyle at U.S. Nationals

Matthew VoisinJanuary 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. There is a particular moment in a long mass start when the race quietly declares what it will be. It does not arrive with a surge, a crash, or even a decisive move. It arrives when the pack thins just enough that the edges of the course begin to matter—when...

Feature US Nationals

Smith and Melbye Win U.S. Nationals Freestyle Sprint as Qualification Shapes the Day

Matthew VoisinJanuary 7, 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. There is a particular kind of pressure that lives in a sprint qualification. It isn’t loud. It doesn’t announce itself with theatrics. It sits in the quiet places: the moment you realize the warm-up loop is over and you’re headed back toward the start; the thin stretch of time...

Feature Tour de Ski World Cup

The Day American Skiing Aligned

Matthew VoisinJanuary 6, 2026

This coverage is made possible, in part, 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. There are days in this sport when the numbers feel like the whole story: a time, a place, a gap. But every so often, cross-country skiing produces a day that...

Feature US Nationals

Where the Margins Speak: U.S. Nationals Opens with Questions, Not Answers

Matthew VoisinJanuary 5, 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. On a January afternoon in Lake Placid, Mt. Van Hoevenberg did what it has always done best: it asked skiers to be honest. The 10-kilometer classic individual start is not a format that rewards theater. It doesn’t care how good you looked in warm-up, how confident you sounded the night...

Feature Tour de Ski

One Final Climb: Diggins Victorious in Tour de Ski

Matthew VoisinJanuary 4, 2026

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 Tour de Ski does not end so much as it compresses. By the time the women turned onto the ribbon of snow climbing Alpe Cermis, the race had already been going...

Feature Tour de Ski

Stenshagen Conquers Alpe Cermis, Klaebo Rules Tour de Ski

John TeafordJanuary 4, 2026

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. In its original configuration (and for many seasons that followed), the final stage of the Tour de Ski was a Pursuit race—perhaps the only Pursuit race that actually made sense in the...

Feature Tour de Ski

Klaebo Wins Classic Sprint in Val di Fiemme as the Tour de Ski Heads for Alpe Cermis

Matthew VoisinJanuary 3, 2026

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. There are places in cross-country skiing where the scenery tries to soften the message. Val di Fiemme is one of them: chalets tucked into the folds of the valley, the geometry of...

Feature Tour de Ski

A Sprint Built for February, Raced in January with Tour Fatigue

Matthew VoisinJanuary 3, 2026

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. By the time the women arrived in Val di Fiemme for Stage 5 of the Tour de Ski, the race had already narrowed in a way that had nothing to do with...

Feature The Devon Kershaw Show

The Devon Kershaw Show: Sorry Norway, America is the global xc ski capital now

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 1, 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. Deep into this winter’s Walkabout de Northern Italy, we’re wearing a little thin, but Devon rallies just before midnight to recap stages three and four. We’ll have a wrap-up after the final climb. You can reach us at devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com. We appreciate all the feedback we’ve been getting...

Feature Tour de Ski

Klaebo Controls Toblach as Schumacher Anchors the Chase in Men’s 20 k Classic Pursuit

Matthew VoisinJanuary 1, 2026

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. By mid-morning in Toblach, the cold had settled into the valley in that particular Dolomite way—dry, bright, and unforgiving. The stadium clock read 10:30 a.m., the tracks were hard-packed, and the Tour...

Feature Tour de Ski

Diggins Flawless in Toblach 20 k Pursuit

John TeafordJanuary 1, 2026

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. During her long and illustrious career, Jessie Diggins has won eight World Cup races in Toblach, a record of success that began with her very first World Cup win, a 5 k...

Feature Tour de Ski

Diggins Victory Completes Historic American Day

John TeafordDecember 31, 2025

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. At one point early in her career, Jessie Diggins (USA) had become the pre-eminent World Cup racer at the 5 k Freestyle. She was fast, she could endure bucket-loads of lactate, and...

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