Feature – Page 9 – FasterSkier

World Cup Opener in Östersund: Wind, Depth, and Early Answers for an Olympic Year

Keely LevinsDecember 11, 2025

At the first biathlon World Cup races of the 2025/26 season, the biathlon stadium is perched above the small city of Östersund, which is set on a lake. Wind gusts off the lake, pulsing through the stadium. The races take place under the lights, at night – which isn’t saying much. Because in December in northern Sweden, ‘night’ begins at three in the afternoon, when what little sun there might’ve been throughout the day slips...

Feature World Cup

Two Degrees, One Dream: How a Future Teacher Found Her Way to the World Cup

Matthew VoisinDecember 10, 2025

The Hill That Got Easier On an ordinary winter afternoon in Fairbanks, before NCAA titles and World Cup bibs and FIS profiles, there was just a loop—eight hundred meters of snow and one long, unforgiving hill. Middle-school Kendall Kramer skied it after class, day after day, with her dad. Birch Hill. Blue Loop. One big climb, same as yesterday, same as tomorrow. What changed was how it felt. “We would just go for, like, 30...

Feature Olympics World Cup

Let the Chaos Reign: Norway’s Impossible Eight-Man Puzzle for the Olympics

Matthew VoisinDecember 9, 2025

On most race weekends, I take my job seriously — up at 3:00 am EST, fresh coffee made, woodstove loaded, notebook out, logged on to coverage early to make sure I don’t have a technical issue. Then once the race starts, I begin looking for subtle, important moments to describe in greater detail in the race report. But there are also weekends, like this past one, when I toss my journalism hat onto the mantle...

Feature The Devon Kershaw Show

The Devon Kershaw Show: the world champs of Norwegian Olympic qualification, and a Kersh mea culpa

Nathaniel HerzDecember 8, 2025

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. We’re back to recap three days of racing in Trondheim and for Devon to eat some of his words from last weekend’s podcast. We’ll have more after the World Cup swings to Switzerland this weekend. Reach us at devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com, and if you’re interested in supporting the...

Feature World Cup

Trondheim 10 k—Hedegart Tops Norway’s Olympic Scramble

John TeafordDecember 7, 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. He doesn’t even call himself a skier. After two World Cup podium performances in as many weeks—and a victory in today’s 10 k Freestyle Interval Start—Einar Hedegart (NOR) continues to refer to...

Feature World Cup

If This Was a Preview, February Will Be Wild: Sweden 1–2, Diggins Third

Matthew VoisinDecember 7, 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. There are winter mornings when a World Cup feels like a World Cup, and there are winter mornings when the sport seems to slip into its future tense. Today, in Trondheim, was the...

Feature World Cup

Diggins’ Masterclass—THAT is How You Win a Skiathlon

John TeafordDecember 6, 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. If this is what a farewell tour looks like, then it’s a truly spectacular thing to behold. In Trondheim on Saturday, Jessie Diggins demonstrated her toughness, her strategic acumen, and her mastery of...

Feature World Cup

The Trial in Trondheim

Matthew VoisinDecember 6, 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. The men’s 20-kilometer Skiathlon at Granåsen never felt like an ordinary World Cup. From the moment the athletes stepped into the start pen, there was a tension in the air that didn’t match...

Feature World Cup

Klaebo’s 100th: Norwegian Sprint Cauldron Boils Over in Trondheim

Matthew VoisinDecember 5, 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. Johannes Høsflot Klaebo’s 100th World Cup win did not arrive with the roar he’d grown used to on this course. Granåsen last March had been a cauldron—tens of thousands of fans in plastic...

Feature World Cup

Sweden Sweeps Chaotic Trondheim Classic Sprint

John TeafordDecember 5, 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. The news all week has been “The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!” Well, no Russians, today. Even after all the headlines, even after certain Russian athletes had sent entries to the...

Feature Training

The Long Game: Over-Training in the Development Years.

Jim GalanesDecember 4, 2025

After my posted articles on FasterSkier on “Junior Nationals” and “What’s the Hurry”, there was some anticipated discussion on my statements around over training, burn out, and the attrition rate in the sport. When I write, it is based on my experience, my research, and my opinion. I encourage and welcome the debate. Over training and burnout in junior athletes is real I think it is important to define the ways I view over training...

Feature US Ski Team

The U.S. Ski Team Star You Won’t See on Snow This Weekend

Matthew VoisinDecember 4, 2025

On Friday afternoon, as World Cup sprinters snap into their skis in Trondheim and the SuperTour fields gather in Fairbanks, one of the United States’ most electrifying young Nordic athletes will step onto an entirely different stage. Stanford University, the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament, is marching toward the College Cup—and at the center of it all is a player who, in just a matter of days, will also begin her...

Feature SuperTour US Ski Team

Novie McCabe’s Winding Trail to the Olympic-Season Start Line

Matthew VoisinDecember 3, 2025

When Novie McCabe spoke with FasterSkier early last month, she was looking out the window of her place in Anchorage, waiting for winter to finally take hold. “We’re patiently waiting on snow,” she said. “But today might be the day.“ Outside, the ground was still in its in-between phase—too brown for grooming, just white enough that fish-scale skis could work if you were stubborn and optimistic about it. Alaska in November often asks skiers to...

Feature News Olympics

So, You’re Telling Me There’s A Chance?—Russia, FIS, and the Court of Arbitration

John TeafordNovember 10, 2025

A recently published Langrenn story reported on the possibility that FIS may be forced to reconsider its recent ruling an Russian and Belarusian eligibility for participating in Period 1 of the 2025-2026 World Cup season. According to those reports, Russian athletes and para athletes—and the Russian Ski Federation—filed a law suit with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) seeking to overturn the recent FIS decision to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from events...

Feature News Training

Training Philosophy—a Holistic View

Jim GalanesNovember 6, 2025

What follows is a simplified training philosophy that works, if you apply it consistently. I’m focusing on the core elements of endurance sports: aerobic endurance and capacity (VO₂max), strength, speed, and appropriate training volume. These are the levers that matter. Coaches love to talk about nuance and the next latest and greatest shinny object: not going too hard during distance days, going hard enough during high-intensity sessions, finding the right dose of speed and strength,...

Feature News

Lack of Accountability in Youth Sports Abuse

Jim GalanesOctober 28, 2025

This is a follow up to the reporting of an abuse case that occurred in March of 2025 within a major Colorado club. An initial report was posted on Faster Skier earlier this summer. This subsequent article is an attempt to keep all such issues front and center so that athletes and coaches will feel safe, so that families will feel faithfully represented, and so that governing bodies will stand behind their responsibility to protect...

Feature The Devon Kershaw Show World Cup

Joe Davies’ journey from British Columbia to repping Great Britain

Nathaniel HerzOctober 27, 2025

Joe Davies has notched multiple top-20 World Cup finishes representing Great Britain. The 24-year-old takes us through his compelling backstory, starting with his childhood in British Columbia through racing on the American college circuit. The Olympic season is nearing, and we’ll hear from a few more athletes before it kicks off. Got anyone you want to hear from? Drop us a line with your requests and feedback: devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com. We’ll be back soon.

Feature News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

Corners and Confidence: Kate Oldham’s Steady Rise to the U.S. Ski Team

Matthew VoisinOctober 27, 2025

At the World Championships last winter, a slushy, rutted corner near the finish line became a proving ground for precision and poise. The turn was taking down skiers all week — an icy edge here, a soft patch there — the kind of technical trap that can shake even the most seasoned racers. On the U.S. team’s final course preview, Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, Rosie Brennan, and newcomer Kate Oldham took turns testing different lines....

Feature News Training

Why “Training Volume Is the Biggest Predictor of Success” — and Why That’s Only Half True

Jim GalanesOctober 24, 2025

We read it again and again in studies, articles, and coaching posts: “Training volume is the best predictor of performance.” It’s one of the most consistent findings in exercise science, appearing across endurance sports for decades, and in national training systems. But the statement is often repeated without understanding what it really means, or more importantly what it doesn’t. One reason this line gets repeated so often is that “train more” is an easy message...

Feature News Olympics World Cup

FIS Ruling: Russia is Out

John TeafordOctober 22, 2025

It’s a funny time we live in . . . one in which many of us struggle with harboring multiple opinions on particular topics (especially political ones). That’s me when it comes to whether or not Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed to enter the Olympic Games . . . multiple opinions make sense, and no easy or straightforward decisions seem likely. One thing’s for sure: when it comes to those decisions, someone’s going...

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