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Nordic Nation

Nordic Nation: US Biathlon’s Joanne Reid Makes Her Mark

Joanne Reid was at the proverbial fork in the road: pursue academics after graduating with an Applied Mathematics degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU) or compete as an elite-level nordic skier? Reid was coming off a collegiate season where she won the 15-kilometer freestyle and helped the CU Buffs win outright at NCAA Skiing Championships. It turns out, Reid, who turns 25 on Wednesday, is near completion for a master’s in engineering. And as it turns out, she...

Nordic Nation: Freeman, A Sample Size of One (Updated Edition)

originally posted his audio interview: “Few athletes remain at the top end of endurance for five years, let alone a single decade. New Hampshire native Kris Freeman, at 36, has been chasing fast times and fast skiers around cross-country ski loops for 16 years as a professional. For much of that time, Freeman was a staple on the men’s US Ski Team (USST). He posted the best results for a US skier in over two...

Nordic Nation: The Lowell Bailey Session

And this past winter on one day in mid-February, Bailey was perfect. On Feb. 16, he won the 20-kilometer individual race at the 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships Hochfilzen, Austria. Ten days ago, FasterSkier sat down with Bailey in Bend. The US Biathlon team was in town for an on-snow camp up at Mt. Bachelor. Bailey, of Lake Placid, N.Y., is a biathlon lifer,  a husband and a dad. He plans on racing one more season through...

Nordic Nation: Training and Intensity with Dr. Stephen Seiler

80/20 Rule — the easy to hard intensity ratio when it comes to training sessions, has been well publicized. Seiler believes easy days should be truly easy, meaning walking the hills may be mandatory. If the easy days are easy, then the hard days are hard. He espouses a fidelity to training models with little, if any, in-between efforts; that means no middle-of-the-road intensity. And his observations come straight from Norway. “… They know what gets you...

Nordic Nation: Tom Hall’s Take on Own The Podium

Tom Hall as a guest. If you’re into elite canoe and kayak, Hall may be a familiar name: he’s a 2008 bronze medalist from the Beijing Olympics in sprint canoeing and represented Canada internationally for twenty years — he retired from competitive sports in 2012. Today, Hall is a journalist and editor as well as the interim executive director for for a Canadian athlete advocacy organization called Own The Podium (OTP), (nordicnation@fasterskier.com. Podcast: Play in new window |...

Nordic Nation: Competition Analysis with Grover and Diggins

Diggins placed fourth in that race. The FIS Competition Analysis is a tool coaches and skiers can use to see exactly where they skied effectively, and where they may have lost time. In Davos, pretty much Diggins skied fast. FIS Competition Analysis from the Tour de Ski’s stage 4 women’s 10 k freestyle pursuit in Oberstdorf, Germany; Diggins placed fifth and her U.S. teammates had an impressive day as well. Other references: 

Nordic Nation Podcast: Pearsall to Lead Cross Country Canada

Cross Country Canada, the nation's governing body for cross country skiing will have a new leader in Shane Pearsall starting January 1st. He comes to the role new to skiing, but with a background helping lead Bobsleigh Canada and Skeleton as well as ties to oil and gas, an industry tied to the nordic skiing funding pipeline in Canada. As an athlete, Pearsall was an elite hockey player and was a member of the 1980 men's national team. Pearsall answers Nordic Nation's questions in this episode.

Nordic Nation: Biathlon Primer Part II with Clare Egan (Podcast)

Most of us can imagine stumbling across a finish line, lungs burning. It’s a whole other realm of precision like suffering to pound out the kilometers while intermittently trying to hit a small target. In this episode of Nordic Nation, 28-year-old Clare Egan describes what it’s like coming to the sport as a novice shooter with Olympic aspirations.

Nordic Nation Podcast: Biathlon Primer with Rosanna Crawford

"Imagine sprinting up twenty flights of stairs and then trying to thread a needle.” That's how Biathlon Canada veteran Rosanna Crawford describes the art of skiing, then shooting, repeatedly. Here, we learn about biathlon: how athletes prep on race day, and how Crawford approached her shooting on a personal-best day at 2016 World Championships.