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Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall won gold in the team sprint. Shinn’s book and what insights she gleaned during the writing process are our primary topics of discussion. From the roots of the women’s team when coaches Marty Hall and John Caldwell pulled the strings, to the modern World Cup where the U.S. women’s team has become a force, Shinn gives us a glimpse of how the women’s program went from deep grassroots to a...
Woody’s piece on Juha Mieto.) (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)
Nordic Nation: U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Tom ‘TK’ Kelly in the House (Part 1)
Jason AlbertFebruary 27, 2018
Madshus USA, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — At the Olympics in PyeongChang, FasterSkier sat down with U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s longtime Vice President of Communications Tom Kelly. After starting with the organization back in 1986, Kelly will be stepping down a few months after the Olympics. Kelly, 65, is the nerve center to U.S. Ski Team’s media and communications outreach. Shepherding athletes through...
Madshus USA, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In this episode recorded at the Olympics, you’ll hear Part 2 of our conversation with one of the busiest people at the Games … Tom Kelly. Kelly is U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s longtime vice president of communications. After starting with the organization back in 1986, he will be stepping down a few months after the Olympics....
Nordic Nation: Olympic Champ Kikkan Randall Elected to IOC Athletes’ Commission
Jason AlbertFebruary 23, 2018
Madshus USA, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In this episode of Nordic Nation, FasterSkier sat down with U.S. cross-country skier, Kikkan Randall — known by some as Kikkanimal — to discuss her fifth and final Winter Olympics, as well as what lays ahead for the Anchorage, Alaska native. On Wednesday evening earlier this week, Randall and teammate Jessie Diggins paired up to take...
Part 1, and here. Does your team already have a climate or climate activism project? Let us know what it is and we can share it with our community! Contact Pete Vordenberg with questions, ideas and to register your team. pvatuphillskier@gmail.com (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)
Nordic Nation: Andy Newell on a Greener World Cup
Jason AlbertFebruary 2, 2018
A few weeks ago we released our interview with climate-justice activist and Vermont resident Bill McKibben. After the interview, we received a few comments that spoke to the perceived large carbon footprint of World Cup skiing and possible changes that might be implemented to curb that environmental impact. With that in mind, we called up Andy Newell, who himself is a climate activist to address some of the questions. We spoke to Newell on Jan....
Nordic Nation: Sadie Bjornsen and the ‘Sadie System’
Jason AlbertJanuary 24, 2018
overcome chronic foot injuries and bronze bling from last year’s World Championship team sprint with Jessie Diggins. When asked about interesting media exposure she’s had during the run up to the Olympics, Bjornsen mentioned a
on his personal website. He is one of us, too: an individual dedicated to the sport and culture of human-powered skiing. Back when he was 37, McKibben penned a great book titled “
Nordic Nation: Wadsworth’s Two Cents on Period 1
Jason AlbertDecember 27, 2017
Justin Wadsworth. A former U.S. Olympian and coach as well as Canadian head coach, Wadsworth will be doing on-air commentary during the 2018 Olympics for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). This season, there’s much to discuss with Wadsworth. Ten races into the World Cup, the racing so far has seen an unsettled women’s side and a lopsided men’s field. Charlotte Kalla has renewed the premise that Sweden can produce a formidable nordic-ski powerhouse as...
Nordic Nation: Biathlon Canada President Murray Wylie on Boycotting Russia
Jason AlbertDecember 14, 2017
this more in-depth article on the open letter for some detailed context before listening to this podcast episode. Here’s some of the key info from that piece: On Dec. 10,Russia’s participation at the 2018 Winter Games. Despite the RBU’s less-than-full IBU member status, Russia is still scheduled to host the final IBU World Cup races of the season from March 20-25 in Tyumen and IBU Cup 7 & 8 in Uvat and Khanty-Mansiysk. In an...
Nordic Nation: Wax-Truck Road Trip with Tim Baucom (While Andrew Morehouse Pilots)
Jason AlbertDecember 7, 2017
$600,000 dollars of precious wax truck (that amount includes the taxes on the truck), as well as something like 600 pairs of skis. That’s a lot of XC schwag. And a lot of eventual ski cleaning. (See below.) And just to be safe, we also dialed up Baucom on Day 2 of their three-day journey to Davos. It’s always a good idea to check back in — new pricey truck, irreplaceable skis and two of...
Nordic Nation: Matt Whitcomb and the Art of Coaching
Jason AlbertNovember 23, 2017
nordicnation@fasterskier.com. Full podcast:
Nordic Nation: Not a Fantasy, Hoffman Teams with FasterSkier for 2017/2018 Fantasy XC
Jason AlbertNovember 22, 2017
eponymous fantasy league. Last year at this time, we did a full-blown analysis of Hoffman’s ski league, exploring the origins of the league, hearing how Adam got involved and then falling into a serious wormhole learning how some fantasy league experts pick their teams. Here’s a link to that episode. Strategize, log in and pick you team. For this long weekend of racing, you have to have your team registered before midnight (EST) on Thursday....
Nordic Nation: Straight Up Erik Bjornsen
Jason AlbertNovember 10, 2017
they are strong shoulders. After a summer and fall of solid training, the younger of the two Bjornsens on the U.S. Ski Team (his sister Sadie is a teammate) has high expectations for this Olympic year. Rather than a product of stats and results, Bjornsen is a believer in himself. He studies the sports’ stars, analyzing what makes them technically efficient. He makes the hard workouts count. It’s a method Bjornsen hopes will serve him...
Nordic Nation: Joran Elias is the Statistical Skier
Jason AlbertOctober 27, 2017
statisticalskier.com (which is more of a blog that has not been updated in awhile) and Gebhardt sportsmanship award his senior year in 2001 (and noted on his blog that “Graduate school taught me many things, among them that I hate academia and that I love wrangling data. Given the choice between wrangling awesome data and making tons of money, I’ll choose the former. Hence this website.” Sport is rife with those trying to understand the winning,...
Nordic Nation: Max Cobb, US Biathlon’s Straight Shooter
Jason AlbertOctober 18, 2017
nearly three decades, Cobb has been part of US Biathlon — first as an organizer of the domestic racing series and eventually as the executive director in March of 2006. Just over a year ago, he was elected like 2017 IBU World Championships medalists Lowell Bailey and Susan Dunklee. Cobb’s budget is the mighty mouse of the biathlon world, and on many days, the high-performance team (both coaches and athletes) can slay the Goliaths of...
on-snow camp at New Zealand’s Snow Farm. Along with the usual “how’s the training going”, questions, you’ll hear about the unique way the Greggs financed their house and what the future holds. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.) Have a podcast idea? Please email