Chris Klebl earned his first Paralympic medal in impressive fashion, winning gold in Sunday's cross-country 10 k sit-ski race on the last day of the Sochi Games. Brian McKeever took his third gold of the week, 10th total, the most of any winter athlete in Paralympic history.
Liz Stephen led the U.S. in 15th to get closer to her overall World Cup and distance-ranking goals, and Noah Hoffman tried to ski more conservatively than usual to secure points in 18th. Kikkan Randall placed 20th and Sadie Bjornsen was right behind in 21st in Saturday's skiathlon at World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden.
American Lowell Bailey broke through with the race of his career, tallying his first IBU World Cup podium in third in Saturday's final sprint of the season. "I’ve been working towards this for ten years, twenty years," Bailey says. Canadian Nathan Smith notched a career-best sprint, and all of the North American men made Sunday's pursuit.
Alex Harvey rocked the 30 k skiathlon, executing a tried-and-tested strategy to a 'T' and staying out of the way of trouble. The Canadian won the penultimate race of World Cup Finals to put himself in podium contention for the overall World Cup, which would be the icing on his most successful season to date. Devon Kershaw placed 12th, and Ivan Babikov finished 23rd for Canada.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen made winning at home a habit in the second-straight IBU World Cup sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland, edging Tora Berger and Gabriela Soukalova, who both cleaned. Susan Dunklee rose to eighth for her second-best sprint result of the season and her career. Two other Americans and three Canadian women made Sunday's pursuit.
Reese Hanneman came within 0.45 seconds of becoming the third American man to make the World Cup heats this season, and Jessie Diggins was just over a second shy of qualifying in her first race back since getting sick post-Sochi. The two logged top-40 results again on Saturday, along with Ida Sargent, in the World Cup Finals skiathlons.
Three U.S. women and one man qualified for the rounds on the first day of World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden, a strong start to what turned out to be a solid day for the Americans. Kikkan Randall and Sophie Caldwell once again made the final as a unit, and Sadie Bjornsen narrowly missed out on advancing to the semis after placing third behind them in their quarterfinal. Andy Newell made the semifinals to finish eighth overall.
A look at the action that took place last Friday at U.S. Junior Nationals in the 15-, 10- and 5-kilometer freestyle mass starts in Stowe, Vt.
The 46th annual Engadin Ski Marathon took place this past Sunday. Though the 42-kilometer skate course follows a valley downhill, losing a total of 150 meters (nearly 500 feet), that fact alone did not guarantee an easy race — on the contrary, most top finishers claimed this marathon to be one of their toughest.
Tatyana McFadden rose to the occasion yet again to notch the second U.S. silver medal in cross-country skiing at the Sochi Paralympics, becoming the second woman to do so in the last 20 years. Just 0.1 seconds back from gold, the Russian-born McFadden medaled in front of both her adoptive and birth mothers.
Brian McKeever and Graham Nishikawa came back from all odds after McKeever went down in Wednesday's sprint, then surged ahead for gold -- his first with Nishikawa alone, second of the Sochi Paralympics, and ninth total. "That was stressful,” McKeever told Cross Country Canada. “Once the cuss words were out, the only thing you can do is get back up and race."
This week contained a flurry of action! A bit overwhelmed? We've got you covered. This week we'll let our articles do the talking, so we've organized them here so you can keep the nordic action around the globe strait. Happy reading!
For many, the Holmenkollen 50 k freestyle mass start on Saturday was all about larger goals -- not just the race itself. But to achieve those goals, one had to do well enough in the challenging six-lap race. Alex Harvey improved from 46th to 14th with that mindset, and Noah Hoffman put it all on the line for bonus points.
Canada’s Mark Arendz battled through brutal race conditions on Tuesday to capture bronze in the men’s 12.5-kilometre standing at the Sochi Paralympics, just days after taking silver in his first competition of the Games. In doing so, Arendz, 24, became the first Canadian to win two Paralympic biathlon medals.
It's not every day you bump into the Estonian prime minister, especially on the ski trails in Sochi, Russia. Yet FasterSkier Olympic reporter Nat Herz did just that, and asked the ski aficionado a few questions about his take on the sport.
The International Biathlon Union has for the first time confirmed that two athletes under investigation for doping since January are indeed Irina Starykh and Ekaterina Iourieva of Russia. The IBU announced that both women's "B" samples had tested positive for EPO, and disciplinary hearings will be held in the next few weeks.
Canadian Brian McKeever skied to his eighth gold medal and first of the 2014 Winter Paralympics on Monday, winning the visually impaired 20 k classic with the help of two guides, Erik Carleton and Graham Nishikawa -- a first for the 34-year-old Paralympic champion.
Bjorn Ferry may have mis-timed his Olympic peak, but that meant he has been able to enjoy an incredible weekend of World Cup racing in Pokljuka, Slovenia. Ferry bested Martin Fourcade of France with an elegant and well-timed downhill pass as the pair neared the stadium, followed by a furious sprint. “I can beat Ferry 99 times out of a hundred," Fourcade said - but today he was wrong.
Giving credit where it's due, a look at the top-10 teams on the last day of racing at U.S. Junior Nationals in Stowe, Vt., in the 3 x 3-kilometer freestyle relays. New England ran away with the Alaska Cup after topping the podium in three out of the six races on Saturday.
Mark Arendz fired his name into the history books on Saturday as the first Canadian ever to win a silver medal in biathlon at the Paralympic Winter Games.