Sitting in fourth place at each of the first three handoffs, the Canadian men were in the game for the entirety of today's World Cup biathlon relay in Antholz, Italy. They eventually finished sixth - the first time any of them could remember going to the flower ceremony as a team. France won the race, anchored by Martin Fourcade.
This weekend Russell Currier hit the biathlon World Cup for the first time this season, and was happy with his performances heading into the Olympics: in the sprint he finished 60th, using the 17th-best ski time of the day to make up for a bevy of penalties, and then he improved his shooting in the next day's pursuit.
After collecting his first World Cup victory in yesterday's sprint, Simon Schempp of Germany held on for win number two in the pursuit today despite two penalties that bounced him out of the lead for large portions of the race. Lowell Bailey of the United States moved up to 12th place, although he wishes he'd hit a shot in the last round that would have left him in podium position.
Kikkan Randall made a statement out of Saturday's freestyle sprint in Szklarska Poręba, Poland, winning each of her heats, including the final, with some tactical smarts on a flat-and-fast course. Another American, Jessie Diggins notched a career-best sprint result of fifth, and five Americans landed in the top 15.
Germany's Andrea Henkel skied with both calm and grit, shooting a perfect 20-for-20 and delving deep into the pain cave to hold off a charging Nadezhda Skardino of Belarus in the final kilometer of today's World Cup 10 k pursuit in Antholz, Italy. Susan Dunklee of the U.S. was in a top-five position for over half the race before being felled by shooting errors.
A broken pole couldn't keep Billy Demong from skiing to his best result of the season in eighth on the first day of the Nordic Combined World Cup Triple, and he talks all about it on camera after Friday's individual jump and 5-kilometer prologue. Teammate Bryan Fletcher led the U.S. Nordic Combined team in sixth, also a season best.
Three days ago, Matt Liebsch likened himself to ‘Where’s Waldo’. Just where would he end up next? It was anyone's guess. One of several Olympic hopefuls, Liebsch is among the top U.S. domestic skiers trying to find the best races to maximize FIS-point potential.
Early Saturday morning, Kikkan Randall's parents sat groggily in front of a pair of laptop computers in an East Anchorage condominium. Their daughter was seconds from starting a ski race 5,000 miles away, in a resort town in the Czech Republic. But their live stream of a Eurosport TV channel was showing ski jumping instead. "OK, come on," Kikkan's mother, said impatiently.
Get up close and personal with three members of U.S. Nordic Combined and Canadian Wesley Savill as they share their first oh-so-cold experience with cryotherapy -- essentially a cold sauna at temperatures around -110 degrees Celsius (-166 Fahrenheit).
No one likes to get hurt on their birthday, and while Kikkan Randall's minor back strain put a damper on her workout on Dec. 31, she had her physical therapist from Anchorage to help her recover (and win her first World Cup back) less than two weeks later.
Sean McCann is a sports psychologist who has worked for the USOC for over 20 years - and now he's embedded with the U.S. biathlon team, traveling to over half the World Cups so far this season. We chatted about what it's like to work with the team, and why his biggest push is to let the bad races go and get ready for good races to happen, every day.
Santi Ocariz is living proof that you don't need a ton of free time to keep skiing and training when possible. "I would describe my exercising as opportunistic," he says. "If everything else is done, then I treat myself to some exercise.” While not the most foolproof training plan, it was enough to help him nearly win the SISU Marathon last Saturday. A former elite skier, he might be an exception.
"I’m a firm believer that things happen in life for a reason," Todd Lodwick said Tuesday afternoon while icing his shoulder at the Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah. Four days after a "fluky" crash in a provisional jump in France, the U.S. Nordic Combined veteran is rehabbing stateside. "We’re going to move forward with every intention to go to the Olympic Games," he said.
Cross Country Canada announced Tuesday the six men and five women officially nominated onto the Sochi 2014 Canadian Olympic Cross Country Skiing Team:
Doug DeBold edged his former CXC teammate Santi Ocariz by the slimmest of margins last Saturday in the 42 k SISU Marathon in Ironwood, Mich. And he couldn't have done it without the pole Ocariz lent him a minute before the start. Another former CXC skier, Audrey Weber was the women's runner-up in her second SISU Marathon.
Four racers proved they deserve a spot on Canada’s Olympic team this weekend in the freestyle sprints and 15/30 k skiathlons. Heidi Widmer (AWCA/NST) and Jesse Cockney (AWCANST) took home top honors in the freestyle sprint, while Graeme Killick (AWCA/NST) and Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) won the skiathlon.
Tim Burke knew exactly what he did wrong to earn five penalties in Saturday's individual race: he took his time. "Actually for me usually the slower I shoot the worse I shoot," he said. Fixing that on Sunday, he shot 19-for-20 and was rewarded with a much-improved result.
Canada's JP Le Guellec had a very un-JP moment in Saturday's 20 k individual, missing three shots in the last stage for three painful minutes of penalty time. He battled back in the pursuit the next day, shooting a perfect 20-for-20 and climbing 20 places on the results sheet.
Sunday's classic team sprint in Nove Mesto was destined to be a showdown between Finland and Norway. Saarinen led the race for Finland in the final lap until a burst of speed from Østberg on the final climb secured a Norwegian victory.
Twenty-five days before the Olympics open in Sochi, Russia, Nikita Kriukov couldn’t have timed Sunday’s 6 x 1.6-kilometer team-classic sprint victory much better. The 28-year-old Russian’s execution was right up there as well. Meanwhile, Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell teamed up for one of the best U.S. men's team-sprint finishes in recent memory.