On Tuesday night, FasterSkier launched a completely rebuilt and redesigned website. Here is a bit more information on new features and what is still to come.
HomeCategory
General
All other miscellaneous news.
Four-time World Champion Martin Fourcade placed 48th in Saturday's cross country World Cup, but was left disappointed on a day where he said he couldn't have done well even in a biathlon race. Fourcade told FasterSkier that biathletes have nothing to prove, and he still hopes to race the World Championships relay for France.
After Scoring Points in Gällivare, Gräfnings Earns World Cup Starts in Kuusamo, Canmore
Chelsea LittleNovember 28, 2012
A two-time NCAA Champion representing the University of Utah, Maria Grafnings earned World Cup starts in Gallivare as part of Sweden's Nations Group. There, she ran with the honors, finishing as the sixth Swede in the 10 k skate.
NorAm Preview: World Cup Starts on the Line and More
Alex KochonNovember 27, 2012
While the U.S. SuperTour season has already started, the Canadians are just about to get warmed up -- and without much time to do so -- when the NorAm opener doubles as Canadian World Cup trials this weekend.
World Cup Descends on Gällivare; Athletes to Be Tested on Unrelentingly Technical Courses (With Photo Gallery)
Chelsea LittleNovember 23, 2012
Any number of Swedish men seem capable of topping the podium on home turf. Here, Marcus Hellner leads teammates on some pickups. Otherwise, the heavy hitters come at the end: Dario Cologna and Marit Bjørgen hold the honors of being last season’s World Cup winners, and so will kick off this season wearing their yellow bibs and starting last (that puts the Norwegian as bib 78 and the Swiss star as bib 97). The last...
West Organizers Work Hard to Get Skiers on Snow
Alex KochonNovember 21, 2012
A week ago, Yellowstone Ski Festival organizers saw the writing on the wall and started planning ahead. They might not get much snow, but they were going to get people to the white stuff somehow. For the first time, they offered a shuttle system to the South Plateau, which required some timely logistics.
West Yellowstone Distance Race Moves to Plateau
West YellowstoneNovember 20, 2012
The following is a press release from the West Yellowstone Festival director, Moira Dow, on the status of the upcoming SuperTour opener. Check back on FasterSkier for more information regarding SuperTour options in West Yellowstone and Bozeman, Mont. Thank you all for attending this year’s Fall Festival, and thank you for your patience while we explore our best options for hosting this seasons scheduled races. With the uncertainties of the weather combined with our...
Entering his third straight season with the Canadian Para-Nordic World Cup Team, Erik Carleton has already made some big decisions this year. Among them, he had to choose whether to race the Alberta Cross Country World Cup in Canmore or go for gold at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cup opener in Vuokatti, Finland. It must be tough to be Carleton, a competitive-nordic racer who doubles as a Para-Nordic guide for Brian McKeever, arguably the...
Harvey, Crawford Break Up Swedish Sweep in Bruksvallarna
Alex KochonNovember 16, 2012
In and around Scandinavia on Friday morning, several nordic races kicked off the season. While the International Ski Federation (FIS) events in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, were among some of the shortest, few likely complained about a 5- and 10-kilometer classic race at this point in the year. It’s November. The World Cup races start in a week. Let’s just get the kinks out. Several skiers across Europe tweeted about their legs feeling a little syrupy, which...
If you’ve been checking the Rendezvous Ski Trails Festival website about weather and conditions that are beyond anyone’s control. “We’re waiting,” begins a Thursday grooming report. “waiting for snow, waiting to see what’s coming…waiting, waiting, waiting.”
Canadian World Cup Team Preview: Even Bigger Expectations
Alex KochonNovember 15, 2012
Without a doubt, the Canadian World Cup team faced some challenges last season even though its results didn’t really show it. Sure, every team has its ups and downs and occasional tizzy, but Canada generally kept it under wraps. Devon Kershaw continued to podium one weekend after the next and ended up second overall in the World Cup. Simultaneously, most of his teammates also notched personal bests: Alex Harvey finished sixth overall, Lenny Valjas tallied three...
This is the debut article for our new section: a classic Question and Answer. In every biweekly issue of Caldwell Sport What is the best way to sharpen rollerski pole tips? — Dave Sharp rollerski ferrules are essential to keep you training longer and prevent injury. At Gear West we recommend the Edgecrafter Diamond Sharpener. The tool is substantial enough to give your ferrules a great sharp tip, but also small enough to take...
(Note: This article has been updated to reflect the number of competitors registered as of Friday, Nov. 16, and approximate number of red-group skiers.) With the Alberta World Cup in Canmore less than a month (more precisely, four weeks) away, Organizing Committee Chair Ken Hewitt said it’s been a whirlwind at work. The phone rings by the minute, emails are piling up in his inbox, but it’s all good. As of Friday, Hewitt wrote in...
The following is a press release from the National Nordic Foundation Thank you to all who have gotten involved in the National Nordic Foundation’s (NNF) Drive for 25. So far our American Nordic nation has stepped up BIG! From Alaska to Minnesota to Maine, from California to Connecticut and everywhere in between. Our community has rallied in an amazing show of support. Over 800 individuals with donations as small as $5 have stepped up to...
Note: This preview has been updated to include comments from Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane. The way U.S. Nordic Combined Head Coach Dave Jarrett sees it, why tweak something that works? Last year was a success by many measures with four athletes interchangeably placing in the top 20, some often in the top 10. Olympic gold medalist Billy Demong hit the podium in his comeback season after taking some time off to raise a baby,...
Sprint Drops Athlete Phone Service; Partnership with USST Otherwise Unchanged
Audrey ManganNovember 13, 2012
After supplying U.S. Ski Team (USST) A-Team athletes with free cell phone service for the past few years, Sprint will not provide the service in the coming season. According to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) Chief Marketing Officer Michael Jaquet, the termination of the athlete phone program does not affect the rest of Sprint’s current sponsorship agreement with USSA, which extends through the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018. “[Sprint] has been a great partner...
Fifty Years Later, Olympic Anti-Doping Quest is Unrecognizably Changed for the Better
Chelsea LittleNovember 12, 2012
Note: This is the third piece culled from an interview with Professor Arne Ljungqvist. The first two addressed current challenges faced by the International Ski Federation (FIS) and other anti-doping groups today. Since humans first started challenging each other in feats of athleticism, there have been cheaters. And likely for almost that long, there have been cheaters that used some sort of performance enhancing substances to beat their competitors. But it wasn’t until the 1960s...
It’s that time of year again. After months of waiting for mother nature to validate your existence, she kindly obliges with a dusting here and there of early-season snow. The minute you judge the ground to be adequately covered, you drop everything and are out the door. Perhaps there was grass still poking through. There might not have been time to change out the baskets on your poles. Or maybe you were lucky enough to...
Canada World Cups: Who Gets to Go?
Alex KochonNovember 9, 2012
This past spring, nine Canadians learned they prequalified for their nation’s World Cups in December. Most had an inkling they were in the mix; last season’s NorAm winners Kevin Sandau and Alysson Marshall automatically guaranteed themselves starts in every Québec and Alberta World Cup race, as did the second-place finishers Brent McMurtry and Emily Nishikawa. But then there were some wild cards, like Canadian national-team biathlete Rosanna Crawford. In March, Crawford jumped into a couple...
One of the first things Lenny Valjas did upon arriving in Östersund, Sweden, on Thursday was put a pole strap on. His Canadian World Cup teammate Alex Harvey went out for a ski shortly after arriving in Europe early that evening, but not Valjas. He stood in his hotel room testing out the strap on his left hand. Valjas, 23, is going to be paying a lot of attention to that hand and more specifically,...