General – Page 133 – FasterSkier

Jump Like a Girl

Audrey ManganNovember 8, 2012

When talking about women’s ski jumping in 2012, it’s impossible not to frame the discussion within the context of the sport’s long fight to be recognized as an event worthy of inclusion at the Olympics. Lindsay Van and Co.’s failed 2009 legal battle against the Vancouver Games captured the attention of the mainstream media as a strikingly medieval story for the twenty-first century. It was announced in the spring of 2011 that women’s ski jumping...

General

New to FS: Your Questions Answered

Alex KochonNovember 8, 2012

Calling all questions! We want them. FasterSkier is seeking questions on any ski-related topic for a new Q & A series (which will be featured in its biweekly questions@fasterskier.com. Email addresses will not be published.

General Health Interviews

“Doping is Such a Shame Here”: Why Skiing’s Next Positive Test Won’t Come from Scandinavia

Chelsea LittleNovember 7, 2012

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Imagine if Charlotte Kalla or Marcus Hellner were caught this season with a positive test for EPO, or maybe a bag of blood in a hotel room. Or what if Ole Einar Bjørndalen showed up with HGH, or Petter Northug with steroids? If you can’t imagine any of these things, it’s because of a cultural change in Scandinavia in the last two or three decades that is the result largely of the...

Canadian National Ski Team General Interviews Lifestyle Training

Gaiazova on Her ‘180-Degree Turn’ with Training, Team

Alex KochonNovember 6, 2012

There’s Dasha2: It Takes More.’ If you talk to the 2010 Olympian, that’s exactly how she’s approached this season. After largely individualized plan while complying with national-team standards. In doing so, she chose to train with Louis Bouchard, the World Cup men’s assistant coach and head of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre (CNEPH) in Mont Sainte-Anne. That required a cross-country move and parting ways with Rocky Mountain Racers and its coach, John Jacques. She also signed...

General News

In Colorado, Communities Rally Behind Local Skiers

Audrey ManganNovember 6, 2012

On Saturday, a fundraiser was held in Aspen, Colo., to help support local U.S. Ski Team cross-country athletes Simi Hamilton and Noah Hoffman and nordic combined skier Michael Ward in their quest for international success. A few hundred community members came through the doors over the course of the evening, the sense of pride in their hometown practically tangible. It’s rare, when covering a sport largely from afar, to witness the inspirational power athletes have...

General News Other

Unable to Run First Marathon, Bente Skari Lends a Hand in NYC

Alex KochonNovember 5, 2012

Like some 47,000 others who intended to run the 2012 ING New York City Marathon, Bente Skari had a vision. It went something like finishing the 26.2-mile race, her first marathon, in 3 hours and 20 minutes on Sunday. That went out the window Friday when Mayor Michael Bloomberg called off the city’s signature event for the first time since its inception in 1970, citing widespread power outages and destruction following Superstorm Sandy. Norway’s 2002...

General News Racing World Cup

The Kikkan Effect

Audrey ManganNovember 2, 20123

It is saying nothing new to point out that Kikkan Randall becoming the World Cup Sprint Champion last season was a breakthrough for U.S. skiing. The enormity of the moment in March when an American woman was handed the crystal globe has been well documented since the conclusion of the 2012 season. Each photo that has surfaced online this summer of Randall, her trophy and a new group of wide-eyed fans is a reminder...

General Interviews Nordic Combined Racing

New to NoCo: Looser Suits, Longer Final and Fan Interaction

Alex KochonNovember 2, 2012

This summer, U.S. Nordic Combined Head Coach Dave Jarrett expressed his frustration with zero-centimeters of leeway when it comes to form-fitting jump suits. If the disqualified because he hadn’t tailored his suit between competitions. Officials randomly checked Demong and discovered his jump suit had 3 centimeters of extra space. Jarrett said in an October phone interview that the +2 centimeter rule, which follows international ski-jumping regulations, was a compromise. “It’s essentially tight suits, but it’s...

General News Training Workouts

The College Workout: Negative Splits with UVM

Audrey ManganNovember 1, 20121

There are few things in skiing more important than knowing physical limits of one’s own body. Just ask Patrick Weaver, head coach of the 2012 NCAA Champions at the University of Vermont. “More often than not, we find when we get to a race people don’t know how to listen to their body and go out at the right pace,” he said. “The common mistake is they go out too hard and then the second...

Camps Canadian National Ski Team General Training Uncategorized

Canadians Choose Sweden for Skiing, Coffee; Australian Picks Canmore

Alex KochonOctober 31, 2012

This week, World Cup cross-country skiers across North America are checking their lists, checking them twice, loading up on supplies and then cutting their luggage in half to prepare for a long season over in Europe. The Canadian national team is headed over to Sweden next Wednesday on Nov. 7, about 2 ½ weeks before the World Cup opens in Gällivare, Sweden. Meanwhile, several U.S. Ski Team members are flying to Finland within the next...

Continental Cup Dryland General Interviews Lifestyle Other Training

Zimmermann Takes Training to Peru with Inca Runners

Alex KochonOctober 30, 2012

When Peru’s first Winter Olympian asks you to help him out, you say yes. At least that’s how Leif Zimmermann reacted last year. The two were acquaintances when Roberto Carcelén, a Peruvian cross-country skier who made the Vancouver Games at the age of 39, told Zimmermann – a Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) skier and 2006 Olympian – about his Inca Runners company. Still racing the occasional SuperTour, NorAm and national championship at the age of...

Canadian National Ski Team Continental Cup General Racing US Ski Team

Frozen Thunder Sprint Showdown: Notes and Quotes

Alex KochonOctober 29, 2012

While it was great to hear from several top skiers on the Canadian and U.S. nordic ski teams on Friday, we weren’t able to fit everything into the recaps of the men’s and women’s time trials. Here are some extras and outtakes from the WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic, an unofficial sprint showdown between North American teams in Canmore, Alberta. (Original race stories with link to results: women) On pre-race problems: I was PO’ed because I...

Canadian National Ski Team Continental Cup General News Racing Training US Ski Team

Crawford Catches Jones, Lunges for Frozen Thunder Sprint Title

Alex KochonOctober 26, 2012

There’s only so much warming up one can do on a 1.8-kilometer course with more than 70 other people using it. That’s why Chandra Crawford spent part of her 45-minute prep before the WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic at the Canmore Nordic Centre dancing with Jessie Diggins. While the first unofficial race of the season and certainly the largest sprint in North America so far tested both Canadian and U.S. national team skiers, it also brought...

Canadian National Ski Team Continental Cup General News Racing US Ski Team

Newell Does Ol’ Switcheroo to Win Frozen Thunder Sprint

Alex KochonOctober 26, 2012

Andy Newell didn’t have time to make a game plan. It all came kind of naturally. The 27-year-old U.S. Ski Team veteran (who also skis for the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team) was pretty busy worrying about whether he’d have enough time to warm up for the inaugural WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic on Friday, and how late that school bus he was following was going to make him. Turns out he had just enough time...

General Interviews Regional / Local

After Bad Bike Crash, Liebsch ‘Diving Headfirst’ into Full Season

Alex KochonOctober 26, 20121

Matt Liebsch couldn’t believe the nerves he was fighting before the 2012 American Birkebeiner. A Minnesota ski hero at the ultimate of U.S. cross-country marathons, Liebsch had won the 50-kilometer skate race in 2009. In early February, he took back-to-back victories at the 2012 Boulder Mountain Tour and City of Lakes Loppet. But the last time Team Birkie’s lone elite skier raced the Birkie in 2011, he was ninth. And he hadn’t competed in three...

General Health Strength

This Month in Journals: Does Compartment Syndrome Diagnosis Method Lead to Unnecessary Surgeries?

Chelsea LittleOctober 26, 2012

FasterSkier is starting a once-a-month series looking at new research in the field of sports science. Periodically, we’ll flip through some of the world’s best peer-reviewed medical journals and summarize, in plain English, studies that we think will be of interest to skiers. Here’s our second installment; you can check out the first in a recent paper in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. “The pathophysiology of the condition is poorly understood,...

General News

Ski Denver Brings City Skiing To Colorado

Audrey ManganOctober 25, 2012

One of the more ironic aspects to living in the Front Range of Colorado, from a skier’s perspective, is the fact of being so close to some of the best skiing in the U.S. and yet having to drive so far to actually access it. Denver residents can see snow-capped peaks from the city, but usually have to drive at least an hour to reach decent cross-country skiing. The Denver Nordic Ski Association, or Ski...

Camps General Nordic Combined Training

U.S. NoCo Takes Captain America to Europe; Jarrett Speaks in Tokyo

Alex KochonOctober 25, 2012

The U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team strives for a lot of things – medals, depth, continued improvement – but flying under the radar isn’t one of them. Anyone who followed the team and one if its racers, Taylor Fletcher, for the past 10 days in Europe could tell you that. The younger of two brothers on the team, Taylor, 22, ran around in a full-body Captain America costume throughout the trip from Oct. 15-25, which...

General Juniors News Regional / Local

Anchorage Community Rallies for Critically Injured APU Skier

Alex KochonOctober 24, 2012

Holly Brooks felt like she had been punched in the stomach when she heard the news from Alaska Pacific University (APU) development coach Charlie Renfro. One of their skiers, 13-year-old Mary Robicheaux, had been hit by a car while riding her bike the night of Aug. 28, and it was unclear whether she was going to survive. A driver ran a stoplight and struck the eighth grader, who was in a crosswalk with the traffic...

Camps Dryland General Racing Regional / Local Training

Nishikawa Edges Ellefson, Stephen Runs Solo to Win Spray Drag

Alex KochonOctober 24, 2012

Thirty-six men in the Spray Drag running race didn’t end up chasing Devon Kershaw up Spray Lakes Road in Canmore, Alberta, on Saturday, but they had one heck of a battle from the start. According to American Sylvan Ellefson (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Team HomeGrown), the pace was fast for a bunch of nordic skiers early on. “Any road runner could have pulled away, but it was a quick pace,” he wrote in an email....

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