The International Ski Federation (FIS) Doping Panel has ruled that the competition ban on Estonia’s Andrus Veerpalu will have to start from scratch. The three-year doping ban was originally set to end the day the 2014 Olympic Games concluded, but because he violated its terms this winter by testing skis for the Estonian team at the Otepää World Cup this January, the ban’s start date has been reset to January 21, 2012. The World Anti-Doping Agency...
Most days of the week, Alex Harvey hits the road to Québec City, where he works out with the Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre, undergoes physio treatments and studies law at Laval University. The drive along route 440 from Mont Sainte-Anne (MSA) to Québec’s capital is about 45 kilometers and lined with views worth pulling over for. Just outside the city, there’s Montmorency Falls, the province’s largest waterfall and 30 meters (98 feet) higher than Niagara...
Less than a week after racing in Germany last December, Alysson Marshall smiled as she soaked up her surroundings at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre in Vernon, British Columbia. The Canadian senior development team member had just completed the first four World Cups of her career and left Europe on an extremely high note. With national team skier Dasha Gaiazova, she placed 21st in the team sprint in Düsseldorf, Germany. Six days later, Marshall won...
The 2012 edition of the spring International Ski Federation (FIS) Congress draws to a close on Thursday in Kangwonland, South Korea. While the selection of the 2017 World Championships host has yet to be announced, several decisions have been finalized pertaining to World Cup races for next season. The Norwegian National Team’s
Drenched in sweat, Alex Harvey stood surrounded by fans, media and children. He couldn’t have escaped the swarm at Mont Sainte-Anne if he wanted to. People wanted his autograph, answers and face in their photos. Two months after the masses flocked to the Québec ski area to see their hometown World Cup skier win three straight races at Canadian Ski Nationals, life for Harvey had mellowed. On Tuesday afternoon, the 23-year-old was headed to Laval...
Note: This article has been updated to reflect the correct time between Holly Brooks and Alysson Marshall, and include quotes from Pate Neumann. One was a native. Another was a ringer. Both Brian Gregg and Holly Brooks found themselves at the front of the pack in the first of the The Bellingham Herald. It was Gregg’s second year on the competitive-open team. “The other guys on the team are really fast and it is fun...
They spend half the year competing against Norway every weekend in Europe, but for a few days this June, U.S. distance specialists Kris Freeman and Noah Hoffman will be welcomed into the Norwegian National Team’s training camp on the snow fields at Sognefjell. If you don’t happen to read every paid advertisement that goes up on this site, you may have missed the announcement of this website, Alsgaard saw Hoffman ski last December in Davos,...
The Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC) officially grew by two on Thursday, adding U.S. Ski Team veteran Kris Freeman and US Biathlete Annelies Cook to its roster. They join another national team member, biathlete Russell Currier, and three others on the Caribou-based club’s Olympic development team. While the MWSC’s competitive program took off in earnest 11 years ago and produced several Olympic biathletes and cross-country Olympian Ben Koons, the recent signings mean more good news...
The Blink Ski Festival, touted as the largest summer ski event in the world, takes place in Sandnes, Norway, every July and attracts some of the best skiers in the world. This year its international lineup extends to the US; Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephen will be joining an impressive lineup of other world-class nordic athletes at the festival, which runs July 19 – 21. The rollerski festival features biathlon and cross-country events for juniors...
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BEND, Ore. – Jessie Diggins had a big year in 2012. After thoroughly dominating the domestic racing scene in the fall and early winter, the CXC and U.S. Ski Team athlete headed to Europe, where she immediately made a splash on the World Cup. In her first race there, in Milan, she finished 18th in the freestyle sprint, then followed it up with a second-place finish in the team sprint with Kikkan Randall. Diggins went...
Anyone unfamiliar with Michael Jaquet might be a little puzzled as to why he’d leave CBS after five years as a senior executive. A native of Sun Valley, Idaho, he spent seven years in TV, first at College Sports Television in national broadcast sales. Two years later, CBS took over and Jaquet rose to vice president of television and properties sales at the cable sports network. But New York City just wasn’t for him. Jaquet’s...
In the months following its first camp of the year in Bend, Ore., the U.S. Ski Team (USST) has several new training destinations planned along with its old standbys: the men and women will split up and head to Alaska, Sweden, Austria and Germany over the course of the summer. And for the first time since its first trip to New Zealand 10 years ago, the Snow Farm is completely off the schedule. The women’s...
While most of his cross-country skiing brethren kicked up the last bits of snow at Spring Series in Craftsbury, Vt., Lars Flora was hard at work at home in Anchorage, Alaska, crunching numbers and finalizing details of his upcoming trip. It would have been easy if he had been the only one traveling to Northwest Alaska, but Flora had 17 volunteer coaches and two doctors to accommodate, the NANA Development Corporation to run by, and...
Perianne Jones knows how to take advantage of time off when she can. With her wedding coming up in July, the Canadian World Cup team member recently spent a couple of weeks in France with her soon-to-be hubby Joel Jaques. One of the team’s year-round wax technicians, Jaques is pretty busy himself. The two spent the first half of their vacation visiting someone they saw all winter, head technician Yves Bilodeau, before heading south to...
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) has released its preliminary list of athletes on the 2012 U.S. Ski Team. The nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria. The USSA will announce the actual team roster this fall, naming those athletes who accept the responsibilities of being a part of the U.S. Nordic Combined and are planning to compete in the 2012-13 season. Team staff will work individually with nominated...
Where the spring of 2011 saw six new additions to the U.S. Ski Team (USST) roster, in 2012 the cross-country nominations remain largely the same as the year before. There are a few notable exceptions: Holly Brooks is now an official part of the national team with her B-team nomination and both Jessie Diggins and Simi Hamilton have been promoted to the A-team. The list indicates no departures, though until each athlete officially accepts his...
When Carolyn and Santi Ocariz clicked into their rollerskis slightly more than two months ago, neither really knew what they were in for. The Wisconsin couple heard plenty of stories about the places they’d travel through. They took to heart the warnings about crazy drivers, snakes and treacherous temperatures while crossing America’s heartland. It might not be hot when they left, but it could get brutal, and the elements could change 180 degrees by the...
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