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which FasterSkier did some interesting work on), the outspoken Pole was thoroughly dominated by Norwegian superstar Marit Bjoergen whenever the two raced head to head. The Pole won just three of those face-offs, and lost to Bjoergen all four times they raced against each other at World Championships, leaving little doubt as to who was the superior skier. She probably doesn’t care all that much, but Kowalczyk didn’t make any friends stateside after her little...

least impressive finishing sprint last season. Of course, Jaks may be following a little too closely in Bauers’ footsteps. The 25 year old qualified in just two sprints on the season (both during the Tour), although he finished a surprising impressive seventh in one. Lukas Bauer himself was his usual strongman self, especially on the Final Climb during the Tour de Ski. The Czech slow-twitch muscle wonder topped Alpe Cermis 30 seconds faster than his...

she proclaimed that she returned with her eye on the Crystal Globe, Majdic was a tad disappointing during distance racing in her final year, picking up a single medal, a bronze in the 5 k classic during the Kuusamo mini-tour. We know, it’s crazy that someone who won the Sprint Cup, finished 13th in the distance rankings, and sixth in the overall could be called ‘disappointing’, but that’s the standard her rabid fans, and she...

At the age of 34, Lukas Bauer of has already done pretty much everything a skier can hope for. At the 2006 Olympics in Torino, he won silver in the 15 k classic. In Vancouver four years later, Bauer took home bronze in both the 15 k skate and the relay. He owns a silver medal from 2009 World Championships in the 15 k classic, and he has twice won the Tour de Ski; in...

recorded his first-ever World Cup victory. It may have taken him seven seasons to get it, and FIS may consider it a ‘stage victory’ rather than a full on win, but for everyone else, Kershaw has stood on the top step, and is now a truly elite skier. Not to be out-done, Alex Harvey popped over to Under-23 World Championships for a one-race guest appearance in the 30 k pursuit. After a thrilling battle with...

Youth Olympic Games Presents: Paddy Caldwell

(Note: This is the fourth in a series of interviews with athletes who will be competing at the first-ever winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria this winter. The second with Anna Kubek, the third with Aleksandra Zakrzewska, all U.S. biathletes. The last was with John competed in the 1952 Games, and his father Tim competed in four more. When Caldwell was selected as America’s sole male nordic skier for the Youth Olympic Games in...

NEW YORK — After Norwegian ski legend and five-time gold medalist Thomas Alsgaard, 39, decided not to run the New York City Marathon, he met with FasterSkier’s Nat Herz on Saturday at a diner on Broadway. He said his legs weren’t ready for the 26.2-mile grind, a decision he came to after trying to run for two hours in Central Park on Friday. After an 1 1/2 hours, he had to walk back. On Sunday,...

a new profile picture. While Freeman was strong, Randall was pure dynamite. The exciting Alaskan earned 400 more points than her previous best season on the World Cup, finishing 10th in the race for the crystal globe, and third in the Sprint Cup standings. She even had the Norwegians shaking in their boots before World Championships. Randall earned four World Cup medals last season, including two gold. One in a skate sprint in Drammen, Norway,...

Thomas Alsgaard will skip the 2011 New York City Marathon on Sunday, despite traveling to the U.S. to run in the race. The Norwegian Olympic champion has been struggling with leg pain after ratcheting up his running hours this summer in anticipation of the marathon, and he was forced to cut short a training run in Central Park on Friday. “I’ve been away from running too long, I guess,” he said in an interview. “Starting...

FasterSkier tipped ‘Polto’, as he is affectionately known around the office, as the man to watch. The young Kazakh did not disappoint, as bagging a silver medal in the sprint during the Kuusamo mini-tour, before falling to 15th in the overall Tour standings. The following weekend in Davos, Switzerland, he Vladimir Smirnov? We here at FasterSkier aren’t willing to call it quite yet, but we’re convinced he has the skills to be pretty darn successful....

an injury forced him to sit out of his final World Championships, and call it a career. The Estonian strong-man was feted, celebrated, patted on the back, and given rounds of applause – until he The lawyers are still battling it out) and opted to retire before World Championships. This created  a not-insignificant amount of outrage both pro and con-Veerpalu, but Odd-Bjorn Hjelmset demand more. What You Need To Know for This Season The hurricane...

this cool split graph of the relay race to see just how impressive the Japanese were. Oh, and just in case you think that FasterSkier is under-selling the achievement of the young Japanese men, they have a grand total of 62 career World Cup starts combined. For comparison, the Russian team that they edged out for 6th has over 170 trips to a World Cup start line between them. After the tragic earthquake and tsunami...

Anchorage’s New World-Class Biathlon Range Is a Game-Changer

Anchorage has long been home to many of the country’s best nordic skiers. With elite teams like APU, Alaska Winter Stars, the University of Alaska Anchorage, several strong high school programs, and a thriving recreational and masters race scene, skiers couldn’t ask for a more supportive community. But biathletes? That was another story. “I started biathlon in 2003, back when the Kincaid [shooting] range was at its old location,” 2011 World Junior Championships team member...

winning the 42 k freestyle La Sgambeda in Livigno, Italy, last December. What You Need To Know for This Season Despite being one year older, and seeing her numbers continuously decline, Shevchenko is Ukrainian Ski Association website lists 15 members of the National Team, as well as no fewer than six coaches. Also, when translating the page, a certain skier comes up as ‘Alex Fast’ or ‘Alex Speed’ and

recent interview, Prochazkova is skipping the first World Cup weekend in Beitostolen, Norway, in favour of focusing on the mini-tour in Kuusamo, Finland, the following week. In the interview she also mentioned her goals were to finish in the top 10in the Sprint Cup, and that while funding for Slovakian sport has been reduced, she has not been affected. Who You Should Watch Peter Mlynar is still young, and has had a few bright spots,...

qualifying win during the skate sprint in Toblach, Italy, on the Tour de Ski before dropping to 11th on the day. Tritscher also paired up with Austrian A-Team member Harald Wurm to finish 4th in the Dusseldorf team sprint, out-gunning the Russians second team of Nikita Kruikov and Andrey Parfenov to the line. As for the Austrian women, Katerina Smutna was the only game in town. She was fairly consistent in sprinting, but she took...

Youth Olympic Games Presents: Danielle Vrielink

(Note: This is the fourth in a series of interviews with athletes who will be competing at the first-ever winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria this winter. The second with Anna Kubek, the third with Aleksandra Zakrzewska, all U.S. biathletes.) 2011 was a big year for Canadian biathlete Danielle Vrielink. Perhaps the most obvious accomplishment for the Calgary native was a trip to the World Youth Championships in the Czech Republic, her first international...

Team 20: Belarus

fourth place finish in the 30 k pursuit shocked many who were not familiar with the big-game performing Byelorussian, but it was his participation in the 50 k freestyle that really turned heads. With just over one kilometer to go, Dolidovich was cruising along comfortably in second place when disastrous sprint relay at the Olympics two seasons ago, the Byelorussians failed to score a single point in the team event this past year. And speaking...

Asian Winter Games, held in Almaty, Kazaksthan. The event was not classified as an FIS race, but did feature some top Kazak and Japanese skiers in addition to the Chinese. While the fields were certainly not deep (the average starting numbers were around 8 skiers) young Dandan Man had the best outing, finishing 4th in the sprint, just .1 of a second behind Kazakh World Cup sprint regular Oxana Jatskaya. The Chinese also have their...