General – Page 16 – FasterSkier

NBC Sports Announces its “Snow Pass” for World Cups and World Championship Events

Jason AlbertOctober 25, 2018

Over the past few years, NBC has also been in the business of streaming and broadcasting ski racing events. Last winter, live and on-demand World Cup cross-country skiing could be viewed on NBC’s Olympic Channel. The Olympic Channel was a subscription-based pay-to-view service offered by NBC on either its website or through its cable TV broadcast. Watching the World Cup, in all its snow sliding varieties, remains an option for the 2018-2019 season. On...

General Juniors Masters News Racing Travel

A New Start For the Methow Valley in its Quest for a Signature Race

Jason AlbertOctober 23, 2018

Washington’s Methow Valley is the literal end of the road in winter. There’s one way in from the south. There’s route 20, a sinuous side spur plunging down from Omak in the Okanogan Highlands to the Methow’s eastern edge. Otherwise, travel by car terminates just beyond Mazama — the small town nestled in the valley’s north. The Methow’s charm remains its solitude and mellowed pace. Despite the wifi and cell service, there’s the real...

Doping General News

Beckie Scott Describes “Disrespect” and “Laughter” From WADA Colleagues, Steps Down From CRC

Gabby NaranjaOctober 22, 2018

On September 20th, this year, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Executive Committee made the decision reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). WADA’s 12 person Executive Committee had met in Seychelles to vote on a recommendation from the Compliance Review Committee (CRC) that RUSADA’s suspension be lifted. Nine Executive Committee members voted in favor of the CRC’s recommendation, two voted against, and one abstained. Days before WADA decided to reinstate RUSADA, former Canadian cross-country skier, Beckie...

General News Racing Results Training Workouts

Wednesday Workout: Using Poles on the Ups with Caitlin Patterson

Gabby NaranjaOctober 17, 2018

This week’s workout comes from Caitlin Patterson, a Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) skier and 2018 Winter Olympian. We asked the 28-year-old Patterson, an accomplished mountain runner as well, about training and racing with poles while hiking or running. When and what type of terrain does she typically use them for, and what kind of workout would she recommend with poles? *** It may come as no surprise that many of Caitlin Patterson’s dryland workouts...

Dryland General News Racing

Patterson, Harmeyer Win ‘Largest North American Rollerski Race’, NENSA Fall Classic

FasterSkierOctober 15, 2018

This past weekend, more than 170 skiers descended upon the Camp Ethan Allen Training Site at the Vermont National Guard base in Jericho, Vermont, for the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) Rossignol Fall Rollerski Classic. According to NENSA Competitive Programs Director Justin Beckwith, the field size nearly doubled from last year, and he believed 172 finishers made it the largest North American rollerski race. The event was hosted in conjunction with the Mansfield Nordic...

General Interviews News

Norway’s New Junior Coach, Former SMU Runner Monika Kørra

Jason AlbertOctober 12, 2018

In early August, Norwegian Monika Kørra was named Norway’s national junior team coach, an under-the-radar, nordic news event that resonates. Kørra, a 29-year-old accomplished runner and cross-country athlete in Norway, comes to the job with an undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and a master’s in coaching and sport psychology, which she completed in Oslo this summer. Kørra’s primary athletes are 12 junior skiers (six boys and six girls) that comprise Norway’s National...

General Interviews News

Torchia on the Ups, Downs and All He’s Learned Since His First USST Nomination

Gabby NaranjaOctober 11, 2018

Two summers ago, with just five miles left of the Marquette Trails Fest 30-mile mountain bike race, all Ian Torchia could hear in his head was the voice of Krystof Kopal, his Northern Michigan University (NMU) teammate, snidely saying, “You drop out again?” Fifteen minutes earlier, Torchia had careened into a tree. After dusting himself off, he remounted his bike, but not before noticing his left wrist was badly injured. For a moment, Torchia considered...

General Lifestyle Training Workouts

Wednesday Workout: ‘Trailheading’ with Team Gregg

FasterSkierOctober 10, 2018

This week, we’re featuring a workout from the training logs of Team Gregg. These days, husband and wife Brian and Caitlin Gregg are adjusting to life, training and bodily changes as Caitlin is pregnant with their first child (a girl), due in early February. Read the full story here. Caitlin sent us the following “trailheading” workout, in reference to starting and ending a workout with someone else, which is how they often train together. ***...

Continental Cup General Interviews News Regional / Local

Soon-To-Be Parents, Caitlin and Brian Gregg on the Winter Ahead

Alex KochonOctober 9, 2018

The questions started rolling in this spring. How’s training going? Are you going for 2019 World Championships? What’s the plan for next winter? When you’re Caitlin and Brian Gregg, Olympians and local superstars in the Midwest, it’s hard to keep your athletic profile on the DL. Since buying a house on Theodore Wirth Park seven years ago, the couple has immersed themselves in the greater Minneapolis community — both in and out of skiing. They’ve...

General News Olympics

Calgary in Final Three for 2026 Olympics

Gerry FursethOctober 8, 2018

The bidding process for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics is crawling forward, and when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the shortlist last Thursday, Oct. 4, Calgary was in the final three. Much has changed since the last time Calgary, Alberta, hosted the Games in 1988 as well as since Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2010. The IOC is now in favour of joint bids, re-use of existing facilities and lower costs. These improvements have resulted...

Collegiate General Interviews Racing

NENSA Coach of the Year, Alsobrook on Bowdoin’s Upward Path

Rachel PerkinsOctober 2, 2018

Building on one of its most successful seasons yet, the Bowdoin College nordic ski team, out of Brunswick, Maine, recently jumped back into training under the guidance of head coach Nathan Alsobrook. Last winter, three skiers qualified for NCAA Skiing Championships, one alumna qualified for the U.S. Olympic team (Kaitlynn Miller, class of 2014), and one visually impaired skier Maine State Championship, for example … so we’re really excited to go after that this year. We’ve come close...

General News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

Minnesota’s World Cup: One Day of Skate Sprints, $1.6-1.7 Million

Gabby NaranjaOctober 1, 2018

Following the 2017 World Cup Finals in Canada, John Munger, executive director of the Loppet Foundation, received a phone call from a fellow Minnesotan. Jessie Diggins had just completed her 2016/2017 season, and she had a question for Munger. If Quebec could host a World Cup, why couldn’t Minnesota? “She was really jealous of her colleagues in Canada,” Munger recalled in a phone interview on Sunday. The North American home crowd in Quebec City had...

General News Racing Regional / Local US Ski Team World Cup

Minneapolis to Host 2020 FIS Cross Country World Cup

FasterSkierSeptember 28, 2018

(Press release) The International Ski Federation (FIS) today officially confirmed that Minnesota will host a World Cup cross-country ski event in Minneapolis in March 2020. U.S. Ski & Snowboard and the Loppet Foundation will serve as hosts of the World Cup event, taking place at the new ‘The Trailhead’ facility in Theodore Wirth Park. “A Minnesotan who brought home a gold medal has now helped us bring home the World Cup,” said host committee co-chair RT...

General Interviews Juniors News US Ski Team

Fish on Promoting the U.S. Development ‘Pathway’ vs. the ‘Pipeline’

Rachel PerkinsSeptember 25, 2018

JACKSON, Wyoming — Last last month, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced that Bryan Fish had been promoted to cross country sport development manager. FasterSkier sat down with Fish on Sept. 14 at Jackson Hole’s Center for the Arts, where he was leading a Level 200 coaching clinic, to learn more about this transition and how his new position will support the national development program. He also provided insight into the development program’s philosophy and goals...

Collegiate Continental Cup General Juniors Lifestyle Racing Resources Training US Ski Team

The College Conflict: Part 2

FasterSkierSeptember 24, 2018

The following was written by Alayna Sonnesyn, a new member of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team who graduated from the University of Vermont (UVM) this past spring. Originally from Plymouth, Minnesota, Sonnesyn, 22, raced on the UVM Ski Team for four years and qualified for four NCAA Skiing Championships teams. She placed second and third in two races at 2017 NCAA Championships, and in her senior season, won the first five Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association...

Doping General News

WADA and RUSADA: The Conditions Moving Forward

Jason AlbertSeptember 22, 2018

After the announcement that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Executive Committee, which WADA refers to in short at the ExCo, voted 9-2 in favor of reinstating the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) on Thursday, it released a statement describing what it considers a conditional reinstatement. As mentioned in an previous FasterSkier article, Russia has not fulfilled two outstanding provisions laid out in WADA’s “roadmap” for reinstatement. In its most recent public statement on the matter, also published on...

Doping General News

WADA Executive Committee Votes to Reinstate RUSADA

Jason AlbertSeptember 20, 2018

A full Olympic quad after Sochi, nothing remains irrefutably clean. Off the radar then on again, the Sochi doping scandal has sent recent tremors through the sports world. In a quick summary, after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the host nation was handed sanctions for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics that affected some of its athletes. A total ban from Rio was not enacted despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommending the contrary. Russian athletes...

Continental Cup General News Racing

Brown, Geraghty-Moats Win 2018 Climb to the Castle; Doubleday Race Format Unveiled

Peter MindeSeptember 17, 2018

On a humid fall Sunday in northern New York where temperatures reached an uncharacteristic 80 degrees, Jake Brown of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project and US Biathlon Development Team and Tara Geraghty-Moats of USA Nordic won the 2018 Climb to the Castle. Brown’s time was 35:40.7, while Geraghty-Moats finished in 45:03. Big Gaps and Clear Wins On the men’s side, Brown’s Craftsbury teammate Raleigh Goessling finished second in 38:16.6, and Erikson Moore of the Fondeurs-Laurentides...

Biathlon General News Racing

Sweden’s Dahlin Elected IBU President as Reforms Rolled Out

Harald ZimmerSeptember 13, 2018

The past year certainly has not been an easy one for the International Biathlon Union (IBU), the governing body in the sport of biathlon for the past 25 years. The sports federation had to take the unusual measure of suspending the Russian Biathlon Union, historically one of the core countries for biathlon, to a provisional member status. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned several prominent athletes, including biathletes, from that nation from participating in the 2018...

General Interviews Para Nordic Racing

Former Swimmer Kendall Gretsch on Unexpected Paralympic Golds, Hunger for More

Gabby NaranjaSeptember 11, 2018

As a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Kendall Gretsch stumbled across an article that would change her life. It was the spring of 2012, just a few months before the Summer Paralympics in London. Gretsch had been reading the local news when she came across a story about a St. Louis college student who hoped to attend the London Games as part of the U.S. Paralympics Swimming team. Born with spina...

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