The North American performance in Saturday’s U-23 classic sprint certainly wasn’t embarassing. Behind a dominating victory by Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen, Canada’s Alysson Marshall was 12th, cracking the semifinals for her first time as a U-23. And the U.S.’s Sadie Bjornsen was 11th in the prelim, ahead of one of the podium finishers. But none of the three American women who qualified for the heats in Otepaa, Estonia, made it past the quarterfinals, and there was...
Michael Sinnott of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Olympic Development Team won the men’s USSA SuperTour classic sprint in 3 minutes and 20 seconds even, leaving three-tenths of a second down to Garrott Kuzzy of CXC in second place.
Sure, sprinting is sprinting. But try telling that to Russia’s Elena Soboleva and Germany’s Hanna Kolb. The two were all but guaranteed medals in Friday’s classic sprint at the World Junior Championships when both went for the same track, taking a tumble that cost them the race. As the two struggled to untangle their skis and poles, Kolb’s teammate Lucia Anger skied by with two Norwegians, Kari Oeyre Slind and Ragnhild Haga. Those three took...
The USSA SuperTour stays in the Midwest this weekend, moving from Minneapolis to Houghton, Michigan, and the fields are huge, deep and competitive: this is a battle of collegiate, Junior Olympics Qualifiers as well as FIS SuperTour racers.
Only Eldar Rønning and Martin Johnsrud Sundby could beat Thomas Alsgaard in the 15K classic at the Norwegian national championships Thursday.
The question may not have been burning on Thursday, but at the very least, it was smoldering: Would any of the junior men attempt to double-pole Friday’s classic sprint? At last weekend’s World Cup races on the same course in Otepaa, Estonia, Norway’s Eirik Brandsdal double-poled through his qualifier and all three heats to edge out his teammate, Ola Vigen Hattestad, for the win. Only a handful of others tried the maneuver in the preliminary,...
When the World Youth and Junior Biathlon Championships kick off in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on Saturday, both the U.S. and Canadian teams will have high hopes. How high? In 2010 in Torsby, Sweden, Canadian Rose-Marie Cote won a bronze medal in the youth 10 k individual. In 2009 in Canmore, Canada, American Grace Boutot won silver in the same event, and Canadian Yolaine Oddou was one spot behind her. That was a banner year...
If one of the races at the 2011 World U-23 Championships was a foregone conclusion, it was probably the women’s 10 k freestyle. The top-seeded athlete on Thursday’s start list in Otepaa, Estonia was Finnish powerhouse Krista Lahteenmaki, a World Cup silver medalist—and the results were predictable. In an effort that serves as a stark benchmark for the rest of the U-23 women, Lahteenmaki skied to the win by a full minute over Russia’s Mariya...
The Canadians will field an experienced 11-person roster for the World Championships in Oslo, Norway at the end of February, and all 11 will also ski the World Cup in Drammen, Norway, the week before. The roster is almost identical to the Olympic roster from last year – 9 of the 11 skiers competed in Vancouver, and all 11 have at least one World Cup start. According to Cross Country Canada (CCC)’s selection criteria, the...
When Britain’s Andrew Musgrave came through the stadium leading the first lap of the 15 k freestyle on Thursday, it was clear that it was going to be a good day for Anglophones at the U-23 Championships in Otepaa, Estonia—even if the Russian team ultimately swept the podium. Musgrave lost his early lead, but still held on for sixth place, and was joined in the top 10 by Canadian Kevin Sandau and American Noah Hoffman...
Even by Norway’s standards, four out of six ain’t bad. After the country’s women swept the podium in the World Junior Championships 5 k freestyle on Wednesday morning, Sindre Bjoernestad Skar collected the country’s fourth medal of the day by winning the men’s 10 k event, topping Germany’s Markus Weeger and Finland’s Perttu Hyvarinen. With the first of seven events down in Otepaa, Estonia, Norway is in possession of two-thirds of the hardware. While Skar...
One of the best things about the World Junior and U-23 Championships is the potential for surprises. Sure, sometimes there are upsets on the World Cup, like last weekend’s victories by Eldar Roenning and Eirik Brandsdal in Otepaa, Estonia. But even if those wins were unexpected, they still came from familiar names—both Roenning and Brandsdal are regulars on the circuit. At World Juniors and U-23’s, which kick off Wednesday, there are likely to be title-winning...
Capping the World Cup weekend in Chaux Neuve (FRA) with all four team members in the top 30 is a good indication for being on track for the 2011 Worlds in Oslo. Now it’s all about polishing the details.
January 25, 2011 (Park City, Utah) – Olympic medalists and World Champions Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO), Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) and Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) will lead the decorated U.S. Nordic Combined World Championship Team to Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway for the Jan. 26 – Mar. 4 Championships. The Team, whose members have achieved four World Championship titles plus one team and three individual Olympic medals, was announced Monday after athletes qualified through...
For U.S. ski fans, this year’s World Junior and U-23 Championships, which begin Wednesday in Estonia, have the potential to be pretty sweet. On paper, the American squad is as good as any from the last five years, and deeper, too. No fewer than five of its athletes will go on to compete at the World Ski Championships in Oslo later this winter. With Estonia experiencing one of its best winters in years, and two...
Friday: 10/10 kilometer individual start classic. The racers that previewed the Bond Brooks 5km course in Augusta, Maine, Thursday afternoon encountered icy conditions and wickedly fast downhill turns. Fearing more accidents (a UNH skier broke his finger) and build-ups over numerous laps on the icy terrain, the second section of the course was cut and a 3.3km lap was decided. But the forecasted 2-4 inches of snow turned into 8-10, as the snow started early...
It’s not as if the U.S. men’s biathlon team hasn’t shown its potential this year: Lowell Bailey led the beginning of the last relay before missing too many shots to maintain his position, and Bailey has had a number of top-20 finishes in individual races, while Tim Burke has two top-20’s and Leif Nordgren shot clean to finish 35th in the very first World Cup race of the season. But still, the biathlon world was...
While the once-dominant Norwegian men are in a slump right now, their teammate Tora Berger is just getting started. With an exhilarating mass start win in Antholz, Italy on Sunday – which came down to the final hundred meters but at the same time was a foregone conclusion at least a kilometer earlier – Berger collected her fourth victory in as many individual races, after winning Friday’s sprint by almost 30 seconds as well as...
In the final shooting stage of Saturday’s mass start World Cup in Antholz, Italy, Martin Fourcade of France and Bjorn Ferry of Sweden went shot-for-shot for four bullets, each dropping all the targets. But while Fourcade quickly hit the fifth target, Ferry hesitated, waiting for the perfect shot. He kept waiting and waiting… and missed. While Ferry headed to the penalty loop, Daniel Mesotitsch of Austria and Anton Shipulin of Russia shot clean and embarked...
While there’s a full schedule of World Cup racing scheduled in Antholz, Italy this weekend, Friday’s sprint might very well have been the last individual race the U.S. women had a chance to contest in Europe before World Championships. With a relay on Saturday and a mass start, capped at thirty athletes, on Sunday, and then the entire World Cup circuit picking up and heading to the U.S. for a few weeks in February, the...