The third place by Canadians Chandra Crawford and Dasha Gaiazova in Sunday’s team sprint in Dusseldorf was a breakthrough for both women. For Crawford, it was her first World Cup podium finish in three seasons, and her first-ever in the team sprint, while for Gaiazova, it was her first-ever World Cup podium, period. FasterSkier was able to catch up with Crawford after the race to hear about the hectic racing in Dusseldorf, how she and...
US Nordic Combined Team seems to be making a pattern of improving on the second day of a World Cup weekend. Bryan Fletcher finished 26th in Lillehammer Sunday, after a 44th place on Saturday.
With many of the world’s best women eschewing Sunday’s team sprint in Dusseldorf, the outcome of the race wasn’t much of a surprise, as the full-strength Italians, anchored by Saturday’s winner Arianna Follis, skied to a convincing win. For North Americans, the real news was in the continent’s second podium finish in as many days, thanks to Canadians Dasha Gaiazova and Chandra Crawford—and Slovenia. With 50 meters left in the race, the Canadians had a...
If Josef Wenzl wants to race at the 2011 World Ski Championships in Norway, he probably can do it without a bodyguard. But that’s only thanks to the last-minute heroics of the sprinter Anders Gloersen (NOR). Wenzl, a German, squandered a sure podium finish for himself and the top Norwegian pair in Sunday’s team sprint in Dusseldorf, crashing out on the final corner and taking John Kristian Dahl along with him. Gloersen ended up being...
Before this weekend, Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen had never won a World Cup biathlon race. How things change. After winning Friday’s sprint race by eighteen seconds, then extending that lead to almost a minute and a half in Sunday’s pursuit race, Makarainen will have a target on her back when the World Cup heads to Hochfilzen, Austria, next weekend. Makarainen was the first woman out of the starting gate and never looked back, shooting clean through...
Much to Ole Einar Bjorndalen’s chagrin, his Norwegian teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen beat him for a second straight race. As Bjorndalen crossed the finish line in second place, 3.9 seconds behind Svendsen at the end of Saturday’s 10 k World Cup sprint, he threw his poles onto the ground in frustration and rolled his eyes at the cameraman. Bjorndalen held the lead at the 8.4 k checkpoint, but fell on the final downhill coming into...
Coming off Bryan Fletcher’s best ever World Cup result with an 18th place at the Kuusamo WC opener last weekend, the US Nordic Combined team is looking to keep building this weekend, and bring the rest of the crew up to standard.
For Kaisa Makarainen, 112 is the magic number. That’s how many starts it took for the 27-year-old Finnish biathlete to win her first World Cup race, which she did Friday on a freezing course in Ostersund, Sweden. Using clean shooting, and skiing that was as hot as the weather was cold—temperatures on the trails were as low as negative 19.2 Celsius, .8 degrees above the legal limit—Makarainen won the women’s 7.5 k sprint, 19 seconds...
Since 2002, the city sprint in Dusseldorf, Germany, has become a fixture on the International Ski Federation’s (FIS’s) World Cup calendar. One of three regular city sprints on the circuit, Dusseldorf features a flat, extremely fast, and almost dangerously narrow and twisty sprint course. Over the last eight seasons, the German city has become renown for carnage and upsets, almost as much as for cross-country skiing in a unique location and with a great crowd...
The story of the day at the men’s World Cup biathlon opener in Ostersund, Sweden, was how Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, already a legend despite the fact that he hasn’t retired, blew an early lead in the 20 k individual race by missing two targets in the last shooting stage. Coming into that stage, Bjoerndalen had an edge of just over a minute on his teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen. But with a pair of missed...
This weekend’s World Cup city sprints in Dusseldorf aren’t supposed to start in the airport. But the American and Canadian ski teams will be cutting it pretty close. Thanks to a strike by Finnair’s flight attendants, the two squads’ sprinters are spending Thursday night in Finland and departing for Germany on Friday—giving the teams a buffer of roughly 24 hours before the start of the races on Saturday. American Andy Newell’s schedule will be even...
Last week, a new race format debuted on tough courses, with freezing temperatures as a backdrop. Reviews from athletes and coaches were mixed. The Ruka Triple, the three-day World Cup mini-tour in Finland? Nope. Try the SuperTour Sprint Showdown, the double qualifier held in West Yellowstone, MT, last Thursday. The event was the first of its kind in North America, and so far as anyone knows, in the world. Thus far, other countries have not...
The biathlon World Cup opened in parasite-infested Ostersund, Sweden on Wednesday, with the country’s own Anna Carin Zidek riding clean shooting through four stages to a nine-second win over France’s Marie Laure Brunet in the 15 k individual competition. Hometown favorite Helena Ekholm finished third. Further down the results sheet, but not too much further, Laura Spector led the U.S. with a 25th-place finish. It was the best race of her career, and the best...
This year’s biathlon World Cup opener in Ostersund has an unexpected challenge: not only do racers have to vanquish their competitors, they also have to beat the parasites that are making happy homes inside their gastrointestinal tracts. According to The Local, a Swedish news site, 5,000 people in Ostersund are confirmed to have been infected with the parasite cryptosporidium, and it is feared that up to 9,000 could be affected. Officials are still searching for...
“This allows us to race more like a team,” said Joergen Aukland (NOR) of the private marathon project Team Xtra Personell after the launch of “2011 Ski Classics” marathon series Monday.
Initial administrative hurdles almost sidelined Torin Koos at the BUL-sprint at Gålå, Norway, Saturday, in which Koos earned second place after leading with 50 meters to go.
Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeseth (NOR) thinks the conditions reported from Kuusamo, Finland, caused many skiers to withdraw from the FIS Norway Cup/BUL-sprint events at Gålå, Norway, this weekend.
The Russian Ski Association (FLGR) has received high praise over the last two months for its work to combat performance-enhancing drug use. After being fined more than $180,000 this spring, the country escaped a second round of penalties at meetings of the International Ski Federation (FIS) in early November, thanks to its anti-doping efforts—which included changes in officials and coaches affiliated with scandals. “We know they are on the right track,” Gian Franco Kasper, the...
After failing to win the Overall World Cup title last season, Norway’s Marit Bjoergen continues to make a statement on the World Cup in this season. On a cold Sunday with little glide and many tactics, Bjoergen picked up yet another win, crossing the line first in the 10 k skate pursuit in the ‘Ruka Triple’ in Kuusamo, Finland. While many other skiers moved up and down the rankings Sunday, Bjoergen was consistent, leading wire...
You can tell that North American skiing has come a long way when a day with two men in the top 15 of a World Cup race is closer to disappointing than exciting. In the final stage of the “Ruka Triple”—a three-day mini-tour in Kuusamo, Finland—Canadian Devon Kershaw led the way for the North Americans with a 10th place in the 15 k skate pursuit. But with Alex Harvey dropping 13 places and Kris Freeman...