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Since the spring, the International Ski Federation’s website has been counting down the days until the World Cup opener. Organizers of the 2011 World Ski Championships in Oslo are quick to inform fans that there are just over three months until the start of that event. But in Alaska, there’s another clock that’s been ticking more quietly: the one counting down the days until the end of James Southam’s career. Southam, who trains in Anchorage...

Will Biathlon Mixed Relay Create Opportunity For U.S. Olympic Medal?

For the nordic world, the highest profile issue on the agenda at the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) recent executive board meeting in late October was the inclusion of women’s ski jumping in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. But besides other events like the figure skating team event and a luge relay (FasterSkier isn’t sure how that works, but we want to see a hand-tag halfway down the luge track…), the IOC board also looked “favorably” towards...

Czech Republic Nations Cup Ranking: 11th (1640 pts) Men: 9th (1335 pts) Women: 14th (305 pts) 2010/2011 A Team Men Lukas Bauer Martin Koukal Jiri Magal Martin Jaks Dusan Kozisek Women Kamila Rajdlova Ivana Janeckova Eva Nyvltova What you may have missed last season: The Czech men’s 4×10 k relay coming from virtually nowhere to win the bronze medal at the Olympics. Most skiing fans would have picked the Russians, the Germans, the French, the...

Chasing a Dream and Living it Too

Felice Beitzel leads a different life than most PhD holders. Since the spring of 2009, the 29-year-old Australian has been the soigneur with the Giant Bicycle team, which means she spends half of the year traveling around the world with some of the best mountain bikers on the planet. The other half of the year, she travels around the world chasing her own podiums, on skis.

Team 12: Canada

Canada Nations Cup Ranking: 12th (1161 pts) Men: 10th (848 pts) Women: 13th (313 pts) 2010/2011 A Team Men Alex Harvey Devon Kershaw George Grey Ivan Babikov Women Chandra Crawford Dasha Gaiazova What you may have missed last season: The sheer amount of injuries and setbacks the Canadian team endured this season, especially at the Tour de Ski.  The World Cup circuit had barely kicked off when former head coach Inge Braten slipped and fractured...

Estonians Sweep Munio Sprint; Sargent Qualifies Second, Finishes Fourth

FIS kicked off its winter race season in Munio, Finland and Rybinsk, Russia this weekend. In Muonio, the first race of the year was a classic sprint, contested Sunday morning in frigid temperatures, which drew a variety of athletes from around northern Europe. The Craftsbury Green Racing Project was the only American team in attendance, but they turned heads as Ida Sargent, racing in her U.S. Ski Team suit to avoid an NCAA violation, qualified...

Vermont already has one elite racing team in the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, but Ryan Kerrigan still thinks there’s room for another. Kerrigan is the captain of a new squad based in Stowe and organized under the aegis of the Von Trapp Family Lodge, the resort just outside of town. Dubbed VTXC both in honor of the state and the Von Trapps, Kerrigan and his crew are targeting races on the New England circuit, as...

Team 13: Kazakhstan

Nations Cup Ranking: 13th (1033 pts) Men: 13th (502 pts) Women: 10th (531 pts) 2010/2011 A Team Men Nikolay Chebotko Alexey Poltoranin Yevgeniy Velichko Sergey Cherepanov Yevgeniy Koshevoy Denis Volotka Women Svetlana Malakhova-Shishkina Elina Kolomina Oxana Jatskaya What you may have missed last season: While the team is led in points by Nikolay Chebotko, a solid classic skier who struggles almost every time he puts on a pair of skate skis, the Kazakh man you...

The J1 Scandinavia Championship Trip is a fixed piece of the elite athlete and coach development pipeline in the U.S. having been in place as an organized trip for over ten years.  Most U.S. Ski Team and many World Junior Team athletes participated in this trip in the past. The U.S. Ski Team is pleased to announce the 2011 staff: Matthew Johnson, Head Coach Burke Mountain Academy Peter Leonard, Head Serviceman FXC – Nordic Ski...

The International Ski Federation (FIS) will consider further sanctions against the Russian Ski Association this weekend at its autumn council meetings in Oberhofen, Switzerland. After withholding some $185,000 in funding from the Russians at its June meetings in response to a string of anti-doping rules violations, FIS officials will now consider whether to levy additional fines or even strip the country’s membership rights—though such measures are unlikely, according to Luke Bodensteiner, the U.S. Ski and...

Estonia Nations Cup Ranking: 14th (971 pts) Men: 11th (648 pts) Women: 12th (323 pts) 2010/2011 A Team Men Andrus Veerpalu Jaak Mae Kein Einaste Women Kaija Udras Kaili Sirge What you may have missed last season: After a three-year retirement, Estonian legend Kristina Smigun-Vaehi came back for the Olympics and had an incredibly strong year. Despite starting few World Cups, she was competitive in every one she started, knocking down four top-10 finishes. In...

Muonio: The West Yellowstone of Finland?

Each year, many of northern Europe’s best racers travel to Muonio, Finland, for early-season training and racing. With reliable snow even in late October, these national teams travel from Ramsau, where the glaciers are no longer so nice, to this small town far north of the Arctic Circle. Here, the Finns have been hoarding a giant pile of snow all summer, and in the fall, they spread it around with an excavator and dump trucks....

United States of America Nations Cup Ranking: 15th (803 pts) Men: 12th (527 pts) Women: 16th (276 pts) 2010/2011 A Team Men Andy Newell Kris Freeman Women Kikkan Randall Liz Stephen Morgan Arritola What you may have missed last season: Let’s be honest, you’re reading FasterSkier – you probably have not missed a thing on the American World Cup squad. When an article on the US team changing the color of their ski suits garners...

Team 16: Slovakia

Slovakia Nations Cup Ranking: 16th (419 pts) Men: 14th (211 pts) Women: 18th (208 pts) 2010/2011 A Team (Best estimate) Men Ivan Batory Martin Bajcicak Peter Mlynar Michael Malak Women Alena Prochazkova What you may have missed last season: Alena Prochazkova finally cementing herself firmly in a position of authority in the Sprint Cup rankings. Prochazkova had sprinting dialed in last season, making the heats in every start she had on the World Cup. Furthermore,...

FIS Eyes Moscow and Milan for City Sprints

For cross-country ski fans, a sprint in Moscow’s Red Square might sound too good to be true. But it just might happen next winter. According to Jurg Capol, the cross-country race director at the International Ski Federation (FIS), two new city sprints, in Milan and Moscow, are on the preliminary World Cup calendar for the 2011-2012 season. And while the exact location of the Moscow event hasn’t been decided, there’s a chance that cross-country skiing...

A new crop of elite cross-country ski athletes have emerged in Canada and are now ready to charge for the international podium as the National Ski Team officially kicked off the road to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games on Tuesday. On the heels of engaging its media partners in one of the team’s final training session at Sunshine Village Ski Resort before heading to Europe, Cross Country Canada kicked off the post-Olympic season by unveiling...