Ivan Babikov (CAN) has traveled more than 10,000 kilometers since the conclusion of the 2010 Winter Olympics in late February. He only has to go 50 more on Wednesday, but they’ll feel every bit as long and painful as his circuitous journey from Vancouver to Fort Kent, Maine. Babikov is the clear favorite for tomorrow’s U.S. freestyle 30/50 k championships, but racing just 72 hours removed from the World Cup Finals in Sweden, he’ll be...
There’s one way to guarantee yourself a good result in a biathlon race: hit all the targets. In the men’s 15 k mass start World Cup in Oslo, Russia’s Ivan Tcherezov was the only one of 30 starters to do so, and he won, by 26 seconds, over Austria’s Christoph Sumann and Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen. From the first loop and first shooting stage, Tcherezov was in the hunt, ensconced in a big group and...
It doesn’t happen that often, but when Russell Currier gets hot on the range, there’s not a lot that can stop him. The Maine native is a notoriously fast skier—but also a notoriously inconsistent shooter. Sunday, at the North American Biathlon Championships, he wasn’t exactly on fire—more of a slow burn, perhaps—but the fifteen of twenty targets he hit was just enough to net him a satisfying win in the 15 k mass start race,...
Seven penalties would normally be enough to take a biathlete out of a race. Not Susan Dunklee. In the North American Biathlon Championships 12.5 k mass start, Dunklee overcame some sketchy shooting to win a sprint finish with Tracy Barnes-Colliander, who was deprived of her third straight victory. It was the first North American championship for Dunklee, and it looked impossible after she missed six of her first ten shots—three penalties in each of the...
Two athletes, two races, four wins. Saturday morning, Germany’s Simone Hauswald and France’s Martin Fourcade each took their second consecutive biathlon World Cup victory in Oslo, this time in the 10/12.5 k pursuit. Their results come after victories in Thursday’s sprint. In the pursuit races, athletes start in the order of their finish in the sprint, so to have repeat winners wasn’t unprecedented. In the women’s event, though, all three podium places were identical to...
Sometimes, pretty good is good enough, and in Saturday’s races at the North American Biathlon Championships, that was the case. Despite a smattering of misses by each of them, Tracy Barnes-Colliander and Wynn Roberts skied to convincing wins in the 12.5/10 k pursuit. Walt Shepard and Marc-Andre Bedard took second and third in the men’s race, while Claude Godbout and Annelies Cook rounded out the women’s podium. “I was a little disappointed with my shooting...
The distance of the first race of the World Cup finals may have been unfamiliar, but the pair of names atop the results sheet on Friday were anything but. Though rarely raced on the World Cup, the 3.3/2.5k prologue was just right for Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk and Switzerland’s Dario Cologna, as each skied to a convincing victory in the first of three races held in Falun, Sweden. Men Cologna finished five seconds ahead of Mats...
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that all three cities applying to become candidates to host the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in 2018 have submitted their responses to the IOC Candidature Acceptance Procedure questionnaire. Annecy (FRA), Munich (GER) and PyeongChang (KOR) all had until 15th March to submit their files to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne and met the deadline. The completed questionnaire provides the IOC with an overview of each Applicant City’s project...
Neither Tracy Barnes-Colliander nor Casey Simons got what they really wanted this winter, which was a trip to Vancouver to compete in the 2010 Olympics. But after today’s 10/7.5k sprint in Fort Kent, those two have pretty good consolation prizes: a North American biathlon title. Pushing through mushy trails, Barnes-Colliander and Simons were the winners of the first event of the three-race championships here, overcoming fields that included Olympic competitors in both genders. While Barnes-Colliander...
You can always count on snow in northern Maine. Throw in skis and guns, and you’ve got a recipe for a pretty good week. Three days of racing kick off this morning at the North American Biathlon Championships in the biathlon-crazed town of Fort Kent, Maine. The fields are small, but competitive at the top, with four biathletes racing fresh off the 2010 Olympic Games: Americans Haley Johnson, Laura Spector, and Wynn Roberts, and Canada’s...
Andrew Johnson and Marshall Greene recently returned from Switzerland, where they placed 31st and 34th, respectively, in the Engadin Ski marathon. The Engadin, a 42km skate race, is a Worldloppet which is part of the FIS Marathon Cup series and therefore draws a very competitive field. This year’s winner was the Vancouver Olympic 15m skate champion, Dario Cologna, from Switzerland. Johnson, former Olympian and U.S. Ski team member, now competes for Steinbock Racing out of...
The first positive test of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics has emerged, with Polish cross-country skier Kornelia Marek anxiously awaiting the results of her B sample test March 12 in Richmond, B.C., after her A sample indicated EPO use. That mars the picture of a doping-free Games that many had trumpeted, when more than 2,000 drug tests administered failed to result in an athlete being disqualified during the 16 days of competition – though 30 athletes...
The Engadin Ski Marathon is a 42 kilometer skate race which is run between Maloja and S-chanf near the southern border of Switzerland. Winding around castles and across frozen lakes, the course runs through St Moritz, then down to Pontresina, before heading back uphill toward the finish in S-Chanf. The Engadin had its first race on March 16th, 1969, and is always run on the second Sunday of March. The Engadin is the next-to-last Worldloppet...
The second and final race day of races at the 2010 NCAA National Collegiate Nordic Skiing Competition in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, hosted by the University of Colorado: 15 and 20 kilometer mass start skate races. The morning was more gorgeous than expected at Howelsen Hill; with low overnight temperatures and predicted cloud cover never appearing, the sky was clear and the sun shone off fresh groomed, hard frozen track. The biggest questions on the wax...
The IOC hasn’t yet decided on a location for the 2018 Winter Olympics. But it’s safe to say that the road to those Games travels through Slovenia, at least for some of America’s cross country skiers. Thanks to a $10,000 grant from the National Cross Country Ski Education Foundation (NCCSEF), and more funding from the U.S. Ski Team, a group of 15 athletes has set up shop in the resort town of Rogla. There, the...
Where East Meets West: The West took both individual titles with Colorado’s Matt Gelso and Denver’s Antje Maempel, while the East took runner-up titles with Vermont’s Franz Bernstein and Dartmouth’s Rosie Brennan. – Led by Matt Gelso, Americans take three of six podium finishes on first day of NCAA Nordic Skiing Championships – It was an unassumingly beautiful, 30 degree, wintry day at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but for racers and coaches of...
Kris Freeman recently commented on his FasterSkier.com blog, “I am a serious contender for the most volatile and inconsistent skier on the world cup”, in reference to his disappointing races at the Vancouver Olympics. Every cross-country ski racer knows that you can’t always race at your best, all the time. Some days you just feel better than others. Often there’s an obvious reason (sickness, fatigue, overtraining etc.) but sometimes not. Racers work very hard to...
Olympic Heavy Medal Tour to visit U.S. military bases in Southwest Asia Washington, D.C. – The 2010 U.S. Olympic Nordic Combined Team takes the helm of the Armed Forces Entertainment (
The 2010 NCAA Nordic Ski Championships are set to begin tomorrow at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, hosted by the University of Colorado. It is appropriate to be in “Ski Town USA” at this time, and especially at this location. As the oldest ski area in continuous use in Colorado, Howelsen Hill has sent more skiers to international competition than any other area in North America. This ski club takes pride in its rich...
This year’s Swedish Vasaloppet saw a record number of racers. There were 15,702 finishers in the 90 kilometer classic race, which saw it’s first running in 1922 with 100 participants. The race’s history comes from the beginning of Sweden’s independence from Denmark, led by nobleman Gustav Vasa. After his first failed attempt at recruiting his countrymen to join in his revolt, Vasa fled toward Norway. Two Swedish skiers were sent to bring Vasa back and...