Internet has been a sketchy operation (in Prague, and in Dobbiaco/Toblach), and I haven’t been able to connect until this evening here in Val Di Fiemme (which is a bit of a shocker since internet in Italy is as likely as spotting, and photographing Big Foot). I’ll break it down into the 3 stages I’ve neglected to update on: Stage 3 – 1.6km Classic Sprint, Oberhof GERMANY Not a lot to report on here. I...
The U.S. Ski Team named its 2010 World Junior, Under 23 and Scandinavian Cup teams yesterday at the 2010 ConocoPhillips U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage. The top two results from each athlete’s three races this week were used to determine the teams. The group “is peppered with some very strong skiers, some of whom will have a chance to take a swipe at a podium or top ten finish,” said Matt Whitcomb, the U.S....
Battle in Final Loop of Decides First Place for Women’s IBU World Cup in Oberhof Svetlana Sleptsova of Russia barely escaped with a win in the Women’s 4 X 6K Relay competition, as Andrea Henkel of Germany shot clean and closed a big gap over the final 2K loop, but could not catch the Russian woman Russia had no penalties, but eight spare rounds in their 1:14:23.5 win, with Germany, having no penalties and eleven...
With about 10 kilometers left in the 30k classic at U.S. Nationals, Kris Freeman was skiing even with James Southam. Then he stopped to check his blood sugar, thinking he would be able to close the 20-second gap that opened. He couldn’t. Though Freeman almost managed to claw his way back to Southam, the Alaskan’s smooth and steady skiing ultimately proved too much to handle. By the finish, the gap between the two was a...
90 seconds into my ski with two members of the U.S. Adaptive Team, I was done feeling sorry for them. I’d just stepped out of the Kincaid Park chalet and slapped a couple of layers of extra blue on my skis. The athletes were about a minute ahead of me, heading off down the hill. As they turned the corner and crested a small rise, they didn’t seem to be going very fast. I was...
There have been three recent articles on langrenn.com addressing the issues of the health risks taken by wax technicians when using fluorinated wax. The first is about a report published by Norway’s national insitute of occupational health, titled “Jeg har jobbet i to år med prototypen” on 1-5-10″, “Er ikke bekymret for skadevirkningene av skismørning” on 12-22-09
After Tad Elliot skied his way to a second place finish in yesterday’s 15k freestyle, the cross country cognoscenti didn’t quite express the same degree of confusion as they did over Tyler Kornfield’s fourth place in the sprint. After some solid racing at last year’s West Yellowstone SuperTours and a trip to the U-23 championships, Elliot has a little more name recognition. But it’s safe to say that there probably weren’t many people here in...
The Myriam Bedard biathlon center in Valcartier, Québec, is hosting three races of the Haywood Noram series, which started this weekend. The races are also serving as qualification for Canada’s U23/Junior World Championships teams, so the field is stacked with top Canadian skiers. In addition there are a number of US skiers present, primarily New Englanders who chose not to make the trip to Anchorage. The series started with a continuous pursuit. The men went...
Who the heck is Tyler Kornfield? That’s what a sizable portion of the U.S. skiing community was left asking yesterday, as the 18-year-old skied his way to a fourth place finish in the freestyle sprint national championship. Though the name may be unfamiliar to many around the country, Kornfield is known around Alaska as the 2009 state champion in the 7.5k classic race. When he signed to ski at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF),...
Registration: Contact Cory Schwartz CRITERIUM Technique: Free Course: Jackson’s FIS Homologated Sprint Course http://www.jacksonxc.org/Events/race_maps/5k_fis.pdf Men: 10 a.m. individual start Women: to follow (TBD by # of men’s entries) Seeded start – team is seeded by coach prior registration
While the $1,200 check for the winner of each race isn’t anything to complain about, the real prize awaiting competitors at the end of the 2010 U.S. Nationals isn’t the money. Instead, it’s a spot on the U.S. team for the Olympic Games in Whistler, which kick off a little more than a month from now. Currently, the U.S.’s quota for the Games stands at eight, and just who gets the last few positions (most...
George Gray led the Canadians with a 17th place in yesterday’s prologue. Sara Renner took 27th in the prologue and moved up in today’s pursuit for a final finish of 21st place. Renner: Today, I was slow off the start but stronger at the end. It was basically a mass start. I had six girls in my second. I feel like my shape is turning around and hopefully I can qualify tomorrow. I don’t mind the back to...
If Kikkan Randall had noticed that the laces on her ski boots had come loose in the middle of her sprint qualifying round, she probably would have had time to stop and re-tie them without losing a single spot on the result sheet. On a cold morning at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Randall demonstrated the blazing speed that earned her second place at the World Ski Championships last year in the Czech Republic, winning the...
With clear skies and decent snow conditions, organizers and skiers in Anchorage are primed to kick off the first day of racing tomorrow at the 2010 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships. Just one thing threatens to hold them back: the temperature. With Friday’s readings struggling to break double digits, Saturday’s National Weather Service forecast calls for highs of ten above, with overnight lows of zero to ten. That’s close the FIS legal limit of -4,...
ANCHORAGE – With two days two go before the opening of the 2010 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships in Anchorage, Alaska, FasterSkier brings you a preview of the 1.4/1.5km freestyle sprint course where the racing will unfold on Saturday, the first day of competition. Mike Hinckley gives the tour of the course. An Anchorage native, Hinckley spent his last four years skiing for Denver University, earning second-team All-American honors at the NCAA Championships last year...
Austrian Olympic Champion Christian Hoffmann was suspended with immediate effect on Thursday by the Austrian Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) over suspicions he is involved in a blood-doping ring. He must answer accusations that he was part owner of a blood centrifuge for the use of blood doping. Because of the suspension, the 35-year-old will not be able to compete in the Olympics. He will have a hearing with NADA on January 29th, but even were he...
The sport of cross-country skiing has changed dramatically over the past decades. In a recent blog post, Vegard Ulvang, Chairman of the FIS Cross-Country Committee and an Olympic and World Champion, gathers some opinions and states the need to keep looking forward. Reading newspapers and speaking to Cross-Country fans, athletes and coaches from different nations can sometimes be an interesting task. Here are some of the strongest quotes from the last months: “Everything was better before....
Canada’s National Team coach has made a quick recovery from his hip replacement and a month later is coaching the team at the Tour de Ski. Initially there were doubts as to if and when, Inge would be back on the circuit, but he is now with the team for the Tour de Ski and will be involved with the final preparation for the Olympics in Whistler. Source: Cross-Country Canada
With the end of the World Cup period 1, and US Nationals just days away, it is time to revisit Olympic quotas. In November
In light of the reactions to Erik Remsen’s recent article “Nordic Skiing Must Become Greener”, as well as the Copenhagen climate talks, I decided that it was high time to carry out an idea I’d had last year as I sat in the airplane on my way to nationals in Anchorage. I’ve spent considerable time thinking about the environmental effects of this sport that I love, and it seems to me that when it comes...