General – Page 36 – FasterSkier

World Cup Windup: Russia

FasterSkierNovember 16, 2017

Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. RUSSIA Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: Fourth Women’s Ranking 2016/2017: Fifth Men’s Ranking 2016/2017: Second Who’s Back: Ust-iu-gov! Ust-iu-gov! Sergey Ustiugov, a sensation in the last two seasons, is back for more. There’s also top-20 ranked overall skiers...

Fantasy General

FasterSkier Teams Up with Noah Hoffman Fantasy XC

FasterSkierNovember 15, 2017

fantasy.fasterskier.com. If you’ve played before, welcome back! There are some new changes (mainly concerning the fake money you’ll be playing with). And if you’re new, it’s not complicated! Just update your team of eight men and eight women weekly and see how the races (and those athletes’ results) unfold. There are prizes on the line from a list of great sponsors and even a team competition sponsored by Concept 2 Team Challenge made its debut...

General News Olympics Racing World Cup

World Cup Windup: Finland

FasterSkierNovember 15, 2017

Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. FINLAND Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: Third, by just 106 points over Russia Women’s Ranking 2016/2017: Third Men’s Ranking 2016/2017: Fourth Who’s Back: World Cup overall title runner-up Krista Parmakoski, fifth-place Matti Heikkinen, and eighth-place Kerttu Niskanen; Iivo...

General News Racing World Cup

World Cup Windup: Sweden

FasterSkierNovember 14, 2017

Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. SWEDEN Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: Second Women’s Ranking 2016-2017: Second Men’s Ranking 2016-2017: Third Who’s Back: Stina Nilsson, second in the Sprint Cup and fourth in the World Cup overall; Hanna Falk, third in the Sprint Cup;...

General News Racing World Cup

World Cup Windup: Norway

FasterSkierNovember 13, 2017

Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. NORWAY Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: First, by a landslide: 13,383 points to 7,053 by runner-up Sweden. Women’s Ranking 2016/2017: First Men’s Ranking 2016/2017: First Who’s Back: Overall World Cup winners Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Heidi Weng; Sprint...

Continental Cup Doping General News Racing World Cup

More Early Racing as Cologna, Kylloenen, and Van Der Graaf Get Wins

Chelsea LittleNovember 12, 2017

The World Cup season draws ever-closer as season-opening races continued this weekend in Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland. In Muonio, Finland, a long weekend of racing wrapped up with 10 and 15 k skate races. Finland’s Anne Kylloenen took the win in the women’s 10 k, besting Emilie Kristoffersen of Norway by 8.2 seconds. Kylloenen’s national-team teammates Laura Mononen and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen took third (+14.0) and fourth (+17.1), respectively. Merete Myrseth, a Norwegian skier who competed...

Continental Cup Doping General News Racing World Cup

Finns, Russians, Norwegians & Swede Nab Early-Season Wins; Vylegzhanin Competes Despite IOC Ban

Chelsea LittleNovember 11, 2017

FIS races are already being contested in Finland and Sweden this weekend, with most top Scandinavian racers sitting out but a few national-team members and others picking up their first victories of the season. The competitions in Muonio, Finland, drew the most diverse field, including racers from Norway, Russia, Japan, China, Canada, Estonia, and Slovakia, among other countries. In the men’s classic sprint on Friday, the home team got a win from Ristomatti Hakola; he...

Biathlon Biathlon Canada General News Racing

Biathlon Canada Finalize World Cup Team Following Trials (Updated)

Alex KochonNovember 11, 2017

Note: This article has been updated to include comments and verification from Biathlon Canada High Performance Director Roddy Ward, and explain the modified shooting format used for Friday’s sprint. *** Almost exactly two weeks before Biathlon Canada sends the rest of its World Cup team to Europe for the first trimeter of International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup racing, the national team held trials this past Tuesday through Friday on snow in Canmore, Alberta. Three...

General Para Nordic Training Workouts

Wednesday Workout: Preseason Agility with U.S. Paralympics Nordic

Alex KochonNovember 8, 2017

It’s that time of year when everyone’s raring to get on snow. Let’s say you’re lucky enough to find some — even just a few hundred meters — like the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team did late last month at a training camp at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. Seven athletes — a combination of high-performance and development skiers — spent a week at Van Ho from Oct. 23-29 for the nordic center’s earliest...

General News Racing Regional / Local

Alaska Racing Returns with Scenic Race to the Outhouse

FasterSkierNovember 6, 2017

HATCHER PASS, above Palmer, Alaska — Thank you Ullr for the early-season weather and snow! The 2017/2018 ski season started for me on Sept. 30 with an overnight trip to the Snowbird Glacier in the Talkeetna Mountains above Palmer. The Mat-Su Ski Club (MSSC) believed to be the first cross-country ski race in the U.S. this winter, and the first ski race on natural snow anywhere on the continent. The race was held under partly cloudy skis and...

Canadian National Ski Team General News Other Racing

Frozen Thunder Day 2: Euro-Bound Holmes, Valjas Top Distance Races

Gabby NaranjaNovember 4, 2017

Frozen Thunder lived up to its name on Friday, with temperatures hovering below the legal race limit prior to the start of the second competition series of the week: the women’s 7.5- and men’s 10-kilometer freestyle individual starts. An hour delay was enough time to see temperatures rise to -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit), and many skiers bundled in Buffs in prep for the five to six laps of racing. Overcast skies were a celestial...

General Health News Research Resources Training

What Weird Heart Rate Monitor Numbers Mean (or Don’t) About Arrhythmias

Chelsea LittleNovember 3, 2017

Athletes engaging in big volumes of endurance exercise are at some increased risk of heart problems – compared to those who do moderate exercise. The level of that risk is under debate. At the same time, recreational athletes using heart rate monitors during their training will sometimes see numbers go up as high as 220 or 225 beats per minute (bpm). Such racing heartbeats are called tachycardia, and some of the possible underlying causes can...

General Lifestyle Places to Ski

Reminder: Tell Us Where There’s Snow!

FasterSkierNovember 2, 2017

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline to let us know about early season ski destinations or venues is fast approaching. We’ll extend it through the weekend (and give Mother Nature a little more time to shape up into her winter self), but if you’d like your favorite spot featured in this year’s U.S. or info@fasterskier.com with the subject line “Fall Skiing” by Sunday, Nov. 5.

Continental Cup Dryland General Juniors Lifestyle Racing Technique Training

Closing the Gap: Brain Training

FasterSkierOctober 31, 2017

Editor’s Note: The following is part of a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. In August, he recently made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the entire winter. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. Previous posts: #2, #4, #6....

Biathlon General Interviews Juniors News

Hall and Studebaker-Hall Take Reins with Team SoHo

Gabby NaranjaOctober 30, 2017

Last September, amidst the chatter of others gathered for the 11th annual U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly in Colorado Springs, Colo., Sara Studebaker-Hall and the CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation (UOLF), Colin Hilton, shook hands. Studebaker-Hall, a two-time Olympic biathlete, was attending the meeting as an athlete rep for the US Biathlon Board of Directors and was introduced to Hilton by US Biathlon Association (USBA) President and CEOthe future of the UAA Ski...

Doping General Interviews News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

Brennan on Call with IOC and WADA: ‘It Feels Like They’re Dragging Their Feet’

Chelsea LittleOctober 29, 2017

As they may leave the organization and form their own union. Against this backdrop, the leadership of the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) organized a conference call earlier this month with athlete representatives from different national and international sports federations around the world. “It was actually a very last minute thing,” Brennan, U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s cross-country athlete representative, said in an interview. “It was unclear whether that was intentional or not, but...

Biathlon Canada Book Review Canadian National Ski Team Continental Cup General Racing

Longer, Stronger Frozen Thunder Open in Canmore

Chelsea LittleOctober 27, 2017

Frozen Thunder is back, but it’s not the same Frozen Thunder you knew before. Every year, snow is stored all summer at the Canmore Nordic Centre in Canmore, Alberta, and rolled out in October to provide local ski and biathlon teams with on-snow training opportunities. This year, the loop has changed. “It feels good to be back on the snow after such a long time away,” Biathlon Canada’s Nathan Smith wrote in an email. “The...

Doping General Interviews News Olympics Racing US Ski Team

Shaw: Remove Conflicts of Interest in Sport, Ban Russia from PyeongChang

Chelsea LittleOctober 26, 2017

ZURICH, Switzerland—Tucked at the top of U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s list of proposals for policy changes at the recent International Ski Federation (FIS) Technical Meetings here was this: “Independent Doping Panel.” The idea was developed along with the Norwegians, who submitted an identical proposal. U.S. Ski and Snowboard President and CEO Tiger Shaw explained that at the moment, FIS decisions made on doping may be made by individuals who also serve other roles in the...

General News Regional / Local

Alaskans Revel in October Skiing at Hatcher Pass, Birch Hill

Gavin KentchOctober 23, 2017

Note: We’re seeking submissions for this year’s “U.S. or info@fasterskier.com with the subject line: “Fall Skiing”. Deadline for submissions is Nov. 3. *** HATCHER PASS, above Palmer, Alaska — Winter is in the eye of the beholder, but whatever you’re looking for to mark the skier’s favorite season, this spot at 3,500 feet in the Talkeetna Mountains probably has it. Seven kilometers of groomed trails? Check. Literally Extra Blue conditions? Check. A nearby lodge with a...

General Health Interviews Lifestyle Masters News Racing Resources Training

Going It Alone, with Help from Friends: Social Support and Exercise Behavior in Birkie Racers

Chelsea LittleOctober 19, 2017

Part I of this interview discussed findings about general health and exercise habits of American Birkebeiner participants compared to the general public. You can catch up on that piece said at the time. Researchers Paul Anderson and Ralph Bovard received survey responses from more than 5,000 people who had participated in the American Birkebeiner, a cross-country ski marathon held every year in Wisconsin. While the survey asked about exercise, general health status, and behavior, it...

Newer Posts

Older Posts