Swirling around social media yesterday was the announcement that Swedish ski star, Stina Nilsson (26) has swapped cross-country for biathlon. She has yet to make the national biathlon team, yet she is committed to pursuing biathlon at the highest level. On the World Cup, she was feared as a sprinter, winning the sprint cup in 2019. She earned a total of 23 World Cup wins in 108 starts. The Swede could also rise to the...
Press Release from the Finnish Ski Association Ville Oksanen, cross country skiing coach of the Finnish Ski Association, has been in quarantine since Wednesday last week due to exposure and infection with corona viruses. The Finnish team traveled to Québec City to Canada on Tuesday for the World Cup. The next day, Oksanen became aware of the exposure. “When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I had received calls and messages from Finland. The wedding I attended this weekend had...
Road Trip Day 1 (Tuesday) It all started at home, grinding out quality training hours in spectacularly good ski conditions. The plan was simple: A skiing road trip with three World Cup events, followed by Nationals/SuperTour finals at home, culminating in a 50km against the best skiers in North America. Start Wednesday March 11th, arrive home on the 24th, and closing out the racing season on April 2nd. With restricted training opportunities during the trip,...
The following press release was sent by U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Canceled events include Spring Series which was part of Canadian Nationals. Additionally, Cross Country Junior Nationals outside Truckee, California, with two races remaining, have been canceled by the Organizing Committee.
Earlier this morning, the Norwegian news outlet NRK posted that Ingvild Flugstad Østberg has been forced to end her season early after sustaining a fracture in her heel. The news was announced by the Norwegian Ski Federation, after Østberg spoke with the press while carrying crutches and wearing a protective boot, which she will be wearing for the next five to six weeks. Østberg believes that the injury, which team doctors are calling a stress...
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9XFQaIJgAK/ This article has been updated with comments from race organizers regarding the three North American World Cup stops later this month, and with additional information from the Holmenkollen website. * * * A hundred thousand or so Norwegian ski fans will need to change their plans this weekend, after Oslo health and government officials decided Thursday to hold this weekend’s Holmenkollen races without fans due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. A Thursday Instagram post...
Engadin Canceled: Amidst the whirlwind of February racing, news happens beyond the ski tracks. Here are some notable news threads. It was announced yesterday that the famed Engadin Ski Marathon, to be held on March 8, has been canceled due to concerns related to the coronavirus (also referred to as COVID-19). “The spread of the coronavirus in Europe – with two cases in our vicinity – has left the authorities with no choice but to...
Running a small liberal arts college is big business. Stress over enrollment. Stress over capital improvements. Stress over staying relevant. Paul Smith’s College in Paul Smiths, New York is a relative newcomer on the East Coast college scene; founded in 1946 and currently enrolling 745 students. One particular aspect Paul Smith’s makes it stand out – a massive 14,200 acre campus in the foothills of the Adirondack high peaks region. This is perhaps the school’s...
All things aligned: a gauzy low fog burned off into bluebird skies and the snow skied crisp along a 42-kilometer gem during the Methow Valley’s inaugural Ski to the Sun Marathon and Relay. Last year, we ran a piece exploring how the Ski to the Sun Marathon organizers were rebooting their marquee ski race. The valley’s signature race had for years been a two-day pursuit. An attractive format to many, but it eventually stagnated with...
The news came trickling out of Anchorage on November 2nd. U.S. Ski Team athlete Hannah Halvorsen was hit by a car while crossing a street in downtown Anchorage. “I was crossing a one way street, and a woman was turning into the lane, so she looked left where cars would be coming from and didn’t look right, where I was, and just turned right into the street and hit me at 25 miles an hour,”...
This post will be updated throughout the day with additional information. The last time Erik Bjornsen (APU/USST) raced at mid-season U.S. Nationals, it was January 2014. Competing at Soldier Hollow in a series of races designed to choose the American team for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Bjornsen captured his last mid-season national title when he won the 15-kilometer classic interval start race. He was followed by Reese Hanneman, Kris Freeman, and Sylvan Ellefson,...
Midway through the 2020 U.S. Cross-Country Championships in Houghton, Michigan, a couple of things are becoming clear. SMST2 skiers are skiing very well, with podium finishes for Ben Saxton, Alayna Sonnesyn, Sonnesyn again, Kyle Bratrud, and Ian Torchia. APU skiers are skiing well, with podiums for Hailey Swirbul, Erik Bjornsen, and Swirbul again. And 19-year-old Gus Schumacher of Alaska Winter Stars has arrived, his brace of podium finishes announcing him as likely the most dominant American junior...
Bogus Basin Nordic Team (BBNT), based in Boise, ID, became a Paralympic Sports Club this year, the first cross-country ski team in the United States to do so. Paralympic Sports Clubs are partnerships between US Paralympics and community organizations across the country that, according to the US Paralympics website, “provide local sports programming for individuals with Paralympic-eligible impairments.” They are “designed to be implemented within an organization’s menu of programs,” thus bridging the gap between...
A national team uniform for cross-country skiing has to do a lot of things. At the most utilitarian level, it has to wick sweat and aid performance while an athlete pursues one of the world’s most demanding sports at temperatures between –4 F and 40, in steady snow or driving rain or anything in between. At the functional level, it has to let spectators and coaches identify where their athlete is out on the course,...
On November 26, Nordiq Canada here. The press release notes that “the recommendation would extend to include all Junior aged, non-FIS categories in Tier 1 sanctioned events.” For now, a cost-effective method testing for fluoros on ski bases remains elusive. The new guidelines do not set forth measures to ensure skis are fluoro-free. “The program would be self-governed by all coaches, technicians, parents and athletes,” states the new rule. Tier 2 races are as follows:...
Sunday in Beitostølen, Norway the nation’s opening national races concluded with a women’s 10-kilometer freestyle race. The conditions remained as they have for the past few days — near freezing. The top-three spots were secured by the same skiers who took first through third in Saturday’s 10 k classic: Therese Johaug won in 21:48.0, Heidi Weng placed second (+31.3), and Helene Marie Fossesholm, at 18 years old, placed third (+32.8). U.S. Ski Team member Caitlin Patterson skied...
The third and final day of the Norweigan opening races Beitostølen, Norway — during which the conditions hovered around freezin — saw Simen Hegstad Krüger win the 15-kilometer freestyle in 30:16.4. Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget of Norway placed second (+3.7), and Hans Christer Holund was third (+8.7). Martin Johnsrud Sundby, having a rough reentry to the racing season, did not finish the race. The U.S. Ski Team, recently arrived in Norway, used the Beitostølen races as...
News today from the International Ski Federation’s Autumn Meeting in Constance, Germany will disrupt modern race-ski prep methodology. The Committee for Competition Equipment which is tasked with defining the technical specifications of all equipment used across the spectrum of FIS sanctioned snow sports: Cross-country skiing, nordic combined, ski jumping, alpine, snowboard, freestyle, and freeski, is calling for a ban on the use of all fluorinated ski waxes for the 2020/2021 season. “The use of fluorinated...
A national race in Norway, dare we say, may at times be at least as competitive as some World Cups: the field is deep. Today in Beitostølen, Norway the men contested a 15-kilometer classic in tricky waxing conditions. With fine classic technique on display, Didrik Tønseth of Norway won in 34:56.7. Teammates Johannes Høsflot Klæbo placed second, 18.9 seconds back with Simen Hegstad Krüger taking third (+36.5). David Norris (APU) was the top placed U.S. skier in...
FasterSkier reporter Aleks Tangen was in Beitostølen to report. As a new feature we are posting his interviews from the mixed zone in the report below. With temps hovering around zero degree celsius in a mid-winter looking Beitostølen, Norway day two of the opening national races played out. The women raced a 10 k interval start classic race with a field, as expected loaded with Norwegians. First thing first: Norway’s Therese Johaug showed early season futness...