Logan Hanneman, 22, pulled off an upset at West Yellowstone for his first SuperTour victory in the first race of the season, beating his older brother Reese Hanneman and defending sprint national champion Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess in Friday's skate sprint.
BSF skier Jennie Bender dominated from qualifier all the way through to the final on Friday in the first SuperTour race of the season. “You go into the season and you never really know what picture you’re going to paint,” Bender said. “So I’m stoked on how things were drawn today.”
Andy Newell remembered a thing or two about the Kuusamo course, and he shared them with his U.S. teammates before the World-Cup opening classic sprint there on Friday. His calculations worked, as Newell ended up just over a second off the podium in fourth for his best result in three seasons.
This time last year, Ida Sargent had a career-best fifth in the first Word Cup of the season: the Ruka classic sprint in Kuusamo, Finland. She came close on Friday, finishing seventh and missing the final by 0.37 seconds. Teammate Sadie Bjornsen won her quarterfinal and placed 12th overall.
Lenny Valjas was the lone Canadian to qualify on Friday in the first World Cup race of the season, the Ruka Triple classic sprint in Kuusamo, Finland. “Today’s goal was just to qualify and to make it into the points," Valjas explained. "There was no huge expectations."
A year after placing third behind fellow Norwegians Eirik Brandsdal and Petter Northug, Sondre Turvoll Fossli, 22, turned the tables on his teammates and won his first World Cup -- the Ruka classic sprint -- on Friday ahead of Brandsdal and Northug, respectively. American Andy Newell had his best World Cup result since February 2013.
The 2015/2016 U.S. domestic-racing season kicks off with the SuperTour openers in West Yellowstone, Mont., this Friday and Saturday. The start of Friday's skate sprint has been pushed back to 11 a.m. in anticipation of sub-zero temperatures. Here's what else you should know about these races.
On Thanksgiving Day, skiers at the Yellowstone Ski Festival tell us what they are thankful for this week. For many of them, it's the snow!
In the spirit of “Movember,” FasterSkier ranked the top mustaches found out on the trails on the second day of the Yellowstone Ski Festival in West Yellowstone, Mont., and asked about some of the athletes' race goals for the coming SuperTour weekend.
Hailey Swirbul of the Aspen Valley Ski Club takes us through a workout her team recently did in West Yellowstone, one designed to prepare them for this weekend's races and the season ahead: Level 3/ Level 4 combination skate-intensity.
The Yellowstone Ski Festival officially kicked off on Tuesday, with numerous athletes and clubs out skiing the trails. Longtime keeper-of-the-gates at the Rendezvous trailhead, Thor Godar, sets the scene so far.
After a cluster of doping cases, the International Biathlon Union levied the maximum fine allowable in its rules on Russia - 100,000 Euros. It's hard to determine the budget of Russian biathlon, but the fine might represent less than one percent of its resources.
Norway's TV2 says it has found out that Estonian cross-country skier Kristina Smigun is likely to be stripped of her 2006 Olympic gold medals; national and international federations seem happy to discuss, but the IOC will not. Meanwhile, a Norwegian Paralympian alleges Russians had separate (and comically short) doping control tests at the 2014 Olympics.
A Norwegian development-pipeline skier, Kari Øyre Slind spent this summer largely training alone, but it's worked for her. “I choose to think of the Beitostølen weekend as a performance out of the ordinary,” she told FasterSkier about her recent double podium. “But now I know that I can perform with the best on a good day.”
Jessie Diggins collected back-to-back victories in the U.S. Ski Team's first races of the season in Gällivare, Sophie Caldwell, Andy Newell and Canadian Alex Harvey all placed second, and Caitlin Gregg reached the podium as well.
Two 22-year-old sprinters topped the podium in the men's and women's freestyle sprints in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, with Norway's Havard Solås Taugbøl beating four Swedes and Even Northug in the men's final and Stina Nilsson denying Charlotte Kalla of her third-straight victory.
Jessie Diggins did it again, winning her second-straight race in Gällivare, Sweden, on Sunday by 10 seconds over Czech skier Petra Novakova. Caitlin Gregg also reached the podium -- in day reminiscent of the 2015 World Championships 10 k -- and Liz Stephen and Rosie Brennan placed fourth and fifth.
Two Canadians landed in the top four in Sunday's 15 k freestyle FIS race in Gällivare, Sweden, with Alex Harvey reaching the podium in second and Devon Kershaw missing it by 23 seconds in fourth. Noah Hoffman finished sixth for the U.S., Canada's Ivan Babikov was eighth, and Erik Bjornsen (USA) notched his second-straight top 10.
Alexander Os, a 35-year-old Norwegian ex-Olympian who founded "Team Feskslogs" after being left off the national team, almost won today's mass start - but Germany's Simon Schempp got him at the end. Juliya Dzhyma of Ukraine won the women's race. Leif Nordgren (USA) placed 19th and Megan Tandy (CAN) 40th in their respective races.
With Canadians and Russians to contend with, American Andy Newell placed second overall in Saturday's FIS classic sprint in Gällivare, Sweden. “I think what you’ll see more from me more this year is I’ll be the one making attacks and not responding to other peoples’ [attacks],” Newell explained.