By attacking Oberstdorf's long, hard climb on the second lap, Sadie Bjornsen, Liz Stephen, and Jessie Diggins chalked up their best results of the season: seventh, eighth, and fourteenth in the 3.3 k Tour de Ski prologue. Kikkan Randall joined them in the points and the U.S. women's team is confident.
Last year, Canada's Alex Harvey won the Tour de Ski prologue. That wasn't going to happen today: "I haven’t quite found my groove in skating this year," he said, but he's still in a great position for tomorrow's 15 k pursuit. Meanwhile, Simi Hamilton of the U.S. Ski Team scored his first World Cup distance points in 26th.
Unsure of whether she can win the Tour, Marit Bjørgen nonetheless set an impressive pace: she won the first race of the seven-race series by ten seconds, despite it being only 3.3 kilometers long. Norway swept the podium again in a World Cup season that's turning out to be all red.
When Norway's Didrik Tønseth got appendicitis right before Christmas, replacement Simen Sveen called off the holidays and stayed in Davos to train. “I’m not nervous, just excited," he told FasterSkier in an exclusive interview. "There’s a big difference. Being excited helps me bring out the best in me."
Norwegian star Marit Bjørgen has never won the Tour de Ski. On the one hand, who cares - she's won everything else, mostly several times over. But she'd like a win and thinks that if she can have a minute lead on teammate Therese Johaug going into the final climb, she can do it. Read the rest of our Tour de Ski preview inside!
The United States Biathlon Association expanded its selections for World Youth and Junior Championships from eight to 13 athletes, and named four who will also get to compete at Open European Championships. Plus, some action shots by Lake Superior Biathlon coach Daniel Guay.
How does one get ready for the Tour de Ski, or more specifically, prep for a prologue? Jessie Diggins takes us through a "prologue practice day" workout, which she did about a week ago in advance of the 3 k freestyle prologue on Saturday, the first day of the 2015 Tour de Ski.
Eight biathletes, hailing from New England through Minnesota to the West Coast, have been named to the U.S. team for World Youth and Junior Championships in Minsk, Belarus, in mid-February. Team namings came after a three-race trials series in Mount Itasca, Minnesota. Additional discretionary picks are anticipated after January 1st.
"Cancel" is a word no race organizer wants to entertain, and the local committees behind the first two NorAms in Rossland and Whistler, British Columbia, did everything they could to make sure their races happened -- even if they had to be moved a six-hour drive inland to Sovereign Lake.
Alex and Pierre Harvey aren't Quebec's only family skiing phenoms. Former Canadian national-team skier Jocelyn Vézina has a 20-year-old daughter, Frédérique Vézina, who's one of the promising up-and-comers on the Canadian ski scene. (In English and French)
Si la dynastie Harvey trône au coeur du ski de fond québécois, et fait résonner sa mémoire depuis les exploits de Pierre jusqu’aux succès récents d’Alex, une autre famille scintille depuis quelques décennies sur les terres du Mont Sainte-Anne: les Vézina. Jocelyn Vézina fut membre de l’équipe canadienne aux côtés de Pierre Harvey et d’Yves Bilodeau (actuellement technicien en
There's snow in Quebec, and FS contributor François Léger Dionne gives us a great way to burn off the holiday treats and work on skate technique with the following workout, which he recently did at the Far Hills Ski Center in Val-David, Quebec.
With their eyes on the prize of a holiday break (for biathletes and non-Tour de Ski participants, two weekends off of the World Cup), a number of North American skiers notched competitive results, and for some -- even career bests -- in the last week.
The Anchorage community lost an extremely influential coach, skier and volunteer on Dec. 12 when Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage President Lars Spurkland unexpectedly passed away.
None of the venues slated to host stages of the Tour de Ski seem ready, given the warm temperatures and lack of snow in central Europe. FIS is reportedly in emergency meetings today to develop a backup plan for the event.
Nathan Smith had never finished a mass start before Sunday, but he knew if all went according to plan, he could be in a competitive position. The Canadian found himself in sixth at one point, and with two penalties, secured his second-best World Cup result in ninth.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen came back from a 29-second deficit and two standing penalties to win Sunday’s 12.5-kilometer mass start by 7.6 seconds over a very happy Anais Bescond. Rosanna Crawford capped off a string of career-bests in 12th, and Susan Dunklee was 22nd.
Darya Domracheva was the big winner on Saturday in the IBU World Cup 10 k pursuit, but there were some personal victories Canadians Rosanna Crawford and Megan Heinicke achieved throughout the race as well. For one, Crawford clawed her way back into seventh after two early misses, and Heinicke went from 41st to 14th as one of two women to clean.
Marit Bjørgen had a lot of history riding on Saturday's 10 k freestyle -- if she or any other Norwegian woman won it, their team could go down in the record books with the longest World Cup winning streak. But mostly Bjørgen was looking for her first distance win of the season.
Not only was Russia's Anton Shipulin 100-percent on-target in the men's IBU World Cup sprint on Friday, he was also the fastest, leading him to a nearly 12 second win over Austria's Dominik Landertinger. All but one man (Martin Fourcade) in the top nine cleaned, and Lowell Bailey shot flawlessly as well for 16th.