The four-man Canadian World Cup Team we've come to know over the years is back at it again, and has been training for the last two weeks with four other top domestic skiers -- Perianne Jones, Emily Nishikawa, Graeme Killick, and Jesse Cockney. This week, most of the team will test its stuff with the best of them at the World Cup opener in Kuusamo, Finland.
On Friday, Kris Freeman, 34, will start the season in West Yellowstone for just the second time in his life. He's had quite a journey since his last visit in 2005, and even in the last year, and he explains how he's recovered from chronic fatigue and two procedures, and kept it all in perspective with his diabetes work.
One of Norway's rapidly rising stars, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, 24, took the time to chat with FasterSkier last weekend after her first FIS race of the season. Here she offers advice for anyone training full time: "You have to go for quality over quantity,” she says. “I used to just want to do more and more and more ... but what you do really matters more."
While the Yellowstone Ski Festival is a time for team bonding, catching up with old racing buddies, and improving fitness and technique, it’s also a celebration of the nordic community. People of West Yellowstone gives insight into the people who make this yearly event truly special, whether they are nationally acclaimed athletes or employees at our favorite local businesses.
While the Yellowstone Ski Festival is a time for team bonding, catching up with old racing buddies, and improving fitness and technique, it's also a celebration of the nordic community. People of West Yellowstone gives insight into the people who make this yearly event truly special, whether they are nationally acclaimed athletes or employees at our favorite local businesses.
Reese Hanneman spent most of last March on the World Cup circuit in Europe, so being in Finland is a little like coming home for the 24-year-old SuperTour leader -- except that he's 11 time zones away from home in Alaska.
We caught up with Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg/Madshus) before she hopped aboard several planes en route to Muonio, Finland, where she'll train with the U.S. Ski Team for the next week before the season-opening World Cup in Kuusamo.
Alex Harvey and personal coach Louis Bouchard were the first from the Canadian World Cup Team to arrive in Gällivare, Sweden, last Thursday. They spent the earlier part of the month acclimating to altitude in Davos, Switzerland.
Recent University of Alaska-Anchorage graduate Lukas Ebner discusses his beginnings in skiing, his plans to make the German National Team, and what makes Alaska so special.
Mark Rajack, a dual citizen of Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, started cross-country skiing just two years ago in 2012, but in the time since, he’s not only learned to ski and compete, but he’s also set his sights higher than many will in their skiing careers: namely world champs and 2018 Winter Olympics.
"We came into it with the idea of making a really cool video about a race that had never been filmed well before," Anchorage native Max Romey said. He produced a 43-minute film about the famed Mount Marathon in 2013, but this year, he wanted to outdo himself. The 21-year-old college runner is pioneering race-and-training videos in epic landscapes like Alaska.
With a slew of time-trial wins under his belt this summer and fall, Miles Havlick is heading into the 2014/2015 ski season with high expectations. The Sun Valley Gold Team member who is best known for his back-to-back NCAA wins, says he's more prepared than ever before.
David Knoop, director of the National Nordic Foundation (NNF) in Utah, explains the foundation's beginnings, how he got involved, how it's evolved over the years, and how its current fundraiser, the Drive for 25, actually works.
It's final. Holly Brooks is tackling the FIS Marathon Cup/Worldloppet series this season, with seven of nine races on her schedule and a goal of an overall top three. "I’m ready for new challenges,” she says. “I’m a competitor and I want to be in races where I’m in contention for a podium." As the Birkie's first elite-athlete representative, she's hoping that will simplify some of the international logistics.
The Green Mountain Valley School is welcoming back former junior athlete David Sinclair to the team's ranks for the 2014/2015 season as part of the team's attempt at organic development. With several exciting developments for the rural Vermont academy including a new assistant coach, the future is looking bright for GMVS.
Mikey Sinnott grew up in Sun Valley, came up through the junior ranks, excelled at Junior Nationals and reached the highest levels of elite competition on the World Cup. After missing the Olympics last season and feeling like he never hit his stride, Sinnott, 29, had some decisions to make this spring: to keep racing or embark on a new path.
After moving to Truckee, California, a little over a year ago to join the Far West Elite Team, Patrick Johnson has picked up biathlon. Now a member of USBA's Development Team, he has his sights set on IBU Cup racing this year and hopefully an Olympics in the future.
Cami Thompson-Graves is entering her 26th year of coaching at Dartmouth, making her the longest-serving female head coach on the collegiate circuit. FasterSkier caught up with Thompson-Graves to reflect on the past quarter century of coaching and what inspires her to continue working with promising young skiers.
In theater, "break a leg" is an ironic idiom used to wish good luck. While the nordic ski community has yet to adopt a similar saying, "break an elbow" might become the new well-wishing vernacular after Sophie Caldwell's second fracture in six months.
We caught up with new CCC Women's Committee Chair Madeleine Williams, a former national-team member and 2010 Olympian who's passionate about keeping Canadian females in elite sports and has made public recommendations on gender equality.