Even if you’re not a running fan, chances are you heard that former Dartmouth College standout Glenn Randall led the opening 10 k of the Boston Marathon last Monday. Actually, ‘led’ doesn’t quite describe it — he gapped the elite men’s field, frenzy. To those who had never heard of Randall, it looked as though he was trying to grab a few minutes of fame with an opening pace he couldn’t hold. But as he...
What do Vegard Ulvang, Bjørn Dæhlie, Marcus Hellner, Charlotte Kalla, Alex Harvey, and Devon Kershaw have in common? Aside from gold medals from the Olympic Games or World Championships? All of them, at one point or another, were coached by Inge Bråten, a fixture on the World Cup circuit who died last week at the age of 63. Bråten led his country’s national team from 1990 to 1994—a period in which Norway collected no fewer...
A longtime race official at biathlon's highest levels, Max Cobb took us behind the scenes of a World Championships that featured target malfunctions, course closures, and seeding changes. Plus, he talked about a TD's worst nightmare, and how to handle it.
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec — While Alex Harvey was the man of the day at Canadian Ski Nationals on Tuesday, Devon Kershaw, Lenny Valjas and the remaining World Cup crew (including Chandra Crawford, Dasha Gaiazova, Alysson Marshall and Kevin Sandau) also met a strong welcome after flying into Québec late Monday night and racing the next day. Cross-country ski fans, friends, family and media outlets came out to Mont Sainte-Anne to catch a glimpse of the...
All American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. Dr. Ian Duncan’s first phone call to Vegard Ulvang two years ago met a little dead air. It wasn’t that Ulvang, the executive director of the International Ski Federation’s cross-country committee, didn’t want to talk. He couldn’t at the time. The former Norwegian cross-country skiing superstar had the Olympics to tend to. Last summer, Duncan, a world-renowned National Multiple Sclerosis Society researcher...
All American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. The reflective crossing-guard vest and orange hat peeking out beneath his helmet made him unmistakable. Steve Clark was that guy pedaling between Cable and Hayward, Wis., last week, looking like a vagabond out there weathering the elements on his bicycle. Those that stopped to take his picture could have heard his story. A closer glance revealed he was toting a pair of...
ERZURUM, Turkey — In the minutes between finishing and stepping on the podium for the flower ceremony, we caught up with Noah Hoffman (TeamHomeGrown/USST) to talk about his silver-medal performance in the 15 k classic at U23 World Championships. Results
ERZURUM, Turkey — Thursday’s U23 World Championship classic distance races started out well for team USA with Sadie Bjornsen’s (APU/USST) fifth-place finish in a closely-packed group at the top of the 10 k classic results. We caught her after the finish to talk about her race. Results
When it comes down to it: health matters. That’s what Kikkan Randall and her coach at Alaska Pacific University, Erik Flora, reasoned when the U.S. Ski Team veteran decided to sit out a few races nearly two weeks ago. After feeling slightly rundown, Randall first skipped the 15 k freestyle mass start on Feb. 4 in Rybinsk, Russia. She pulled through the 15 k skiathlon the next day, but came down with a cold shortly after....
When observing results like Jessie Diggins (CXC/USST)
When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held their first-ever winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria in January, they invited many of the best teenage athletes in the world to compete in 13 sports. But it wasn’t only the best young athletes who converged on the historic venue, which also hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. The IOC invited some of the biggest stars in winter sports – many retired, but some still competing...
When you start skiing at 5 and stay in the game for 25 years, odds are you’re bound to experience injury. Two-time Olympian Drew Goldsack has seen his share of setbacks, including a serious foot injury that required surgery in 2009. Seven or eight years ago, the Canadian Senior Development Team member said he crashed particularly hard on his mountain bike, hitting his head and blacking out on the spot. Goldsack eventually came to and...
When the phone rang and Alana Thomas answered to hear the voice of Tom Holland, Cross Country Canada’s high-performance director, she had a sense of what was coming. The 23-year-old Nakkertok racer, who lives and trains in Ottawa, had been waiting for a similar call since she started skiing competitively more than seven years ago. With a considerably better-than-average start to her season this year, Thomas knew this might be her best chance to earn...
BENNINGTON, Vt. – Inside an organic lunch spot in downtown Bennington, two Wisconsin natives glanced at an oversized chalkboard filled with sandwich options. A moment later, they turned to each other to confirm they had made up their minds. Maria Stuber and Bryan Cook hadn’t lived in the area long, yet they already figured out the basics. Bennington, southern Vermont’s largest city, wasn’t huge, but it had more going on than the hamlet of North...
“Young Briton Beat Northug.” “Andrew Musgrave Outdistanced Norwegian Cross Country Elite.” So read the headlines in Norway on Thursday after Andrew Musgrave (GBR) snuck his way into second place in the opening event of the country’s national championships in Voss, Norway to Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR), who took the win by 1:07.1 in the 15 k individual freestyle. Ansnes Ron Frederick (NOR) placed third (+1:22.5), and in another noteworthy finish, 40-year-old Thomas Alsgaard (+1:23.3)...
When Amanda Ammar first saw the start list at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre in Vernon, British Columbia, she couldn’t help but think it was comical. Next to her name where her points total should have been was nothing – zero, zilch, nada – as if she had never raced before. Six years earlier, the Alberta native was one of the best cross-country skiers in Canada, making the 2006 Torino Olympics at age 19 and...
Canadians Chandra Crawford and Perianne Jones teamed up to place third in the World Cup team sprint in Milan, Italy on Sunday, joining Americans Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins on the podium. The event marked the first time Canadians and Americans have shared a World Cup podium in cross-country skiing. Crawford has enjoyed a resurgence this year, re-establishing herself as one of the top sprinters in the world. The 2006 Olympic champion in the freestyle...
She had come so far. Nearly 85 miles to be exact, yet in the larger scheme of things, Jennifer Caldwell’s progress in the 2011 Prouty century ride meant so much more. A cancer patient since 1999, the former U.S. Ski Team member epitomized the body’s limits in its lowest moments. She was not weak; anyone who knew Caldwell, who died on Dec. 27 in Wolfeboro, N.H., could attest to that. Participating in the July benefit...
On Sunday, January 15th, Kikkand Randall and Jessie Diggins placed second in the World Cup team sprint, part of a weekend of racing in downtown Milan, Italy. This was the second silver medal World Cup performance of the year for the American women in the team sprint—Randall and Sadie Bjornsen paired up in Dusseldorf, Germany to finish second as well back in November. While Randall has continued her remarkable season, and top results have become...
RUMFORD, Maine – Swirling around the Black Mountain venue was news that Justin Freeman was done. After 16 consecutive U.S. Cross Country Championships, including his recent appearance at this year’s nationals, the 35-year-old Olympian, national champion and brother of current U.S. Ski Team veteran, Kris, wouldn’t be back. Of course, that all depended, Freeman said in phone conversation on Saturday. “It’s my last consecutive nationals,” he clarified. “It’s unlikely that I won’t be back.” Soon...