At just twenty-one years of age, Leif Nordgren is the youngest member of the U.S. Biathlon Team. In the past few seasons, he has racked up some of the best American results ever at the World Junior Championships, snagging a bronze in the pursuit in 2008 in Rupholding – the first U.S. medal at the event since 2002. This year, he’s no longer in the junior ranks, so he’ll be fully exposed to the senior...
Bryan Fish’s jump to the U.S. Ski Team from his job running the Central Cross-Country (CXC) program was one of the most significant coaching changes of the spring. Fish, who over the last few years helped to build CXC’s elite team into one of the most powerful in the country, left some big shoes to fill. Enter Jason Cork, who was hired to replace Fish after two years as the assistant coach at Michigan Tech...
Estonian Andrus Veerpalu has competed in every Olympic Games since Albertville in 1992. In Vancouver, at 39 years of age, he contested only the 50 k classic mass start, finishing sixth. Many assumed that it would be one of his last races. They were wrong. This year, Veerpalu will be focusing on the World Championships in Oslo, Norway; in particular, he plans to peak for the classic distance races. There is no reason to believe...
Swede Bjorn Ferry won his first individual Olympic medal in Vancouver, capturing gold in the pursuit race. He has three career World Cup victories and two relay medals, both from mixed relay events: gold at the 2007 World Championships in Antholz, Italy, and bronze at the 2010 World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Ferry is also the only biathlete we know who is married to a world champion arm-wrestler. Can he continue his winning ways this...
Team United Bakeries, for which he will race this winter. Inspired by Alsgaard’s prowess, FasterSkier and Madshus bring you the “Champion Moments” Photo Contest. Team United Bakeries – aiming for success on the International Ski Federation’s (FIS’s) Marathon Cup. Check out our out on the internet. But I think I did 450 to 500 hours. My goal is to make 50 hours every month. But it’s difficult. Now, I train about the same all year. When I was...
Ski jumpers don’t usually begin their careers at age 25. Nor do they progress from their first-ever jump all the way up to an Olympic-sized 90-meter hill in the course of one year. But that’s exactly what Australian cross-country skier Ben Sim is trying to do. There aren’t many athletes out there who have taken an approach like Sim’s and met with much success. But in the U.S., there’s one: Matt Dayton, who took up...
The first Worldcup of the new season is November 20th in Gallivare, Sweden. It begins with the Women’s 10K Skate in the morning and the Men’s 15K Skate in the afternoon. The next day is followed up with relays. Sit in a room right now with a few coaches, athletes and industry folk and you can feel the anticipation. The coaches and athletes are excited, but not tense. The extensive hours spent on glaciers, in...
Jonne Kahkonen was hired by the United States Biathlon Association this summer to be the new women’s head coach. Kahkonen, who hails from Finland, just finished a four-year stint as head coach of the biathlon program. Finland’s top performances last season came from Kaisa Makarainen, who finished the year ranked 22nd in the overall World Cup Standings. How did Kahkonen end up in the United States? U.S. Biathlon Association President Max Cobb said that he...
Charlotte Kalla is Sweden’s rising star of Cross-Country skiing. The 23 year-old youngster stormed into World Cup in 2006. A year later she captured her first World Cup podium in Beitostoelen. In 2008 she won Tour de Ski. She is Olympic Champion from Vancouver over 10 km Free. FIScrosscountry.com had a chance to talk to Charlotte in Ramsau. FIS Cross-Country News: Charlotte, media reported you would be back at Tour de Ski this year. Why...
“Driven,” “opinionated,” and “uncompromising” are probably three of the best words to describe U.S. Ski Team (USST) coach Pete Vordenberg, but you can’t forget “thoughtful,” too. Vordenberg, the team’s head coach from 2006 until this spring, is one of the few ski coaches out there who can claim to have authored a book. With his blend of pragmatism and passion, he sat at the helm of USST for four years, during which the program went...
If Vegard Ulvang gets run out of Europe, it appears that he still could safely make his home in North America. Ulvang is the chair of the International Ski Federation’s cross-country committee, which is considering the introduction of a new race format that includes five kilometers of climbing followed by five kilometers of technical downhill. Scandinavians have reacted to the idea with derision: Norwegian Eldar Roenning told the newspaper Nettavisen that the idea was “the...
ENGERDAL, NORWAY – For as long as she can remember, Maja Solbakken wanted to do everything her older brother Martin Andersen did. Siblings of accomplished athletes often feed off the energy and determination of their brother or sister — that is true not only for those on the World Cup circuit, but also for those who are the second-tier. The youngest of three siblings, Maja, 16, grew up in the rural Norwegian community Engerdal, close...
In North American cross-country skiing, there are few bigger names than Chandra Crawford. The 27-year-old Canadian National Ski Team (CNST) member has an Olympic gold from Turin, Italy in 2006, multiple World Cup medals, is the brains and face for her own organization, Fast and Female, and was featured on an episode of MTV’s Cribs. Yet despite her high profile, at the recent CNST camp in Quebec City, Chandra Crawford was generous enough to allow...
Bananas an hour prior to every race. Granola bars afterwards. Pasta the night before. As much as for any other aspect of the sport of cross-country skiing, there are dozens of beliefs, strategies, and misconceptions when it comes to food and nutrition. To clear a few of them up–but by no means all of them–we spoke with recently-appointed U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) Sports Dietician Adam Korzun. A native of Alabama, Korzun has worked...
“For me, having a famous sibling is solely a bonus,” says Karstein Johaug, the younger brother of Olympic ski racer Therese Johaug. The 18-year-old has the 2012 World Junior Championships podium in mind, and he has a plan in place for getting there.
Unlike some of her peers, like Americans Simi Hamilton and Ida Sargent, Brittany Webster’s rise has not been meteoric. She’s never been on the podium at a major international race, and she has only contested four World Cups—all of which were in her home country of Canada. She doesn’t even have her own website like many of her compatriots—just a plain, infrequently updated blog on WordPress. But of all the North American athletes competing in...
NORWAY - Langrenn.com’s exclusive interview with Nikolay Pankratov from September 2, 2010, reveals a universe of difference between Norwegian and Russian training culture.
Lindsey Van of the U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team returned to the Continental Cup the weekend of Sept. 11-12 in Lillehammer, Norway, resuming high-level international competition after taking last season off to rest and recharge after a tumultuous yet exciting couple of years. Van made history in 2009, becoming the first-ever World Champion in women’s ski jumping. She was also a leader in the fight to include women’s ski jumping in the 2010 Olympic Winter...
Bjoern Daehlie spills the beans about interval training in the 1990s.
For the past two years, Norway’s Petter Northug has been the best in the world. One look at the medals tables from the 2009 World Championships and 2010 Olympic Games serves as proof: Over the 12 competitions at those two events, Northug took gold in five of them, and reached the podium on two other occasions. FasterSkier had the opportunity to talk with Northug over breakfast in Las Vegas in July, immediately following the rollerski...