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Interviews with racers, coaches and other relevant individuals within the Nordic ski world.
FasterSkier’s Interview with University of Utah Head Coach Miles Havlick
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FasterSkier’s Interview with University of Utah Head Coach Miles Havlick

Jason AlbertNovember 19, 2018

The Internet is a wonderful time machine. Just a few search words and clicks away, there’s Miles Havlick, arms raised, crossing the line first  in the 20-kilometer freestyle mass start at the 2013 NCAA Skiing Championships. It was the second consecutive NCAA championship for the now 28-year-old Havlick — he won the 2012 NCAA title in the 20 k classic. As a standout skier at the University of Utah, Havlick made the jump to Sun...

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Johaug and Røthe Wrap Up Beitostølen with Wins

Gabby NaranjaNovember 18, 2018

The FIS opener races in Beitostølen, Norway, came to a close on Sunday as competitors capped off the three day race weekend with a men’s and women’s freestyle distance event. Forty-nine athletes raced the women’s 10-kilometer skate race, with Norway’s Therese Johaug taking the victory in a time of 24:21.5. The FIS win is Johaug’s second in a row (she won Friday’s Beito classic race before skipping Saturday’s sprints) since her return to the circuit...

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Nordic Nation: Andy Newell in Transition
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Nordic Nation: Andy Newell in Transition

Jason AlbertOctober 19, 2018

FasterSkier caught up with former, yes former U.S. Ski Team member Andy Newell on October, 8 in Park City, Utah. Newell was in Utah assisting with the latest NEG camp and training with his old cohort when time permitted. No longer a staple of the national team, the 34-year-old Newell has partially turned over a new leaf. He’s still training as a professional skier, but he’s also the owner of a cross-country skiing business called Nordic...

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Norway’s New Junior Coach, Former SMU Runner Monika Kørra
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Norway’s New Junior Coach, Former SMU Runner Monika Kørra

Jason AlbertOctober 12, 2018

In early August, Norwegian Monika Kørra was named Norway’s national junior team coach, an under-the-radar, nordic news event that resonates. Kørra, a 29-year-old accomplished runner and cross-country athlete in Norway, comes to the job with an undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and a master’s in coaching and sport psychology, which she completed in Oslo this summer. Kørra’s primary athletes are 12 junior skiers (six boys and six girls) that comprise Norway’s National...

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Torchia on the Ups, Downs and All He’s Learned Since His First USST Nomination
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Torchia on the Ups, Downs and All He’s Learned Since His First USST Nomination

Gabby NaranjaOctober 11, 2018

Two summers ago, with just five miles left of the Marquette Trails Fest 30-mile mountain bike race, all Ian Torchia could hear in his head was the voice of Krystof Kopal, his Northern Michigan University (NMU) teammate, snidely saying, “You drop out again?” Fifteen minutes earlier, Torchia had careened into a tree. After dusting himself off, he remounted his bike, but not before noticing his left wrist was badly injured. For a moment, Torchia considered...

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Soon-To-Be Parents, Caitlin and Brian Gregg on the Winter Ahead
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Soon-To-Be Parents, Caitlin and Brian Gregg on the Winter Ahead

Alex KochonOctober 9, 2018

The questions started rolling in this spring. How’s training going? Are you going for 2019 World Championships? What’s the plan for next winter? When you’re Caitlin and Brian Gregg, Olympians and local superstars in the Midwest, it’s hard to keep your athletic profile on the DL. Since buying a house on Theodore Wirth Park seven years ago, the couple has immersed themselves in the greater Minneapolis community — both in and out of skiing. They’ve...

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Nordic Nation: Sylvan Ellefson Gives Back, The ‘Mountain Child’ Episode
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Nordic Nation: Sylvan Ellefson Gives Back, The ‘Mountain Child’ Episode

Jason AlbertOctober 4, 2018

From 2011 to 2014, Sylvan Ellefson, based out of Edwards, Colorado, was on a roar. SuperTour wins, World Cup starts, and a 30-kilometer skate national championship in 2014. Now, at 31 years old, it seems the skier who began his ascent in the sport during high school would rather focus on being a husband, father, brother, and coach rather than draw attention to himself. Based as a business person in Colorado’s Vail Valley, Ellefson is giving back...

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NENSA Coach of the Year, Alsobrook on Bowdoin’s Upward Path
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NENSA Coach of the Year, Alsobrook on Bowdoin’s Upward Path

Rachel PerkinsOctober 2, 2018

Building on one of its most successful seasons yet, the Bowdoin College nordic ski team, out of Brunswick, Maine, recently jumped back into training under the guidance of head coach Nathan Alsobrook. Last winter, three skiers qualified for NCAA Skiing Championships, one alumna qualified for the U.S. Olympic team (Kaitlynn Miller, class of 2014), and one visually impaired skier Maine State Championship, for example … so we’re really excited to go after that this year. We’ve come close...

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Fish on Promoting the U.S. Development ‘Pathway’ vs. the ‘Pipeline’
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Fish on Promoting the U.S. Development ‘Pathway’ vs. the ‘Pipeline’

Rachel PerkinsSeptember 25, 2018

JACKSON, Wyoming — Last last month, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced that Bryan Fish had been promoted to cross country sport development manager. FasterSkier sat down with Fish on Sept. 14 at Jackson Hole’s Center for the Arts, where he was leading a Level 200 coaching clinic, to learn more about this transition and how his new position will support the national development program. He also provided insight into the development program’s philosophy and goals...

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Former Swimmer Kendall Gretsch on Unexpected Paralympic Golds, Hunger for More
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Former Swimmer Kendall Gretsch on Unexpected Paralympic Golds, Hunger for More

Gabby NaranjaSeptember 11, 2018

As a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Kendall Gretsch stumbled across an article that would change her life. It was the spring of 2012, just a few months before the Summer Paralympics in London. Gretsch had been reading the local news when she came across a story about a St. Louis college student who hoped to attend the London Games as part of the U.S. Paralympics Swimming team.   Born with spina...

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Keeping Up the Positivity, Randall Nears Day 60 of Chemo
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Keeping Up the Positivity, Randall Nears Day 60 of Chemo

Alex KochonSeptember 3, 2018

Day by day. That’s how Kikkan Randall is approaching her battle with breast cancer after being diagnosed about three months ago. Now more than 50 days into her treatment — with six rounds of chemotherapy over an 18-week span — Randall, 35, is becoming more familiar with the ugly side effects and adjusting to her new normal. While beating what is believed to be announcing her diagnosis on social media, Randall has been promoting AKTIV...

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Bolger Spends His Summers Training with Big Guns in Norway
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Bolger Spends His Summers Training with Big Guns in Norway

Gabby NaranjaAugust 30, 2018

There’s a reason Kevin Bolger has spent his last four summers in Trondheim, Norway, rent free. You could say it started in 2014, when his older brother, Conor, began his Ph.D. work at the Centre for Elite Sports Research in Trondheim. As a doctoral candidate in the center’s neuroscience department, Conor’s work involved lab time. Specifically, lactate and VO2 max testing on Norwegian cross-country and nordic-combined national team members. Conor soon established a relationship with a number...

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Tomlinson in the Lead as CCC’s New Board Chair
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Tomlinson in the Lead as CCC’s New Board Chair

Jason AlbertAugust 27, 2018

On June 19, Cross Country Canada (CCC) announced that 52-year-old Jennifer Tomlinson will serve a two-year term as the new chair of its Board of Directors. She replaces The CCC press release opens with a statement that Tomlinson — a former racing director, volunteer coach and integral member of biathlon andwith his seventh place in the Olympic sprint, have been the individual podium hopes for the Canadian team. This past spring, Knute Johnsgaard (half of Canada’s...

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How Blinkfestivalen Began and Where It’s Headed
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How Blinkfestivalen Began and Where It’s Headed

Gabby NaranjaAugust 10, 2018

In 2005, Norway’s government-owned broadcasting network, NRK, lost production rights for its national football league. In search of a new program to air in place of summer soccer games, NRK, which still held broadcast rights for biathlon and cross-country skiing, approached the Norwegian Ski Federation and the Norwegian Biathlon Federation with a question: Could they find an organizer willing to create a large summer event encapsulating the winter sports of biathlon and nordic skiing? NRK’s answer came...

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Kaeding on Shepherding the U.S. D-Team and Crunching Data
GeneralInterviewsNewsUS Ski Team

Kaeding on Shepherding the U.S. D-Team and Crunching Data

Jason AlbertAugust 9, 2018

The newest hire to the U.S. Ski Team (USST) coaching ranks is 34-year-old Gus Kaeding. Kaeding is a newly minted MBA as of 2017 and is fresh off a gig with the U.S. Olympic Committee based out of Colorado Springs. Kaeding was a junior skier at the Stratton Mountain School (SMS), skied collegiately at Northern Michigan University, and coached at Central Cross Country and went on to become head coach of the SMST2 Team prior...

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InterviewsMultimediaNordic NationPodcasts

Nordic Nation: The ‘Brains of the Operation’ Episode with Øyvind Sandbakk

Jason AlbertAugust 6, 2018

Øyvind Sandbakk. If you are new to his name, he is one of the key reasons Norway has remained ahead of the sport-performance curve in nordic sport. If there’s an interesting question to answer with regards to things like double-poling efficiency, Sandbakk or one his students is on it. Yes, Norway has strength in numbers when it comes to cross-country athletes, but they also have a Sandbakk and a cadre of graduate students who keep...

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Heather and Brooke Mooney on Where Skiing Led Them and What’s Next
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Heather and Brooke Mooney on Where Skiing Led Them and What’s Next

Gabby NaranjaJuly 27, 2018

Perhaps you have heard of them. Or at least seen them. At 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall, respectively, the Mooney sisters, Heather and Brooke, are hard to miss. But their height is not the only reason the two women stand out. The sisterly pair also share a talent for the sports they pursue. At one point, for both of them, that sport was skiing. And at one point, for both of them,...

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Back in Bozeman, Flowers Switches Gears
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Back in Bozeman, Flowers Switches Gears

Gabby NaranjaJuly 20, 2018

It wasn’t until recently that Erika Flowers learned the meaning of her middle name. At the time of her birth, her father had been cutting around Montana’s mountain slopes on Elan alpine skis. Though the brand’s company is based out of Slovenia, the definition of élan, according to Webster’s dictionary, is a vigorous spirit or enthusiasm. Whether Flower’s father, Pat, had researched the word’s meaning or whether the name had simply struck him, the skis...

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