Interviews

Andrew Newell made it all the way to the finale in the January Oberstdorf World Cup classic sprint. We asked him about training, how he experienced the finales and the upcoming Davos World Cup and Olympics.

Canadian George Grey posted a 16th place in a December World Cup race. We asked him about racing, training and the upcoming Olympics.

Team FSx racer Kate Whitcomb won her first SuperTour title in Sunday's 10k mass-start freestyle at the Telemark Lodge in Wisconsin, even overcoming a broken pole tip on the second lap. The terrain on the course was fairly easy, but the new wet hardpack snow conditions were not. (Sunday's article has more on the women's race: http://www.fasterskier.com/racing3015.html .) So what was your strategy going in, were you just trying to hammer the whole way and...

Magne Myrmo might not be a household name among American ski circles these days. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a ski legend. Of ski legends from the 1970s, Myrmo’s name holds up well to his Norwegian teammate Oddvar Braa, the big Finn Juha Mieto and America’s own Bill Koch. Myrmo is perhaps best known for his disdain of early fiberglass skis. Racing at the 1974 World Championships in Falun, Myrmo didn’t even bother to bring...

An excellent four minute audio interview with the USST's Carl Swenson from the radio program 'Weekend America.' The interview aired on NPR this past weekend. You can listen to it online at the link below. Thanks to interviewer Jason Paur for doing the interview (and letting us know about it). No Respect for Cross-Country With their lightning speed and flashy moves, downhill skiers and snowboarders enjoy a lot of glory on the slopes. But as...

Erin Hood, the second-place finisher in Wednesday's SuperTour classic sprint in Cable, WI, has trained for a number of years in the Anchorage-based APUNSC program and has worked her way up the ranks to become one of the main contenders on the national circuit. She says she hasn't peaked yet this year and hopes to keep building through the rest of the season. Here are a few of her comments right after the sprint.

David Chamberlain and fellow Atomic racer Chris Cook took the top two places in Wednesday's SuperTour classic sprint in Cable, WI with some eye-popping power, tempo, and speed. Here's what they had to say when it was over. Chamberlain pushing the pace with Colin Rodgers in the semifinal How are you feeling about this weekend? -Good…it’s a good confidence builder to keep building on and I hope to be skiing even faster once I get...

Karin Camenisch Fasterskier: “How did the qualifying round go?” Karin Camenisch: “I'm never that fast in the qualifying round. But I know I can ski fast in the heats, so I didn't really care. It was ok – it was a good warmup I guess!” FS: “Did you feel like you had to go all-out to make it [into the top 8 for the heats] or were you able to be a little conservative?” KC:...

Source: Skisport.no The following are some excerpts from a Marco Albarello interview in a recent Norwegian Skisport (#7, 2005). Marco Albarello (45) was World Champion in 1987 (Oberstdorf), Olympic silver medalist in 1992 (Albertville) and Olympic relay Champion in 1994 (Lillehammer). Albarello: No pressure – At the moment we don’t feel any pressure. We achieved results last year and our impression from our training camps is that we are getting better. We can’t afford setbacks...

Source: Langrenn.com Marit Bjorgen (25) is not concerned that she was “only” sixth in the sprint in Canada. Her month is February.

Source: Langrenn.com Tor Arne Hetland (31) of Norway has won both Olympic and World Championship sprint golds. He still sets winning the district championship above it all.

Source: Langrenn.com

Karl Saidla races for XC Ottawa Did the Sovereign Lake races go about how you expected they would? The races were a pleasant surprise. I didn’t feel particularly snappy at the Nor Am races in Canmore the week before and I know from experience that if you are not feeling good in a World Cup race you can be completely decimated. At the same time, I was very excited to race at home in Canada...

In an incredibly exciting preview for the World Cup races to be held in Silver Star this weekend, the resort hosted the Silver Star Night Sprints on Tuesday evening. Female competitors who took part included names like Marit Bjorgen, Emilie Ohrstig, Anna Dahlberg, Manuela Henkel and Sara Renner. None of these people, however, (nor anyone else, for that matter) managed to better the qualifying time of Canmore’s Chandra Crawford. I managed to catch up her...

This 'bonus' article was originally made available only to people on the FasterSkier.com email list. We send out one email a month highlighting our favorite recent articles and looking forward at what coming up soon on FasterSkier.com. If you would like to Wendy keeps up with Alison Crocker in the Semifinal How was the final? – It was tough, I had a different tactic. I just tried to be in the lead at the bottom...

2002 Olympian Lars Flora has been one of the top U.S. skiers for several years now. He was recently named to the U.S. World Cup team for the upcoming December World Cup races in Canada. Fasterskier.com got an interview with Lars early last week when he was training in West Yellowstone: How did you feel about your summer/fall training? Did you focus on anything differently this year than in the past? – The summer and...

College skiers sometimes get overlooked in the national skiing scene. But Dartmouth College skier Alison Crocker is doing a good job of getting noticed these days. She's had 4 top five finishes in the SuperTour so far this year, including 4th in the sprint and 3rd in classic this past weekend in West Yellowstone. Last year Alison finished 4th in the US Nationals classic race, 4th at the NCAA Championships, and won four Eastern college...

One of the top U.S. skiers not on the national team, Alaska native James Southam has been moving up the results for many years. Last season at Soldier Hollow (UT) he finally captured his first national championship. Right now James is training in West Yellowstone, MT along with a majority of the rest of the elite racers in the country. We talked earlier in the week about his training, goals, path through college and more:...

American skier Carl Swenson placed 11th and 12th in the Kuusamo, Finland individual start classic and skate World Cup races this weekend. A great World Cup start for Carl! I got a chance to ask him some post race questions on the phone Sunday night. Sunday night 11 PM European time: Hey Carl I hope I didn’t wake you up? – Hey Tor, no problem, I’m still in the car driving back from the race....

– It would be very exciting to race this leg at the Olympics, says Eldar Ronning after skiing an excellent first leg on the Norwegian 4 x 10 k relay team at Beitostolen. Keeping that spot will be a big challenge. Source: Langrenn.com Only five skiers were together in the leadpack at the first tag-off in Sunday’s 4 x 10 World Cup relay. Ronning and Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset (on the Norwegian second team) had pushed the...