The sun illuminated the alps in Cogne, Italy, the final World Cup stop before the FIS World Championships in Seefeld, Austria. Nestled in the mountains, the Aosta Valley is home to both Federico Pellegrino and Francesco De Fabiani, who seized the opportunity to delight the home crowd. The 1.6-kilometer freestyle race was also a chance for Pellegrino to earn his 12th individual freestyle sprint victory, tying for the second-most overall for any World Cup athlete...
FIS Cross Country World Cup 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint Cogne, Italy Amidst sunshine and sporting rolled up sleeves on Saturday in Cogne Italy, American Jessie Diggins took the women’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint win in nail-biter fashion. After making it into the semifinals and the final as one of the day’s lucky losers, Diggins outlunged Germany’s Sandra Ringwald by 0.11 seconds, claiming the victory in a time of 3:32.73. The 27 year old Afton, Minnesota native now has...
IBU World Cup Soldier Hollow Men’s 10 k Sprint It was a career first IBU World Cup win for Norway’s Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen in the men’s 10 k sprint on Friday. Christiansen won in a time of 23:39.7 minutes while shooting clean for the day. France’s Simon Desthieux earned his first World Cup podium of the year as he marked a time only 1.3 seconds behind Christiansen while accruing one penalty after missing a target...
With a resume including 2 Olympic gold medals and an incredible 8 World Championship titles, Andrea Henkel Burke is recognized in Germany as one of the greatest biathletes of all time. Now living in Lake Placid, NY with husband Tim Burke, Andrea is using her years of competitive experience to help others achieve their goals through a personal training and consulting business. This week Andy Newell announced Andrea as the newest partner on the growing...
IBU World Cup Soldier Hollow (Midway), Utah women’s 7.5 k Sprint The name itself carries with it a reputation for high heart rates. Nestled on the East slope of Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, Soldier Hollow (SoHo), the sight of this week’s IBU World Cup races, features tracks well above 5,000 feet in altitude. Junior and senior skiers understand that a hard effort at SoHo come with a mandatory lactic acid tax. Not since 2002 at the...
“Trail To The Birkie” is a 4-part series by the New Moon team that features some our favorite everyday athletes from the local community talking about their journey to compete in what some call the Greatest Show on Snow! At New Moon, we are a family of dedicated and passionate cross country skiers located in Hayward, Wisconsin, home of the Slumberland American Birkebeiner—the “Birkie.” We began serving the Nordic skiing community back in 1976 alongside...
Leave your waxing kit at home and forget about the nervous worrying over snow conditions. Let us prepare your skis for the American Birkie. We want to be your race ski technicians. All you need to do is drop your skis off by February 20th and we will prepare them for your race. This means we will worry about the weather and snow conditions and you can relax and focus on preparing for your race....
Having the season you hope for and actually having that season is the rarefied magic of sport. “I am having the season I hoped for but didn’t expect,” US Biathlon’s Clare Egan said in a telephone call on Jan. 30th. “I got the balance right for the first time since I started training full time. Since for eight years — three of which were devoted to cross-country and five of which were devoted to biathlon....
It was a weekend of sprinting in Lahti, Finland, with many World Cup athletes closing out Sunday having traversed the famed 1.4-kilometer 2016 World Championships sprint loop at top speed close to ten times. By the time Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist got on course for the final lap of the women’s classic Team Sprint, she had already tallied nine–in Saturday’s freestyle sprint she made it through the qualifier, quarterfinal, semifinal and final (placing third), and on...
FIS World Cup Lahti, Finland Classic Team Sprint Sunday in Lahti, Finland the women raced a 6 x 1.4-kilometer classic team sprint. U.S. fans saw their hopes for a podium snuffed out in the two semi-finals that determined the 10 teams advancing to the finals. In the first team sprint semi, the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell placed sixth overall and did not advance. Sargent and Caldwell, constituting team USA I,...
Out of the famed Lahti, Finland ski stadium and up and over the initial punchy climb, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla, 40 seconds into the final of the women’s 1.4-kilometer sprint, charged ahead. In her draft, and sitting in fourth place around the hairpin that slung skiers back towards the stadium was the U.S. Ski Team’s Sophie Caldwell. Descending back past the stadium and into the next decisive hill at 1:35 into the race, Caldwell made...
FIS World Cup Lahti, Finland 1.4 k/ 1.6 k Freestyle Sprint In the women’s skate sprint qualifier in Lahti, Finland Slovenia’s Eva Urevc laid down the fastest time in 2:40.67 minutes. Swiss skier Nadine Faehndrich was the second fastest qualifier, 4.21 seconds back, with the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Sophie Caldwell third (+4.36). Canada’s Dahria Beatty qualified 25th (+10.21). Also making the heats for the U.S. were Ida Sargent (USST) in 26th (+10.36), and Kelsey Phinney...
Canmore, Canada IBU World Cup 4 x 7.5 k/ 4 x 6 k relay Friday in Canmore was team relay day. Norway’s Lars Helge Birkeland, Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, Erlend Øvereng Bjøntegaard and Johannes Thingnes Bø won the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in 1:16:36.6 hours while acquiring no penalties on the shooting range and using seven spares. In second place was France’s Antonin Guigonnat, Emilien Jacquelin, Simon Fourcade, and Quentin Fillon Maillet. The French...
IBU World Cup Canmore, Canada 15 k/ 12.5 k Short Individual Races Sun, mountains, and what may have seemed like relatively warm temps allowed the IBU World Cup events to proceed on Thursday in Canmore, Canada. It’s been Polar Vortex cold in Canmore. Cold enough to thwart the original plans for traditional length 20-kilometer and 15 k individual races, for men and women respectively. With cold temperatures predicted all week, and a window of legal-limit...
“Polar Vortex” has become part of the oh-so-cold vernacular when describing seemingly locked in place artic air. Last week’s weather-related news cycle was dominated by all things “Polar Vortex”. In Canmore, Canada, the term is still being thrown around: the cold temperatures have not abated. On Thursday, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) is scheduled to begin its North American swing of races in Canmore with the men’s 20-kilometer and women’s 15 k individual races. Hold...
(Some details and insights in this story come from a book recently published in Norwegian, Min Historie: Northug as told by Petter Northug to Jonas Forsang. This piece was written by twenty-one-year-old Maks Zechel, a Canadian cross-country skier living and training in Norway.) *** Arguably the greatest male cross country skier of all time. Certainly the most sensational. Undeniably the skier who has changed the sport more than anyone else. There never has been,...
Where I’m going the day after the Birke I know what you do the day after the Birke. Linger in bed. Go online to look at your time. Compare it with that other guy in your ski club’s time. And that other guy. Figure out if you were fast enough to move up a wave next year. But this year there’s another option. You could drive a few hours west to Lake Itasca State Park...
With six of the nine stops on the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup circuit complete, IBU athletes will take a brief hiatus from Europe this February and venture across the Atlantic for a race tour in North America. The first stop for biathletes, coaches and fans will be Canmore, Albert. Canada–the last World Cup races having taken place there in 2016. Following Canmore, the IBU will head for U.S. soil: The Soldier Hollow Nordic...
Twenty-eight-year-old Taylor Fletcher has been nordic skiing and ski jumping nearly his entire life. He grew up training and competing in Steamboat Springs, Colo. He has been racing World Cups since 2010 and is a three time Olympian. The 2018/2019 season has been his best yet. Fletcher began his season with two Continental Cup victories, one in each of his “hometowns”, Steamboat Springs and Park City, Utah. He has also brought a renewed spirit to...
Casper Mountain Biathlon Club – Nordic Coach