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FasterSkier Teams Up with Noah Hoffman Fantasy XC

fantasy.fasterskier.com. If you’ve played before, welcome back! There are some new changes (mainly concerning the fake money you’ll be playing with). And if you’re new, it’s not complicated! Just update your team of eight men and eight women weekly and see how the races (and those athletes’ results) unfold. There are prizes on the line from a list of great sponsors and even a team competition sponsored by Concept 2 Team Challenge made its debut...

World Cup Windup: Finland

Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. FINLAND Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: Third, by just 106 points over Russia Women’s Ranking 2016/2017: Third Men’s Ranking 2016/2017: Fourth Who’s Back: World Cup overall title runner-up Krista Parmakoski, fifth-place Matti Heikkinen, and eighth-place Kerttu Niskanen; Iivo...

Lack of FIS Action on Banned Russians Causing Confusion: ‘It Shouldn’t Be This Difficult’

Note: On. Nov. 23, the day before the first World Cup race of the season, the the CAS decision that the provisional sanctions of the Russian cross-country athletes would expire on 31st October and can only be reinstated if there was more specific evidence of individual anti-doping rule violations.” In the CAS press release announcing the Oct. 31 deadline for FIS to bring a case against the skiers, the court only wrote that “a further provisional suspension may be imposed on the athletes...

World Cup Windup: Sweden

Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. SWEDEN Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: Second Women’s Ranking 2016-2017: Second Men’s Ranking 2016-2017: Third Who’s Back: Stina Nilsson, second in the Sprint Cup and fourth in the World Cup overall; Hanna Falk, third in the Sprint Cup;...

World Cup Windup: Norway

Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24. NORWAY Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: First, by a landslide: 13,383 points to 7,053 by runner-up Sweden. Women’s Ranking 2016/2017: First Men’s Ranking 2016/2017: First Who’s Back: Overall World Cup winners Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Heidi Weng; Sprint...

More Early Racing as Cologna, Kylloenen, and Van Der Graaf Get Wins

The World Cup season draws ever-closer as season-opening races continued this weekend in Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland. In Muonio, Finland, a long weekend of racing wrapped up with 10 and 15 k skate races. Finland’s Anne Kylloenen took the win in the women’s 10 k, besting Emilie Kristoffersen of Norway by 8.2 seconds. Kylloenen’s national-team teammates Laura Mononen and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen took third (+14.0) and fourth (+17.1), respectively. Merete Myrseth, a Norwegian skier who competed...

Finns, Russians, Norwegians & Swede Nab Early-Season Wins; Vylegzhanin Competes Despite IOC Ban

FIS races are already being contested in Finland and Sweden this weekend, with most top Scandinavian racers sitting out but a few national-team members and others picking up their first victories of the season. The competitions in Muonio, Finland, drew the most diverse field, including racers from Norway, Russia, Japan, China, Canada, Estonia, and Slovakia, among other countries. In the men’s classic sprint on Friday, the home team got a win from Ristomatti Hakola; he...

Biathlon Canada Finalize World Cup Team Following Trials (Updated)

Note: This article has been updated to include comments and verification from Biathlon Canada High Performance Director Roddy Ward, and explain the modified shooting format used for Friday’s sprint. *** Almost exactly two weeks before Biathlon Canada sends the rest of its World Cup team to Europe for the first trimeter of International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup racing, the national team held trials this past Tuesday through Friday on snow in Canmore, Alberta. Three...

Four More Russian Skiers, Vylegzhanin Included, Disqualified From 2014 Olympics

After were identified in Valbe said. With Legkov’s disqualification, Russia had already lost a gold medal in the 50 k and a silver medal in the 4 x 10 k relay. Vylegzhanin had finished second in the 50 k, but with him now disqualified as well, there could be a substantial medal re-allocation. Third-place Ilia Chernousov, also from Russia but not implicated the McLaren report, would stand to gain gold. Fourth-place Martin Johnsrud Sundby of...

link to results], provides a full-body and effective workout in just a few minutes by imitating one of the toughest sports in the world: cross-country skiing. Early supporters of the Kickstarter campaign will be eligible to receive a special offer – up to 40% the list price!  To take advantage of this incredible deal, click here (link) Nordic cross-country skiing is considered one of the most physically challenging sports because it activates more muscles than...

an online reservation system throughout dates of the festival to reserve new Twin Skin Ski ski demos for on-trail testing in West Yellowstone. The 2017 West Yellowstone Ski Festival will take place November 20th – 28th in West Yellowstone, Montana. Demos will be available for reservation from Tuesday through Friday. Additionally, all those that register to demo skis will be eligible for the Fischer Twin Skin giveaway. Fischer’s West Yellowstone Online Demo Form

Wednesday Workout: Preseason Agility with U.S. Paralympics Nordic

It’s that time of year when everyone’s raring to get on snow. Let’s say you’re lucky enough to find some — even just a few hundred meters — like the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team did late last month at a training camp at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. Seven athletes — a combination of high-performance and development skiers — spent a week at Van Ho from Oct. 23-29 for the nordic center’s earliest...

Klemen Bauer on How It Feels When a Teammate Dopes

Slovenian biathlete Klemen Bauer has competed in nine World Championships and three Olympics, landing just one spot away from a medal in the sprint in Vancouver in 2010. He has a handful of top-10 World Cup finishes to call his own. Bauer has also been a prominent voice for fair and ethical sport, speaking out in support of the anti-doping process and more recently participating in a campaign to eradicate sexual abuse from sport. But...

Alaska Racing Returns with Scenic Race to the Outhouse

HATCHER PASS, above Palmer, Alaska — Thank you Ullr for the early-season weather and snow! The 2017/2018 ski season started for me on Sept. 30 with an overnight trip to the Snowbird Glacier in the Talkeetna Mountains above Palmer. The Mat-Su Ski Club (MSSC) believed to be the first cross-country ski race in the U.S. this winter, and the first ski race on natural snow anywhere on the continent. The race was held under partly cloudy skis and...

Join Our Team! Intern Needed

FasterSkier is seeking an intern to join our team for the 2017/2018 winter season (November-April). Essentially, we’re looking for an eager go-getter with an up-for-anything attitude and high level of interest in cross-country skiing. This person will assist our staff with daily race reporting, especially on World Cup race days (cross-country, nordic combined and biathlon), as well as larger projects. Weekday schedule can be relatively flexible, but we expect our interns to assist with weekend...

Frozen Thunder Day 2: Euro-Bound Holmes, Valjas Top Distance Races

Frozen Thunder lived up to its name on Friday, with temperatures hovering below the legal race limit prior to the start of the second competition series of the week: the women’s 7.5- and men’s 10-kilometer freestyle individual starts. An hour delay was enough time to see temperatures rise to -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit), and many skiers bundled in Buffs in prep for the five to six laps of racing. Overcast skies were a celestial...

What Weird Heart Rate Monitor Numbers Mean (or Don’t) About Arrhythmias

Athletes engaging in big volumes of endurance exercise are at some increased risk of heart problems – compared to those who do moderate exercise. The level of that risk is under debate. At the same time, recreational athletes using heart rate monitors during their training will sometimes see numbers go up as high as 220 or 225 beats per minute (bpm). Such racing heartbeats are called tachycardia, and some of the possible underlying causes can...

Reminder: Tell Us Where There’s Snow!

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline to let us know about early season ski destinations or venues is fast approaching. We’ll extend it through the weekend (and give Mother Nature a little more time to shape up into her winter self), but if you’d like your favorite spot featured in this year’s U.S. or info@fasterskier.com with the subject line “Fall Skiing” by Sunday, Nov. 5.

Frozen Thunder Day 1:  Locke Wins Qualifier for World Cup Spot; Valjas Outlunges Thompson in Final

Clouds heavy with building snow and a winter-storm warning already in effect cast a second anticipatory shadow over a jittery group of racers gathered on Wednesday for the first Frozen Thunder race of the season at the Canmore Nordic Centre in Canmore, Alberta. At stake for some of the top Canadians participating in the day’s classic sprint was the opportunity to secure the final spot on the men’s World Cup team for the first period...

IOC Sanctions Legkov, Belov for Doping in Sochi, Rules Out of 2018 Olympics (Updated x3)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ruled that Russian cross-country skiers Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov doped at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The IOC Disciplinary Commission headed by Denis Oswald, referred to as the Oswald Commission, issued a decision today stating that the two athletes had violated Article 2 of the anti-doping rules for Sochi. As a result, Legkov’s gold medal in the 50-kilometer freestyle mass start, the Russian men’s silver medal in the...