You don’t have to be rich—or even middle-class—to see the world. You can go on as little as ten bucks a day, get to your destination for up to 50 dollars, and pay zero for accommodation. Yes, you read that right. And you don’t have to be a travel hacking guru to keep your travel costs low. You just need to be in the know about some things, but they are hardly heavily guarded secrets....
The state of Michigan is one of the unsung gems of global skiing. Famed more for its lakes and valleys than for its peaks, the Wolverine State has a lot to offer anyone with a pair of skis. Not only does it boast the highest vertical drop in the US Midwest, but it also has highly boast-worthy downhill trails by the names of Kingdom Come, Voodoo Mountain, and Sidewinder. As detailed in the comprehensive guide...
In November, FasterSkier interviewed Kristen Bourne, assistant coach at the College of St. Scholastica (CSS) in Duluth, MN, after she was selected as a Women’s Sports Foundation Van DerVeer Fellow, which came with a grant totalling $17,500. The objective of the fellowship is to improve representation of women in elite level coaching by supporting the development of rising coaches at the college level. The majority of the funds from the VanDerveer Fellowship went directly to...
For the past decade, the World Cup Dreams Foundation has been helping to fund skiers, of all ages and disciplines, as they chase their goals on snow. In the spring of 2021, the World Cup Dreams Foundation merged with the T2 Foundation, perhaps better known in the Nordic community because of its support of the SMS T2 team. Now working together the two organizations aim to “keep the best athletes in the game, not just...
Have you ever wondered what do sportsmen and sportswomen do when they are on the road as they are heading to the next tournaments and championships? Well, who hasn’t? If you want to spend a day on the road with an athlete, you might not have a chance to do this, but there are other ways to find out. Keep reading, and you will get to know how do athletes spend time when traveling. Traveling...
The Beijing Winter Olympic Games begin on February 4, 2022. In less than two months, the world will again be treated to three weeks of the top athletes in the world competing on snow and ice. While hockey might be the most popular sport at the Winter Olympics, the skiing events offer some of the most dramatic moments. They are also many viewers’ introduction to skiing as a competitive sport. Many people associate sports betting...
Editor’s note: This is the second essay in our new series, “Letters to my younger self.” Lauren Fleshman provided the modern locus classicus for this genre; Adam Verrier ably takes up the mantle here. While the first two essays, from Adam now and John Wood before him, have set a high bar, the general theme of this series is clear: If you were writing a letter to your younger self, what would you want to...
The Eastern Canada Cup series wrapped up in Mont Sainte Anne (MSA), Québec, with distance racing for over 300 skiers each day. As with Westerns, the second weekend brought results and execution a little higher in the athletes’ focus, but the almost universal use of the words ‘fun’ and ‘excitement’ remain a reflection of a return to racing after a season without. MSA is just outside Québec City and is very accessible for most...
Biathletes Jake Brown (Saint Paul, Minn./Craftsbury Green Racing Project & USBA) and Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Team Crosscut & USBA) have qualified for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 by virtue of their performances at this season’s IBU World Cup events. It marks the first Olympic team for both as they join Olympic veterans Susan Dunklee(Craftsbury, Vt./Craftsbury Green Racing Project & USABA) and Clare Egan(Cape Elizabeth, Maine/USBA) as early qualifiers. Dunklee and Egan qualified through their respective...
As Period I wanes and the Tour de Ski approaches, curiosity is naturally piqued as to how various athletes are analyzing their first four weekends of World Cup racing. In particular, our focus is drawn to Olympic medal hopefuls, like last year’s World Cup Overall Champion Jessie Diggins. How is she feeling as she heads into the holiday break, with two individual and one team sprint podium already under her belt and another six weeks...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. In the wake of the American women taking second to the Swedish powerhouse duo, and yesterday’s top two spots on the podium, Maja Dahlqvist and Jonna Sundling, the men’s team...
The World Cup Dreams Foundation is thrilled to announce its November Grant recipients. After receiving more than 150 applications from athletes all over the country from athletes competing in alpine, cross-country, snowboarding, freestyle, freeskiing, nordic combined and ski jumping we have chosen 16 grant recipients, who will each receive a grant for $1,500 to help offset the costs of training and competing. In the fall of 2021, WCD allocated over $200,000 in direct athlete funding....
Rossland, BC native Rémi Drolet had a lot going on during the first year of the pandemic. In his first year on the Canadian senior national ski team, he was studying theoretical physics at Harvard. His junior career ended with a silver medal and an individual fourth place in the 2020 World U20 Championships, right before COVID cancelled the final World Cups and Canadian Senior Nationals. This was also his first season living in a...
Once again, there was a great weekend of racing on the Nakkertok trails in Gatineau, QC. It was almost like the pandemic pause hadn’t happened: lots of racers, live results on Zone4, great support for media. But it isn’t really just Nakkertok. ENGNE, a coalition of local clubs, puts on great races using Nakkertok trails and the NakkerTrak snowmaking magic. As with the first Western Canada Cup (WCC) race, the theme of the weekend was...
The rapidly approaching year of 2022, and the upcoming Beijing Olympics, will mark 50 years since women cross-country skiers first began competing in the Winter Games. With multiple World Cup podiums already achieved this season and strong chances for medals in February, the origins of the U.S. women’s program might not be at the forefront of one’s mind. We’ve become accustomed to seeing our women at the top of the results lists; with almost an...
Race, rinse, repeat. The Western Canada Cup series returned to Sovereign Lake for race days 3 and 4 of the new season. Originally scheduled for Rossland, BC, the event had to be moved after an ‘atmospheric river’ event delivered warm rain to almost all southern BC trail systems on December 1st. Sovereign Lake was the least damaged, able to hold WCC #1 and #2 on the 4th and 5th as scheduled. By December 11th, skiing...
The sport’s governing body joins a UN campaign to fight climate change, and save Biathlon too. *** Östersund, Sweden markets itself as Vinterstaden (The Winter City), a reputation it earned a century ago when the Nordic Games – the precursor to our modern Winter Olympics – were moved there from snowless Stockholm in 1905 and 1913. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) routinely puts Östersund at the very beginning of its world cup calendar, as...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. For American ski fans, the Davos 10km on Sunday was one to be anticipated with a mix of expectation and nostalgia. Last season, in a year when the...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. The second day in Davos, Switzerland started with the Men’s 15K Freestyle individual race. In contrast to yesterday’s snow and wind, it was a beautiful blue sky...
Last season, Canada held no races, posted no domestic results, and, in general, vanished into the pandemic fog. Travel restrictions meant that many Canadian skiers didn’t see any skiers from other regions. Which skiers made progress and which regressed over the last 20 months? We finally have hints after the first races last weekend. What is new? Lots. What happens next? Keep reading. Athlete Progress Following the opening FIS races, part of the Western Canada...