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Nordiq Canada: Ringing in the Changes

When Cross Country Canada announced last March that they would be rebranding as Nordiq Canada, they were emphatic the new name was a symbol of their readiness to make changes.  Those changes are starting to happen. One holdover from last season is Erik Bråten, the young Norwegian brought in to shape the development pipeline. After one year on the job, Bråten is still enthusiastic and now the sole head coach. Louis Bouchard has stepped down...

USCSA’s Midwestern Conference (MSCA) Seeks Growth (Press Release)

Press Release USCSA News Release: UW-Stout Meeting by Drew Birschbach 11/2/19 MCSA Seeking Growth Meeting centered on inclusion and structure The United States Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Association (USCSA) welcomed members and representatives of 14 collegiate Nordic ski clubs from five Midwestern states to UW-Stout October 27. The goal? Expanding and strengthening the USCSA’s Midwestern Conference (MCSA). In attendance to help the process was newly named MCSA Nordic Coordinator Ted Theyerl, MCSA Nordic Student Representative...

Skiers Running Fast: Four Skiers Break 3 Hours in NYC Marathon

View this post on Instagram Teamwork makes the dream work! So fun to run the @nycmarathon with @lizhillstephen and @idasargent . We all ran for @aktiv_usa , just appreciated a great day running with humanity and all got UNDER 3! #bettertogether #aktivagainstcancer A post shared by Kikkan Randall (@kikkanimal) on Nov 3, 2019 at 12:43pm PST FasterSkier previously reported on four boldface names, former Winter Olympians all, who were planning on racing the 2019 New...

Kikkan Randall Joins the Sub Three Hour Marathon Club One Year Post Chemotherapy

Statistically speaking, only 2% of people who enter a marathon will finish under three hours. The 2019 TCS New York City Marathon was a bit above average, with nearly 3% (1,563 of  53,508 runners) breaking the elusive three hour barrier. Yesterday, four familiar cross country skiers joined the speedy club of athletes who have achieved this result.  Brian Gregg was first across the line, stopping the clock at 2:44:30 (6:17 per mile average). Next came...

October 31 News Roundup: Skiers Running Fast

It’s no secret that skiers spend a lot of time running as part of their ski training. And even if it’s not their “real” sport, some of them become quite good at it. Hence Scott Patterson wins Alaska’s Crow Pass Crossing backcountry marathon six times (and counting), Erika Flowers takes the victory in The Rut 50k in Montana, or Therese Johaug runs a 10km on the track in 32:20.86 to win the 10,000m at the...

Takeaways from the 2019 International Coach Seminar in Trondheim, Norway

Concurrent with the U.S. Ski Team and other nations partaking in the Toppidrettsveka rollerski series based in Trondheim, Norway, local organizers hosted the 2019 International Coach Seminar from August 24-25.  The conference attracted coaches from eleven countries including Russia, the U.S., China, Finland, and Norway.  Guri Knotten Hetland, a former Norwegian competitive skier, helped steer the conference’s agenda. Hetland is also leading Trondheim’s bid to secure the 2025 Nordic Ski World Championships and is the...

U.S. Biathlon Announces Nominations for Opening World Cup and IBU Cup Rosters (Press Release)

Press Release by Bill Kellick/USBA: (Oct. 28, 2019) — Following the completion of the U.S. Biathlon Fall Festival and IBU Cup Trials held over the weekend in Soldier Hollow, Utah, 15 athletes have been nominated to the U.S. Biathlon teams competing at the opening events of the 2019-20 season. “We had an impressively competitive trials this season, with several lead changes throughout the competitions,” said U.S. Biathlon Director of High Performance Lowell Bailey. “I feel really good about...

Pioneer Midwest Europe Ski Picking Recap 2019

Matt and Adam had a big European ski picking trip. They made stops in Norway and Austria to visit and pick skis at Madshus, Salomon, Atomic and Fischer. Check out videos of their travels in the links below. We loved having Garrott Kuzzy along for ski picking and adventures too. He lives right down the road in Innsbruck, Austria and owns info@lumiexperiences.com to put your name on the list to be first to receive the itinerary. • Pre-flight •...

Non-Traditional Summer Training with Dan Cnossen

Dan Cnossen is a badass. There. We said it. In the realm of para nordic sport, the 39-year-old medaled in each of the six biathlon and cross country events in which he competed during the 2018 Paralympic Games. At the 2019 World Championships, he Cnossen earned a silver medal in both the cross country sprint and middle distance races after a slew of podium finishes in World Cup events during the season. Prior to his...

Day Three: U.S. Biathlon Fall Team Trials

The third and final day of the Soldier Hollow U.S. Biathlon Fall Team Trials was postponed temporarily due to snowfall. An occurrence that normally would not quell the skis, but can make skate rollerskis squirrely.  After a delay, and with the course sufficiently dry, the men and women raced a 10-kilometer and 7.5 k sprint, respectively.  Susan Dunklee (USBA) won the women’s race in a time of 24:16.53 while missing a single target standing. Joanne...

On Thursday, a three race series to help determine international race starts for U.S. biathletes began with a sprint at Soldier Hollow (SoHo) outside Midway, Utah. For the IBU World Cup, five U.S. athletes have pre-qualified with a top-25 result on the World Cup or World Championships last season.  Pre-qualified athletes include Joanne Reid, Clare Egan, Susan Dunklee, Sean Doherty, and Leif Nordgren. According to the USBA selection criteria, the remaining World Cup Period 1 spots...

RUSADA Head Confirms Data Manipulation as WADA Asks for More Time

The culminating scenes in the RUSADA doping scandal have played out behind closed doors and before live audiences. On September 24, we reported on a three week timetable WADA had given Russian sport authorities to explain if and how it had manipulated information from the Moscow Lab’s data collection system. The data remains a key piece of evidence to determine the extent of Russian doping and its cover-up.  It’s now been three weeks.  In that...

Technology is having a massive impact on sports across the world. Video assistant referring is making huge impacts in soccer across the top leagues and major competitions. Winter sports are going to be no different. Technology will help assist cross-country skiing and other winter sports in their performance and training. Here are several ways winter sports will be affected by future technology. 1. There will be an increase in artificial snow Since the late 1940s,...

At 26,  Nathalie von Siebenthal of Switzerland Retires

Switzerland’s top women distance skier Nathalie von Siebenthal announced her retirement Tuesday from elite level cross-country ski racing. According to the International Ski Federation (FIS), von Siebenthal took a break after the World Cup season and did not regain the motivation to continue. “The decision to take a break in spring was really important for me,” von Siebenthal told FIS. “In autumn I felt like my body was ready to go fully into training again. After...

The Life of an Elite Multisport Para Athlete With Kendall Gretsch

27-year-old Kendall Gretsch is a well-decorated athlete.  A glance at the Illinois native’s bio shows three consecutive ITU Paratriathlon World Championship titles (2014 – 2016) plus a silver medal at this year’s event on September 1st in Lausanne, Switzerland. She is a five-time USA Paratriathlon national champion, four-time gold medalist at the PATCO/CAMTRI American Championships, and has four medals from ITU Paratriathlon World Cup events, two each of gold and silver. And that is just...

The USBA X-Team: Zane Fields and Luke Brown

For many years the U.S. Biathlon Association (USBA) has invested in talent. Athletes who demonstrate ski-speed and a knack for shooting on the firing range receive what amounts to a cushioned sport-specific transition. In this case, Luke Brown (Crosscut Mountain Sports/USBA) and Zane Fields (USBA) are the latest cross-country athletes embraced by the USBA’s X-Team.  Brown, who is in his second year removed from Dartmouth, and Fields who is fresh off a four year stint...

Hanna Falk of Sweden out for the 2019-2020 Season

Monday, thirty-year-old Hanna Falk of the Swedish National Team announced on Instagram she would miss the upcoming World Cup season due to a back injury. Falk wrote she had endured back pain for the last month and confirmed an issue with a disk. According to Falk, she had been able to manage her back pain the past few years, but currently the issue had “reached a new level.” A translation of the Instagram post stated she will...

On the last weekend of September, U.S. Ski & Snowboard held the annual National Cross Country Coaches Symposium in Park City, UT. This year’s event included a keynote presentation from Nicole LaVoi Ph.D., co-director of the Tucker Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dr. LaVoi is a professor of sport psychology and sociology at UMN and leads research in “the structural and personal barriers experienced by female coaches, relational qualities of the coach-athlete...