Last fall, one thing was certain — the pandemic would worsen. And it did. Rosie Brennan, summed up her feelings about traveling to Finland for the first round of World Cups by jumping in head first, masked, of course. “I don’t believe anyone knows the answer [to if we should or should not have a World Cup] as we are all experiencing this pandemic for the first time and still don’t have a full grasp...
Press Release U.S. Ski & Snowboard has announced the Davis U.S. Cross Country Ski Team nominations for the 2021-22 Olympic season. Nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria in the prior season. The 2021-22 team is highlighted by an experienced group of World Cup, World Championship, and Olympic athletes, including Olympic gold medalist and 2021 FIS Overall Champion Jessie Diggins; two-time World Cup winner Rosie Brennan; and 2020 FIS Junior...
In a recent press release from FISI (Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali), the Italian Ski Federation, announced some coaching changes for the upcoming season, notably that this year’s World Cup Sprint Globe winner, Federico Pellegrino, and his teammate, Francesco de Fabiani will join the training group of Marcus Cramer who works with the Russian Ski Team. Cramer’s current squad includes Sergey Ustiugov, Gleb Retivykh, Artem Maltsev and Evgeniy Belov on the men’s side and Yulia Stupak,...
Press Release USA NORDIC ANNOUNCES TEAM NOMINATIONS Group of 45 nordic combined and ski jumping athletes earn spots USA Nordic has nominated 45 American athletes to its 2021-22 national and junior nordic combined and ski jumping teams. Athletes achieved the nominations based on selection criteria. They will have the option of being a part of the 2021-22 U.S. Nordic Combined or U.S. Ski Jumping Team. The nominations were made after the conclusion of the...
Let’s start with some basic gender equality facts in skiing. The first women’s downhill at the Olympics was in1948. Women were awarded Olympic medals in combined (one downhill run and two of slalom) beginning eight years earlier in 1936. FIS has awarded a women’s World Championship in downhill since 1931. The FIS database marks 1967 as the first year for an official FIS World Cup downhill race for both men or women. It’s a different...
In mid-March media outlets in Norway and Sweden reported complications with the proposed hand-held fluoro testing tool FIS plans to use next season to enforce their fluoro ban. Already, the ban was pushed back a year due to delays with accurately measuring per-fluoros residue on ski bases. A group involved with developing the Fluoro Tracker (FT) as the testing device is known, released a paper last month titled “Detection of fluorine in skibases and skiwaxes.”...
Press Release Determined Group of Canucks Headline 2021-22 National Ski Team Program Paralympic and Olympic veterans lead new generation of Canadian Nordic athletes on world stage CANMORE, Alta.—Canada’s cross-country ski athletes are charging into the highly-anticipated Paralympic and Olympic year replete with a mix of veteran leadership and podium potential along with youthful energy and drive. Nordiq Canada officially kicked off the critical 2022 season by naming a determined line up of 26 athletes...
After an unusual and unprecedented season, many athletes have announced their retirement as they move on from professional ski racing. Aside from the three notable retirements from the U.S. Ski Team, Sadie Maubet-Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell-Hamilton, and Simi Hamilton, twelve international athletes have said goodbye to World Cup competitions. Perhaps the biggest name among them is Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway, who after a somewhat inauspicious start to his World Cup career in 2005 when he...
There will be many ways in which we remember the past 12 months— March to March — as a relative void when it comes to normalcy. You don’t need to hear that from us. For the most part, this was a year with a lack of national championships at the senior or junior level. U.S. Ski & Snowboard made the decision early on to cancel Senior Nationals and Junior Nationals. The same was true for...
On April 14, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced former Estonian cross-country skier Andrus Veerpalu was found guilty by the CAS Anti-Doping Division. Veerpalu was involved with “Operation Aderlass”, a blood doping scheme run by Dr. Marc Schmidt in Germany. Veerpalu’s penalty is a two-year ban from FIS sanctioned events ending on March 17, 2023. Now retired from skiing, the fifty-year-old Veerpalu in recent years has served as a coach for team “Haanja” in Estonia....
Sten Fjeldheim, the cross-country ski coach at Northern Michigan University announced his retirement on March 30th. He coached and mentored at the school for 35 years. This piece from The Mining Journal speaks to Fjeldheim’s legacy and the many accolades NMU skiers achieved under his tutelage. Below are thoughts about Fjeldheim from former NMU skier, U.S. Ski Team athlete and Head Coach, Peter Vordenberg. According to a NMU press release, Fjeldheim had this to say...
Press Release NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine (April 14, 2021) – The US Biathlon board of directors today named the following athletes to the National Team and Junior National Team for the 2021-22 season. National A1 Team Clare Egan (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) Susan Dunklee (Craftsbury, Vt.) Sean Doherty (Center Conway, N.H.) National A2 Team Jake Brown (St. Paul, Minn.) Leif Nordgren (Hinesburg, Vt.) National A3 Team Joanne Reid (Grand Junction, Colo.) Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, Wis.)...
ANCHORAGE — The calendar said April, but the thermometer said January, as a small but well-credentialed field of athletes competed in a pair of FIS races at Anchorage’s Kincaid Park over the weekend. The April 10 and 11 events appear to have been among the latest FIS races held in this country in the past 30 years. Saturday morning in Anchorage dawned clear and cold. Anchorage broke its all-time temperature record for April 10 with...
According to the FIS database, sprints on the cross-country World Cup began during the 1996-1997 season. That year, American Simi Hamilton was nine years old. And if you listen to any of the Hamilton-lore floating around adventure circles, the Aspen, Colorado native was already eyeing deep-country adventure. We’ll touch upon this often here, but Hamilton moves in the mountains as few can. He’s capable of pushing at near race pace in technical terrain with a...
This year was a big year for women’s Nordic combined racing, not in the way 2020 was a “big year”, but in a record-breaking, moving forward to better things kind of way. For those of you who don’t follow Nordic combined, here’s what you need to know: Competitions involve ski jumping, in which athletes are scored based on style and distance, and later in the day, they compete in a pursuit-start skate race based on...
Let’s dial back to mid-March and the close of the 2021 World Championships with the men’s 50-kilometer mass start classic race. Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo came into the final corner and finish-straight in close quarters for the win. In the real-time fast-paced moment, Bolshunov and Klæbo tangled, with both skiers barely maintaining balance. To summarize, Bolshunov used all available real-estate coming around the final turn. Klæbo, as he had been doing...
With great pride, I will admit to being an unabashed fluoro powder addict. After finding an affordable source of the stuff (200 grams for $50.00) my use might be considered reckless. I have unapologetically sprinkled powder on skis with the same vigor and arrogant nature as Samuel L. Jackson drops F-bombs in Tarantino films. Powder made my skis slick and fun. I LOVE the feeling of dusted sticks. I also love the planet and...
In a rare twist of events, the International Ski Federation (FIS) has modified the results of the men’s 50-kilometer mass start classic from the 2021 World Championships. FasterSkier reported on the topsy turvy nature of the final two hundred meters. Here’s what we reported on race day: “Swooping around the left-hander into the straight, it was Bolshunov in the lead and going wide up against the edge of the right-hand V-boards. (Reminiscent of Lahti where Finland’s...
Team Soldier Hollow is looking for ambitious skiers and biathletes who want to train and race at a high level collegiately or professionally and who will contribute to our growing club and vision of “Developing Champions in Sport and Life.” We invite you to spend your summer training at Soldier Hollow, the 2002 Olympic venue for XC skiing and Biathlon and more recently, host of the 2017 XC World Junior Championships and 2019 BMW...
Press Release As the 54 women Olympians who have represented our country in cross country skiing, and calling our group United States Nordic Olympic Women, we give an annual award to the female athlete that demonstrates outstanding amounts of grit and grace throughout the year. We call our award: The Gold Rush Award. The past two years have seen three recipients of our award: Rosie Brennan, Sadie Maubet Bjornsen and Sophie Caldwell Hamilton When asked if...