With the victories in Thursday’s distance events at the Nor-Am races in Thunder Bay, Dasha Gaiazova and George Grey secured their spots on the Canadian World Championships team.
At a Fast and Female event in early December, a multi-time World Cup medalist stood in awe of what the program was offering to young girls. “It’s amazing what can change the course of a kid’s life, and hopefully this will change it for the better,” she said. Chandra Crawford? Kikkan Randall? Nope. This time, it was top Canadian alpine skier Kelly VanderBeek. Fast and Female, which was founded by Crawford in 2005, is a...
While racers on the World Cup have voiced concern over the mini tour format following the FIS World Cup mini-tour in Kuusamo, Finland, earlier this season, North American racers overwhelmingly welcome the format.
One of the intentions of the tour format introduced to elite-level cross-country ski racing in the past few years is to allow sprinters and distance specialists to compete on a level playing field. That balance hasn’t been achieved yet at the World Cup level: None of the winners of the four editions of the Tour de Ski, men’s or women’s, have been pure sprinters. But in this weekend’s three-stage mini-tour held in Rossland, BC, organizers...
In Switzerland last weekend, Russia’s Alexander Legkov skied to his second podium of the year, continuing a strong start to the winter. But in an interview afterwards with the Russian newspaper Sport Express, he said he was trying to relish the results as much as possible, knowing that soon, Norwegian star Petter Northug would be back on the circuit at full strength. “Make no mistake—a couple of races, and Northug will return to the level...
With Friday’s skate sprint opener at the Rossland mini-tour serving as a winner-takes-all qualifying race for the Canadian World Championships team, smart money said that the Canucks would come out swinging. And they did—at least one of them. After sneaking through her quarter- and semi-final heats, Perianne Jones (Canadian National B-Team) roared out of the start in the finals, intent on staying out of trouble and keeping her Oslo dreams from sliding away in a...
So far this year, Drew Goldsack has been tearing it up on the NorAm sprint circuit. Goldsack, a member of Canada’s senior development team, had won every sprint he entered coming into this weekend’s mini-tour in Rossland, British Columbia. But while he had proven that he was the North American not on the World Cup circuit, he hadn’t had the chance to test himself against his teammates in Europe. Until now. On Friday, Goldsack was...
After struggling to crack the top-30 on the World Cup last season, Canadian Perianne Jones knew she needed some time on the domestic circuit this year to get her feet back under her. “I’ve raced on the World Cup the last two seasons before Christmas—especially last season, I didn’t feel like I belonged,” she said. “I want to feel like I’m ready to race the World Cup when I’m on the World Cup.” If Jones...
Following on the heels of two North American podiums in Dusseldorf, Canadian and American distance skiers turned in a mixed bag of results in the 10/15km individual start classic race in Davos, Switzerland. The top distance skiers from both countries, with the notable exception of all-rounder Kikkan Randall, skipped the Dusseldorf sprint weekend in order to prepare for the longer event at altitude in Davos. Devon Kershaw (CAN) led the way, skiing to an impressive...
Drew Goldsack leads Graeme Killick December 07, 2010 (Canmore, AB) – The Alberta Cup Series kicked off this past weekend with a 1km freestyle sprint competition on Dec. 4 and 9km classic race on Dec. 5. Saturday’s freestyle sprint race saw an Alberta World Cup Academy sweep of the Open Men’s podium, with Drew Goldsack claiming the victory, followed by Jess Cockney finishing second and Graham Nishikawa in third. Goldsack was the fastest qualifier of...
The third place by Canadians Chandra Crawford and Dasha Gaiazova in Sunday’s team sprint in Dusseldorf was a breakthrough for both women. For Crawford, it was her first World Cup podium finish in three seasons, and her first-ever in the team sprint, while for Gaiazova, it was her first-ever World Cup podium, period. FasterSkier was able to catch up with Crawford after the race to hear about the hectic racing in Dusseldorf, how she and...
With many of the world’s best women eschewing Sunday’s team sprint in Dusseldorf, the outcome of the race wasn’t much of a surprise, as the full-strength Italians, anchored by Saturday’s winner Arianna Follis, skied to a convincing win. For North Americans, the real news was in the continent’s second podium finish in as many days, thanks to Canadians Dasha Gaiazova and Chandra Crawford—and Slovenia. With 50 meters left in the race, the Canadians had a...
If Josef Wenzl wants to race at the 2011 World Ski Championships in Norway, he probably can do it without a bodyguard. But that’s only thanks to the last-minute heroics of the sprinter Anders Gloersen (NOR). Wenzl, a German, squandered a sure podium finish for himself and the top Norwegian pair in Sunday’s team sprint in Dusseldorf, crashing out on the final corner and taking John Kristian Dahl along with him. Gloersen ended up being...
Bring on Marit Bjoergen. That was the message Kikkan Randall sent with her skiing in Dusseldorf, Germany on Saturday, racing to a sensational second place in a freestyle sprint on a short course that doesn’t even suit her strengths. After qualifying in eighth and blazing through the first two rounds, Randall overcame a poor start in her final heat, flying past Slovenian Vesna Fabjan on the homestretch to take her fifth-ever podium finish, just behind...
This weekend’s World Cup city sprints in Dusseldorf aren’t supposed to start in the airport. But the American and Canadian ski teams will be cutting it pretty close. Thanks to a strike by Finnair’s flight attendants, the two squads’ sprinters are spending Thursday night in Finland and departing for Germany on Friday—giving the teams a buffer of roughly 24 hours before the start of the races on Saturday. American Andy Newell’s schedule will be even...
Chandra Crawford and Dasha Gaiazova are currently the only women on the Canadian World Cup squad. But their lack of teammates hasn’t held them back so far: Crawford, a 2006 Olympic gold medalist, won the FIS sprint in Rovaniemi that weekend, and Gaiazova skied to 24th place in the World Cup sprint in Kuusamo, en route to 48th place overall in the mini-tour. Crawford didn’t have an excellent start to the World Cup season, but...
Kris Freeman wasn’t quite able to match his teammate Andy Newell’s result from yesterday – but he came pretty close. Freeman, of the U.S. Ski Team (USST), finished seventh in the 10 k classic in Kuusamo, Finland on Saturday, just 0.3 seconds out of sixth. Newell, who had finished sixth in the sprint yesterday, finished 89th, slipping to 42nd place overall in the mini-tour standings. Meanwhile, Canada’s Alex Harvey finished 17th, moving up to fourth...
Phil Widmer is no stranger to sprinting at the highest levels of skiing. At 28, the Canadian has started 17 World Cups, raced at two World Championships, and represented Canada at the Torino Olympics in 2006. Despite falling short of the Olympic team last year, Widmer dominated the North American sprint scene. He finished on the NorAm podium three times, and won a SuperTour sprint before opting for surgery at the end of February to...
On the Canadian Nor-Am Circuit, things are going to be drastically different this year, both in the athletes competing, and in the events they will be contesting. Here are three things to watch for: 1) New race formats! Cross Country Canada (CCC) has gone mad for the mini-tour concept, and with three on the schedule, expect some interesting results. 2) New faces. After a home Olympics, many of the top Canadian domestic skiers, both male...
In Petter Northug’s absence, Marcus Hellner (SWE) took over the mantle as the dominant World Cup male, following up an impressive victory in Saturday’s 15km freestyle by leading the Swedish relay team to the top of the podium. Hellner outsprinted Russia’s Alexander Legkov after the two teams broke away on the third leg. Daniel Rickardsson (SWE) and young Petr Sedov (RUS) broke away from Norway’s Chris Andre Jespersen and Switzerland’s Remo Fischer during the first...