HomeCategory

Canadian National Ski Team

World Cup Windup: Canada

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. Last but not least, Canada! CANADA Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: 10th Women’s Ranking 2016/2017: 14th Men’s Ranking 2016/2017: Sixth Who’s Back: Alex Harvey, World Champion, runner-up in the Distance Cup, and third in the overall World Cup;...

Qualified for First World Cups, Locke Sees It As ‘First Step’

In Rossland, British Colombia, most residents can reach the town’s lone alpine hill by car in five minutes, the cross-country trails in seven. Tucked high in the Monashee Mountains, hemlock and fir outnumber some 3,500 locals, most of whom know each other by name. And over the past two decades, Rossland, which was fourth in the juvenile boy’s classic sprint.  “That sat heavily with me all summer because I knew, I believed that I was capable of being...

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...

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...

Longer, Stronger Frozen Thunder Open in Canmore

Frozen Thunder is back, but it’s not the same Frozen Thunder you knew before. Every year, snow is stored all summer at the Canmore Nordic Centre in Canmore, Alberta, and rolled out in October to provide local ski and biathlon teams with on-snow training opportunities. This year, the loop has changed. “It feels good to be back on the snow after such a long time away,” Biathlon Canada’s Nathan Smith wrote in an email. “The...

Cockney Seeking More Sprint Semifinals En Route to Better Olympics

Last Olympics, the first for Canadian cross-country skier Jesse Cockney, went almost exactly wrong. In Sochi, Russia, Cockney slumped to 53rd in the sprint — his signature event — missing the heats by 6.5 seconds in a lighter field than many World Cups (at the Olympics, no country can enter more than four athletes). “I honestly believed I would be better — I didn’t imagine I would be that far behind,” Cockney said in an...

Canada’s Olympic Cross Country Team: Who’s In, Who’s Close, and What Comes Next

As athletes enter their final preparations for the Olympic season, some Canadian cross-country skiers have a pretty good idea that they’ll be heading to PyeongChang, South Korea, in February to compete. That’s because they have already achieved explained in a separate article.) So the list of athletes meeting “Alternate Qualifying Criteria A” could grow. “We have men that have top-30 World Cup sprints, so they could do it,” Holland said. “But I don’t expect on...

Navigating Depth-of-Field at the PyeongChang World Cup for Canadian Olympic Qualification

As Cross Country Canada (CCC) looks at which athletes have made progress on CCC’s criteria, these results won’t count towards nomination to the Olympic team. “In order to maintain equity and fairness in this selection process, the HPC reserves the right to exclude, or to count only partially, the results of any World Cup event with a weak depth of field,” the criteria state. “The CCC Selection Committee will be charged with evaluating the depth...

CCC on Team Selections and ‘Moving Ahead’ with Half the Budget of Sochi

What a year for Cross Country Canada (CCC). For the first time in history, its men’s team stood on a World Cup gold and its women’s team pulled off its Canada’s 2017/2018 national-team nominations earlier this month, FasterSkier caught up with CCC’s High Performance Director Thomas Holland and the World Cup co-coach Ivan Babikov to discuss the program moving forward.  What’s changed since last year? Not much. With a strong season behind them, an Olympic season ahead and a solid coach...

Start of a New Season (as Seen on Social Media)

Happy May! With the start of a new training year, FasterSkier scanned social media for a sense of how nordic skiers kicked off Day 1 (and the days before) of the 2017/2018 season. Kikkan Randall of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) and Alaska Pacific University (APU) “sneaking in some secret Mom training” while pushing her son Breck on April 30: View this post on Instagram Excited to kick off a new training season tomorrow! (Sneaking in some secret Mom training...

FasterSkier’s 2017 Performances of the Year

This is it — the final award in our 2016/2017 awards series. Votes stemmed from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they’re intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This honor goes to outstanding North American performances of the year across various nordic sports. Previous categories: Collegiate | U.S. Continental | Biathletes | U.S. Breakthroughs | International | won the 20-kilometer individual at 2017 IBU World Championships, it was by about a slim margin as he...

FasterSkier’s Cross-Country Skiers of the Year: Alex Harvey & Jessie Diggins

With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This honor goes to two outstanding North American skiers of the year.  Previous categories: Collegiate | U.S. Continental | Biathletes | U.S. Breakthroughs | International *** Alex Harvey and Jessie Diggins are FasterSkier’s North...

FasterSkier’s Canadian Breakthroughs of the Year: Megan Bankes & Jess Cockney

With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding athletes across the nordic disciplines who had a major breakthrough at any level of racing.  Previous categories:...

FasterSkier’s Canadian Continental Skiers of the Year: Evan Palmer-Charrette and Katherine Stewart-Jones

With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding Canadian skiers competing primarily, but not exclusively, at the Continental Cup level.  *** Katherine Stewart-Jones, U25 National team/NTDC Thunder Bay/Nakkertok...

FasterSkier’s Juniors of the Year: Katharine Ogden and Léo Grandbois

With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding North American junior athletes across all nordic disciplines.  *** Katharine Ogden, Stratton Mountain School/U.S. Ski Team Yes, Stratton’s...

Canadian Nationals: Notes, Quotes and Gallery

CANMORE, Alberta — Canadian Nationals went to Canmore for 2017 and Canmore delivered. Famous for challenging courses, well-trained volunteers, and erratic weather; the Canmore Nordic Centre showed all three at their best during the eight-day event. Each day delivered warm sun, cold winds, snow flurries, and warm winds (often all occurring in a single race lap) to more than 600 racers. The first races each morning were held on fast, transformed snow that transitioned to slow and soft in the afternoon. While...

Saturday Rundown: Canadian Nationals 30/50 k

2017 Canadian Ski Nationals (Canmore, Alberta): 30/50 k freestyle mass start On the final day of racing at 2017 Canadian Ski Nationals, the men’s 50-kilometre freestyle mass start came down to a two-way battle for first and the women’s 30 k win went to the champion of two other individual races this week — Emily Nishikawa — on Saturday at the Canmore Nordic Centre. Graeme Killick, of the Canadian World Cup Team, outlasted Andy Shields (Lappe...