HomeCategory

Canadian National Ski Team

Tuesday Rundown: Canadian Nationals in Canmore

2017 Canadian Ski Nationals (Canmore, Alberta): Days 1, 2 & 3 On the third day of Canadian Ski Nationals in Canmore, Alberta, World Cup skiers Devon Kershaw and Emily Nishikawa — both fresh off World Cup Finals in Quebec City — picked up victories in the men’s and women’s classic interval starts on Tuesday. Kershaw won the men’s 15 k in 45:05.3 minutes, 44.6 seconds ahead of two University of Denver (DU) skiers Dag Frode...

Bjørgen Bests Weng to Finalize Unbeaten Streak; Bjornsen Fifth on the Day in Quebec

QUEBEC CITY — Generally speaking, most European-based World Cup skiers wouldn’t have picked Canada as their ideal place to end the season. It’s too far across the pond, too far from the beaches, too far from home. The other option had been Tyumen in Siberia, so that probably wasn’t a top pick, either, but team press release. “Jessie also had a measure of redemption leading a train of women and moving up four places in the...

‘More Than Perfect,’ Harvey Caps Season with Second Place in Pursuit, Third in Overall

Canada’s Alex Harvey has had one heck of a season. In January, he reached the top of a World Cup podium for the first time in three years. The following weekend, he helped Canada to its first-ever relay podium and two weeks before that, won the men’s team sprint in Toblach, Italy, with his teammate Len Valjas. A little more than a month later, he earned his first individual World Championships gold. The 28-year-old Harvey kept the ball rolling...

Sunday Rundown: Harvey 2nd in Quebec Pursuit; 2nd in Distance World Cup

FIS Cross-Country World Cup Finals (Quebec City): 10/15 k freestyle pursuits Even after Sunday’s 15-kilometer freestyle pursuit, Alex Harvey had a busy day ahead of him with three different podiums to stand on: one for placing second on the day, another for placing second in the Distance World Cup, and yet one more for finishing the season in third in the Overall World Cup. It was a suitable ending for Harvey’s storybook three-day venture in...

Klæbo Rockets to First Distance Win in Quebec Mass Start; Harvey 4th

QUEBEC CITY — As 75 men jogged out into the center of the World Cup area assembled on the Plains of Abraham for the men’s 15-kilometer classic mass start on Saturday, one man in particular stood out. Alex Harvey, wearing the red suit of the Canadian national team, led the group out. He wore bib No. 1, but if you couldn’t see that from a distance, it didn’t matter. Essentially everyone knew who he was. The official...

Bjørgen Completes Undefeated Streak in World Cup Finals 10 k Classic

When it comes to distance classic events, at least this season, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen is calling the shots. She completed her undefeated streak in 10-kilometer classic competitions (in both individual or mass starts), winning her fourth in a row on Saturday at World Cup Finals in Québec City. Starting in bib No. 7, Saturday’s eventual mass-start winner was skiing just outside of the top 10 for the first kilometer, following two U.S. skiers, Sadie Bjornsen in eighth...

Harvey Delivers Again at Home, Wins First Race of World Cup Finals in Quebec

QUEBEC CITY — Friday started off about as good as the Canadian men’s team could have hoped for, with five skiers finishing in the top 30 to qualify for the heats in the 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint on the first day of World Cup Finals. According to Cross Country Canada, that’s the first time five Canadian men have qualified in a World Cup race. Racing one lap around the Plains of Abraham in the heart of Quebec...

Friday Rundown: Harvey Wins Quebec City Skate Sprint (Updated)

FIS Cross-Country World Cup Finals (Quebec City): Freestyle sprint  [UPDATED] Alex Harvey wins at home. That was the news buzzing across the Plains of Abraham on Friday in Quebec City, where Canada’s leading skier won the 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint final  on Day 1 of World Cup Finals after taking control and delighting the crowd all day. The win was the seventh of Harvey’s career and his 23rd World Cup medal, according to Cross Country Canada. Last year...

For the second-straight year, the World Cup’s season-ending races will be held in Canada, with Québec City hosting 2017 World Cup Finals, this Friday through Sunday. Canada initially announced a according to a press release. On Thursday, FasterSkier confirmed that the list included the Women | U.S. selection criteria, and

Sundby Secures World Cup Overall with Holmenkollen 50 k Win; Harvey 6th

OSLO, Norway — Here’s something dizzying: six times around an 8.3-kilometer course with a total vertical gain of just over two thousand meters. In non-metric terms, all 47 finishers on Saturday’s Holmenkollen 50 k classic race accumulated roughly 6,574 feet of climbing. On the sharp end of the race for most of those kilometers were Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Finland’s Iivo Niskanen. They were the animators for the hordes of Norwegians lining the course...

Saturday Rundown: Holmenkollen, Kontiolahti, Jackson, and Lake Placid (Updated x4)

NCAA Skiing Championships (Jackson, N.H.): 15/20 k freestyle mass starts On the final day of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Skiing Championships in northern New Hampshire, the University of Utah pulled out a 16.5-point victory over the University of Colorado-Boulder (and finished 17.5 points ahead of the University of Denver) in the team standings, and the Petra Hyncicova, achieved their second-straight titles in as many nordic races this week. On a frigid Saturday morning in Jackson,...

Brandsdal Outduels Klæbo for Drammen City Sprint Win

DRAMMEN, Norway — The stage was set around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when a homegrown Norwegian made good in front of a spectator-lined 1.2-kilometer classic course smack-dab in the middle of Drammen’s city center. It was a day of contrast that began with blue skies and ended with a deep chill and falling snow as thumping music pounded and the gothic Bragernes Church loomed. In between, the clouds amassed and the classic tracks stayed firmed for...

Wednesday Rundown: Drammen & Lake Placid (Updated)

FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Drammen, Norway): Classic sprints Just three days after 2017 Nordic World Championships ended in Lahti, Finland, World Cup cross-country skiers were back to their regular-season grind with 1.2-kilometer classic sprints on Wednesday in Drammen, Norway. In the men’s race, Norway stole the day with Eirik Brandsdal notching his first World Cup win since 2015 in Drammen, but Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov broke up the team’s total domination of the final with a...

An Air-Guitar Solo: Harvey Closes Out Championships with 50 k Win

LAHTI, Finland — Here’s the basics: fast and firm tracks, cloudless skies, and once again a stacked field for the final event of the 2017 Nordic World Championships: the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start. Over the course of the 50 k, Canada’s Harvey had to think about one thing: be up front near the top three in order to shadow Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby’s inevitable gut punch in the last kilometer. What he didn’t have...

Sunday Rundown: Harvey Wins World Champs Gold in Lahti; PyeongChang + Vasaloppet (Updated)

FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Men’s 50 k freestyle mass start After a week of missing out on the medals at 2017 Nordic World Championships, Canada’s Alex Harvey, a four-time World Championships medalist from 2011, 2013 and 2015, achieved his first individual gold medal in the final race of this year’s World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Harvey, 28, won the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start in a drag race to the finish. Entering the...

Clean Podium Sweep for Norway in Lahti 30 k: Diggins Conquers 5th

LAHTI, Finland — 1, 2, 3, 4: Norway’s Marit Bjørgen, Norway’s Heidi Weng, Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, Norway’s Ragnhild Haga. That’s how the women’s 30-kilometer freestyle mass start at the 2017 Nordic World Championships ended on Saturday. Bjørgen has two previous 30-kilometer championship titles, but Saturday’s was her first in freestyle. She won the race in 1:08:36.8 hours, just 1.9 seconds ahead of a hard-charging, photo-finishing Weng for second and Jacobsen for third. Haga finished...

Saturday Rundown: Lahti & PyeongChang (Updated x2)

FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Women’s 30 k freestyle mass start Marit Bjørgen made it a four-peat on Saturday with her fourth gold and third individual win over the last week at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (She previously won the 15-kilometer skiathlon, 10 k classic, and 4 x 5 k relay.) The 36-year-old Norwegian closed out the championships with a 1.9-second victory in the women’s 30-kilometer freestyle mass start, finishing in 1:08:36.8...

Down to the Wire: Norwegian Men Win Lahti Relay with Russia Nipping at Their Heels

LAHTI, Finland — There were three medals up for grabs during Friday’s 4 x 10-kilometer relay at 2017 Nordic World Championships on Friday. Yet after the scramble leg, two distinct races: Norway and Russia’s dance for gold, and what eventually became a four-way tango between Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany for bronze and silver. Russia’s Andrey Larkov and Norway’s Didrik Tønseth first strung out and then smoked the field late in their leg. By the tag...