Nordic skiing already claimed the talents of one dual-sport prodigy five years ago, when Canadian Alex Harvey gave up a promising mountain biking career to focus on cross-country. Now, it has gained another: American Tad Elliott says he’s also making a shift away from mountain biking, and will put more of an emphasis on skiing this coming off-season. “That’s kind of the focus now, is putting more chips into skiing, and wanting to do World...
Last year, Susan Dunklee’s top finish at U26 Open European Biathlon Championships was 17th place in the sprint. At the time, she was pleased with the performance, but this year, she’s eclipsed that success – twice. In the open individual race at this year’s U26 event, which took place in Ridnaun, Italy last week, Dunklee finished 15th – an auspicious start to the week for the only senior U.S. woman nominated for the races. Then...
As the only senior American woman at Under-26 Open European Championships in Ridnaun, Italy, Susan Dunklee didn’t get the chance to start a relay on Thursday. “I’m disappointed, but I don’t want to make a big deal out of it,” she told FasterSkier. But while sitting on the sidelines might not have seemed as fun as racing, a couple of her teammates had even more frustrating days. The American men’s relay team, after a promising...
Last year, the Birkie Elite Sprints, held on Main Street in Hayward, Wisconsin, two days before the Birkie, were a mostly American affair. Morten Pedersen of Norway won the men’s race, but most of the other top finishers were natives – including Audrey Weber, then skiing for CXC, who won the women’s heats. This year, things changed. The men’s final on Tuesday came down to a battle between Norwegian teammates Vetle Thyli and Martin Andersen....
The American and Canadian teams have been off to a good start in Ridnaun, Italy, collecting three top-20 finishes in the opening individual-format races at IBU Under-26/Open European Championships. On Monday, the men kicked things off in the 20 k individual race, a format where each missed shot represents a one-minute time penalty. Tyson Smith of Canada missed only two of his twenty shots and finished 19th, just under four minutes behind Artem Pryma of...
At Eastern Canadian Championships on February 11, 12 and 13, held in Cantley, Quebec, if your last name wasn’t Nishikawa, the chances of you standing on the top step of the podium were slim. In the Open men’s field Graham Nishikawa of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) took the top spot twice – in the 3 k prologue event on Friday, as well as the 30 k classic handicap start on Sunday. In between,...
Just a month into his tenure as governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker made a bold political move: he proposed a bill which would limit the rights of union workers to use collective bargaining. With a strong Republican majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the bill appeared poised to pass. On Thursday, Senate Democrats boycotted: they didn’t come in to work, meaning that the Republicans didn’t have a quorum to hold a...
Day 1: 5/ 10k classic race Aspen, Colorado- For what is probably the biggest weekend of racing in Colorado, Denver University (DU) hosted its collegiate invitational double as SuperTour races for the Aspen Nordic Festival. Elite and casual racers all registered to race at one of the most popular ski venues in America for the weekend event. In the mix of skiers from all schools, the University of Colorado (CU) took home the individual victories...
The three day Beitostolen FIS race series in Norway concluded with a frigid race, featuring delayed start times and shortened distances. But this did not stop American skiers from continuing to turn in strong performances on the track. The races were originally scheduled as 15/30km freestyle events, but with predicted highs in the low single digits, the always cold-wary Norwegians opted to cut the distance to 10/15km. The US women packed the top of the...
The 2011 Owl Creek Chase field may have been dominated by collegiate skiers, but Sylvan Ellefson (Team Homegrown) made sure they knew their place. The Vail, Colorado native won his second race in two days, and with the Owl Creek Chase doubling as a SuperTour event, Ellefson continued to move up the US Continental Cup standings. Ellefson bested Glen Randall (BSF) by just under a minute over the winding 21k point-to-point course running from Snowmass...
Joanne Reid (CU) wins the USSA SuperTour 5K classic in Aspen, Colo., while local favorite Sylvan Ellefsson (Vail, Colo.) takes the men’s 10K classic.
When the 2010-2011 ski season began, Canadian Brooke Gosling barely had the World Championships in Oslo, Norway, on her radar. “Every time I was asked about it or thought about it, I just dismissed the notion because I was also starting to shift my focus on a career that wasn’t skiing,” she told FasterSkier. And her training reflected the change in goals. Before the end of September, she hadn’t done any rollerskiing or strength, instead...
The group of junior and U23 skiers who stayed in Europe to race a series of Scandinavian Cup races in Latvia and Estonia wrapped up their Baltic stay with strong results. Reese Hanneman (APU), the lone US man to start, finished 36th in the 15km classic. “It was a very positive experience, even beyond the good (relatively, for me) result, because I got to ski with some very fast guys that were lapping through with me,”...
If Drew Goldsack and Graham Nishikawa were not already familiar with each other, they should be by now. That’s because the two Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) athletes are locked in a tight battle over the top spot in the NorAm rankings – and the battle became even closer after this weekend, as Goldsack won the NorAm mini-tour in Kelowna, B.C. Goldsack, also a member of the Canadian National Ski Team (CNST) emerged victorious Sunday,...
Perianne Jones is now two for two. The Canadian National Ski Team (CNST) member and Vancouver Olympian put on a powerhouse display of classic skiing Saturday morning, winning the 2.7 k classic event on the second day of racing at Western Canadian Championships in Kelowna, B.C. Jones won the second race in the mini-tour by a little over 20 seconds, an amount almost unheard of in such a short event. Andrea Dupont of the Rocky...
Ida Sargent (CGRP) has been struggling to find her top form following a December car accident. But things may be looking up for the World Championship-bound 23-year-old. Sargent skied to a strong fifth place finish in the 1.2km classic Scandinavian Cup sprint in Jõulumäe, Estonia on Saturday morning. “Today was really good,” Sargent wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “It was the best I’ve felt during a race since November so I think Im on...
Drew Goldsack must be getting good at mini-tour racing; he’s on his third one this season. Last weekend, the Canadian National Ski Team (CNST) member who trains with the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) tackled a Haywood NorAm mini-tour event in Orford, Quebec, finishing second. This weekend, Goldsack began another mini-tour, with a freestyle sprint in Kelowna, B.C. on Friday. After posting the fastest qualifying time on the day, Goldsack stormed through the rounds on...
APU teammates Holly Brooks and Lars Flora maintained the top spots in the overall SuperTour standings, despite skipping the last five races in the Midwest. Brooks continues to hold a significant margin over another APU skier, Kate Fitzgerald, on the women’s list. Fitzgerald also skipped the recent Midwest swing of the US Continental Cup circuit. Maria Stuber (CXC), however, not only raced, she raced fast, and has climbed into the third spot overall. On the...
Canadian Graham Nishikawa’s three-win weekend may not bring him up to the same number of wins as Norway’s Marit Bjoergen, but on Sunday the dominating domestic racer put on a skiing display worthy of the legendary Norwegian woman. Nishikawa, a member of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA), finished the 15 k freestyle handicap start event with a whopping 2 minute 38.8 second lead over his nearest competitor, Drew Goldsack (AWCA/CNST), while Stefan Kuhn (CNST)...
CXC dominated both the men’s and the women’s fields Sunday. Garrott Kuzzy (CXC) won the men’s 15K mass start skate race at Michigan Tech Sunday, leading a whole group of CXC racers along with surprise comeback kid Adam Kates (Big Thunder). Caitlin Compton (CXC) won the women’s 10K skate, over a minute ahead of teammate Maria Stuber.