Continental Cup – Page 42

Continental Cup General News Olympics Racing US Nationals World Cup

Via Rumford and Oslo, Southam’s Career Winds Down

Nathaniel HerzNovember 9, 2010

Since the spring, the International Ski Federation’s website has been counting down the days until the World Cup opener. Organizers of the 2011 World Ski Championships in Oslo are quick to inform fans that there are just over three months until the start of that event. But in Alaska, there’s another clock that’s been ticking more quietly: the one counting down the days until the end of James Southam’s career. Southam, who trains in Anchorage...

Continental Cup General Racing Results

Estonians Sweep Munio Sprint; Sargent Qualifies Second, Finishes Fourth

Chelsea LittleNovember 7, 20102

FIS kicked off its winter race season in Munio, Finland and Rybinsk, Russia this weekend. In Muonio, the first race of the year was a classic sprint, contested Sunday morning in frigid temperatures, which drew a variety of athletes from around northern Europe. The Craftsbury Green Racing Project was the only American team in attendance, but they turned heads as Ida Sargent, racing in her U.S. Ski Team suit to avoid an NCAA violation, qualified...

Continental Cup General Racing US Ski Team

Muonio: The West Yellowstone of Finland?

Chelsea LittleNovember 5, 2010

Each year, many of northern Europe’s best racers travel to Muonio, Finland, for early-season training and racing. With reliable snow even in late October, these national teams travel from Ramsau, where the glaciers are no longer so nice, to this small town far north of the Arctic Circle. Here, the Finns have been hoarding a giant pile of snow all summer, and in the fall, they spread it around with an excavator and dump trucks....

Continental Cup General

A (Long) First-Person Perspective on Homologation – It’s Easier and Harder than You Think!

Chelsea LittleOctober 30, 2010

Back in June, Nat Herz ran a piece on homologation called “It’s Not as Boring as You Think.” Since then, I’ve gone through most of the process while working for the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. Nat was right. It’s not boring. However, the relative ease or difficulty of some parts of the process took me by surprise. Since Nat introduced the concept of homologation on a theoretical level, I thought I would provide a first-person perspective...

Continental Cup General News Other News Racing World Cup

European Races Scored to the USSA NRL List

FasterSkierOctober 29, 2010

As per the 2011 Comp guide, USSA will score certain FIS & Continental Cup events in Europe to the National Ranking List (NRL), as well as them being scored to the FIS points list. This is a dramatic increase in the number of weekends (from 2 to 10) that will be scored to support the national development strategies being called out by the U.S. Ski Team and club coaches nationwide. USSA European NRL events 2011...

Continental Cup General News Nordic Combined Racing

Australian Nordic Combined Program Takes Flight

Nathaniel HerzOctober 29, 2010

One year ago, Australian nordic combined didn’t even exist as a sport. But over the last few months, the country’s program has been gathering steam not just Down Under, but in both hemispheres. Ben Sim, the cross-country skier attempting to make the crossover to nordic combined, has been making consistent progress on ski jumps in Lake Placid and Park City. And in Australia, officials at two ski resorts responded “favorably” to a visit from an...

Collegiate Continental Cup General News Racing World Cup

Estonian Sees Fairbanks as World Cup Launch Pad

Nathaniel HerzOctober 25, 2010

In the early fall, World Cup hopefuls fan out across the globe, fine-tuning their approaches on glaciers in places like Ramsau, Austria, or Tignes, France. This year, you can add an American spot to the list: Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks may not have the same cachet as those European locales, but for Vahur Teppan, it’s got a lot going for it. Teppan, a native of Estonia and an alumnus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF),...

Continental Cup General News Other News Racing

With Help from NCCSEF, Over 20 U.S. Athletes to Contest Finland Openers

FasterSkierOctober 21, 2010

In its continuing effort to aid the development of American cross country ski racers, the National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation (NCCSEF) will help send a contingent of U.S. athletes to Finnish Lapland in November. Comprised of nine athletes from the NCCSEF subsidized trip, a Craftsbury Green Racing Program contingent and U.S. Ski Team athletes, over 20 Americans will test their fitness and speed against some of the strongest athletes from Finland, Estonia, northern Sweden, Russia, Belarus,...

Continental Cup General News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

USST’s European Campaign Set to Start in Finland

Nathaniel HerzOctober 21, 2010

More than 150 training days, countless kilometers of rollerskiing, and dozens of loads of dirty laundry: A summer and fall’s worth of preparation will be put to the test in just over two weeks, when the U.S. Ski Team (USST) makes its departure for Europe. All seven members will fly to Finland on November 7 for a weekend of tune-up racing north of the Arctic Circle in Muonio. From there, the squad will part ways,...

Continental Cup General News Racing US Nationals US Ski Team World Cup

Koos Reloads for 2011, But Quietly

Nathaniel HerzOctober 21, 20103

It’s hard to fly under the radar when you’re 6’2” and one of the best sprinters in the world. But Torin Koos is giving it his best shot. Koos, who was dropped from the U.S. Ski Team (USST) this spring, has been quietly reloading for the upcoming season with the Methow Olympic Development Project (MODP), a two-person team based in central Washington. He has been off the grid, living in a cabin 15 miles from...

Continental Cup General Interviews News Olympics Racing US Ski Team World Cup

“A Hitch in the Momentum”: An Interview with Pete Vordenberg

Nathaniel HerzOctober 20, 20101

“Driven,” “opinionated,” and “uncompromising” are probably three of the best words to describe U.S. Ski Team (USST) coach Pete Vordenberg, but you can’t forget “thoughtful,” too. Vordenberg, the team’s head coach from 2006 until this spring, is one of the few ski coaches out there who can claim to have authored a book. With his blend of pragmatism and passion, he sat at the helm of USST for four years, during which the program went...

Biathlon Continental Cup Racing World Cup

Biathletes Make Most of Altitude at Soldier Hollow

Chelsea LittleOctober 18, 2010

With only seven weeks until the first race of the World Cup season, biathletes around the world are making their final preparations and fine-tuning their training. For the Americans, this meant a two-week training camp in Soldier Hollow, Utah, which finished Friday. Coaches had two main goals for the camp: to take advantage of training at altitude, and to solidify shooting skills in “combination” workouts with rollerskiing. Coach Patrick Coffey said that the staff worked...

Continental Cup General News Other News Racing

USST Seeking Coaches for World Junior/U-23 Championships

FasterSkierOctober 11, 2010

The U.S. Ski Team is offering four coaching positions for the 2011 World Junior and U23 World Championships. All four positions are fully funded by NCCSEF. Coaches looking to apply for these positions should have experience working with athletes aged 16-22, a strong background in waxing and testing skis, and be willing to work hard for two weeks and seven races. That said, we are looking to develop coaches and welcome all applications from coaches wishing to gain...

Continental Cup Dryland General News Nordic Combined Racing US Ski Team

On Fourth Attempt, Freeman Finally Gets a Win on Whiteface

Nathaniel HerzOctober 8, 201014

It took him four tries, but the U.S. Ski Team’s Kris Freeman can add a victory at the Whiteface Climb to the Castle to his list of accomplishments. “I finally won the Climb to the Castle!” Freeman said. Stymied in three previous attempts by inferior competition with superior rollerskis, Freeman left his teammate Noah Hoffman behind at halfway mark of this year’s edition of the five-mile race, skiing unchallenged to a 39-second victory. Ben Sim, the...

Biathlon Continental Cup General News Racing US Ski Team

Spector Bests USST Women on Windy Whiteface

Nathaniel HerzOctober 8, 201012

Chalk one up for the biathletes. Just over halfway through Friday’s Climb to the Castle race on Whiteface Mountain, U.S. National Biathlon Team member Laura Spector went to the front of a five-strong women’s pack and left behind four of the country’s best cross-country skiers. Churning her way through fierce gusts of wind—which staff at the summit estimated at 60 miles per hour—the diminutive Spector crossed the line with a big gap on U.S. Ski...

Continental Cup General News Olympics Racing Regional / Local World Cup

Buoyed By Trust Fund, Callaghan Valley Readies for Future

FasterSkierSeptember 29, 2010

This article is the third in a series looking at the use of cross-country ski venues left behind by the Winter Olympics. The first two were on New York’s Lake Placid. After a Winter Olympics where nordic skiing took center stage, Whistler Olympic Park (WOP), 77 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia, faces the future with optimism, but with plans that are still murky. Cleaning up the detritus of the 2010 Games, including grandstands, transformers,...

Continental Cup General Juniors News Racing

NCCSEF Steps Up Funding for 2011

Nathaniel HerzSeptember 29, 2010

If you’re planning on racing in Europe this winter on any of the trips supported by the National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation (NCCSEF), you can thank Jerry Gilbert. Gilbert, a retired electrical engineer and avid master skier, died of lymphoma in 2008, and in his will, he left some $80,000 for NCCSEF. The money took nearly two years to find its way to the organization, but now that it has, that donation should be supporting...

Canadian National Ski Team Continental Cup General Interviews News Racing

Pros of Tomorrow: Brittany Webster

Nathaniel HerzSeptember 21, 2010

Unlike some of her peers, like Americans Simi Hamilton and Ida Sargent, Brittany Webster’s rise has not been meteoric. She’s never been on the podium at a major international race, and she has only contested four World Cups—all of which were in her home country of Canada. She doesn’t even have her own website like many of her compatriots—just a plain, infrequently updated blog on WordPress. But of all the North American athletes competing in...

Collegiate Continental Cup General News Racing

Sweeney Returns to University of Utah

Nathaniel HerzSeptember 14, 20102

Kevin Sweeney was at the helm the last time that the University of Utah won an NCAA skiing championship, in 2003. So it’s only logical that the Utes would turn to Sweeney to help them win their next one. Sweeney’s appointment as Utah’s new director of skiing was announced yesterday by Associate Athletic Director Mary Bowman. Sweeney makes his return to the University after five years as the nordic race director for Swix Sport USA....

Continental Cup General News Other News Racing US Ski Team World Cup

U.S. Ski Team Officially Names 2010-2011 Squad

FasterSkierSeptember 14, 2010

SUN VALLEY, ID (Sept. 14) – World Championship medalistAndy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) and top distance athlete Liz Stephen (E. Montpelier, VT) and Noah Hoffman (Aspen, CO) and 2010 Olympian Morgan Arritola, Fairfield, ID (Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation; Fischer, Salomon, Kris Freeman, Andover, NH (Andover Outing Club; Fischer, Alpina, Alpina, Swix ) 10/14/1980* Kikkan Randall, Anchorage (Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center; Fischer, Salomon, Salomon, Swix) 12/31/1982* Noah Hoffman, Aspen, CO (Aspen Valley Ski Club;...

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