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Juniors

The future of our sport! Junior racing can be a lot of fun, but it can also be exciting and competitive. Information for, by and about junior skiers, including coverage of major events like World Juniors and Junior Nationals.

Kate Oldham is a U18 athlete from Carbondale, CO who skis for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club. After strong results at US Nationals, Kate was selected as one of the six female U18 skiers to travel to Otepää, Estonia from January 20th – 30th to race in the Nations’ Cup races, where she competed in a field of about 40 junior athletes from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia. Kate finished 24th in the...

Relay Replay: Full Video of U20 Relays from World Juniors

Last Saturday, the American women placed fourth in the U20 relay at 2019 World Junior Ski Championships. In any other year before 2017 this result would probably be headline news; considering that the Americans had the youngest team in the race (you can compare athlete birthdates from the women’s race here if you really want to get into the minutiae), this may well be headline news next year, or the year after that, when the same...

Jager, Ogden, Hagenbuch,Schumacher: U.S. Wins U20 Worlds 4 x 5 k Relay

  Nordic skiing doesn’t exactly come to mind when considering the X’s and O’s of sport. Those who don’t ski on Saturdays or Sundays might be familiar with football’s schematics. The arrows, the diagrams, the dense playbooks. Basketball has symbolism: X’s in the key, plays for a pick and roll, defensive shifts from zone to man-to-man coverage. The cross-country analog, and maybe this is a stretch, is the line-up for the 4 x (add a...

Saturday Race Rundown: U.S. U20 Men Win Relay, U20 Women 4th at World Juniors (Updated)

2019 U23 World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland 4 x 3 k and 4x 5 k relay Full U20 Men’s Race Report In a historic first for the U.S., the U20 men’s team won the 4 x 5-kilometer relay today in Lahti, Finland at the 2019 World Junior Ski Championships. Luke Jager skied the first classic leg for the U.S., Ben Ogden skied the second classic, Johnny Hagenbuch skied the first initial skate leg and...

Quick Hit Athlete Check-Ins from U23 Worlds: Graham Ritchie

U23 World Championships in Lahti, Finland got rolling on Jan. 21 with a classic sprint. In our quest to check in with some of the North American athletes in Finland, with emailed a list of quick-hit questions to touch base. Graham Ritchie trains with Thunder Bay NTDC and represented Canada at Junior Worlds at Soldier Hollow in 2017 and Goms, Switzerland, in 2018. Ritchie is from Parry Sound, Ontario, best known as the birthplace of Bobby...

Quick Hit Athlete Check-Ins from U23 Worlds: Hannah Mehain

U23 World Championships in Lahti, Finland got rolling on Jan. 21 with a classic sprint. In our quest to check in with some of the North American athletes in Finland, with emailed a list of quick-hit questions to touch base. Hannah Mehain is a first year senior athlete studying at Okanagan College. She has been on the Junior National Team and raced at World Juniors the last two years. Mehain also collected a top ten result...

Friday Race Rundown: World Juniors, IBU World Cup, and Super Tour (Updated 2x)

  2019 U23 World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland 15 k/30 k Classic Mass Start Link to Doug Stephen’s images from Lahti. Of the four Russian athletes starting the 15-kilometer classic mass start in Lahti, Finland three placed in the top four. Anna Zherebyateva won in 40:31.4 minutes as she was able to stretch her nine-second gap at 10 k to 23.5 seconds by the finish. Also from Russia, Lidia Durkina placed second (+23.5), Germany’s...

Quick Hit Athlete Check-Ins from Under 23 Worlds: Braden Becker

U23 World Championships in Lahti, Finland got rolling on Jan. 21 with a classic sprint. In our quest to check in with some of the North American athletes in Finland, with emailed a list of quick-hit questions to touch base. Braden Becker is twenty two years old and a senior at Williams College. He races with the Williams cross-country ski team and hails from Yarmouth, ME. This is his first Junior World Ski Championships. Do you...

U20 Worlds 15 k/30k Classic Mass Start Rundown: A Big Day for the U.S. and Canada

The mass start classic races for the U20 athletes at the 2019 World Junior World Ski Championships dawned on another crisp, bordering on a frigid day in Lahti, Finland. A scroll through the results makes clear the day was strong for North Americans as the U20 men raced a 30-kilometer classic mass start, the women a 15 k classic mass start. In the men’s race, the six laps around the 5 k course which climbed...

Wednesday Race Rundown: U23 Worlds from Lahti, Finland

Four U.S. skiers began the U23 women’s 10 k skate individual start at the 2019 U23 World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland on Wednesday, all four finished in the top-30 after Russia’s Mariya Istomina claimed the win in 25:57.3 minutes. Fnland’s Evelina Pippo was second (+2.0), and Norway’s Tiril Udnes Weng third (+29.6). Istomina and Pippo are scheduled to compete at this weekend’s Ulricehamn, Sweden World Cup and have concluded their competition schedules at U23...

Tuesday Race Rundown: Lahti Junior Worlds  U20 5 k/10k Individual Skate (Updated 2x)

FIS Junior World Ski Championships Lahti, Finland 5 k/10k Freestyle Interval Start Tuesday in Lahti, Finland was as Finland should be: squeaky-snow-cold and cross-country ski racing on offer. Eighteen-year-old Gus Schumacher broke through for the U.S. and placed sixth overall in the U20 men’s 10-kilometer freestyle. Schumacher was the 95th starter of 102 finishers on the day. His sixth place finish was consistent with his 1.1k, 5k, and 6.6k splits where he was ranked 5th,...

World Juniors Classic Sprint Rundown: Ogden 8th, Keeffe 12th

Sunday featured the first day of racing at the 2019 Junior World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland. To kick things off at the crown jewel of Finnish ski venues was the U20 classic sprint. The men raced a 1.6-kilometer loop, the women a 1.4 k course. Several North American males qualified for the heats after Russia’s Alexander Terentev qualified first in a time of 3:28.74 minutes. For the U.S. all four athletes entered in the...

World Junior Ski Championships from the Comfort of Your home; The Viewing Basics

This season’s International Ski Federation (FIS) World Junior Ski Championships will be held in Lahti, Finland beginning Jan. 20. If you’re interested in streaming any of the events live, the organizers in Lahti have you covered. But it will cost you. Link to Live Stream: this is a fee-based streaming site costing 8.99 € for a day pass and 29.99 € for a comprehensive “Event Pass” to stream every race and jump. The official broadcasting...

Gus Schumacher Leads the Way in First Besh Cup Weekend

Note: FasterSkier is accepting submissions for regional race reports, including for juniors racing. If you would like to see a particular race circuit covered and have the writer with the will to do it, please have them email info@fasterskier.com. Be sure to include a link to results, and preferably a few original race photos with proper credits. GOVERNMENT PEAK RECREATION AREA, outside Palmer, Alaska — On a day that had a decidedly old school feel,...

A New Start For the Methow Valley in its Quest for a Signature Race

Washington’s Methow Valley is the literal end of the road in winter. There’s one way in from the south.  There’s route 20, a sinuous side spur plunging down from Omak in the Okanogan Highlands to the Methow’s eastern edge. Otherwise, travel by car terminates just beyond Mazama — the small town nestled in the valley’s north.    The Methow’s charm remains its solitude and mellowed pace. Despite the wifi and cell service, there’s the real...

Fish on Promoting the U.S. Development ‘Pathway’ vs. the ‘Pipeline’

JACKSON, Wyoming — Last last month, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced that Bryan Fish had been promoted to cross country sport development manager. FasterSkier sat down with Fish on Sept. 14 at Jackson Hole’s Center for the Arts, where he was leading a Level 200 coaching clinic, to learn more about this transition and how his new position will support the national development program. He also provided insight into the development program’s philosophy and goals...

The College Conflict: Part 2

The following was written by Alayna Sonnesyn, a new member of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team who graduated from the University of Vermont (UVM) this past spring. Originally from Plymouth, Minnesota, Sonnesyn, 22, raced on the UVM Ski Team for four years and qualified for four NCAA Skiing Championships teams. She placed second and third in two races at 2017 NCAA Championships, and in her senior season, won the first five Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association...

The College Conflict: Part 1

The following was written by Alayna Sonnesyn, a new member of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team who graduated from the University of Vermont (UVM) this past spring. Originally from Plymouth, Minnesota, Sonnesyn, 22, raced on the UVM Ski Team for four years and qualified for four NCAA Skiing Championships teams. She placed second and third in two races at 2017 NCAA Championships, and in her senior season, won the first five Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association...

U.S. Part of Collaboration at Largest International Junior Camp (with Video)

Earlier this month from Aug. 2-8, nine top American junior athletes had the opportunity to participate in the largest International Junior Camp to date. In total, 146 athletes and 37 coaches from nearly 20 nations gathered in Sjusjøen, Norway, for a week of training and collaboration. The camp offered athletes the opportunity to gain confidence by training with the best junior skiers in the world against whom they will soon be competing, and to learn...

FasterSkier’s Juniors of the Year: Ben Loomis and Hailey Swirbul (Updated)

With the 2017/2018 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.  *** Ben Loomis, U.S. Nordic Combined Team In late January,...