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. *** Note: The following article has been updated to clarify that various World Cup organizers are responsible for paying travel and living costs for Continental Cup leaders (as well as Red Group athletes and paying for Nation’s Support: see...
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. FINLAND Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: Third, by just 106 points over Russia Women’s Ranking 2016/2017: Third Men’s Ranking 2016/2017: Fourth Who’s Back: World Cup overall title runner-up Krista Parmakoski, fifth-place Matti Heikkinen, and eighth-place Kerttu Niskanen; Iivo...
Note: On. Nov. 23, the day before the first World Cup race of the season, the the CAS decision that the provisional sanctions of the Russian cross-country athletes would expire on 31st October and can only be reinstated if there was more specific evidence of individual anti-doping rule violations.” In the CAS press release announcing the Oct. 31 deadline for FIS to bring a case against the skiers, the court only wrote that “a further provisional suspension may be imposed on the athletes...
After were identified in Valbe said. With Legkov’s disqualification, Russia had already lost a gold medal in the 50 k and a silver medal in the 4 x 10 k relay. Vylegzhanin had finished second in the 50 k, but with him now disqualified as well, there could be a substantial medal re-allocation. Third-place Ilia Chernousov, also from Russia but not implicated the McLaren report, would stand to gain gold. Fourth-place Martin Johnsrud Sundby of...
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ruled that Russian cross-country skiers Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov doped at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The IOC Disciplinary Commission headed by Denis Oswald, referred to as the Oswald Commission, issued a decision today stating that the two athletes had violated Article 2 of the anti-doping rules for Sochi. As a result, Legkov’s gold medal in the 50-kilometer freestyle mass start, the Russian men’s silver medal in the...
This article has been updated to include comments from Canadian World Cup Team member Alex Harvey as told to on Wednesday. *** As the news spreads of the told Norway’s Nettavisen, according to a translation. “It’s my only Olympic medal. It is clear I will take it.” In an interview with Wieschemann firm stated in its press release on Wednesday. “[It] mocks the declaration of the President of the IOC, Dr. Thomas Bach, to decide only on...
ZURICH, Switzerland—Tucked at the top of U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s list of proposals for policy changes at the recent International Ski Federation (FIS) Technical Meetings here was this: “Independent Doping Panel.” The idea was developed along with the Norwegians, who submitted an identical proposal. U.S. Ski and Snowboard President and CEO Tiger Shaw explained that at the moment, FIS decisions made on doping may be made by individuals who also serve other roles in the...
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently finished re-testing stored urine samples from the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. The goal was to use new analytical methods to detect substances which were not detectable back in 2010. Of the more than 1,000 samples re-analyzed, only those belonging to a single athlete were found to be positive for prohibited substances, the IOC announced earlier this month. That athlete is now revealed to be Slovenia’s Teja Gregorin, a...
“I’m un-retiring for six months,” 34-year-old Zina Kocher said with a laugh on the phone earlier this week. Kocher, who lives in Canmore, Alberta, announced via Instagram on Oct. 2 that she was returning to elite-level racing with the one-and-done hope of making the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. As she referenced in her social-media post, Kocher’s return to the trails will be “4k” (kilograms) lighter — her current run at the Olympics...
Nearly two weeks ago now, the lawyer for Russian cross-country skier Alexander Legkov As we summarized last week, CAS agreed that it was justified for FIS to provisionally suspend Legkov pending further investigations into whether he committed a Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV). However, CAS decided that this provisional suspension could not be infinite and gave it an Oct. 31, 2017, deadline. After that point, FIS must either bring a full ADRV case against Legkov, or...
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...
There is no faking a smile. As a visual social-media feed, Instagram places a premium on how we’d like to be perceived by the viewing world. Instagram’s editing tools come with an assortment of beautifying filters. But smiles? Fake smiles are filter-proof. Although not a habitual Instagram poster, scroll through U.S. Ski Team (USST) athlete Liz Stephen’s account, @lizhillstephen — it’s hard not to notice her genuine grin and the smiles of those around her. Those...
The first cases handled by the IOC Disciplinary Commission from the 2014 Olympics in Sochi are expected to be brought this month. Depending on when this month, Alexander Legkov may be free to compete internationally again.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Kikkan Randall is approaching a season full of lasts: her final season as a full-time athlete, her final season on the World Cup, and, she hopes, her fifth and final Olympics. Her main focus these days is resolutely on the future, but she took some time earlier this month to speak with FasterSkier about her summer training and what comes next. Summer training Randall’s final summer of training was anchored by the same...
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...
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...
This week’s featured articles are made possible thanks to the generous support of Masters World Cup 2018.
As separately addressed the factual question of what happened that led to Johaug testing positive for the steroid clostebol. That article did not consider the question of why 18 months was the suspension chosen. This piece tries to fill in that gap, by exploring the legal analysis of the CAS decision and the principles that the court applied in reaching this decision. This analysis begins by looking at how criminal sentencing usually works, then applies...
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has made its decision in the case of Norwegian cross-country skier Therese Johaug: “Ms Johaug is suspended for a period of 18 months commencing on 18 October 2016.” That means that Johaug, a seven-time World Champion and a member of the Norwegian gold-medal relay team at the 2010 Olympics, will not be competing at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. The full text of the CAS decision...
Note: This is the first of a multiple-part series on the 2018 Winter Olympic selection criteria for the U.S. cross-country ski team. A selection criteria and procedures for nomination to the U.S. Olympic team. Briefly put, what does it take to get to PyeongChang? And what factors will U.S. Ski Team (USST) coaches and (Lahti in 2017. First comes objective qualification via performance on the World Cup. Second comes the potential use of discretionary picks....