As Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane strode triumphantly to the podium for the flower ceremony after today’s nordic combined competition, a parade of sullen-looking Europeans was walking through the mixed zone, in the other direction. It was easy to miss them—after all, they weren’t the ones who won medals. But they had an interesting story to tell, too: how Thursday’s weather conditions in the jumping round had ruined their chances for Olympic glory. Big names...
Whistler, British Columbia – The US Nordic Combined team will paying overweight on their flight back to Park City. A historic day doubled their Vancouver medal haul, giving them nearly nine pounds of hardware. Billy Demong skied away from teammate Johnny Spillane and Austrian Bernard Gruber on the final climb to claim Olympic gold. With a move of his own, Spillane left Gruber in the dust, too—laying claim to his 3rd silver medal of the...
Lightning. Bears. Concrete walls. Those are a few things that might be able to stop Norway’s Marit Bjoergen right now. Mere mortals from Italy, Finland, and Germany? Fat chance. Taking the tag from Kristin Stormer Steira with Italy hot on her heels, Bjoergen laid down a blazingly fast final leg, dropping Sabina Valbusa on the very first climb. She skied away, uncontested, to her third gold medal of these Games—Norway’s first in the women’s relay...
A few days ago I was planning to post about how great it was to be following the Olympics from Sweden. We are 7 hours ahead of Vancouver, so everything xc ski race is live in the evening, from around 5 P.M. to 11 P.M. No commercials and complete start-to-finish video feed. Multiple channels, so if an important Swedish curling match is on one channel, the other is free to broadcast more nordic skiing. Could...
Whistler, British Columbia – A day after the Swedish men skied to a clear victory in the men’s 4×10 relay, their female counterparts will attempt to match the feat in the 4x5km event. They will have their work cut out for them, however, and will have a tough time overcoming a very strong Norwegian team. Despite featuring multi-medalist Charlotte Kalla, Sweden is actually a long shot for a medal. Anna Haag, who teamed with Kalla...
As we sit in the Whistler Olmypic Park Media center, noses to the keyboard, telling the story of yet another epic 4x10km Olympic relay, we realized that Mr. Northug does not have a nickname. At least not in common usage in the English language. What do you think? Add your suggestions in the comments.
Today was a crazy weather day as expected. The snowfall occurred as predicted. The Women’s Giant Slalom was on the progam. Luckily, it didn’t snow so much that it had to be cancelled totally. The conditions on the slope deteriorated before the second run unfortunately and fog moved in which delayed the second run until tomorrow. As with the men yesterday the top layer products used were those for warm and wet conditions. In the...
Whistler, British Columbia – The heavy snow had stopped, and as Marcus Hellner made his way around the stadium, the clouds broke. For the first time in two days, the sun shown down on Whistler Olympic Park, revealing a golden afternoon for the Swedish men’s cross-country team. It took 22 years and a return to Canadian soil for Sweden to regain the top step of the podium in the 4x10km relay. And for the Anders...
The 4×10 relay. It is rarely raced outside of major championship events, yet is still the most prestigious cross-country event in existence. There are no World Cup points to be won, no individual glory, just the hopes and dreams of an entire country resting on the shoulders of four men. Who can forget 1994, when Italy spoiled an otherwise perfect Games for host Norway in a race for the ages? Or the rematch in 2002...
The weather is back to more how it was at the beginning of the games: unstable and cloudy with rain and sleet. Meteotest from Bern had forecasted the light afternoon snowfall. Right at 1pm it started just as forecasted. The Bern weather forecasts have been spot on for us at Toko and the teams are given us a lot of praise for our assistance. The Men’s Giant Slalom in slightly softer snow conditions than in...
Whistler, British Columbia – The two skiers swept around the large curve down into the stadium, Billy Demong of the USA in the lead, Austrian Mario Stecher right on his heels, the gold medal waiting, just 200 meters away. Stecher stepped out, tucking past Demong. There would be no sprint for the line. The gap was enough, and Austria champions. The American team, in claiming the silver, made US Nordic Combined history for the second...
After being selected as the fourth member of the U.S. nordic combined team’s relay squad, the pressure was all on Brett Camerota’s shoulders this morning as he took to the top of the jump. He didn’t disappoint, coming through with his best-ever leap on the big hill here in Whistler and setting up the Americans for another podium finish this afternoon, after Johnny Spillane’s silver last week. The team will start the 4×5 k relay...
With four events down and two to go, FasterSkier caught up with U.S. Ski Team Sprint Coach Chris Grover on Monday night for a quick check-in about the American performance at the Games thus far. Grover talked results, expectations, and the pressures on the team over the last couple of weeks. FasterSkier: So, can you start by just giving me kind of a sense of how the team and coaches are feeling about the Games...
There are few opportunities to list American Nordic skiers as gold medal favorites, but the US Nordic Combined squad has changed that over the last few years. And in today’s team event, there is no other nation that can match the depth and ski speed of the Americans. With three skiers all capable of winning individual events, and the up-an-coming Brett Camerota who had a fantastic jump in the first individual competition, the US is...
The last week of the Games have begun. With wonderful weather again there were three events decided in the Whistler Nordic Park today. The jumpers competed in the team jump (on the big jump). In the cross-country stadium next door was the team sprint in the free technique (skating) in the men’s and ladies. There have been some interesting results which are in contrast to the previous season so far. For example, the German ladies...
Whistler, British Columbia – The US men’s sprint relay team of Torin Koos and Andy Newell finished 9th after advancing out of the semifinals with a strong performance, before falling off the back with a lap and a half to go. Koos and Newell finished 2nd in their semifinal, edging France in a photo finish. The top three automatically advanced so the lunge at the line was not critical. It might have been had not...
Whistler, British Columbia – Another race, another record. The Canadian men’s cross-country team upped the ante once again, setting the third new mark for best Canadian men’s finish at the Olympics for the third time in the past 10 days. Ivan Babikov bettered Pierre Harvey’s 14th in ’88 with his 8th in the 15km. He then placed 5th in the pursuit, and now the team sprint of duo of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey did...
The prolonged, brutal physical demands of the team sprint make the event a fickle friend. Just ask Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag. After blowing the doors off the eight other teams in their semifinal, the Swedish women came into the gold-medal round as an irresistible force. But they ran head on into the immovable object of Claudia Nystad and Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, a pair of veteran German women without the speed for the first round, but...
Whistler, British Columbia – He had to wait, but Petter Northug finally got to show off his dominating sprint finish against his perennial whipping boy Axel Teichmann. Northug and teammate Oystein Pettersen won the first gold by the Norwegian men’s cross-country ski team since 2002 in the team sprint competition at Whistler Olympic Park. The high-pressure system that has brought unusually sunny weather to Whistler held out for one more day. Firm tracks in the...
