On Friday twenty coaches from seven teams, including Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Norway, and the United States, held a meeting about their concerns over Russian doping. Tension has been building steadily and surely since last season, when four Russian cross country skiers and three Russian biathletes tested positive for EPO – only the latest in a rash of charges against Russian athletes since 2001. Last spring when high-profile racers Yevgeny Dementiev (one Olympic gold)...
Austria will set a precedent in the new year when proposed changes to their Criminal Code will make the use of performance enhancing drugs during competition a criminal offense, allowing for penalties of up to 10 years in prison. The proposals, introduced by Sports Minister Norbert Darabos and Minister of Justice Claudia Bandion-Ortner, would not only prosecute athletes who have been cought doping, but also the personell involved in the athlete’s deception, such as coaches...
Muonio, Finland–Far above the arctic circle in Lapland this past Saturday, Ben Koons, of Sidney, became the first Mainer to achieve an Olympic qualifying standard in Nordic Skiing for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Koons, who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and New Zealand, raced to a 103rd place in the men’s 15km classic at the Olos resort. Initial calculations indicate that it was good enough for a 99.54 point FIS race, and good...
A Midwest native and avid mountain biker, Garrott Kuzzy is as passionate about the outdoors as he is about nordic training and racing. Starting as a ski jumper and nordic combined athlete, his love of the cross country aspect of the sport won over. Early on he was exposed to the real world of nordic by his dad, Jim, who was a Worldloppet Master and took his young son first to watch and later to...
Christa Case Bryant takes a close look at both sides of the Women’s Olympic Ski Jumping Issue. Her article does an excellent job of synthesizing the arguments, and clarifying the issues. The recent article on FasterSkier announcing yesterday’s court appeal generated a number of comments, and questions. This article should answer a number of those. Unless a Canadian court decides otherwise, the ski jumper with the longest flight on record at Vancouver’s Olympic facility will...
(translated from ski-nordique.net, 11-12-09, “Coup dur pour Franz Göring”) Franz Göring tore ligaments in his ankle during a workout recently. He will have to take four weeks off before resuming regular training, so his chances of participating in the Olympic Games are very small. In his absence, the German team will be composed of Teichmann, Angerer, Sommerfeldt, and Filbrich, with the remaining place perhaps a contest between the young racers Tim Tscharnke or Philipp Marschall.
For anyone who thinks that the U.S. got a raw deal with the introduction of a new Olympic quota system, you’re right. According to FIS Cross-Country Race Director Jürg Capol, just two nations had their quotas significantly affected by the switch-the U.S. and Kazakhstan. For the rest, he wrote in an e-mail, their quotas are more or less the same as they would have been under the Torino guidelines from 2006. Those numbers should rise...
Ben Koons has been New Zealand’s fastest nordic skier for quite some time. Born and raised in Dunedin, on the South Island, he grew up participating in a variety of sports but only cross country skied a handful of times. His family moved to Maine when Ben was fourteen and he started his freshman year as a hockey player at Messalonskee High School. Soon afterward he switched to nordic skiing, found he had an aptitude for the...
PARK CITY, UT (Nov. 6) – The eyes of the world will be on Vancouver this February for the Olympic Winter Games. But ski and snowboarding athletes who hope to be Vancouver Bound already began scrapping and fighting their way to Olympic Team spots beginning in September. The final Olympic ski and snowboarding teams will be named in January, as close as possible to the Olympics. Olympic selection events kicked off with the Sept. 12...
Wednesday 4th November marks 100 days until the opening of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. After over six years of hard work preparing to host the world, Vancouver 2010 is now entering the final countdown before its Games get underway and the Olympic flame reaches the Olympic Stadium. To celebrate this occasion, a number of different announcements and events are being held by the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee (VANOC) and its partners and stakeholders....
(translated by Aubrey Smith from langrenn.com: “Alsgaard bedre enn på seks år” 11-1-09 by nrk.no, “Therese utnytter dagene på hjemmebane” 11-1-09 by teamturbo.no, “Jeg er trygg på det jeg har gjort” 11-2-09 by Ivar Haugen. All photos from langrenn.com taken by Ivar Haugen) After a severe bike accident in June that broke bones in both her back and face, Astrid Jacobsen set about on a long road to recovery. She recently returned to training by...
After proving her talent as a junior racer, Rebecca Dussault hung up her skis for several years between 1999 and 2003 in order to focus on her family. After returning to racing in 2004 she found that she still had the talent, love for the sport, and a mind for the competition. Since then she has set her focus on national and international titles – not only in nordic skiing but also in winter and summer...
As a three-sport athlete at Whitman College, Laura Valaas earned four All-American titles in Nordic skiing as well as five podium finishes and three more top-ten finishes in the National Collegiate Cycling Championships. As if that wasn’t enough, Laura also ran cross country in the fall. She graduated Whitman in 2006 with magana cum laude honors and a BA in Applied Mathematics. In the year following, Laura made herself very well known on the national and...
USSA Spokesman John Farra has issued a press release explaining the FIS Olympic quota allocation for the 2009 Vancouver games, which dictates how many athletes each participating country is allowed to bring. Farra explains why the US currently only has 7 spots, how this might change, and the process related to it.
The Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver will be the highlight of the 2009/10 season. One of the most important goals for the IOC and the International Winter Sports Federations are fair Games. In order to achieve this, the IOC has issued the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable for the XXI Olympic Winter Games held in Vancouver 2010. These rules are in accordance with the WADA Code 2009 and consist of the regular IOC anti-doping rules, supplemented...
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (October 12, 2009) – U.S freestyle and nordic combined athletes will get a one shot, winner-takes-all chance at making the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team as the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) host the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Steamboat Springs Dec. 23-24. A total of five U.S. Olympic Team spots in moguls, aerials and nordic combined will be up for grabs on those two days...
The IOC has added a number of photos and several videos of North American athletes to their website, Olympic.org. The two videos currently up are from 2006 and feature Canada’s medal winning performances in the Women’s Sprint and Women’s Team Sprint. Both are worth watching – the Team Sprint video includes a shot of Sara Renner’s famous broken pole and Beckie Scott’s powerful finish to grab the silver. The Sprint video highlights Chandra Crawford’s stunning...
DULUTH, Minn. – St. Scholastica Head Nordic Ski Coach Chad Salmela will once again work for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Colombia starting in February. Salmela will be the color commentator for the biathlon, cross country skiing, and the cross country skiing portion of Nordic Combined. “I am obviously very excited for the opportunity,” Salmela said. “I have spent most of my life trying to promote...