Tyler Kornfield came out on top of a three-way sprint for the podium steps in the men’s race, and Raphaela Sieber came from 10 seconds behind teammate Theresia Schnurr to win going away in the first Goldstream Sports Tour de Ski/Fairbanks, the first “Tour de Ski” format event held in Alaska. The two Alaska Nanook sophomores contributed toward a dominating win in the Alaska Nordic Cup, the annual ski competition between UAA and UAF. The...
Editor’s Note: The original version of this article listed Laura Valaas as a member of Team Endurance Professionals. According to Valaas, she was never a part of the team, despite being listed in Team Endurance Professionals marketing material. The article has been corrected, and we apologize for the error. In April of this year, Kristina Owen and Josh Korn began sharing a grand idea with some of their friends in the ski world: they wanted...
Bryan Fish’s jump to the U.S. Ski Team from his job running the Central Cross-Country (CXC) program was one of the most significant coaching changes of the spring. Fish, who over the last few years helped to build CXC’s elite team into one of the most powerful in the country, left some big shoes to fill. Enter Jason Cork, who was hired to replace Fish after two years as the assistant coach at Michigan Tech...
With less than two weeks to go until the start of the West Yellowstone Ski Festival, snow conditions appear promising. According to Director Sara Hoovler, the Montana town received roughly three inches of snow on Monday into Tuesday. While the trails hadn’t been groomed as of Tuesday morning, Hoovler said that they will probably be rolled within the next couple of days—especially given that additional snow is forecast for the area. “It’s a classic West...
Vermont already has one elite racing team in the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, but Ryan Kerrigan still thinks there’s room for another. Kerrigan is the captain of a new squad based in Stowe and organized under the aegis of the Von Trapp Family Lodge, the resort just outside of town. Dubbed VTXC both in honor of the state and the Von Trapps, Kerrigan and his crew are targeting races on the New England circuit, as...
A mini tour is more than just three days of racing. The strategic and tactical elements require racers to pace for the whole tour starting with the first event. Every stride, every pole plant counts. That’s an important lesson, as the tour format gains hold on the FIS schedules.
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,...
A few days before competing in the Engadin Marathon in Switzerland last March, Ben Sim stood atop a snow-covered hill in Germany. Sim, an Australian, was about to find out whether he could make the jump from cross-country skiing to nordic combined. Literally. Observing were Finn Marsland, the coach of the Australian cross-country ski team, and Fabian Mauz, a German coach who had assisted some Australian athletes at the Junior World Championships in the Black...
The Boulder Mountain Tour (BMT), along with the Sun Valley Nordic Festival has secured a substantial prize money package. With the help of the city of Sun Valley, nearly $13,000 in prize money will be paid to the top ten finishers in the men’s and women’s races for the 2011 BMT–as well as the second annual Thursday night co-ed sprint relays in downtown Ketchum, ID. The BMT is the centerpiece of the nine-day Sun Valley...
Martin Rosvall, 32, works full time as an assistant professor of physics at the University of Umeå in northern Sweden. But the constraints of a full time job, work-related travel and conferences are no barriers to stellar marathon performances, Rosvall says. Point in case: In March, he finished 15th overall at the Vasaloppet, the 90 K classic race that attracts more than 20,000 skiers and was Rosvall’s main goal for the season. The legendary race...
Following the funding scare with the Olympic Regional Development Authority in Lake Placid earlier this year, FasterSkier correspondent Peter Minde is examining the structure and viability of various post-Olympic venues around North America. This piece, his second in the series, looks at the status of Soldier Hollow, in Utah. Cross country skiing and biathlon drew more athletes and spectators than any other sports at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. But Soldier...
What do a GPS, a retired airline pilot, and a Norwegian guru named Hermod Bjorkestol have in common? All are key components of a plan to bring many of the U.S.’s biggest venues in line with International Ski Federation (FIS) standards. At its annual meetings in Turkey in early June, FIS made it clear to American officials that a longstanding exception would be revoked: starting in the winter of 2011-2012, all races held in the...
New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) has received $5.6 million in funding in a budget measure that passed in the New York state assembly on Friday and the state senate on Monday. ORDA manages Mount Van Hoevenberg, the site of the cross country, biathlon and nordic combined events during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid NY, and the other legacy venues from those Games. The appropriation is about 16 percent of ORDA’s approximately...
Mary Anne Levins of Rutland, Vermont has been awarded the 2010 L.L. Bean Outdoor Hero award for her phenomenal dedication and devotion to youth Nordic skiing in New England. Created in 2007, the award was established by L.L.Bean to recognize individuals working towards the preservation and promotion of outdoor recreation. Each year, a committee selects six recipients from a pool of submissions. “Out of this year’s many nominations, one name rose to the top of...
Big changes to the team roster and the coaching staff are this spring’s news for the Central Cross-Country Ski Association (CXC). 18 athletes and three coaches will comprise the 2011 team for one of North America’s largest and fastest-growing clubs. Vacating the post of head coach that he held since the formation of CXC in 2006, Bryan Fish has accepted a position with the US Ski Team (USST) as Continental Cup coach. Jason Cork will...
Lake Placid’s cross country, biathlon and ski jumping venues face the possibility of closure if the state does not appropriate money later this month. The Lake Placid Daily News reported in March that New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), was at risk of losing all of its state funding for the coming fiscal year. The aid, approximately $6.6 million last year, comprises some 20 percent of ORDA’s budget. A member of ORDA’s board of...
AUGUSTA, Maine – Presque Isle, Maine, will get a World Cup weekend of its own next winter, officials announced Wednesday morning. In a press conference at Maine Governor John Baldacci’s office, Nordic Heritage Sport Club Chairman Tim Vernon said that his organization would be stepping up to the plate to host a second World Cup weekend in Northern Maine, to go along with a previously-scheduled race in Fort Kent. The competition now set for Presque...
There are very few coaches for whom taking a job with the U.S. Ski Team (USST) is a step down in intensity. But after 300 days on the road last year as head coach of the Central Cross Country (CXC) program, that might just be the case for Bryan Fish. Last week, Fish was announced as the USST’s new Continental Cup coach, completing a USST staff reorganization that began in April when Chris Grover took...
Wilson Dippo is a sophomore on the
Fort Kent and Madawaska may not be the most scintillating of towns, but there are, in fact, a handful of things to do aside from eat potatoes and chase moose around. We talked to a couple of locals to get the skinny on Fort Kent and Madawaska. Here are some suggestions. Fort Kent In terms of restaurants, there’s pretty much one game in town for dinner, and that’s The Swamp Buck, on Main Street. Nothing...