US Nationals – FasterSkier

Continental Cup Feature News Racing US Nationals US Ski Team

He’s 24 years old and just won two U.S. championship races. Here’s why he could retire at the end of the season.

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 5, 2025

ANCHORAGE — The winner of two of three U.S. National Championships races in Alaska this week is just 24 years old, and poised for what could be a long career in cross-country skiing. But instead, Andreas Kirkeng is considering retirement. The explanation is simple: The star University of Denver athlete is not American. He’s Norwegian. And in Norway, aspiring to be a top cross-country skier is like trying to become an astronaut: Many, many try,...

Feature News Racing US Nationals US Ski Team

U.S. Nationals, Day 3: Kramer thrills Anchorage crowd with first Alaskan win at Kincaid Park

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 5, 2025

ANCHORAGE — Alaskans like to think of their home state as the center of American cross-country skiing. Minnesotans might quibble. But consider the more than 200 volunteers who turned out to help host the U.S. National Championships in Anchorage this week, and the dozens of local athletes who signed up to race. There was just one problem: Through five of six of the championship events, athletes from Norway, Sweden, Colorado and Idaho had denied the...

Feature News Racing US Nationals US Ski Team

US Nationals Day 2: Jager stops chasing his friends and breaks through, while multi-sport Smith takes women’s title

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 4, 2025

ANCHORAGE — Luke Jager spent most of his cross-country ski career training and racing with a tight group of talented, up-and-coming American men — the first ever to win a gold medal in the relay at the World Junior Ski Championships. Two of Jager’s teammates on that relay squad, Gus Schumacher and Ben Ogden, have made the leap to the top-level, international World Cup, where both have collected podiums in the past two seasons —...

Feature News Racing US Nationals

The National Championship Ski Race Was Set for Kincaid Park – Then the Moose Showed Up

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 4, 2025

Racing was tight on the first day of the U.S. National Championships at Anchorage’s Kincaid Park, with winners in both the men’s and women’s events decided by less than 15 seconds. The real drama, however, was in a quintessential Anchorage wildlife standoff — one that may have even altered the women’s podium. Along a willowy downhill stretch toward the end of the five-kilometer race loop, volunteers and coaches engaged in a tense showdown with a moose...

Feature Multimedia Photo Gallery Racing US Nationals

2025 US National Championship – 10 k Individual Start Freestyle – from the Lens of Tobias Albrigtsen

FasterSkierJanuary 3, 2025

ANCHORAGE — The 2025 US National Championship started yesterday at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska, with the 10 k Individual Start Freestyle. Photographer and coach Tobias Albrigtsen (@untraceableg) gives us a look through his lens. (click on the first photo and then click on ‘start’ just above the image to play the slideshow)

Feature News US Nationals

One familiar face and one new one notch wins as U.S. Nationals opens in Alaska

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 2, 2025

ANCHORAGE — Kate Oldham wasn’t expecting to win Thursday’s opening race of the U.S. National Championships. It was her first competition of the season, after focusing on training in December, and she’d never placed better seventh at previous national championships. Her coach at Montana State University, Adam St. Pierre, had other ideas about the 22-year-old senior — though he was keeping them to himself. “I have been predicting Kate as a dark horse national champion...

Feature News Racing US Nationals

Hagenbuch and McCabe Win Snowy Spring Nationals 40 k

Ben TheyerlMarch 26, 2024

Out like a Lion: the old adage seems to apply to March in Duluth, Minntesota. At the end of March—during the only true snowstorm that season has delivered to Duluth—the last race of the 2024 SuperTour season and Spring Nationals was set to be a ten lap, 40 kilometer mass start skate race. It was a big race, marking a big end to a big season for a pair of America’s best young skiers....

Feature Racing US Nationals

Winter Comes to Spring: Snowy Duluth Hosts SuperTour Finals and US Spring Nationals

Ben TheyerlMarch 24, 2024

It’s the most welcome irony of the 2023-24 North American ski season so far: As “Spring” Nationals started Thursday at the Spirit Mountain Nordic Center in Duluth, Minnesota, the newly coined “lost winter” of 2023-24 in the Midwest looked to have at-last been found. Snow, from the sky, and not from the end of the snow gun, floated onto that pretty little hillside city near the shores of Lake Superior following the 10 k Classic...

Feature News US Nationals

Individual Efforts and Collective Strengths—US Nationals 20 k

Ben TheyerlJanuary 7, 2024

We all work better when we work together—that would seem to be the credo being employed by American skiers these days. At the conclusion of US Nationals at Utah’s Soldier Hollow, American skiing has rarely looked better, whether internationally or domestically. The warm temps and blue skies of early week at the US Cross Country Ski National Championships gave way to, of all things, snow. Morning light came up on Soldier Hollow; snow drifted in...

Feature News US Nationals

Fast Snow, Fast Sprints—Day 2 of US Nationals

Ben TheyerlJanuary 5, 2024

Though temperatures hadn’t dropped much at Soldier Hollow on Thursday, things felt different. The pure blue skies that had been a reliable fact of life at this year’s US Cross Country Ski National Championships (US Nationals) were clouded over as skiers took to the course for Skate Sprint qualifying. Temperatures hovered just below freezing creating fast, abrasive, consistent snow. The result was consistent wax conditions between morning qualifying and afternoon heats. Men’s Skate Sprint Two...

Feature News US Nationals

Warm, Fast, 10 k Classic Opens US Nationals at Soldier Hollow

Ben TheyerlJanuary 2, 2024

Race day at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah offers a microcosm for the role the venue has played in US skiing. The once, and possibly future, Olympic venue is consistent, stark, and starkly consistent in its conditions, its terrain, and in the quality of the events the crew at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center put on. The typical SoHo day starts dark, dry and frigid, before the sun crests the Wasatch Mountains and gives way...

Feature News US Nationals

2024 US Cross-Country Ski National Championships Awaits At Soldier Hollow

FasterSkierNovember 1, 2023

Join us January 1-7, 2024 for the US Cross Country Ski Nationals. See schedule below. Registration is live and wax cabin rentals are now available. Please click on the link below for registration and wax cabin rental. Schedule Schedule is subject to change. Monday, January 1 Official Training Tuesday, January 2 10k Classic Interval Start Wednesday, January 3 Official Skate Sprint Training (8 am-11 am) Sit Ski Sprint (Qualifying 1pm, heats 1:45-2:15 pm) Thursday,...

Feature News Results US Nationals

Swirbul Sweeps Houghton–Karsrud Takes Men’s Sprint

Ken RothJanuary 7, 2023

HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN: Welcome to FasterSkier’s on-location coverage of the United States National Cross-Country Ski Championships from Houghton, Michigan. This week, Houghton hosts the U.S. National Cross-Country Championships on the Michigan Technological University’s trails system. Today’s event was the freestyle sprint. Even though the race was held under the organizing umbrella of the national championships, today’s event was not a national championship race; as it is part of the US. SuperTour. U.S. Ski and Snowboard has...

News US Nationals

Swirbul Three-Peats, Jager Triumphant in U.S. Nationals

Ken RothJanuary 6, 2023

HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN: Welcome to FasterSkier’s on-location coverage of the United States National Cross-Country Ski Championships from Houghton, Michigan. This week, Houghton hosts the U.S. National Cross-Country Championships on the Michigan Technological University’s trails system. Today’s event is the 20-kilometer classic mass start. There were several questions to be answered at the beginning of the day: the women’s side has been dominated by Hailey Swirbul. Swirbul has won the two previous races, the 10-kilometer individual start...

News US Nationals

Two in a row for Swirbul, Karsrud wins for NMU

Ken RothJanuary 4, 2023

HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN: Welcome to FasterSkier’s on-location coverage of the United States National Cross-Country Ski Championships from Houghton, Michigan. This week, Houghton hosts the U.S. National Cross-Country Championships on the Michigan Technological University’s trails system. Today’s event was the Classic Sprints. Weather again played an outsized role in today’s proceedings as temperatures hovered around freezing all night. The overnight forecast varied from freezing rain, to rain, to rain mixed with snow, to straight snow. During ski...

News US Nationals

Swirbul Sizzles, Kirkeng Dominates U.S. National Championships 10 k Individual

Ken RothJanuary 2, 2023

HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN: Welcome to FasterSkier’s on-location coverage of the United States National Cross- Country Ski Championships from Houghton, Michigan. This week, Houghton hosts the U.S. National Cross-Country Championships on the Michigan Technological University’s trail system. The U.S. Nationals mean many things to different competitors. For some, it’s their initiation into the world of high-end competitive ski racing; for others it’s their chance to burnish their credentials; and for still others it’s a combination of competition...

Juniors News Racing Results US Nationals

2022 Junior Nationals Recap: After Long Wait, Minneapolis Hosts Top US Juniors for Full Slate of Racing

Ben TheyerlMarch 16, 2022

To trace the thread of the past, present, and future of American cross-country skiing, all you have to do is look at a golf course in Minneapolis that touches 3 of those 10,000 lakes in Minnesota; Theodore Wirth Park. Over the past week, America’s most-skied loop played host to the US Ski and Snowboard Junior Championships (formerly Junior Nationals, or “JNs”), bringing the top under-20 year old skiers from across the nation together for the...

Continental Cup Racing Regional / Local US Nationals

Norris and Brennan Lead a Strong Showing for APU with Wins at the SuperTour 15k Mass Start Classic

FasterSkierJanuary 17, 2022

By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Ella Hall The 2022 Sun Valley Nordic Invitational continued Sunday with 10/15-kilometer mass start classic races, featuring SuperTour, RMISA collegiate, and Intermountain junior national qualifier divisions. With overnight temperatures in the low teens which rose to roughly 20 degrees Fahrenheit by start time, tracks looked ideal for kicking and gliding on the meticulously groomed trails at the Lake Creek Ski Center in Ketchum, ID. Today’s races featured four laps each,...

Continental Cup Racing Regional / Local US Nationals

Sun Valley SuperTour Rundown: Brennan and Norris Lead the 10/15k Mass Start Classic

Rachel PerkinsJanuary 16, 2022

Quick Recap: We’ll have a full race report up tomorrow, including athlete comments and photos, but here is a quick recap of the action in the men’s 15k and women’s 10k mass start classic, which took place this morning in Ketchum, Idaho. The 2022 Sun Valley Nordic Invitational continued this morning with 10/15-kilometer classic races at the Lake Creek Ski Center in Ketchum, Idaho. While temperatures were warmer than at the start of yesterday’s...

Continental Cup Racing Regional / Local US Nationals

Brennan and Hagenbuch Skate Away with Wins in Sun Valley SuperTour 5/10k Interval Start Free

FasterSkierJanuary 16, 2022

By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Ben Theyerl The final weekend of SuperTour racing in Period II, and the final weekend within the Olympic qualification window, kicked off Saturday at the Lake Creek Nordic Center in Ketchum, Idaho. Part of the 2022 Sun Valley Nordic Invitational, the SuperTour races were held in conjunction with a Montana State University RMISA event and an Intermountain XC junior national qualifier. Highlighting the size of the event, there were 157...

Older Posts