January 12, 2011 (Park City, UT) – World Championship silver medalist Kikkan Randall (Anchorage) will lead a strong 2011 U.S. Cross Country World Championship Team to compete at Holmenkollen in Oslo beginning Feb. 24. Randall is one of 14 athletes named Wednesday to compete in the biennial Championships. The International Ski Federation’s 2011 Nordic World Ski Championships are especially important this year, taking place in the heart of nordic skiing and in its most prestigious...
Twelve athletes were named to the US Junior World Championships team Friday. They all bring experience and ambition to the races in Otepää, Estonia, January 25-31.
2011 marks just the second time that the US has fielded a team in the Tour de Ski. Last year, Andy Newell was the first, and only representative for the Americans, and with a focus on sprinting, he never planned to complete the multi-stage event. This year was different. Three athletes took to the line for the prologue in Obertsdorf, Germany just before the New Year, and all three planned to see the Tour through....
The Alaska Pacific University women’s team was finally dethroned on Thursday—but it took a world-class athlete to do it. After Holly Brooks and Sadie Bjornsen took the first two races of this week’s U.S. National Championships in Rumford, the U.S. Ski Team’s Liz Stephen finally broke up the monopoly with a persuasive win in the women’s 20 k. Brooks preserved her squad’s pride by placing second, 58 seconds down, while Morgan Arritola (USST) was third....
A recent change in management should have minimal impact on the U.S. Adaptive Ski Team (USAST) in the upcoming season, with competition schedules remaining the same through the winter. Late last week, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) announced that it would take control of Paralympic alpine and cross-country skiing from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA). One administrator lost her position as part of the change, but despite some initial uncertainty, coaches and athletes...
With U.S. Nationals looming, there’s quite a collection of domestic skiers who think they could ski to a podium finish in the biggest races of the year. Besides the eternal glory of winning a national championship, there’s more on the line: for seniors, the races will be their best shot of earning low National Ranking List (NRL) points, which will qualify them for World Championships, and for younger skiers a strong result could mean a...
With 15 titles over the past decade, Kikkan Randall has turned the U.S. National Championships into something of a one-woman show. In the 2010 edition, which was held in her hometown of Anchorage, she swept all four events—collecting nearly $5,000 en route to wins in two distance races and a pair of sprints. This year, the country’s fastest women will assemble at Black Mountain in Rumford, ME. But when the first event of the championships...
Following mixed results in the early season, the U.S. Ski Team’s Liz Stephen raced to the top World Cup result of her career in last weekend’s 15 k freestyle in La Clusaz, France—a race she finished a half-second ahead of her friend and teammate Morgan Arritola. Stephen is now at home in Vermont, training in advance of the 2011 U.S. National Championships in Rumford, ME, which begin on January 2. FasterSkier caught her to chat...
While racers on the World Cup have voiced concern over the mini tour format following the FIS World Cup mini-tour in Kuusamo, Finland, earlier this season, North American racers overwhelmingly welcome the format.
Kris Freeman’s body held him back in his 25th-place finish in the 30 k freestyle in La Clusaz on Saturday, but not in the way you might be thinking. Rather than his blood sugar, Freeman said that his limiting factor was just plain old fitness. “I think the race itself just wasn’t that great,” he said in an interview. “My fitness has been better than that this year.” Freeman said he raced with his pump...
In Switzerland last weekend, Russia’s Alexander Legkov skied to his second podium of the year, continuing a strong start to the winter. But in an interview afterwards with the Russian newspaper Sport Express, he said he was trying to relish the results as much as possible, knowing that soon, Norwegian star Petter Northug would be back on the circuit at full strength. “Make no mistake—a couple of races, and Northug will return to the level...
As the World Cup circuit heads towards its Christmas break, Marit Bjoergen is still in a class by herself. After breaking away from the pack less than five kilometers into the La Clusaz 15 k freestyle on Saturday, along with her teammate Kristin Stoermer Steira and Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk, Bjoergen easily matched challenges by her opponents on the last of six laps, then turned on the jets on the homestretch to pull away for the...
Kris Freeman does not give up easily. Freeman, an American cross-country skier, has weathered a diagnosis of type one diabetes—which, for the careers of most endurance athletes, would have been a death sentence. He has picked himself up from a snowbank and finished a race at the Olympics after passing out on the side of the trail from hypoglycemia. He has pushed through two surgeries on his lower legs to relieve the debilitating symptoms of...
Kikkan Randall is in for a long week. With the news that the Polish Ski Association (PSA) plans to appeal Justyna Kowalczyk’s relegation in the Sunday’s women’s sprint final in Davos—which elevated Randall to third place—the Alaskan could be waiting until late this coming week to find out whether she gets to keep her podium finish, and the $5,000 that goes with it. According to International Ski Federation (FIS) rules, the PSA can take up...
With 100 meters to go in Sunday’s skate sprint in Davos, Kikkan Randall flew into the stadium in fourth place. A few strong strides brought her close to even with third, and second place even seemed to be within reach. Enter Justyna Kowalczyk—the wiry Pole with a reputation for provocative statements and questionable tactics. Just as Randall was about slide past, Kowalczyk made an aggressive move to her right, forcing the American to switch lanes...
Following on the heels of two North American podiums in Dusseldorf, Canadian and American distance skiers turned in a mixed bag of results in the 10/15km individual start classic race in Davos, Switzerland. The top distance skiers from both countries, with the notable exception of all-rounder Kikkan Randall, skipped the Dusseldorf sprint weekend in order to prepare for the longer event at altitude in Davos. Devon Kershaw (CAN) led the way, skiing to an impressive...
Rocket boosters? Tiny electric motors? Cutting the course? The World Cup women’s field is going to have to come up with something, because it’s pretty clear that plain old training and technique isn’t going to be enough to beat Norway’s Marit Bjoergen any time soon. In Saturday’s 10 k classic in Davos, Switzerland, Bjoergen won for her fourth time in five races this year, skiing to a 30-second victory over her Polish rival Justyna Kowalczyk....
After the U.S. men’s performance in the season-opening World Cup relay in Sweden, which had Andy Newell, Kris Freeman, and Noah Hoffman hanging with the leaders through nearly three full legs, the question hung in the air: Who would be the skier to fill the void in the fourth spot? The answer seemed to lie back at home, in the form of a rising star like Tad Elliott, who could be ready in time for...
If Josef Wenzl wants to race at the 2011 World Ski Championships in Norway, he probably can do it without a bodyguard. But that’s only thanks to the last-minute heroics of the sprinter Anders Gloersen (NOR). Wenzl, a German, squandered a sure podium finish for himself and the top Norwegian pair in Sunday’s team sprint in Dusseldorf, crashing out on the final corner and taking John Kristian Dahl along with him. Gloersen ended up being...
Bring on Marit Bjoergen. That was the message Kikkan Randall sent with her skiing in Dusseldorf, Germany on Saturday, racing to a sensational second place in a freestyle sprint on a short course that doesn’t even suit her strengths. After qualifying in eighth and blazing through the first two rounds, Randall overcame a poor start in her final heat, flying past Slovenian Vesna Fabjan on the homestretch to take her fifth-ever podium finish, just behind...