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US Ski Team

Information about the United States Ski Team.
Balanced to the End, Sadie Maubet Bjornsen Retires (Part I)

To classic ski, and to do so well, requires an athlete to perform an almost stupidly large number of tasks at the same time. You have to move two arms, two legs, and two ankles in alternation, in almost infinite variations depending upon the snow, the wax, the course, and your remaining energy. You have to mediate between power and finesse, kick and glide, stimulus and weight transfer. In short, you have to balance a...

2021-22 Davis U.S. Cross Country Team Nominations Announced (Press Release)

Press Release U.S. Ski & Snowboard has announced the Davis U.S. Cross Country Ski Team nominations for the 2021-22 Olympic season. Nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria in the prior season. The 2021-22 team is highlighted by an experienced group of World Cup, World Championship, and Olympic athletes, including Olympic gold medalist and 2021 FIS Overall Champion Jessie Diggins; two-time World Cup winner Rosie Brennan; and 2020 FIS Junior...

US NOW Annual Award Announcement (Press Release)

Press Release As the 54 women Olympians who have represented our country in cross country skiing, and calling our group United States Nordic Olympic Women, we give an annual award to the female athlete that demonstrates outstanding amounts of grit and grace throughout the year. We call our award: The Gold Rush Award. The past two years have seen three recipients of our award: Rosie Brennan,  Sadie Maubet Bjornsen and Sophie Caldwell Hamilton  When asked if...

Bolshunov Pulls Away for a Solo Victory in the 15 k Classic; Cyr 21st

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. It’s the last hurrah, folks. Roughly a year after the COVID-19 virus achieved its global pandemic title, the World Cup finds itself at the end of a season that once...

Johaug Runs Away With Gold in the 30-kilometer Classic; Maubet Bjornsen 15th in Final Professional Race

This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. A blanket of fresh snow lay on the ground while the frozen rocky peaks of the Bavarian Alps peaked through the clouds. Finally, Oberstdorf, Germany looked like a wintery...

Another Norwegian Sweep in the 15-Kilometer Skate: Holund, Krüger, and Amundsen

This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Here we are in the back half of the 2021 World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. As athletes strive for their peak fitness, storylines from the World Cup season, pandemic,...

Sweden’s Sundling Edges Out Switzerland for Team Sprint Gold; USA 5th

This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. And now for something completely different. The skate team sprint. Three roughly 1-kilometer loops each for 7.2 k total, relatively flat with just two brief upticks per lap, winding...

Bolshunov Victorious in the 30-Kilometer Skiathlon; Patterson 14th, Norris 17th

This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. With swaths of bare ground peeking through the melting snow, skis rattling through tracks and swooshing across the lanes, and short-sleeved race tops, World Championship racing continued in a...

Seventeen Athletes Named to Davis U.S. Cross Country World Championships Team (Press Release)

    Press Release EDITORS NOTE: Three additional athletes have been named to the Davis U.S. Cross Country Ski Team that will compete at the 2021 FIS Cross Country World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, Feb. 22 – March 7 following the competition of the Junior/U23 Cross Country World Championships: Sophia Laukli Hunter Wonders Ben Ogden U.S. Ski & Snowboard has announced the first 14 athletes of the Davis U.S. Cross Country Ski Team that will...

USA Cross Country Announces Team for World Cup Period 4

Dear Cross Country Community, We are pleased to announce the USA Cross Country Team for World Cup Period 4 of the 2020-21 season:   Nove Mesto, CZE Sprint C   Men Zanden McMullen                 Discretion                SuperTour Period IV Leader Simi Hamilton                           Objective                 12th WC Sprint Standings Kevin Bolger                             Objective                 13th WC Sprint Standings Logan Hanneman                   Objective                 20th WC Sprint Standings JC Schoonmaker                     Objective                 30th WC Sprint Standings Luke Jager                                 Discretion                1st ANC Sprint C qualifier, 1st...

US Team Announces Period 3 World Cup Nominations

Dear Cross Country Community, We are pleased to announce the USA Cross Country Team for World Cup Period 3 of the 2020-21 season: Lahti, FIN Skiathlon Men Hunter Wonders                    Discretion                SuperTour Period III Leader Gus Schumacher                    Objective                 18th WC Distance Standings Scott Patterson                       Discretion                16th Davos 15 F, 23rd TOD Ruka 15 F, 24th TOD Val Müstair 15 F Adam Martin                           Discretion                1st Craftsbury 15 C, 1st Craftsbury 15 F Ian Torchia                                Discretion                2nd Craftsbury...

Period I Starts for the U.S. Ski Team

A brave new world awaits World Cup skiers for Period I on the cross-country World Cup. The scheduling is the easy part, three race weekends reduced from four for Period I. The racing in Lillehammer, Norway, has been postponed due to Covid-19 precautions.   In an email to FasterSkier, Cross-Country Program Director Chris Grover wrote the following when asked about the team’s protocols if an athlete tests positive for Covid-19. If someone in our group tests...

SuperTour COC Leader and Discretionary Nomination Selection Dates

  Dear Cross Country Community, Now that the autumn FIS Cross Country Committee meetings are over, and we have confirmed the World Cup calendar for 2020-21, you can find all finalized selection criteria for World Cup, the Oberstdorf Nordic World Championships, the World Junior and U23 World Champs, the U18 Nordic Nations Championships, etc. here: https://usskiandsnowboard.org/sport-programs/criteria With the cancellation of the USA SuperTour Continental Cup Series for 2020-21, the FIS Cross Country Committee has granted...

If you read FasterSkier, you are likely aware that elite cross country skiing in the U.S. has been steadily on the rise over the last decade. In the last four years alone, we’ve borne witness to medals at all levels, including a Diggins-Randall double podium in the freestyle sprint at the 2017 World Championships, a 10 k classic win for Gus Schumacher at the 2020 World Junior Championships, a bronze medals for Will Koch and...

FIS Points, Part II: What’s a Point Worth

This article has been updated to clarify the relationship between the junior races now known as FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships and its precursor, the World Junior Nordic Championships and the European Junior Nordic Championships.  There are, to briefly traffic in the obvious, 60 seconds in a minute. Sixty seconds in a minute; 60 minutes in an hour; 3,600 seconds in an hour. Skiers measure their lives in these increments; we track total yearly training hours,...

“Get whatever you want. I’m buying.” “It’s ok. I’ve got a card with me.” “No. You’re over here working for us. The least I could do is buy you a coffee and a bun.” Conversation over. Jessie Diggins bought my cinnamon bun and cappuccino. The same Jessie Diggins who won Gold at the last winter Olympics and is a regular on World Cup podiums just refused to let me buy my own snack at the...

‘Brave Enough’ Book Review: Here Comes Diggins’s Memoir

There are certain precepts that permeate Brave Enough, the new memoir by Jessie Diggins: Teamwork is good. So is glitter. Self-belief is important. Training hard pays off. As for substance, I have nothing snarky to say about these morals; nordic skiing, if not the entire world, would be better off if we all felt these things so fervently, and it is engaging to trace the development of these themes in Diggins’s life. But as for...

Julia Kern Third in World U23 Skate Sprint (With Audio Interview)

Racing continued amidst a snowstorm in Oberwiesenthal, Germany in today’s U23 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint event. Coming down lightly at some times and in heavy bursts at others, the precipitation accumulated on the tracks creating some excitement in the form of repeated starts and untimely crashes.  Two Americans qualified on the women’s side, with Julia Kern (USST/SMST2) near the top in third, exactly 1 second behind the top racer, Sweden’s Johanna Hagström. Hailey Swirbul (USST/SMST2) was...

Bolshunov Four for Four in Distance Wins; Norris Earns Season Best Result in 24th

Around and around they go. Due to lack of snow in Falun, Sweden, the men again wheeled their way around a manmade ribbon of snow, skating six icy 2.5-kilometer laps. Reduced from 30 to the 15 k distance and without the long, steep climb for which the course is usually known, how athletes would fare was yet to be determined.   Along the way, two sets of 15 bonus points were available for the top ten...

Third Consecutive Distance Win for Bolshunov in Oberstdorf; Norris 28th

And the World Cup beat goes on. Nearly 70 men lined up in Oberstdorf, Germany for a 15/15-kilometer skiathlon, battling across techniques in front of a Bavarian Alp backdrop. The venue will be the home of the 2021 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. The 3.75 k course in Oberstdorf featured a variety of terrain, with the Burgstall hill climb bringing athletes to the high point of the course. To increase the pulse in the long...