Morgan Arritola (USA) finished 34th in yesterday’s 10km freestyle, her best result in a European World Cup. This is Morgan’s first season racing regularly on the World Cup circuit. You had a great result today, did you feel this was one of your top international performances? I have not been satisfied with how I have been racing since arriving in Europe, but today was a step in the right direction. I still don’t have that...
In a wild final heat in Davos, Norwegian John Kristian Dahl pulled out a squeaker of a victory over his teammate Petter Northug and Russian Alexei Petukhov. After following Petukhov up the first big hill, Dahl made his move on the course’s final rise, slotting in front of the Russian and holding him and Northug off in a drag race over the final 100 meters. It’s the first career win for the 28-year-old Dahl, who...
For the first time this year, Petra Majdic took the victory in a World Cup sprint race, edging out Marit Bjorgen and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen on a tough course in Davos, Switzerland. “I just wanted to show everybody that I can win again,” Majdic told NRK1 television after the race. American Kikkan Randall finished in eighth, just missing out on a spot in the finals with a third place finish in her semifinal heat. Majdic, in...
Davos, Switzerland – Kikkan Randall (USA), coming off two of her top World Cup distance races ever, struggled to 65th today. FasterSkier checked in with her following the race. You did not have a good result today, especially in light of your recent distance performances. What happened? I think I started a little too slow, loosing too much time in the first 2km. The middle part of the race was decent, Therese Johaug caught me...
The US Ski Team has regrouped in Davos, Switzerland, with the sprinters joining the distance skiers after the conclusion of the Dusseldorf World Cups. All skiers are healthy. Lars Flora is recovered from illness that kept him out of the Kuusamo races, and he Liz Stephen, Morgan Arritola, and Kris Freeman have been training in Davos, where the conditions are good. There was no snow a week ago, but a storm moved in just in...
LILLEHAMMER, Norway – It was a great end to a weekend of competing for Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) who went two-for-two leading the U.S., breaking a tie for fourth by winning a photo finish Sunday as the nordic combined World Cup wrapped up in Lillehammer. It was Spillane’s best result since finishing second in Kuusamo in 2007. “It was great to have a good weekend,” Spillane said. “I felt like I skied a pretty good race, I...
Lillehammer, Norway – Two knee operations over the summer haven’t stopped Johnny Spillane, as the 29-year-old skied his way to a sixth place finish in the World Cup nordic combined race in Lillehammer earlier this morning. Billy Demong, also hampered by injuries this year, followed Spillane in 14th, just under a minute behind the winner, France’s Jeremy Lamy Chappuis, and Bryan Fletcher and Brett Camerota finished 41st and 56th, respectively, closing out the U.S. Nordic...
Kris Freeman (USA) posted his best World Cup result ever on Sunday, skiing to a 4th place finish. Petter Northug (NOR) won his first World Cup distance classic race. Here are brief clips of the two skiers finishing the race.
Kuusamo, Finland – Kris Freeman (USA) finished 4th in the men’s 15km classic World Cup this morning. The result marks Freeman’s best World Cup performance ever – though he does have two 4th’s in the World Championships as well. Freeman was just 2.2 seconds off the podium, and edged out 5th place finisher Norwegian Martin Sundby Johnsrud by just .4 seconds. Freeman started conservatively, sitting in 62nd, 10 seconds off the pace at 1.1km. By...
The first World Cup sprint race of the 2010 season left the U.S. Ski Team (USST) with one strong result, but still looking for more. FasterSkier caught up with USST Sprint Coach Chris Grover right after the race. He said that Andy Newell—who finished seventh—had a very strong day, dominating his quarterfinal heat and only just missing out on a spot in the finals after battling with the eventual winner, Ola Vigen Hattestad. “He led...
Last Saturday we published complete previews of the World Cup season – just in case you missed them: FS 2010 World Cup Preview: The United States FS 2010 World Cup Preview: Men
The US Ski Team is posting video from training and racing on the Dartfish website. Dartfish is a video analysis software package for athletics, and has been in use for some time. The website, Dartfish.tv, allows dartfish users to post video. The best part is that viewers can take advantage of frame-by-frame playback – a feature that YouTube and similar sites do not offer. The Ski Team has posted 30 videos so far, including from...
We are using these races and the first part of this period for training and race preparation. But don’t think that means we don’t do anything other than race as fast and hard as we can. Because that is what we’re doing. Training has been very solid, nothing crazy, just solid good training.
BEITOSTOELEN, Norway (Nov. 15) – The U.S. Cross Country Team wrapped up three days of pre World Cup racing Sunday with even more unexpected success as World Championship silver medalist Kikkan Randall (Anchorage) took fourth and Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) fifth in the women’s 5K and men’s 10K classic FIS races in Norway. “That has to be one of Kikkan’s best longer distance races ever and it really bodes well for the upcoming season and...
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...
BEITOSTOELEN, Norway (Nov. 14) – The U.S. Cross Country Ski Team is a leg up on the competition scene after competing in two days of FIS races in Norway where Kikkan Randall (Anchorage), Kris Freeman (Andover, NH), Liz Stephen (East Montpelier, VY) and Morgan Arritola (Ketchum, ID) have all had great early season results. “It was a really good start for the year. It was our first competition racing of the season. Our expectations were...
The 4th annual FIS Tour de Ski will be held this season, and for the first time an American will compete. Andy Newell will start the eight-stage event that is modeled on the Tour de France. In the past it hasn’t made much sense for US athletes to take part. Contesting the Tour requires not only a high level of fitness, but the ability to excel at every distance and technique. Rule changes for the...
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...
“…I am in Denmark right now, on the way to Mora, Sweden from Munich and then on to Norway with the team van. The transition time is near if it isn’t here already. HC Holmberg talks about making over 100 transitions per 10km race… And this larger scale transition is similar and similarly trainable. From dryland to snow, from the USA to Europe, from low altitude to high and back to low again.”
Video by the US Ski Team’s Torin Koos – Double Pole and Class Stride. Be sure to read the commentary below the video by US Ski Team Coach Justin Wadsworth. Commentary from Justin Wadsworth On the Double Pole Sections: This video footage was taken while doing Vo2 max work during an intensity block in Lake placid, New york. In the double poling, I want to see Torin stay forward with upperbody. With the group sprint...