For the second straight day of sprint racing in Dusseldorf, Germany, the American women brought the fireworks. During the second day of World Cup racing in Dusseldorf, the Norway I team of Mari Eide and Maiken Caspersen Falla took the win. In a surprise move, United States I featuring Sadie Bjornsen and Kikkan Randall crossed the line second, 1.6 seconds back of the Norwegians. The bronze medal went to Natalia Korosteleva and Natalia Matveeva of...
At the start of Sunday’s World Cup men’s pursuit, there was one man out in front: Carl Johan Bergman of Sweden. After picking up the win in Friday’s sprint in Ostersund, Swedene, Bergman had a seven-second advantage over the rest of the field. But as Friday’s victory was just the second of his career, the big question was how long the 33-year-old would be able to hang onto the lead. The answer, it turned out,...
In addition to Kikkan Randall (USA) and Chandra Crawford (CAN) who placed 1st and 4th respectively in the freestyle sprint on the streets of Dusseldorf, Germany, six other North American women raced, with Canadian Perianne Jones and American Sadie Bjornsen just missing out on the heats. Jones, in 32nd was just .23 seconds out of a spot in the heats. “It went by really fast,” Jones told FasterSkeir after the qualification round. “I have a...
Today in Ostersund, Sweden, two women returned to the spots they’re used to occupying on the World Cup biathlon results sheet. For Germany’s Magdalena Neuner, that spot was at the top. The 24-year-old won her 25th World Cup after placing third in a wind-dominated individual race earlier this week. For any other champion, an occasional bad day is standard. But Neuner is so good that seeing her finish over a minute and a half behind...
Despite cold rain pelting down on the city, Dusseldorf, Germany, was hopping Saturday afternoon. And rightly so, as even without Swedish sprint star Emil Joensson taking part, the best of the World Cup sprinters were on hand to tackle the rocket-fast course. The venue consisted of roughly 1900 meters of snow with an icy glaze on top. While the women did just one lap, the men were primed to race two loops of...
It was a big day for the two North American teams in Dusseldorf, Germany, with Kikkan Randall taking the victory for the United States, and Chandra Crawford just missing out on the podium and finishing fourth for Canada. There was plenty of other action out there for ski fans from the west side of the Atlantic. In addition to Randall and Crawford, nine North American skiers took to the streets of Dusseldorf for the fast...
With 44 competitors in front of him and six behind at the start of Saturday’s nordic combined 10 k, Taylor Fletcher knew he had his work cut out for him. Starting 2 minutes and 14 seconds behind the leader, Germany’s Tino Edelmann, the 21-year-old Fletcher took on the massive task of catching up after his provisional jump from Friday put him in 45th. Fletcher covered the difficult course, with about 4 inches of fresh snow...
DUSSELDORF, Germany — Kikkan Randall is a World Cup Overall threat. At least, that was the way it felt in the city of Dusseldorf Saturday afternoon, when Randall hammered around the 900-meter manmade loop on her way to her first World Cup victory of the season. In the freestyle sprint, Randall out-gunned Natalia Matveeva (RUS) in the rush for the line, while Laurien Van Der Graaf (SUI) picked up the bronze medal in her first-ever...
Rain and chilly temperatures didn’t dampen the rocket-fast qualifying round at the World Cup freestyle sprint in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Saturday morning. In fact, with rain falling early in the day and never letting up, the course turned icy very quickly, and the rock-hard snow resulted in the already short and fast course becoming incredibly fast. The short optimistically-measured 900 meter womens’ course was blazing fast. In just one loop around the mostly flat course...
After finishing the 10 k World Cup sprint in Ostersund, Sweden on Friday, Lowell Bailey didn’t have to be chatty. He only needed a few words to describe how his race had gone. “It was a great race for me,” Bailey wrote in the opening of an e-mail to FasterSkier. That might be an understatement. The American placed fifth, the best finish of his career; he was less than ten seconds off the podium. Every...
Warm temperatures have plagued the World Cup all season long, but the city sprint in Düsseldorf, Germany, has always been a lock on the calendar. On Friday, 13° C temperatures and rain pelted down on the German city, which overlooks the Rhine River. This weekend’s races mark the 10th year in which Düsseldorf has hosted the city sprints on man-made snow, but the production of the course seemed to have met its match in the adverse weather...
Perhaps never before have the world’s best biathletes’ dreams of perfection been dashed so quickly at the beginning of a season. Over the last two days in Ostersund, Sweden, each one of the world’s top shooters has missed at least one shot. Usually, there’s just a few races like this in a season. This year, both the men’s and women’s World Cup openers have featured incredibly gusty, unpredictable winds. Even without shooting clean, a few...
Two weeks into the World Cup season, and we have seen Kikkan Randall storm out of the gate with an 8th in a classic 10k, a 4th in a classic sprint, and a 6th place finish in the overall Kuusamo mini-tour. Colin Reuter and Christopher Tassava of the Nordic Commentary Project join FasterSkier Editor Topher Sabot to discuss Kikkan, Holly Brooks’ step forward, the dominance of the Norwegian women’s team, and yes, we even mention...
With her strong 23rd-place showing in the Ruka Triple last weekend in Kuusamo, Finland, Holly Brooks and U.S. Ski Team (USST) coaches have begun discussing the possibility of her racing the Tour de Ski, which begins December 29. “Obviously Holly had a great mini-tour in Kuusamo,” said USST head coach Chris Grover. “She’s an athlete we’re seriously considering [for the Tour]…she will most likely be invited, for sure.” The U.S. has more than enough room...
One by one, last year’s heroes succumbed to errors over the course of the opening biathlon World Cup race in Ostersund, Sweden on Wednesday. Norwegians Tarjei Boe and Emil Hegle Svendsen, wearing the yellow and red bibs of as the previous overall and discipline leaders, only made it four kilometers before the mistakes began. Racing near the beginning of the field in the interval-start competition, each missed two shots in their first of four shooting...
The North Americans on the World Cup circuit had plenty to look forward to as they flew to Davos, Switzerland. After three straight days of races in Kuusamo, Finland, the cross-country skiers would have a chance to kick back, train and enjoy the sun. What many didn’t think about was the snow. The Canadians first set eyes on the green landscape before the Americans, as they drove from the airport to Davos on Monday. As...
A decidedly mixed weekend for the North Americans, something we’re used to by now I suppose. I suppose that Kikkan Randall and Alex Harvey were the main bright spots, as well as Len Valjas’s excellent sprint race. Let’s start with some of the American women: Kikkan really has started quite strong in distance races. Many [...] Related posts:
With three straight days of racing in the only the second weekend of the World Cup, there were plenty of comments to go around. Here’s a look at what didn’t make it into the Ruka-Triple recaps from Kuusamo, Finland. (Note: It’s pretty heavy on the men’s side, especially with the Canadians, probably because they were chatty about their performances on Sunday.) On why athletes shouldn’t get too worked up about sub-par performances: “If you really...
Annsi Pentsinen Doogiski over at NordicXplained asked how Pentsinen’s 4.3 second win in qualification on Friday stacks up historically. Quite impressively, it turns out. That’s the second largest qualifying round winning margin for the men’s field in WC, OWG or WSC races. The only larger one was almost 10 years ago, with a 4.7 second [...] Related posts:
While U.S. and Canadian skiers have been competing at FIS and World Cup races for several weeks now, the American biathletes waited until Sunday to kick off their season in an IBU Cup sprint. The race in Ostersund, Sweden, was actually the second of the weekend, but the U.S. team sat out of Saturday’s race. While the men were lucky to have skipped the windy conditions that shook up the result sheet in the opener,...