What could have been Anders Södergren’s opportunity to shine, Daniel Richardsson’s repeat of the 15K in Drammen last weekend, Johan Olsson’s confirmation of the Olympics last year and Marcus Hellner’s insult to injury on Northug’s home turf all got stuck in sticky skis.
The German cross-country team is off to an inauspicious start at the 2011 World Championships, but their Nordic Combined brethren are doing their best to make up for it. Twenty-two-year-old Eric Frenzel (GER) rode a stellar jump to a convincing victory in the men’s Normal Hill Gundersen 10km event in Oslo, Norway on Saturday afternoon. The 26,000 fans may not have been able to see much through the dense fog, but even if they had,...
Norway fields one hot medal contender for the 30K pursuit: defending world champion Petter Northug, as well as three proven distance racers. But more surprisingly, sprinter Eirik Brandsdal rounds out the 5-person squad.
The US women continued a solid start to the 2011 World Championships, placing three skiers in the top-30 for the second consecutive race in the women’s 15km pursuit. With an almost impenetrable fog blanketing the Holmenkollen ski stadium, spectators traded ears for eyes – the roar of the crowd alerting those just 100 meters down the track that the racers were coming. The pea soup certainly did not slow race winner Marit Bjoergen (NOR), who...
The fog in Oslo was so thick that the fans at Holmenkollen could barely see any of the women’s 15 k pursuit. The video board across from the stands was completely obscured, and even when athletes skied through the stadium, the only forms that could be made out were outlines—the spindly one of Justyna Kowalczyk (POL), say, or the stocky one of Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. But with the homestretch lying directly alongside the bleachers, the...
While the Americans posted some of the best cross-country legs – in fact, the fastest time of the day belonged to Bill Demong who ended up in seventh place and was the top American – the jumping left room for improvement across the board.
With crew consisting of some real veterans, some seasoned racers and a rookie, the US Nordic Combined Team is ready and excited for the normal hill competition at the 2011 World Championships Saturday. On a good day, it could go all the way to the podium.
Marit Bjoergen (NOR) has already achieved her goal of winning an individual gold at the 2011 World Championships. Now the ski world gets to see what a relaxed Bjoergen can do. The winner of five medals, including three golds, at the 2010 Olympics, Bjoergen is the clear favorite in the women’s 15 k pursuit on Saturday, as distance racing gets underway at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway. While rival Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) is the defending World...
Estonia needed a lift. Just prior to the start of the 2011 World Ski Championships, Andrus Veerpalu, one of the country’s most decorated athletes, had announced his retirement. He was hampered by illness and a knee injury, and unwilling to make the trip to Oslo if he couldn’t contend for gold. Estonia’s national team coach, Mati Alaver—a near-mythic figure in the country—may be leaving to work for Russia at the end of the season. And...
Rumors have it that Holmenkollen, Oslo, is one of the classic venues on the cross-country ski circuit where everyone wants to race at least once before they die. FasterSkier was able to confirm that, and it’s all because of the noise.
The U.S.’s Kikkan Randall wasn’t the only North American to see her World Championships skate sprint hopes go down the drain in a collision. Canada’s Alex Harvey met with the same fate in his semifinal heat on Thursday when he tangled with a Swiss skier, Martin Jaeger, to fall out of contention. On the back side of the Oslo sprint course, before the men re-entered the stadium, Harvey said he was skiing at the head...
Marcus Hellner (SWE) left the Vancouver Olympics with the same number of gold medals as Petter Northug (NOR), but entering the 2011 World Championships all the hype has been focused on the Norwegian star. Admittedly, it was Northug who captured the bronze in the sprint event at those Games, and has more than his share of World Cup sprint victories. Hellner, on the other hand, despite his many successes, has yet to top the podium...
They arrived on foot, mostly—a three meter-wide river of fans snaking up from the nearest subway station, the cowbells around their necks clinking softly. By 12:30, with an hour still to go before the start of the freestyle sprint, the Norwegian faithful had already packed the stands at the Holmenkoll venue in Oslo—in anticipation of the first event of the 2011 World Ski Championships. Numbering 20,000, they were awaiting their country’s 100th World Championship gold,...
For two of the skiers who made the heats in the opening sprint events Thursday, the Holmenkollen venue is more than just a World Championship site: It’s their stomping grounds, their playground, their home turf and their home crowd.
Out of a crowd of 20,000 people watching at the 2011 World Ski Championships, there can’t have been more than a few dozen who were disappointed when American Kikkan Randall crashed out of the women’s sprint. After all, the race was in Oslo, and as a big favorite, Randall was one of the only athletes expected to threaten the hometown favorite, Norwegian superwoman Marit Bjoergen. So when Randall slipped on one of Ida Ingemarsdotter’s (SWE)...
While Norwegian media love to point out that Emil Joensson (SWE), the current World Cup sprint leader, has never delivered in a major championship, he does carry the stamp as the favorite for the men’s sprint.
The North American men may not have a gold-medal favorite among their ranks for Thursday’s men’s World Championship freestyle sprint in Oslo. But if they lack a reliable podium candidate, they make up for it in their numbers: no fewer than seven U.S. and Canadian skiers have a shot at cracking the heats. In Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey, the Canadians have two men with freestyle sprints podiums already this season—Harvey’s a second place last...
Norway’s expectations for the World Championships on home turf are sky high. No less than being the best nation overall for the seventh time and earning Norway’s 100th World Championship gold.
Gearing up, getting ready and talking smack. Norway’s sprint teams are kings of the hill. But their competitors are on their mind, and the Americans are in that mix.
As the Norwegian and Swedish teams offered their insight to what might happen in the opening event at the 2011 World Championships, both athletes and coaches admitted that Kikkan Randall was a big concern.