Shut Out From the Worlds Course – Built His Own
Inge ScheveFebruary 18, 2011
Emil Joensson (SWE) wasn’t allowed to train on the sprint course in Holmenkollen. So the Swede came up with his own solution: He built his own replica in Sweden.
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The cream of the crop. The best in the world compete all winter long on the World Cup. We follow them at every stop with article and results. We also post occasional reports from North America’s best as they travel the globe.
Gaiazova Aims to Up Her Mental Game
Kieran JonesFebruary 17, 2011
In skiing, the focus is on pushing your body to the limits. Generally, most assume that to mean physical limits. But for emerging Canadian sprint star Dasha Gaiazova, it’s all about another limit – her mental one. “Last year, it was so simple for me,” she told FasterSkier, “I had one goal in front of me – to make the Olympics, and everything I did was to get me closer to that.” However, this season...
Czech head coach: If you are not in top ten you can forget a medal from Oslo
Ben TheyerlFebruary 17, 2011
The last World Cup weekend before the World Championships takes place only a few kilometers away from the famous Holmenkollen. Harbor town of Drammen will welcome World’s best Cross-Country athletes for the first time at Konnerud, which lies only 6 km from downtown. Drammen has hosted seven World Cup sprints downtown and for the first time will organize a full weekend program. Men will start on Saturday in 15 km Classic and ladies will fight...
If you want to know about how biathlon travels from the trails onto television, the first thing you need to know about is cable. In Fort Kent, the site of Maine’s second biathlon World Cup in as many weeks, the stuff is everywhere. It’s mostly black, but also orange, blue, white, red, green, and yellow. It snakes along the sides of the trails, hangs neatly coiled from racks, and explodes into massive, spaghetti-like snarls when...
Oslo Worlds: A farewell to Steira?
Inge ScheveFebruary 14, 2011
“I have to see how my motivation is,” Kristin Størmer Steira (NOR) said to Norwegian news agency NTB.
With Strong Shooting, Neuner Takes Fort Kent Mass Start; Studebaker 23rd
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 13, 2011
Magdalena Neuner is among the fastest skiers on the biathlon circuit—but that’s never been her problem. In the past, it has been her shooting that held her back. So when Neuner puts together a good performance on the range, she’s tough to beat. She did just that in Sunday’s 12.5 k mass start in Fort Kent, hitting 19 of 20 targets to capture a dominating 24-second win over her teammate Andrea Henkel. Belarus’s Darya Domracheva...
With a Little Luck, Bailey Career Best Ninth in Fort K. Mass Start; Fourcade Wins
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 13, 2011
Lowell Bailey (USA) was so sure that he wouldn’t be racing in Sunday’s mass start in Fort Kent that he told his family to go home. His sister still stuck around. But when Bailey did luck into a start, skiing and shooting his way to a career-best ninth place, his mother wasn’t around to see it—she was driving back to New York. “I owe my mom a little bit of an apology, I guess,” he...
Germany’s Andrea Henkel skied to her second straight World Cup win on Saturday in Fort Kent, besting her teammate Magdalena Neuner by 25 seconds in the 10 k pursuit. Neuner and Henkel came into the final shooting stage together, and Neuner, a stronger skier, looked to have the race wrapped up when she hit her first four targets. But her last round went awry, and she couldn’t overcome the 25-second deficit she accumulated in the...
A real crowd finally showed up on Saturday in Fort Kent, for the first time in three days of World Cup racing. They got exactly what they came for in the men’s 12.5 k pursuit: an exhilarating, back-and-forth battle culminating in a finishing sprint that was decided by inches—leaving fans and athletes alike unsure of who was the victor. Five minutes after he lunged with Frenchman Martin Fourcade, Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen finally learned that...
Bailey Blunder Likely Costs Him Top-20, Mass Start Spot
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 12, 2011
After some strong results in last weekend’s races in Presque Isle, Lowell Bailey appeared to be on his way to another solid finish in Fort Kent. Through two of four shooting stages in Saturday’s 12.5 k pursuit, the American had just one penalty, and had moved up substantially from his starting bib of 31. As he skied into the range for the third time, he unslung his rifle, and looked down for his next clip....
Germans Sweep Fort Kent Podium; Studebaker Clean in Second Straight Sprint
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 11, 2011
Northern Maine is best known for its ties to Scandinavia—both New Sweden and Stockhom are within striking distance of the biathlon venues in Fort Kent and Presque Isle. But in the raw conditions for Friday’s 7.5 k World Cup sprint, it was the German women who felt more at home in Fort Kent. Battling through frigid temperatures and a swirling breeze, Andrea Henkel led her country to a sweep of the top three, with Miriam...
Svendsen Sensational in World Cup Return in Fort Kent
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 10, 2011
For Emil Hegle Svendsen, it was admittedly a bit of a gamble to fly to the U.S. from his home country of Norway, for a single weekend of racing. “It’s always a risk,” he said. But after his first of three World Cup races in Fort Kent, the trip has already paid off, thanks to the $15,000 Svendsen will collect for his win in Thursday’s 10 k sprint. A candidate to represent Norway in the...
Mixed Results for N. American Men in Fort Kent; Perras Hits Career Best
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 10, 2011
Fort Kent is only 50 miles from Presque Isle, but competitors in the biathlon World Cups were greeted with an entirely different environment when the circuit picked up and moved northward on Monday. Swirling winds and grinding courses were the challenges in Presque Isle; frigid temperatures and one massive hill welcomed athletes in Fort Kent. On the Canadian and American teams, members hail from locations across the entire continent—from Lake Placid and Quebec to Alberta...
“It’s time to name the best skier in Sweden.”
Rugged Racing on Tap for Fort Kent World Cup
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 9, 2011
Cold snow, Spartan living, and one wicked long, wicked steep hill—welcome to Fort Kent. “Reminds me of Russia,” said Norwegian biathlete Tarjei Boe, the leader of the men’s overall World Cup standings. After a week in the relative metropolis of Presque Isle, the biathlon World Cup circuit has now moved to the small town of Fort Kent, in Maine’s northern-most reaches, for three more races. Both women and men will race a sprint, a pursuit,...
From Team Smigun to Team USA
Nathaniel HerzFebruary 9, 2011
Traces of skiing legends are all over Otepaa, Estonia, where American athletes were contesting the cross-country World Junior and U-23 Championships in late January. Framed posters of the country’s Olympic medalists were scattered near the entrance to the venue, in the “Park of Estonian Skiing Heroes.” Jaak Mae’s Mercedes Benz was parked across the way. But inside the American service cabin, in the guise of a pudgy, unassuming figure at one of the wax tables,...
The 50K is maybe the most prestigious event in a World Championship. But only the men are allowed to race it. The women have to do a 30K race. But Marit Bjoergen (NOR) wants to change that.
There’s plenty of star power already in Fort Kent, in the form of the European athletes preparing for this weekend’s biathlon World Cup. But if everything goes according to plan, there will be at least one more celebrity on the sidelines on Friday and Saturday: former Chicago Bulls basketball player Scottie Pippen. “Right now, we’re planning for a visit from Scottie Pippen,” said Nancie Thibodeau, the event director for the Fort Kent World Cup. Pippen,...
Alexis Boeuf didn’t have to sprint to win Sunday’s World Cup biathlon pursuit in Presque Isle, since his margin of victory was a decisive 10 seconds. But if the event had come down to a last-minute drag race, it’s unlikely that Boeuf would have had much trouble dispatching his competition. The 24-year-old Frenchman is a talented sprinter. How talented? Well, in December, he raced in a cross-country World Cup sprint in Davos, Switzerland, and qualified...
Biathlon is a tough sport to dominate, with millimeters often meaning the difference between a missed target, and a win and second place. But over the past few weeks, Norway’s Tora Berger has still been close to unstoppable, with five victories in her past six races. After a minor hiccup in Friday’s sprint—in which she finished second—Berger was back to the top spot on the podium on Sunday, topping France’s Marie Dorin and Belarus’s Darya...