A recent change in management should have minimal impact on the U.S. Adaptive Ski Team (USAST) in the upcoming season, with competition schedules remaining the same through the winter. Late last week, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) announced that it would take control of Paralympic alpine and cross-country skiing from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA). One administrator lost her position as part of the change, but despite some initial uncertainty, coaches and athletes...
The National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation has pledged to fund all U.S. athletes who represent the country at the 2011 World Nordic Ski Championships and whose expenses are not funded by the U.S. Ski Team. Dave Knoop, NCCSEF director, stated that “the World Championships are the premier nordic competition outside of the Olympics. We wanted to make sure each athlete who qualifies for the Championships could focus on their preparation for the games, and not...
Following mixed results in the early season, the U.S. Ski Team’s Liz Stephen raced to the top World Cup result of her career in last weekend’s 15 k freestyle in La Clusaz, France—a race she finished a half-second ahead of her friend and teammate Morgan Arritola. Stephen is now at home in Vermont, training in advance of the 2011 U.S. National Championships in Rumford, ME, which begin on January 2. FasterSkier caught her to chat...
While Canadian Ivan Babikov has recorded only one top-30 finish on the World Cup circuit so far this season, the man who has been billed by his teammates as one of the toughest skiers on the circuit remains undaunted. “I’m always a bit slower than other guys in early season,” Babikov said in an e-mail to FasterSkier. “Usually, I need at least a good month of skiing and racing to feel fast.” As a result,...
On December 16th, the Swedish tabloid Expressen reported that doping materials had been found in a trashcan at the Scandic Hotel in Ostersund, where the Russian, Belorussian, and German biathlon teams had stayed during the opening week of World Cup competition. While a number of officials tried to dismiss the report as sensationalist, as the days went by it became clear that the Swedish police were investigating the matter. Other news sources, such as Germany’s...
While racers on the World Cup have voiced concern over the mini tour format following the FIS World Cup mini-tour in Kuusamo, Finland, earlier this season, North American racers overwhelmingly welcome the format.
Twenty-two years after the 1988 Winter Olympics, the Canmore Nordic Centre remains a model of legacy planning for Olympic cross-country venues. When it was built in 1986, Canmore set a new standard for nordic facilities, and when it was refurbished in 2005, the ski area redefined that standard. In his masters’ thesis, John-Christopher Reid called the 1988 Winter Olympics “…the single most significant precedent in terms of structuring Winter Olympic legacies in North America.” Canmore...
In Saturday’s World Cup sprint race, Bjorn Ferry gave habitual powerhouse Sweden its third victory of the new season, and its first in a men’s race. On Sunday, Sweden took win number four. After Helena Ekholm and Anna Carin Zidek, the team’s first two World Cup victors this season, left the Swedes within striking distance of the podium, Carl Johann Bergman used some last-minute heroics to take a 0.3 second win over Ukraine France and...
At the end of World Cup period I, Norway sits on top of the Nation’s Cup standings, and in a shift from the recent past, it is the women leading the way. The 4x5km relay in La Clusaz demonstrated exactly how the Norwegians built their points lead, with four women putting on a virtual clinic on their way to a 56 second victory over Italy. Three of the four Norwegians posted the fasted times on...
Remo Fischer used a strong attack late in the third leg of the men’s 4x10km relay in La Clusaz, France, to open up a gap on Russian Petr Sedov, and set up the first World Cup relay win for the Swiss men. Fischer’s move rested on the foundation built by teammate Dario Cologna. The former World Cup overall champion teamed with Alexander Legkov (RUS), the current World Cup leader, to break apart the usual early...
US Ski Team’s Bryan Fletcher had one of those days where everything goes according to plan from the minute he woke up. He broke jumped into 13th place and finished 8th at the World Cup for a new career best at the Nordic Combined World Cup in Ramsau Sunday.
In the World Cup sprints in Pokljuka, Slovenia on Saturday, two athletes took their first wins of the season. But while they hadn’t been atop the podium in Ostersund, Sweden, or in Hochfilzen, Austria, their strong performances weren’t entirely surprising: both Bjorn Ferry (SWE) and Magdalena Neuner (GER) were gold medalists at the Vancouver Olympics last year. Canadians led the North American contingent in both the men’s and women’s races. Men When FasterSkier
Only a tenth of a second separated Todd Lodwick from third place in the Nordic Combined in Ramsau, Austria.
Kris Freeman’s body held him back in his 25th-place finish in the 30 k freestyle in La Clusaz on Saturday, but not in the way you might be thinking. Rather than his blood sugar, Freeman said that his limiting factor was just plain old fitness. “I think the race itself just wasn’t that great,” he said in an interview. “My fitness has been better than that this year.” Freeman said he raced with his pump...
In Switzerland last weekend, Russia’s Alexander Legkov skied to his second podium of the year, continuing a strong start to the winter. But in an interview afterwards with the Russian newspaper Sport Express, he said he was trying to relish the results as much as possible, knowing that soon, Norwegian star Petter Northug would be back on the circuit at full strength. “Make no mistake—a couple of races, and Northug will return to the level...
As the World Cup circuit heads towards its Christmas break, Marit Bjoergen is still in a class by herself. After breaking away from the pack less than five kilometers into the La Clusaz 15 k freestyle on Saturday, along with her teammate Kristin Stoermer Steira and Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk, Bjoergen easily matched challenges by her opponents on the last of six laps, then turned on the jets on the homestretch to pull away for the...
The US Nordic Combined Team delivered some promising jumping during the provisional round in Ramsau, Austria, Friday. The provisional jumping netted a fourth place for Todd Lodwick and a 15th place for Bryan Fletcher.
No matter how you slice it, George Grey has struggled on the World Cup to start the season. While his Canadian team members Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey have stormed out of the gate, taking points in several events, Grey has placed 78th, 84th, 79th, and 32nd, a far cry from his stellar Olympic record. But when Grey was first planning his season, he wasn’t even considering heading to Europe to race. He recognized that...
For most of Thursday’s 15 k individual race in Poklujuka, Slovenia, it looked like Kaisa Makarainen of Finland was firmly in control and would ski – rather easily – to her third World Cup win of the season. In the last shooting stage, Makarainen missed one target, but thanks to her superior skiing, she still had a jump on the field. When she crossed the finish line, she led the race by an astonishing margin...