Bryan Fletcher skied into a solid 18th place in the second World Cup competition this season, a career best for the 24-year-old from Steamboat Springs, Colo. Felix Gottwald (AUT) won the race, working from 28th place after jumping to beat Mikko Kokslien (NOR) who started in 21st place.
Kris Freeman wasn’t quite able to match his teammate Andy Newell’s result from yesterday – but he came pretty close. Freeman, of the U.S. Ski Team (USST), finished seventh in the 10 k classic in Kuusamo, Finland on Saturday, just 0.3 seconds out of sixth. Newell, who had finished sixth in the sprint yesterday, finished 89th, slipping to 42nd place overall in the mini-tour standings. Meanwhile, Canada’s Alex Harvey finished 17th, moving up to fourth...
The Kuusamo mini-tour opened with a bang for the North American contingent, as both Andy Newell and Alex Harvey skied into the top ten for the first time this season. Newell, who had a lackluster 15k in Gallivare last weekend but a strong opening relay leg for the United States, qualified in eighth position and ultimately finished sixth after making the A-Final. Harvey had a mediocre weekend in Gallivare, finishing 34th in the skate race...
The race action started today at 10:45 this morning with ladies sprint followed immediately by the men. Today’s format included a qualification round from which the top 30 are distributed into 5 heats of 6 skiers. The top 2 skiers from each skier and the next two fastest skiers advance to the semi-finals. From the semi-finals, the top two skiers from each heat and two lucky losers advance to the final. The weather remains close...
The US Ski Team nordic combined crew delivered a mixed bag of results at the provisional round in Kuusamo, Finland.
Several racers will skip the rest of the World Cup minitour in Kuusamo because they are unsatisfied with the concept.
Last year, Noah Hoffman was just another young athlete on the U.S. Ski Team’s Continental Cup squad. He was in the pipeline, developing towards a bright future, and wrapped up the season with a couple of SuperTour podiums, a fifth-place finish at U.S. Nationals, and a great race in Switzerland that nobody heard about. At SuperTour Finals, he finished second in the hill climb, his most high-profile domestic result of the year. In other words,...
The mini-tour is a test format in terms of the World Cup, said Kikkan Randall, who is on the FIS Athlete Commission for cross-country skiing. While Randall is a shoe-in for the format, doing well in both sprints and distance events, she does have mixed feelings about the concept as a staple on the schedule.
November 24, 2010 Who says the sun doesn’t shine in the winter in northern Finland? Ahvo and Ritva Taipale are on the road to Kuusamo again for the Nordic Opening! The drive up to Kuusamo was one of the most scenic ever. We probably could have taken a few hundred post card pictures. The sun was shining, the sky was spotted with some wispy looking purple, white and pink clouds and the trees are covered...
Over the course of the weekend there will be no less than ten races in Kuusamo: This marks the season opener for ski jumping and nordic combined, while cross-country enters WC round two, embarking on a 3-day mini tour starting with sprints on Friday, distance on Saturday and Sunday.
Phil Widmer is no stranger to sprinting at the highest levels of skiing. At 28, the Canadian has started 17 World Cups, raced at two World Championships, and represented Canada at the Torino Olympics in 2006. Despite falling short of the Olympic team last year, Widmer dominated the North American sprint scene. He finished on the NorAm podium three times, and won a SuperTour sprint before opting for surgery at the end of February to...
An American team entering a winter as a favorite in a nordic sport is kind of like the Detroit Lions somehow starting an NFL season with good odds to win the Super Bowl. But here’s the U.S. Nordic Combined Team, its members entering the 2011 season with targets on their backs. After winning four medals at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, the squad’s “Big Three” are back, and will headline the American presence at...
“In this situation, the most important for (Petter Northug) is to relax and protect himself from all the commotion around him. He has to find his way back to the starting point and rebuild. Only then can he get back to training,” Per Elofsson (SWE) said to NRK.
At the press conference following the women’s 10km freestyle World Cup race, Marit Bjoergen told assembled journalists that her 40 second victory was her best skate race ever – no small accomplishment from an overall World Cup Champion and multiple Olympic Gold Medalist. Said Bjoergen, “I think it was my best skating race ever. I knew that I was in good shape as I had a very good race in Beitostølen last week…Hopefully I will...
The Norwegian women dominated the World Cup opener Nov 20-21, and the Norwegian men want revenge on the Swedes. However, will likely have to achieve the task without reigning World Champion Petter Northug in the Kuusamo (FIN) mini-tour.
In Petter Northug’s absence, Marcus Hellner (SWE) took over the mantle as the dominant World Cup male, following up an impressive victory in Saturday’s 15km freestyle by leading the Swedish relay team to the top of the podium. Hellner outsprinted Russia’s Alexander Legkov after the two teams broke away on the third leg. Daniel Rickardsson (SWE) and young Petr Sedov (RUS) broke away from Norway’s Chris Andre Jespersen and Switzerland’s Remo Fischer during the first...
Norwegian fans looking for a good view of the finish line for the women’s relay at the 2011 World Championships might want to start staking out their seats now. Given this weekend’s performance by the Norwegian women, there’s not much doubt about who will be waving her country’s flag as the winner of the relay in Oslo. After putting six of their skiers in the top 11 in Saturday’s 10 k freestyle, the Norwegians skied...
The Canadian National Ski Team (CNST), despite fielding five men with Olympic experience, started the 2010-2011 World Cup season slowly on Saturday. In the 15 k freestyle in Gallivaere, Sweden, Alex Harvey led the team, placing in 34th, while Ivan Babikov finished 54th, Devon Kershaw 58th, George Grey 78th, and Brent McMurtry 94th. “It was definitely a bit of a letdown,” said Head Coach Justin Wadsworth in a phone interview with FasterSkier. “I was obviously...
Much to the chagrin of certain US ski fans, the US Ski Team has not put much focus on relay events over the past eight years. Not since the 2002 Olympics have the Americans posted a top result, and more often than not, have been well to the back of the field. That is not going to change overnight, but with a both a men’s and women’s quartet hitting the trails on Sunday, and a...
After a half hour of skiing Saturday, Kris Freeman had earned himself $500, 29 World Cup points, and one top-10 finish. By his own account, Freeman’s ninth place in the season-opening 15 k freestyle in Gallivare was “a hell of a day,” and it was the top finish for the American men. Noah Hoffman followed with a stellar 31st, while Andy Newell and Chris Cook turned in lackluster results in 87th and 102nd, respectively. Freeman...