Actovegin, the drug that Russian cross-country skier Nikolai Pankratov was allegedly caught with last week, is old news, according to experts in the field of anti-doping. But it was unlikely that Actovegin was the only substance Pankratov was using, says one admitted cheater. Few details emerged over the weekend about the case of Pankratov, who according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti was stopped at the Swiss border with intravenous equipment and 22 vials of...
NORWAY – When Russian skier Nikolay Pankratov was caught on the Swiss border with intravenous equipment and 22 vials of actovegin, nobody was more shocked than Martin Johnsrud Sundby. The Norwegian national team member has spent much of his summer training with and getting to know the Russian skier during his extended training stay in Norway.
Russian cross-country skier Nikolai Pankratov faces a two-year ban from competition after being caught with intravenous equipment and 22 vials of actovegin, a drug derived from calf’s blood. Pankratov, who is not on Russian national team, had spent time training in Norway in August. He was detained at the Swiss border on Monday, according to
For the past two years, Norway’s Petter Northug has been the best in the world. One look at the medals tables from the 2009 World Championships and 2010 Olympic Games serves as proof: Over the 12 competitions at those two events, Northug took gold in five of them, and reached the podium on two other occasions. FasterSkier had the opportunity to talk with Northug over breakfast in Las Vegas in July, immediately following the rollerski...
NORWAY – Bringing young athletes from all the ski disciplines onto one team is the recipe for excellence in the future. “Team Morgendagens Helter” is 5-year talent development project organized by the Norwegian Ski Association and backed by major sponsor Statoil, designed to share training strategies and increase the pool of experience across the different ski disciplines.
A group of handpicked Norwegian junior skiers in the Norwegian Ski Association’s talent development group are treated to their own mentors among the World Cup racers, as well as team camps that blend athletes from all the ski disciplines. The result is major motivational boosts.
A few days before competing in the Engadin Marathon in Switzerland last March, Ben Sim stood atop a snow-covered hill in Germany. Sim, an Australian, was about to find out whether he could make the jump from cross-country skiing to nordic combined. Literally. Observing were Finn Marsland, the coach of the Australian cross-country ski team, and Fabian Mauz, a German coach who had assisted some Australian athletes at the Junior World Championships in the Black...
There aren’t many people who can spend more time in work boots than cycling shoes and still harbor reasonable hopes of keeping up in a bike race with Tour de France veterans. But count American nordic combined skier Billy Demong as one of the few members of that group. Over the past few years, Demong has been an avid bike racer during the off-season. This summer, though, he’s been more focused on remodeling his house...
AURE, NORWAY – Cross country skier Petter Northug (NOR) leaves Aure and the rest of the events at Toppidrettsveka. Northug completed two of four events. Toppidrettsveka started out as an elite Norwegian week of competitions, camps and challenges that evolved into an international week of camps and competitions in the northwest part of Norway. The past two years it has featured World Cup roller ski events, and this summer acted as test events for the...
OBERTSDORF, Germany (Aug. 8) – A pair of brothers represented the U.S. Nordic Combined Team on Sunday in the final Grand Prix staged in Obertsdorf. Brett Camerota (Park City, UT) slid inside the top-10 for the first time, finishing first for the U.S., while Germany’s Johannes Rydzek won the competition. The nordic combined competition was tight, with the top nine men separated by 20 seconds as they pushed across the finish line in the cross...
In Las Vegas, where FasterSkier had the opportunity to interview Marcus Hellner, the Swedish skier was able to stay relatively undercover. At the card table, such was his anonymity that he had other players thinking he was a professional poker player, not a professional athlete. But in Europe, and especially in Sweden, Hellner is a star. At the Olympics in February, he vanquished rival Petter Northug, breaking the Norwegian’s pole on the way to winning...
The Nordic Combined season 2010/2011 is officially beginning with the FIS Summer Grand Prix that is scheduled for 7th-8th August in Oberstdorf (GER) and Oberwiesenthal (GER) on the following week-end, 13th-14th August. The FIS Newsflash caught up with Uli Wehling, FIS Race Director Nordic Combined, ahead of the competitions. Q. Uli Wehling, what are your thoughts about the summer season, which starts at the upcoming weekend? A. Nordic Combined has a long-standing tradition of summer...
If one of his athletes was forced to endure a serious injury, U.S. Nordic Combined Head Coach Dave Jarrett would probably prefer that it happen to Johnny Spillane. Earlier this week, Spillane—the 29-year-old triple Olympic silver medalist—was diagnosed with a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee, which will likely require at least four months of recovery. But according to Jarrett, after several injuries over the past few years, Spillane is “a pro at...
In the voice mail he leaves me with directions to his cabin in the woods, Andy Newell gives me the street address—number 380—but tells me to just give him a call when I get close, since it’s not marked. But when I drive through the nearest town, he doesn’t answer, and then, predictably, when I find 376 and 382 a mile down the dirt road, I don’t have cell service. After driving past two surly-looking...
Identifying talent in endurance athletics at a young age can be a challenging task. My goal in this article is to give you a sense of what different levels of success at WJC/U23s might indicate and how much variability there is between athletes in this respect. Our basic tool will be a graph of FIS points versus age for distance results, broken down by their best result (finishing place) at WJC/U23s. This gives us a...
There are few sports that can challenge the intensity of cross-country skiing, but cycling is one of them. Anyone who has ever pedaled a road bike uphill–which includes almost all cross-country skiers–can appreciate the difficulty of the Tour de France, and as such, we decided to get some perspective on the race from Canadian Olympian Devon Kershaw. Kershaw himself is no stranger to the bicycle–Carlos Barredo-style? DK: Haha, Barredo was classic. Using the wheel for...
The Final Stage of the FIS Tour de Ski 2010/11, the infamous Alpe Cermis in Val di Fiemme (ITA) will be very special this time around. Traditionally, the Final Climb features the overall decision in one of the season’s main highlight events in Cross-Country Skiing. This year, a popular race for a limited number of starters will be organized that will follow the same course as the stars including Petter Northug, Charlotte Kalla, Lukas Bauer...
FIS Cross-Country checks in with Norwegian national Team Coach Age Skinstad. FIS Cross-Country: How are you satisfied with training so far? Are you keeping your schedule? Åge Skinstad: We manage to keep the schedule we planned in spring. It is early to judge the whole training period but I am happy with the first part. We have done a good job so far. FIS Cross-Country: How is the situation in the team? Are all in...