The last time Andy Newell and Ivan Babikov skied together, they were fighting tooth and nail over the top of the Lonesome Pines Ski Area in Fort Kent, during the last stage of the 2010 SuperTour Finals in Fort Kent, Maine. The two were at it again on Monday morning, but in a much more amicable—and slower-paced—setting, as the U.S. and Canadian national teams combined forces to kick off their first camp of the year...
For elite skiers, resting well can be just as important as high-quality training. Morgan Arritola and Liz Stephen each learned that lesson the hard way, and both say that next year, they won’t make the same mistakes again. Arritola, 24, and Stephen, 23, are entering their second year of World Cup racing for the U.S. Ski Team (USST). Both struggled to maintain their form for the full duration of their rookie winter, and neither cracked...
You may not recognize the name Chad Salmela, but if you live in the United States and watched any of the biathlon, nordic combined, or cross-country ski races at the 2010 Olympics, you’ve heard his voice. Along with play-by-play man Al Trautwig, Salmela spent the month of February the band A M Herculis. Now that the dust has settled, we caught up with Salmela to hear what it was like behind the scenes at the...
If there’s one thing that a pair of underpaid, endorphin-addicted, former collegiate athletes can’t say no to, it’s free entry into a race that involves barbed wire, spear-throwing, and enough running to sort out the pretenders. That’s why Topher and I found ourselves on our way to the Spartan Race near Burlington last weekend. They’d offered media free entry, and we somehow managed to convince ourselves that the six-hour round trip from Williamstown would be...
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Ken Davies is currently the chair of the Alberta World Cup Society. FasterSkier regrets the error. Cross Country Canada (CCC) has turned down an opportunity to host a Tour de Ski-style event in February of 2012, according to a letter released by the organization Tuesday. In interviews, CCC officials said that plans for the “Tour of the Rockies” foundered on the potential costs, which could have...
By virtue of his marriage to Beckie Scott, one of Canada’s all-time greatest cross-country skiers, it’s obvious that Justin Wadsworth would be tied into that country’s ski community. But few anticipated his recent appointment as the head coach of the national team, which came after he worked for several years on the World Cup with the American squad. In one sense, Wadsworth doesn’t face too much of a challenge: the Canadian men pulled down half...
Kris Freeman is healthy, and his training for the 2010-2011 season is underway. That means his brother Justin had better watch his back. The two typically go head-to-head in a handful of running races and uphill time trials each summer, and this year is no different. After Justin got the upper hand in April’s 14-mile Muddy Moose, the brothers will toe the start line in the granddaddy of all mountain runs on June 19th: the...
Following his resignation last week, longtime Canadian coach and team leader Dave Wood said that he was leaving to take a coaching opportunity with a club closer to his girlfriend, and that his parting from Cross Country Canada (CCC) had been amicable. Current and former CCC athletes all praised Wood’s contributions to the organization over the last dozen years. But in interviews, they also acknowledged that Wood’s last year with the program was marked by...
By this point, Billy Demong should need no introduction, but we’ll give you a quick one anyway. A stalwart on the American nordic combined team for the last ten years, he won his first World Cup in 2002, his first World Championship medal in 2007 in Sapporo, and then walked away from this year’s Olympic Games with a gold and silver, from the individual large hill and team event, respectively. The gold was the first-ever...
Bill Holland, a screenwriter who lives in Montpelier, VT with his wife and two daughters, has been cross-country ski racing for over 40 years. You can’t know East Montpelier native Liz Stephen even a little bit and not be struck by her zest for living and her positive energy. So it’s not surprising that while her blog (
With its mysterious powders and liquids, secret chemical formulas, and lung-choking clouds of toxic smoke, one could mistake World Cup ski waxing for evil sorcery, with eastern-European alchemist-technicians doing their dirty work in dank, dark trailers. Until, that is, you stepped into the U.S. Ski Team (USST) wax room at the pre-Olympic World Cup races in Canmore, Alberta. There, you’d find a pair of affable Swedes calmly going about their business in a tidy, well-lit...
For the U.S. Biathlon Association (USBA), the winter of 2010 was one of ups and downs. High points included Tim Burke’s podium performances in the early season, which culminated with his donning of the yellow bib of World Cup overall leader after a race in Slovenia. The Olympics were less successful, with Jeremy Teela’s ninth-place leading the way—but the team’s dissatisfaction with a single top-ten is a testament to how far the program has come...
From strippers to Cirque Du Soleil, there’s a lot to see in Las Vegas. But one spectacle setting up for this July is strange even by Sin City’s standards: a rollerski race between Olympic gold medalists Petter Northug (NOR) and Marcus Hellner (SWE). “Hopefully this will be something new in Las Vegas,” said Alex Øystå, editor-in-chief of the Norwegian magazine Vi Menn. “I don’t know how many people use skis there, but I guess not...
Cross-Country Skier of the Year The 2010 FasterSkier Awards wrap up with the Cross-Country Skier of the Year. While the women’s winner was a no-brainer, the men’s was not so clear cut. Cross-Country Skier of the Year (women): Kikkan Randall (USA). Randall is head and shoulders above the rest of the North American women. She followed up her silver medal at World Championships last season with a stellar all-around campaign. With a focus on the...
Athletically, Tad Elliott and Torin Koos don’t have much in common. At 21, Elliott is a distance specialist, and still developing. Koos is a sprinter, and at 29, he’s in the latter half of his career. The two things they do share? Both had hopes of making the 2010-2011 U.S. Ski Team—and both were left off the roster. As part of a shift in strategy under new Head Coach Chris Grover, the team announced last...
Performance of the Year This year we expanded the Performance of the Year Award to include three different categories – cross-country, biathlon, and nordic combined. XC Performance of the Year (men): This season featured a number of outstanding performances, and for the first time we breaking out the award into three categories – cross-country, nordic combined, and biathlon. The challenge, like in many of the other awards, is how to weigh Olympic results. The Olympics...
CANMORE, Alta.—Canada’s high-performance cross-country ski athletes will begin their four-year march to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games with a new head coach blazing the trail to world-leading results. Justin Wadsworth, a three-time Olympic cross-country skier for the United States, has accepted the role as head coach of the National Ski Team, Cross Country Canada announced on Friday. The 41-year-old Wadsworth, who is very familiar with Canada’s cross-country ski program as the former training partner and now husband of...
Welcome back for the second half of my article looking at trends in performance by US skiers (as a group) on the international scene. Last time we looked at distance events, so now it’s time to turn to sprinting. Before we move on, if you haven’t read the first half of this article, please go do so now.
Last month, a group of high school students from New England had the chance of a lifetime: to travel to Norway in time for the biggest and most culturally iconic ski races of the season.
Polish cross-country skier Kornelia Marek has been banned for two years by the Polish Ski Federation. Marek tested positive for the banned substance EPO following the women’s 4x5km relay at the Olympics. Marke skied very well at the Olympics – a level above anything she had done before. Following a positive A sample, Marek denied any wrongdoing, but has now issued an apology to her fans and has stated her intention to race at the...