LIBEREC, Czech Republic – Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) upgraded his bronze medal performance with a gold Saturday, winning the final nordic combined event of the 2009 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships. Demong’s gold marks the fourth for the USA at this year’s Championships. Demong started the cross country race in seventh, but quickly pulled into third and then second around the 3.5K mark. At 6K, he took over first, but was neck and neck with...
Liberec, Cazech Republic. Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) won her second gold of the 2009 World Championships, skiing to victory in the woen’s 30km freestyle mass start. Liz Stephen led the US in 17th. Kowalczyk made a move with under a kilometer to go, opening a gap she was able to hold to the finish. Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS) was second, +8.8. The battle for silver was extremely tight. Medvedeva outsprinted bronze medalist Valentina Schevchenko (UKR) and 4th...
Liberec, Czech Republic – Petter Northug is on his way to cementing his position as one of the all time great Norwegian relay anchors, once again overcoming a deficit before powering it on in the finish to claim the men’s 4x10km relay gold over Germany. Northug, at 23, already has anchored a number of impressive relay victories, and now has a World Champinship gold in the event. This was Norway’s fifth consecutive World Championship relay...
LIBEREC, Czech Republic – The USA suffered a blow in the nordic combined team event at the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships when Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) was disqualified for not having a starting bib. In a surprise, Japan won the event in a photo finish over Germany, as Norway faded in the final 500 meters. Demong was disqualified by officials at the top of the jump as he prepared for his single competition jump....
If you haven’t checked in with TeamToday recently, it is worth a look. Photos from the the women’s sprint medal ceremony. Read more and view the photos
FIS announced the Sprint Red Group for the final World Cup period of the 2008-2009 season. The Red Group consists of the top 30 skiers in both sprint and distance as measured by total World Cup points earned over the preceeding four World Cup periods. Athletes that are part of the Red Group have travel and lodging expenses paid by the organizing committees, so this ranking can be very important for national programs. Kikkan Randall...
Note: The actual names in the following account have been changed to protect the innocent … Thinking back to 1994 and watching the Lillehammer Olympic races, it’s not hard to remember that American ski coverage has come a long way. I was 16 at the time and will never forget watching the EuroSport coverage with the father (we’ll call him “Gunde”) of another kid on my high school ski team. That was the first world...
Liberec, Czech Republic – The Finnish team defended their World Championship title in the women’s 4×5 kilometer relay this morning, behind a strong anchor leg from Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. Germany took the silver in a sprint finish with Sweden. The favored Finns appeared to be on pace for an easy victory, on par with the Team Sprint yesterday. Pirjo Muranen, the bronze medalist in the individual sprint, skied the first leg. She tagged off in second,...
by Christa Case Bryant As a spunky teen who entered bodybuilding competitions, skied 74 miles an hour downhill to win the Alaska speed-skiing competition, and nearly ran a sub-5-minute mile, Kikkan Randall acquired the nickname “Kikkanimal.” It stuck, and it should. No one makes it to the top echelons of cross-country skiing, where the world’s fittest women wage battle in a scrum of flying skis, without a certain ferocity. That attitude, plus a decade of...
Liberec, Czech Republic – Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Virpi Kuitunen skied away from the competition to bring home the gold for Finland in the women’s classic Team Sprint competition. The pair posted a 20 second victory over Silver medalists Sweden. Italy was another 3.8 seconds back to take the bronze. Saarinen and Kuitunen set a fast pace early, stringing out the pack on the first lap. Their lead was 3.5 seconds after one lap, and a...
Debbie Randall, Kikkan's mother, was up at 3am watching the live timing updates on the FIS web site. "It's excruciating, it's awful! I get twice as nervous as she does."
Liberec, Czech Republic – The Norweigan duo of Ola Vigen Hattestad and Johan Kjoelstad took the gold in the men’s Team Sprint competition this morning, a day after finishing first and second in the individual sprint. Tobias Angerer and Axel Teichmann claimed silver for German in a photo finish with the Finnish team of Ville Nousiainen and Sami Jauhojaervi. As is often the case in team sprint events, the lead pack remained tightly grouped throughout...
Harry Johnson was Kikkan Randall’s high school coach and watched her transition from talented runner to professional nordic skier during those early years. He was nice enough to answer some questions about Kikkan as a budding athlete in light of her recent astounding success today at the World Championships in Liberec. A local coaching legend, he turned a near-dead high school program into one of the most successful in the state of Alaska in only...
With the 2009 Nordic World Championships passing the halfway mark, it has already been an historic week. Three golds, a silver, and a bronze, with plenty of racing still to go. You can watch all the events on demand at Universal Sports – Kikkan Randall’s silver, Todd Lodwick’s two golds, Billy Demong’s bronze, and Lindsey Van’s gold. All completed races are currently online for viewing (as of Tuesday night).
by Peter Graves Peter Graves, a former U.S. Ski Team coach, is a noted nordic television commentator for Universal Sports, columnist for Ski Racing Magazine and a longtime follower of the nordic scene, having announced at the first FIS Cross Country World Cup in Telemark, WI, in 1978. You can watch highlights of the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships on UniversalSports.com presented by High Sierra. Graves reflects on an historic day for U.S. nordic skiers,...
Liberec, Czech Republic – Ola Vigen Hattestad (NOR) won the men’s World Championship sprint, winning his 5th 6th sprint in 7 World Cup starts this season. His only “loss” was a second place. His teammate Johan Kjoelstad took the silver, and Russian Nikolay Morilov the bronze. This was Hattestad’s and Kjoelstad’s first ever World Championship medals. “It’s unbelievable! I have felt pressured over the last days. I tried not to think about it – for...
Liberec, Czech Republic – Arianna Follis (ITA) won the women’s 1.3km freestyle sprint at the World Championships. American Kikkan Randall finished second, just ahead of Pirjo Muranen (FIN). Follis, who posted the second fastest qualifying time behind Russian Natalia Matveeva, claimed her firs World Championship Gold Medal. She also won a bronze in 2005 in Sapporo. “It is an incredible day. I have a gold medal and I am the World Champion! I used the...
Kikkan Randall became the first US woman to win a World Championship medal in cross-country skiing when she skied to second place in the 1.3km freestyle sprint in Liberec, Czech Republic today. Randall finished .6 seconds behind winner Arianna Follis (ITA), and barely edged out bronze medalist Pirjo Muranen (FIN). Randall started the day strongly, posting the 7th fastest qualifying time. After a slow start to the season, leader of the US women’s team demonstrated...
Liberec, Czech Republic – Petter Northug (NOR) won the men’s 30km World Championship Pursuit, skiing to a 3.1 second win over Anders Soedergren (SWE). Northug captured his first individual World Championship medal with a strong attack on the last climb. The mass start pursuit can often end in a mass sprint to the line, consisting of 20+ athletes. But today was different. The main pack stayed together through the entire 15km classic portion of the...
LIBEREC, Czech Republic – In an historic day for the USA, Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) took his second World Championship gold and teammate Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) took the bronze during the 2009 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Liberec. The USA is leading the medals count with three gold and a silver after eight of 20 events. Lodwick and Demong’s performance marks the first time two U.S. nordic combined athletes have made the...