Following the FIS Cross-Country committee meetings in May, the FIS Council approved the race calendar for the upcoming season. On the list of events is the newly approved Mixed Relay (4x5km) and Mixed Team sprint, both to debut Sunday, March 13th, 2022 in Falun Sweden. The Swedish Ski Federation and the “Svenska Skidspelen” organizers conducted a study on the feasibility of these formats before approval. At last year’s Swedish senior national competition in Falun, they...
Yesterday the International Biathlon Union announced their modified fluoro ban for the 2021-2022 season. The brief: C8 fluoros are banned, while C6 fluoros are permitted. The International Ski Federation (FIS) announced on Tuesday they too are moving in a similar direction. “FIS has prohibited any products containing C8 fluorocarbons/PFOA at all FIS events from season 2021/2022 onwards, in line with the EU Regulation 2019/1021 (“POP-regulation”) and EC Regulation 1907/2006 („REACH“-regulation), which regulate the handling of fluorinated...
Last week, the International Ski Federation (FIS) held spring meetings to discuss the 2021-2022 cross-country race season. The Cross-Country Committee made several proposals that remain to be approved by the FIS Council. A familiar-looking draft of the 2021-2022 World Cup calendar was proposed. Ruka, Finland will kick off racing with a three-race weekend at the end of November. This series, however, will not be organized as a mini-tour. Period I advances with three races in...
I have been racing against David Norris for the past 10 years. We have battled head to head trying to crush each other. The end game was to earn valuable points on the domestic SuperTour circuit to qualify for World Cups. There have been many times we have swapped podium places at U.S. National Championships and U.S. SuperTours. As a one-time peer of David’s, I understand the need for funding and support to compete...
To classic ski, and to do so well, requires an athlete to perform an almost stupidly large number of tasks at the same time. You have to move two arms, two legs, and two ankles in alternation, in almost infinite variations depending upon the snow, the wax, the course, and your remaining energy. You have to mediate between power and finesse, kick and glide, stimulus and weight transfer. In short, you have to balance a...
Living in France for the past year, and with ski racing never far from my mind, I was interested in learning more about the athletes and system here, particularly for the women. While the French men’s team is a force to be reckoned with, both in sprinting and distance, results, or even athletes, on the women’s side are sparse. For example, at the Oberstdorf World Championships in Germany this past season, the French men’s relay...
Last fall, one thing was certain — the pandemic would worsen. And it did. Rosie Brennan, summed up her feelings about traveling to Finland for the first round of World Cups by jumping in head first, masked, of course. “I don’t believe anyone knows the answer [to if we should or should not have a World Cup] as we are all experiencing this pandemic for the first time and still don’t have a full grasp...
In a recent press release from FISI (Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali), the Italian Ski Federation, announced some coaching changes for the upcoming season, notably that this year’s World Cup Sprint Globe winner, Federico Pellegrino, and his teammate, Francesco de Fabiani will join the training group of Marcus Cramer who works with the Russian Ski Team. Cramer’s current squad includes Sergey Ustiugov, Gleb Retivykh, Artem Maltsev and Evgeniy Belov on the men’s side and Yulia Stupak,...
After an unusual and unprecedented season, many athletes have announced their retirement as they move on from professional ski racing. Aside from the three notable retirements from the U.S. Ski Team, Sadie Maubet-Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell-Hamilton, and Simi Hamilton, twelve international athletes have said goodbye to World Cup competitions. Perhaps the biggest name among them is Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway, who after a somewhat inauspicious start to his World Cup career in 2005 when he...
According to the FIS database, sprints on the cross-country World Cup began during the 1996-1997 season. That year, American Simi Hamilton was nine years old. And if you listen to any of the Hamilton-lore floating around adventure circles, the Aspen, Colorado native was already eyeing deep-country adventure. We’ll touch upon this often here, but Hamilton moves in the mountains as few can. He’s capable of pushing at near race pace in technical terrain with a...
Let’s dial back to mid-March and the close of the 2021 World Championships with the men’s 50-kilometer mass start classic race. Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo came into the final corner and finish-straight in close quarters for the win. In the real-time fast-paced moment, Bolshunov and Klæbo tangled, with both skiers barely maintaining balance. To summarize, Bolshunov used all available real-estate coming around the final turn. Klæbo, as he had been doing...
In a rare twist of events, the International Ski Federation (FIS) has modified the results of the men’s 50-kilometer mass start classic from the 2021 World Championships. FasterSkier reported on the topsy turvy nature of the final two hundred meters. Here’s what we reported on race day: “Swooping around the left-hander into the straight, it was Bolshunov in the lead and going wide up against the edge of the right-hand V-boards. (Reminiscent of Lahti where Finland’s...
By the time you read this story, Vermont’s Sophie Caldwell Hamilton will have turned a fresh thirty-one. Her birthday is today, Monday, March 22. Although Caldwell Hamilton began representing the U.S. Ski Team on the World Cup in Québec City in 2012, she is profoundly Green Mountain State. Raised in Peru, Vermont near where she later attended the Stratton Mountain School, we’re pretty certain that, in a metaphorical sense, she bleeds maple syrup. As much...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Low pressure moved in. The Alp’s wind kicked up, a coating of snow fell, and a sinuous 50 kilometer skate pursuit for the men closed out the World Cup...
Press Release NOVE MESTO, Czech Republic (March 14, 2021) – Susan Dunklee (Barton, Vt.) and Sean Doherty (Center Conway, N.H.) combined to give the United States its first medal in the single mixed relay since 2017 as the BMW IBU World Cup wrapped up two weeks of competition in Nove Mesto on Sunday. Dunklee was part of the previous podium appearance as well when she teamed up with Lowell Bailey for a silver medal four years ago. Dunklee led the...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Four months after the season debut in Ruka, Finland the women lined up at the start line one last time to conclude a season many were skeptical would even...
The story line from today’s near-to-the-end chapter of this World Cup season will not include the words high-tempo. News came from FIS earlier that Therese Johaug, winner of all the individual distance medals at the 2021 World Championships, was sitting out the weekend due to an inflamed wrist. Add to the injury list Sweden’s Frida Karlsson, who is recovering from an injury sustained in the World Championship 30 k classic. For her part, Karlsson placed...
This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. It’s the last hurrah, folks. Roughly a year after the COVID-19 virus achieved its global pandemic title, the World Cup finds itself at the end of a season that once...
USBA Press Release NOVE MESTO, Czech Republic (March 12, 2021) — American Susan Dunklee(Barton, Vt.) was one of 14 competitors to shoot clean in the 103-woman field during Friday’s women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint at the BMW IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto. Her marksmanship earned Dunklee her first top-10 finish of the season in an individual race as she stopped the clock 37.2 seconds behind winner Tiril Eckhoff of Norway, who took the gold medal despite...
“Go back and watch the video,” is something I have heard and done maybe 100 times collectively since the men’s 50 k mass start classic concluded with a winner then a DQ, then another winner on Sunday as the 2021 World Championships slammed the door on competition. To say it was a bizarre scene would be an understatement as Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov rocketed into and around a sweeping left-hand curve...