World Cup

The organizers of this weekends Norway Cup opening and the following weekend’s World Cup races at Beitostolen, Norway are expecting 1100 racers, support personnel and press people for the two weekends. It’s the first time this (very) small place has hosted the Norwegian XC opener, the biathlon opener and the regular World Cup opener all during two “packed” weekends in November. Secretary of race Erik Ostli has these comments: “We have organized World Cup races...

Norwegian Kristen Skjeldal is no longer on the National team, has changed his training routines and is incredibly excited ahead of the upcoming races at Beitostolen.  Skjeldal skied on the Norwegian 4 x 10 kilometer relay team that captured Gold at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. He also captured an individual 4th place in the same championship.

You were all wrong if you imagined that Bente Skari’s Gold Medal winning skis would end up on display above her fire-place or get a prominent place at the Norwegian Ski Museum at the famous Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo Norway. Bente has retired, but her skis are going to continue to be used in ski races — especially at the World Cup. Norwegian National team member Vibeke Skofterud took over both Bente Skari’s skis...

Canadian Beckie Scott recently received an upgrade to an Olympic Silver Medal for her performance at the women’s pursuit race at the 2002 Olympics. A decision regarding a possible upgrade to Gold will be made soon. At the 2003 World Championship Beckie was the first North American ever to score four top ten results in the same Championship. She was inches from medaling in the sprint, a few seconds in the pursuit and had a...

The World Cup sprint opener was last weekend in Düsseldorf Germany. Many of the best distance specialists did not race. They were training somewhere instead and most of them were skiing.  National Teams around the World are now preparing for the regular World Cup opener at Beitostolen Norway on November 22.  Men’s November World Cup schedule: 22. 15 km freestyle —Beitostolen, Norway 23. 4 x 10 km relay —Beitostolen, Norway 28. 15 km classic —Kuusamo,...

2002 Olympic Champion Norwegian Tor Arne Hetland had no excuses for his unusual (for him) poor performance in the individual prolog in Saturday’s opening race of the 2003-04 Sprint World Cup. Hetland placed 25th, almost 9 seconds behind the prolog winner Sweden’s Bjorn Lind and did therefore not advance to the next round. Hetland expressed following the relay (the day after the individual race) where his team placed third, that he was reasonably satisfied.

“Thunder Bay 1995” conditions The transported snow for the World Cup Sprint course caused the conditions to be much alike the infamous snow at the 1995 World Championship in Thunder Bay. The skiers “waxed” their skis with diesel, and put on “new layers” in-between every heat (even during Sprint Relay competition). The organizer reported that 120,000 spectators watched the races during the weekend.

A weekend of World Cup sprint racing wrapped up today in Dusseldorf, Germany with the sprint relay. The two-person sprint relay, which was Oct 26 – Dusseldorf – Women's Sprint Relay Results On the men's side, Sweden was without the services of yesterday's winner Peter Larsson who was sick, but the team of Joergen Brink and Thobias Fredriksson managed to take the win in a very tight field sprint. The top five teams were within...

The 2003-2004 World Cup season got underway in Dusseldorf, Germany on Saturday with sprint races along the famous Rhine River. The Swedes were very successful on the men's side, taking five of the top seven spots and placing three men in the A final. Peter Larsson was the Swede who came out on top, beating out 2003 50K World Champion Martin Koukal (Czech Republic) who came in second. It was Larsson's first World Cup win....

The Norwegian Ski Federation has selected the following skiers to race the upcoming weekends World Cup Sprint races in Düsseldorf Germany: Men Tor Arne Hetland HÃ¥vard Bjerkeli John Kristian Dahl Trond Einar Elden Kristian Horntvedt Eldar Rœnning Jens Arne Svartedal Trond Iversen

This year’s World Cup opening is again taking place along the famous river Rhine in the German City of Düsseldorf. The German City is putting lots of efforts and funds toward this World Cup opening, including spectator and sponsor “snow packages” with hotel, tickets and free travel on the City’s public transportation system.

Norwegian National Development Team coach Egil Kristiansen believes that one of his female skiers, Ingrid Narum might reach the podium in this years World Cup. Specifically he has the sprint races in mind, a distance Narum has showed that she has great talent for. “Anything can happen if she can advance from the prologue”. FasterSkier.com explains: The prologue is the first round in the sprint competition where all participants individually are racing the course of...

Olympic and World Champion, Norwegian Thomas Alsgaard officially retired following last season after winning Gold medals in four consecutive Olympics. Completely retired…well not quite yet.

FIS recently decided that the size of money prices to be awarded for the upcoming seasons cross-county World Cup races will be the same as used for last season. Cross Country skiing is still a bit behind ski jumping and alpine skiing. The minimum to be awarded in each individual competition is 40 000 Swiss francs or US $28,780 — This amount will be divided between the top 10 skiers in each race using a...

Saturday Pursuit FALUN, Sweden (March 22) — World Cup champions Mathias Fredriksson of Sweden and Norway's Bente Skari won the final races of the season Saturday, capturing a skiathlon at the Swedish Ski Games. Fredriksson won the men's race, a 10-km classic leading into a 10-km freestyle, in 57:17.0 with Frode Estil of Norway second at 57:34.1. Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) was 31st in 58:35.7 with Andrew Johnson (Greensboro, VT) 48th and Carl Swenson (Boulder,...

In today's World Cup sprint event in Borlange, Sweden, Beckie Scott of Canada took second place, only 0.3 seconds behind World Cup Champion Bente Skari of Norway. World Champion Marit Bjoergen of Norway was third, while Claudia Kuenzel of Germany took fourth in the final. Beckie, who qualified 9th, had a tough road to the final. She had to go up against Skari in every heat. Scott held her own, and held off the other...

LAHTI, Finland (March 16) — Sweden's Mathias Fredriksson clinched the World Cup overall title by winning a 15-km freestyle race Sunday at the Finnish Ski Games with Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) 17th and Carl Swenson (Boulder, CO) 28th. Gabriella Paruzzi of Italy won the women's 10-km FR race as the top three skiers were 1.6 seconds apart. In collecting the World Cup cross country crown for Sweden — coincidentally on a day when Anja Paerson...

Observations from the International stage John Aalberg is an FIS Technical Delegate and Homologation Inspector. In addition to being cross country venue director for Soldier Hollow during the 2002 Olympics, John has also been a technical delegate for many other international races, including the 2003 World Championships. For more information or requests for lectures, presentations of planning and preparation phases, or the "behind the scenes" race operations, contact John Aalberg at

Two of the best classic skiers in the world won Saturday's Holmenkollen World Cup marathon races in Oslo, Norway. At this point, Bente Skari is so good that it is more surprising when she doesn't win than when she does. This time she won the 30K by a big two minutes over Annmari Viljanmaa (FIN), who was a minute ahead of her teammate, 3rd place finisher, Aino Kaisa Saarinen. Canada's Sara Renner was the top...

Bente Skari dominated the qualification heats in Holmenkollen, Oslo World Cup sprint on Thursday, and she kept control of the race right through to her 12th win of the season. Skari won relatively easily ahead of Manuela Henkel (GER), Kirsi Vaelimaa (FIN), Kati Venaelaeinen (FIN) and Emelie Ohrstig (SWE) in the final. Unlike most sprint events where there are 4 skiers in the final heats, there were five in Oslo. Skari now has 10 world...