World Cup

After Kris Freeman's dominating performance in yesterday's 30K Classic, the US team had high hopes for todays sprint. Torin Koos scored World Cup sprint points last year and Junior Andrew Newell continues to show that he can sprint with the best of them. But instead, it was a Canadian woman who stole the North American spotlight. Tara Whitten (CAN) finished second overall in the women's sprint at the U23 games. This despite being ranked only...

Freeman Wins U-23 30-km Gold! The Under 23 world championships are a new event for FIS, and Thursday marked the official start of the annual games. Bormio, where the races are being held, is classic Italian skiing with almost no snow. The race courses are all on man made snow, and despite the cool mornings, the extremely sunny weather makes for spring like skiing. Kris Freeman (right) shown here at the US Nationals 30K Classic...

Monday, January 27, 2003 Mt. Orford, Quebec   After two straight weekends of competing in the Subaru Continental Cup trial races in Mt. Ste Anne and Mt. Orford, fourteen more Canadian athletes have been selected to compete in various international cross-country ski competitions.   Yesterday’s final race in Mt. Orford meant the selection committee had the daunting task of calculating which athletes qualified for which European competitions.  Joining Sara Renner and Beckie Scott, who are...

The Italian men's duo of Gorgio Di Centa and Cristian Zorzi won the World Cup sprint relay on Sunday in Oberhof, Germany. The Italian Zorzi won a mad dash to line to beat the Germans (Rene Sommerfeldt & Tobias Angerer). In third was Norway (Jens Arne Svartedal & Thomas Alsgaard). The American team of Kris Freeman and Carl Swenson did extremely well, finishing fourth. Swenson and Freeman hung tough with the Norwegians all race long,...

Kris Freeman, fresh off dominating the classic races at US Nationals, posted a 19th place finish today in Oberhof, Germany in a 15k classical World Cup race. It was Freeman's first World Cup start of the season. Many Americans were very interested to see how Freeman would fare. Watching him ski at Nationals, a number of people were impressed enough to remark that “He must be skiing top twenty in the world.” Indeed he proved...

PARK CITY, UT (Jan. 22) — Olympians Kris Freeman (Andover, NH), Torin Koos (Leavenworth, WA), Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) and Lindsey Weier (Mahtomedi, MN) are among a dozen cross country skiers named Wednesday to compete in the inaugural U-23 Championships next month in Italy, the U.S. Ski Team announced. Nordic Director Luke Bodensteiner said the group, selected based on results from the Chevy Truck U.S. championships in Maine and Nor Am races earlier this month...

The US Ski Team has announced the U.S. team that will compete at the world cross-country championships next month in Italy. The U.S. team consists of five women and eight men. Luke Bodensteiner, Nordic director for the U.S. Ski Team, said another skier may be added depending on results at the World Junior Championships and U-23 championships for skiers 23 years and younger. Those events precede the world championships, which begin Feb. 18 in Val...

Czech skier Lukas Bauer celebrated his first career victory in front of a home crowd in the 15 kilometres freestyle at a cross country World Cup event in Nove Mesto na Morave on Saturday, while Bente Skari continued her domination of the World Cup women's field.   Bauer crossed the finish line in a time of 34 minutes 54.8 seconds, comfortably ahead of Christian Hoffmann of Austria, who finished second in 35:24.9, and Sweden's defending...

Norway may have the women's overall World Cup leader in Bente Skari, but the German team came out on top in today's relay. And German Rene Sommerfeldt may be leading the men's overall, but the Norwegians took the men's relay honor. Maybe this is because neither leader raced. The Norwegian men's team consisting of Anders Aukland, Frode Estil, Tore Ruud Hofstad and Thomas Alsgaard won the men’s 4X10k mix cross-country relay in Nove Mesto on...

According to a press release from the US Ski Team, US skiers will participate in World Cup races this weekend in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. Justin Wadsworth (Bend, OR) was 22nd in a race in Davos, Switzerland, in mid-December while the Ski Team trained and raced in the USA and Canada; he missed the Chevy Truck U.S. Cross Country Championships in Rumford, Maine, because he was sick but he's back to health and ready to...

Exceptionally cold weather (minus 29 degrees C) and frost forced World Cup organizers to cancel sprint events and push back Estonia's Otepae Resort mass start events to Sunday. Bente Skari of Norway comfortably claimed the women's 15 K classic mass start race. Skari, the reigning Olympic champion and current World Cup leader, crossed the finish line in 42:38. Kristina Smigun of Estonia, runner-up in World Cup standings, delighted her home crowd with a hard-fought second...

Today's World Cup Sprint Relay in Kavgolovo, Russia was canceled due to extreme cold weather. The World Cup will resume next weekend in Estonia.

The World Cup resumed after a holiday break in Kavgolovo, Russia today. Rene Sommerfeldt (GER) and Kristina Smigun (EST) were the winners of the skate races. No North Americans participated. In addition, a number of other high profile skiers , such as World Cup leader Bente Skari (NOR) did not make the trip to Russia.

Thursday, December 19, 2002, Linz, Austria   It was an exciting day for the Canadian National Cross Country Ski Team as Beckie Scott added a third World Cup bronze medal to her collection and Sara Renner raced to a personal best 8th in the World Cup skating sprint event held this evening in Linz, Austria.    Scott, an established power-house sprinter with two other bronze medals in this event, is continuing to produce consistent top-10...

Today's classic World Cup sprint competitions in Cogne were completely dominated by Norwegian skiers. Tor Arne Hetland won the men's A-final, while the Bente Skari led a Norwegian sweep in the women's competition. Hetland powered away from the strong Finn Lauri Pykkönen in the last 100 metres to add another sprint triumph to his merits. He has won all the World Cup sprints so far this season, and took over the lead position in the...

FasterSkier ed. note: North Americans Sara Renner and Milaine Theriault were 39th and 37th. Beckie Scott (sickness) and Justin Wadsworth did not race. A Return to Form for Norwegian Men Today's 30 classic for men in Cogne gave Norway a much longed for triumph. Frode Estil won the race, two centimetres ahead of teammate Anders Aukland. The participants in today's mass start for men woke up to sunshine and excellent conditions in the tiny Italian...

US Ski Team veteran Carl Swenson continued his mastery of long skate races today in the Nor Am Continental Cup race outside of Rossland, BC. On the women's side junior skier Kristina Trygstad-Saari won her first Continental Cup race, beating out two skate distance specialists in the process. This weekends races were moved to the Paulsen Cross Country trails about 30 minutes from Rossland because of lack of snow in town. Swenson, who is always...

Tor Arne Hetland controlled the men's A-final in today's sprint competition in Clusone, Italy, from start to finish. After a 10th place in the qualifying round, Tor Arne Hetland, advanced through the quarter-finals and semi-finals to win the A-final in grand style. Germany's René Sommerfelt finished second, while Sweden's Anders Högberg og Jörgen Brink finished third and fourth resepectively. Brink was unfortunate to fall as the athletes entered the finishing straight. Besides Hetland, Trond Einar...

Marit Bjœrgen secured her second World Cup triumph this season by winning today's sprint competition in Clusone, Italy, She beat the runner-up, Germany's Claudia Kuenzel, by 0.4 seconds. Bjœrgen was one of three Norwegians in the A-final. Teammate Anita Moen went out very hard, perhaps too hard, and faded to fourth in the last lap. Kuenzel held the initiative until Marit Bjœrgen made a decisive move up the last hill. The powerful Norwegian managed to...

Norwegian newspaper Adressavisen has calculated that Larissa Lazutina owes Bente Skari approximately $3000 in prize money, although Bente is not counting on ever seeing any of it. At a World Cup race in December 2001, Lazutina tested positive for NESP—a blood enhancer similar to the more-common EPO. The positive result was not known until later in the season, allowing Lazutina to race until the end of the Olympics. Another positive test in conjunction with the...