HomeCategory

World Cup

The cream of the crop. The best in the world compete all winter long on the World Cup. We follow them at every stop with article and results. We also post occasional reports from North America’s best as they travel the globe.
Ben Ogden: Balancing Olympic and NCAA Skiing Ambitions Alongside a New Wave of Top US Skiers

“So after the World Cup, Olympics, and NCAAs, is that it for you this season?” “Well…I think I’m going to race the Rikert Grand Prix this weekend.” (He won). I couldn’t have stumbled upon a more apt soundbite to describe Ben Ogden, and he offered it up ten seconds into our interview. Skiing for the US Ski Team and University of Vermont (UVM), Ogden is primed to write the next chapter in American men’s skiing...

“It’s a Good Time to be an American Ski Racer”: A Look Inside the OPA Cup Finals Trip to Sappada, ITA

While World Cup Finals were underway in mid-March in Falun, Sweden, a second contingent of top American skiers was lining up roughly 2,000 kilometers south to race in the OPA Cup Finals in Sappada, Italy. Located along the northern edge of Italy near the Austrian border, the small town is nestled among the spectacular, jagged massifs of the Italian Dolomites, roughly an hour’s drive east of Toblach, which typically hosts the final stages of the...

Saying Goodbye to Some Big Names in Cross-Country: an International Retirement Roundup

Each year at the conclusion of the race season, there are always a few athletes who hang up their skis and step away from professional racing. The end of the four year Olympic cycle inevitably means a higher concentration of such announcements. Whether it was a fourth or a first appearance at the Games, or a near miss, the Olympics are always a target and their completion provides a good moment to move on. While...

China spent millions on cross-country skiing in the leadup to Beijing. What happens now?

ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — A month ago, I met with a source close to the Chinese government in a tiny room in this mountain resort outside Beijing, which hosted the 2022 Olympic cross-country skiing events.  There, the source explained how a decision by international skiing officials to disqualify a Chinese cross-country skier from a race was like killing a baby. China does not have, exactly, a long tradition of success in winter sports like cross-country skiing. But...

Spotlight on Richard Jouve: the First Cross-Country Skier to Bring Home a Crystal Globe for France

For the past six seasons, men’s World Cup sprinting has been almost entirely about one athlete. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo has raced in 28 World Cup, Championship, or Olympic sprint events since November 2018, and remarkably, has won all but three of them. Incidentally, all three of those times have occurred in Ruka, Finland, and he has ended up a mere second place each time. In his first year on the circuit (2017), Klæbo took home...

David Norris: Missing out on 2022 Olympic Team selection, “making the best of it”, and what’s to come.

It’s hard not to root for David Norris.  Often affectionately described by Devon Kershaw as a “grinder”, the humble 31-year-old Fairbanks, AK native has been an eternal underdog, despite consistently performing among the best American distance racers of his generation on the World Cup. Highlighting his career, Norris has finished in the top-20 three times during his appearances in the 2019 and 2021 World Championships. His best result arrived in last year’s Championships in Oberstdorf,...

With Diggins as Anchor, USA I Comes Out On Top in Falun’s Mixed Relay

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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 pleasecontact info@fasterskier.com. While it was perhaps not the final event originally planned for the season, today’s 4 x 5-kilometer freestyle mixed relay in Falun, Sweden shaped up to be quite a way to...

Concluding the 2021/22 World Cup Season, Sundling and Halfvarsson Cruise to Gold in Mixed Team Sprint

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. We’ve arrived at the final event of the 2021/22 World Cup Season and the second new event of the day. It was a fast and furious mixed team sprint in...

One for the Ages in Falun: Diggins Finishes 3rd as Johaug Leaves Skiing a Champion

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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.   There wasn’t much to be decided, only facts to reaffirmed. In the last individual race of the World Cup season on Saturday, a 10-kilometer individual start freestyle in...

North American Men End on High Note in Falun 15 k Free; Patterson 7th, Léveillé 9th, Ketterson 15th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. Following the men’s Olympic 50-turned-28.6 k in Zhangjiakou, long-time American distance champion Kris Freeman and Devon Kershaw called Scott Patterson an “Olympic Specialist”, commenting on how Patterson had found many...

Jouve takes back-to-back classic sprint wins, earning France the 2022 World Cup sprint globe; Ritchie leads for North America with Top-20

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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! The World Cup Finals kicked off in Falun, Sweden today with a classic sprint. While the season has been a wild ride for many reasons...

Sundling Dominates Final Sprint; Kern Finishes a Close Fourth

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. We’ve arrived at the final weekend of World Cup racing. After the cancellation of the finals scheduled to take place in Tyumen, Russia and the difficulty of finding a last-minute...

Norway Sweeps Podium as Revelry Returns at Holmenkollen 50 k; Martin Leads US in 26th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. In Oslo on Sunday, came another sign of the times. The Holmenkollen Ski Festival, the beating heart and center of the modern sport of skiing since Torjus Hemmestveit won...

A full-circle moment, Johaug wins the 30 k classic at Holmenkollen, exactly 11 years after her first individual World Championship gold; Brennan leads the US in 7th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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.   Eleven years ago to the day, racing the 30-kilometer mass start skate, a 22-year-old Therese Johaug won her first individual World Championship gold medal in a breakout performance at...

Update: Falun, SWE to absorb World Cup Finals Mar 11 – 13th

After officially canceling the World Cup Finals scheduled for Tyumen, Russia on February 25th the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced in a brief press release today (see below) that no replacement venue has been found, and thus the upcoming three-day race weekend in Falun, Sweden will instead absorb the event, ending the season one week prematurely.  No schedule changes have been made to the event in Falun, leaving a classic sprint, a 10/15-kilometer skate, and...

After a week of upheavals, the World Cup sprint show goes on in Drammen; France’s Jouve wins, while China gets its first podium

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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.   Cross country skiing’s most ancient, classic, weekend of racing in Norway (the Holmenkollen ski festival) began with a sprint through the center of Drammen, about 45-kilometers (30 mi)...

Falla Earns Sixth Drammen Victory on Home-ground; Kern leads Americans in 7th, Three in Top-20

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the 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. Returning to Norway after last year’s coronavirus induced hiatus, the World Cup picked up with a 1.2-kilometer classic city sprint in Drammen. With the Russian and Belarusian athletes banned from...

Entire Norwegian sprint team tests positive for COVID following Lahti World Cup

Corresponding with a social media post from Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, the Norwegian news outlet NRK reported yesterday that each of the men’s national team sprinters who competed in Lahti last weekend has tested positive for COVID-19. Head sprint coach Arild Monsen told NRK that Håvard Solås Taugbøl was the first to test positive on Monday, followed by Erik Valnes, Pål Golberg, Sindre Bjørnestad Skar and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo on Tuesday. According to Trondheim regional newspaper...

With eroding control, FIS bans Russia and Belarus in belated reaction to threatened protest-cancellation of World Cup events in Norway and Sweden

Today the International Ski Federation (FIS) banned all Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from taking part in any remaining FIS competitions. The press release stated, “The FIS Council decided unanimously in line with the IOC recommendation, that with immediate effect, no Russian or Belarusian athlete shall participate in any FIS competition at any level through the end of the 2021-2022 season.” The belated decision came after a power struggle between the Norwegian Ski Association...

“So close, yet so far”: This international Olympic Covid romance is a story for our times

U.S. cross-country skier Kevin Bolger and Swedish racer Maja Dahlqvist met during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus kept them six feet apart during the Olympics — except one celebratory hug. ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — American Olympic cross-country skier Kevin Bolger grew up in Wisconsin. His girlfriend, Olympian Maja Dahlqvist, is from Sweden. During the Olympics, in China, they got to spend a couple of weeks in the same place. Among their options for dates: • Go cross-country...