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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.
Covid-19 Trends and Early Season World Cups: An Update

With the ever-evolving nature of the pandemic, two months out from our article titled “Covid-19 Trends and Early Season World Cups“, we thought it an appropriate time to review Covid-19 trends in Europe. If the International Ski Federation chooses not to modify Period 1 and Period II on the World Cup, Finland, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy will host already calendared events. In early June, when we first examined Covid-19 in those countries, the overall...

Sponsored: Never Waste An Opportunity To Improve

Sponsored Content This season is different. After being named to the national team for the 2020-21 season, Amundsen doesn’t have a specific event as the main season goal. This year, he is aiming for the World Cup season as a whole, and he feels less of a need to put all his effort into peaking for one specific event. “My season goal is to compete at as many World Cup races as possible, and I...

Covid-19 Trends and Early Season World Cups

The Covid-19 news in the United States is unequivocally grim: According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, July 3rd stands as the current peak of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in the U.S. The curve is spiking as opposed to flattening. Last week, the European Union took the unprecedented step of banning U.S. citizens from traveling to the region. With few exceptions, unless one is a healthcare professional, seasonal agricultural worker, diplomat, or an essential international...

FIS Points, Part II: What’s a Point Worth

This article has been updated to clarify the relationship between the junior races now known as FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships and its precursor, the World Junior Nordic Championships and the European Junior Nordic Championships.  There are, to briefly traffic in the obvious, 60 seconds in a minute. Sixty seconds in a minute; 60 minutes in an hour; 3,600 seconds in an hour. Skiers measure their lives in these increments; we track total yearly training hours,...

A Small Glimpse of the World Cup Season

A time of unsettling news. How else to describe the global specter? With all do respect to those involved in the cross-country world, including FasterSkier, we understand our place in the prioritization hierarchy. A line from The New Yorker online, in a piece titled ‘When Tom Brady Said Goodbye’ by Louisa Thomas, resonated: “Among the many functions that sports serve is to give people something silly to argue passionately about during serious times.” True words....

Press Release: Québec City World Cup Cancelled

At 7:50am local time on Friday, the LOC Gestev sent out a message. Cancelling events is always difficult; the reference to ‘force majeure’ is a necessary legal step in the process. Cancellation of 2020 Quebec City COOP FIS Cross-Country World Cup Quebec City, Friday, March 13, 2020 – As the global situation surrounding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, in the last few hours it has come to the attention of Quebec Winter Events...

Press Release: Canada Pulls Out Of Québec City World Cup

At 1am Eastern time on Friday, Nordiq Canada sent out a press release. The release mentions that the decision to drop out was made in solidarity with a list of countries, including the USA. As FasterSkier shared a flight to Québec City with a number of US and Canadian athletes and officials on Thursday afternoon, this was a late decision. Nordiq Canada Withdraws from FIS Cross Country World Cup in Quebec City QUEBEC CITY—After much...

Fastenal Parallel 45 Festival and World Cup Cancelled (Press Release)

Official Public Statement Due to ongoing and evolving concerns surrounding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the International Ski Federation, U.S. Ski & Snowboard and the local organizing committee, working in concert with local health officials, have made the difficult decision to cancel the Fastenal Parallel 45 Festival, the Coop FIS Cross Country World Cup race, and all associated events scheduled for March 14-17, 2020 in Minneapolis. We are devastated to announce this cancelation. In keeping with...

World Cup Finals in Canmore: Hosting Challenges

FasterSkier dropped in at Canmore on the way to Québec City and got an update from Norbert Meier on the challenges of hosting in North America, all the activities that aren’t ski races, and the challenges of dealing with daily updates on managing the Coronavirus pandemic. While the World Health Organization upgraded Coronavirus to a pandemic a few hours before this interview, the status change is not a surprise as it was simply a matter...

According to several news reports, including a story from Norwegian Broadcaster NRK, the Norwegian Ski Federation has pulled its World Cup team from competing at the upcoming North American series of World Cups. “It is a total assessment of the situation we see in Norway and the rest of the world. We do not want to contribute to more infection,” cross-country manager Espen Bjervig told NRK according to a translation. It was also announced on Tuesday...

Here Come More Americans: Your Guide to the U.S. Men Racing in Québec City and Minneapolis

You may have heard that the World Cup is returning not only to North America, but also to American soil, within the next few weeks. The world’s best skiers will be contesting sprint races in Québec City on March 14 and 15; a sprint in Minneapolis on March 17; and distance races plus a mixed relay in Canmore on March 20-22. For all six races, including the five across the border, the U.S. has an...

Here Come the Americans: Your Guide to the U.S. Women Racing in Québec City and Minneapolis

You may have heard that the World Cup is returning not only to North America, but also to American soil, within the next few weeks. The world’s best skiers will be contesting sprint races in Québec City on March 14 and 15; a sprint in Minneapolis on March 17; and distance races plus a mixed relay in Canmore on March 20-22. For all six races, including the five across the border, the U.S. has an...

Attrition in the Fog: Bolshunov pips Krüger for the Oslo 50 k Classic Win

Oslo in late winter – it’s be hit or miss. Fog. Bluebird. A maritime climate, with plentiful moisture in the air, a slight drop in temps can morph the Holmenkollen ski complex into a ping-pong-ball-world. Athletes were mere shadows striding into and out of view on a foggy- drizzly day at the Holmenkollen. As spectators were limited to trail side spots as the main stadium was closed due to the Covid-19 virus, for some concerned,...

Sans Fans, Sweden’s Karlsson Takes Johaug at the Holmenkollen Line

Racing the Holmenkollen without spectators is a bit like not getting a white Christmas. It does not change the end result, here racing a 30-kilometer mass start classic race on the famed tracks above Oslo, Norway. But the experience loses some of the magic. Race organizers announced Thursday that spectators would not be allowed to attend the race due to the increased risk of spreading COVID-19. On a typical year, crowds in numbers up to...

Earlier this morning, the Norwegian news outlet NRK posted that Ingvild Flugstad Østberg has been forced to end her season early after sustaining a fracture in her heel. The news was announced by the Norwegian Ski Federation, after Østberg spoke with the press while carrying crutches and wearing a protective boot, which she will be wearing for the next five to six weeks.  Østberg believes that the injury, which team doctors are calling a stress...

Relocated to Konnerud: Drammen will wait 365 Days while Klæbo and Sundling Celebrate Now

Men’s Sprint Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Norwegian men showed up on form for today’s freestyle sprints in Konnerud, just outside the city of Drammen. As the venue was used for the Norwegian National championship at the end of January, most of the team has already had a dress rehearsal racing on the windy course.  It seems that Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who sat out the national championships, did not need a dress rehearsal. He won the qualifier...

With a Klæbo Anchor Leg – Norway Claims 4 x 7.5 k Relay in Lahti

Sunday, for the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in Lahti, Finland the scene was decidedly more fitting for winter sport: The race began amidst falling snow despite bare firs and hardwoods lining the course. It’s been a sparse winter in Lahti.  Eleven teams contested the relay, with ten nations represented; Russia fielded two teams. The U.S. was not represented.    For the first 7.5 k leg, Russia I’s Ilia Semikov and Russia II’s Andrey Sobakarev...

Norway With the Win, Finland With Its First Relay Podium on Home Turf

Sports fans talk a lot about home field advantage. Which team will play at home at Game 7 of the World Series? Or in the playoffs before the Stanley Cup? Home turf and the swells of a crowd whose numbers are skewed toward the home team has an undeniable effect. Yes, the Norwegian team of Tiril Udnes Weng, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Therese Johaug, and Heidi Weng won yet another 4×5-kilometer relay with a time of...

Predictable? Maybe. Niskanen Wins 15 k Classic in Lahti

Some patterns in Lahti, Finland remained the same as it ever was: the top-11 positions in the men’s 15-kilometer classic were populated by Norway and Russia except for a lone Finn. On manmade tracks laid down through the snow-free woods of Lahti’s famed stadium, Iivo Niskanen stuck to his roots.  When the World Cup comes to Finland, Niskanen remains the king of the 15 k interval start classic. Prior to Saturday’s race, the twenty-eight-year-old Niskanen...