Petter Northug, in an impressive rebound from two disappointing races this week at World Championships, finally got the gold he was looking for on Wednesday in the 15 k individual freestyle. The effort took everything he had; he began to collapse before he even crossed the finish line to take over the lead from Johan Olsson. Our photos from the finish and the high point of the course.
Noah Hoffman executed his race plan perfectly in the 15 k freestyle at World Championships on Wednesday, moving from 40th on the first lap to 15th by the finish line. It cut his previous best from Oslo two years ago nearly in half. Tad Elliott was 34th and Erik Bjornsen was 48th for the American men.
Miriam Gössner of Germany got lots of attention when the biathlete finished fourth in Tuesday's 10 k skate, just half a second from the podium - but she wasn't alone in making the jump between sports. Friends Kaisa Makarainen of Finland and Selina Gasparin of Switzerland also acquitted themselves well, and offered light-hearted insight on the difference between the sports.
Liz Stephen’s performance undoubtedly headlined the day for the Americans in the women's 10 k, but further down on the results her teammates felt only “not great” to “satisfied” about their top-30s. Jessie Diggins placed 23rd, Holly Brooks finished 27th and Kikkan Randall was 30th. Still, they expect to feel fully recovered for the 4x5 k relay.
Dasha Gaiazova, Emily Nishikawa and Brittany Webster represented Canada in Tuesday's two-lap 10 k freestyle individual start at World Championships, and while none were ecstatic about their results, most saw the value in racing at the highest international level.
Marit Bjørgen's not unbeatable, but she's a pretty tough nut to crack. Therese Johaug proved its possible in a 10 k freestyle, winning the individual start on Tuesday for her second individual gold at World Championships. Yulia Tchekaleva broke through for Russia in third, German biathlete Miriam Gössner just missed a medal in fourth and American Liz Stephen captured fifth.
On the first sunny day of racing all week at World Championships, Norway's Therese Johaug skated to a 10-second win in the 10 k individual freestyle over teammate Marit Bjørgen. Our images from the race.
Demonstrating once again the power of a goal and unwavering belief in it, Stephen achieved exactly what she set out to do on Tuesday in the World Championships 10 k individual freestyle by finishing fifth, a career-best. "I'm pretty ecstatic," Stephen said. "I'm so lucky to be part of something so big right now."
In a video interview on Sunday night, newly-crowned World Champions Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins talk more about their race, how they stayed calm through a missing pole and what their gold medals mean for cross-country skiing in the U.S.
Athletes and staff each have roles to play on race day, and on Sunday at World Championships every one of them was executed perfectly to help Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall to earn an historic gold medal in the team sprint. The wax, the skis — and that replacement pole!
The U.S. Nordic Combined team of Taylor Fletcher, Bryan Fletcher, Todd Lodwick and Billy Demong rose to bronze on Sunday for a historic World Championships medal in a team event. Relieved and excited, they also had a lot of fun.
In the mix for most of Sunday's freestyle team sprint at World Championships, Canada's Perianne Jones and Dasha Gaiazova couldn't stick close enough to the leaders and missed advancing to the finals by two places to end up 13th overall.
A few hours before their teammates made history in the women’s race, Americans Andy Newell and Erik Bjornsen got unlucky in the team sprint semifinals at World Championships. Bjornsen fell in a tangle with France and Finland on his third leg the U.S. lost contact with the leaders as they began to take off at the front. They wound up finishing seventh overall in the heat, 26.97 seconds behind the leaders, and failed to advance to the final.
With a performance that the American ski community will talk about for a long time to come, Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins became World Champions on Sunday in Val di Fiemme, Italy, with a 7.8-second win in the team sprint over Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla and Ida Ingemarsdotter. This is the first World Championship gold for the United States in cross-country skiing.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words — we took almost a thousand pictures of the women's team sprint on Sunday at the 2013 Nordic World Ski Championships. Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall made history for the United States in winning the country's first-ever world championships gold medal.
Nikita Kriukov did it again at World Championships, winning gold for Russia, this time in the 6 x 1.5 k freestyle team sprint with Alexey Petukhov on Sunday. Sweden took second and Kazakhstan was third, edging Canada's defending champs by 0.03 seconds for bronze.
Aiming for another podium, Canada's Alex Harvey stayed in the mix for most of Saturday's 30 k skiathlon before getting caught behind too many men on the last lap and climbing several places to 13th. Ivan Babikov finished 31st after a strong classic leg, Graham Nishikawa was 51st and Brittany Webster placed 57th for Canada.
For the second day of the 2013 Nordic Ski World Championships, the 15 and 30 k skiathlons were not what the Americans were hoping for on Saturday. But through less than optimal outcome the team’s collective outlook was on the upswing after racing concluded. Liz Stephen posted the only top-20 for the team, and she and several Americans found reasons to be positive about certain bright spots they think bode well for upcoming distance events in Val di Fiemme.
World Champion at long last, Dario Cologna (SUI) played the waiting game on Saturday in the 30 k skiathlon at the 2013 Nordic World Ski Championships while others attempted futile breakaways. It paid off in the end; he won the race by almost two seconds over Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR). Our photos from the race...
It was a sea of red on Saturday at the front of the women's 15 k skiathlon at World Championships. Marit Bjørgen took home her second gold medal of the week with an impressive show of strength on the final climb that left the field in her dust.