An assortment of random facts about Sophie Caldwell, now entering her first season as a full-fledged member of the U.S. Ski Team, including her fear of cold water and the one food she doesn't like.
This week, Canadian National Senior Development Team skier Frédérique Vézina, who trains with the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre in Quebec, writes about her favourite recovery activity – yoga — and explains how it can be cross-country skiing specific.
After a two-year review process, the World Anti-Doping Agency approved a new code last week, which intends to make it harder for cheaters to cheat. But the efforts are still ongoing, and the code and accompanying regulations aren't foolproof.
With almost the same number of athletes as last year, the AWCA in Canmore, Alberta, has fewer women this season, but coach Chris Jeffries is pleased with the team's training quality despite some injuries. "The group is very focused this year and more mature," he says.
Ivan Babikov is excited, to say the least, heading into his third Olympic season. At 33, Canada's most-seasoned World Cup veteran knows what to expect and what not to get too stressed about. "[I’m] not trying to reinvent the bicycle," he says.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) discovered a major snafu this week in the leadup to the Sochi Winter Olympics when it rendered Moscow's antidoping laboratory -- the one that's expected to test Olympic athletes in less than three months -- sub-standard.
In the second half of our "ask a psychologist" segment, we talk to Dartmouth sports psychologist Dr. Mark Hiatt about the pressure and stress that comes with qualifying for big races, and what happens once you do. Hiatt expands on suggestions for how to manage expectations, relax, and get in a positive and productive mindset.
With nearly 90 percent of its senior team still eligible for U23 World Championships, NDC Thunder Bay is hungry for some international starts, and new head coach Timo Puiras has a feeling it's going to be a good season.
Before the start of the 2013/2014 season, 22-year-old Erik Bjornsen recently sat down with Reese Hanneman for a frank discussion about last winter and the one just ahead.
Time passes and skiers come and go, but terrain (usually) doesn’t change. Dan Simoneau of the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation (MBSEF) in Oregon shares a place from the past, which he still drives his athletes to today and shares stories of his former teammate.
Selected to head up the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Program just three years ago, John Farra is already thinking medals for his team at the Sochi Paralympics in March, and believes they'll be on par with the Russians by the 2018 Games.
Sovereign Lake boasted "mid-winter conditions" on Saturday, so naturally, FasterSkier contributor Gerry Furseth had to investigate. What he found was 75-plus kilometres of groomed trails and a reason for switching from his rock to his race skis.
Coaches can't help with everything. We talked to Dr. Mark Hiatt, a sports psychologist at Dartmouth College, for how to deal with some common situations: what if your team is taking up too much time and eating into your life? How do you compete against your teammates? What if you hate your coach? His answers, which we hope will help you.
Scrap the box and make the real thing this weekend with Tracy and Lanny Barnes' dark-chocolate-and-walnut brownie recipe.
At 22, Heidi Widmer's suffered three concussions in the last four years, with her most recent resulting from a rollerski crash this fall. "I’m super lucky,” the Canadian NST member says. “There’s no internal bleeding, I’m functioning, I’m fine, but I just have to be able to take care of this and come out of it with some lessons learned for sure.”
Muffy Ritz, founder and head coach of the VAMPS women's masters group in Sun Valley, Idaho, leads us through the Vamps Hill Workout, which she adopted from UNH's Beach Hill climb and incorporates stations of moosehoofing, hill walking and bounding.
Kids are at particular risk of sunburn, and possibly later cancer, when they head out for a ski; athletes in weight-sensitive sports like skiing are at risk for developing eating disorders, and the IOC is trying to do something about it; new "designer" drugs for doping; and stop stressing out, coaches! Your job is bad for you!
There's a skiable groomed loop in Eastern Canada, and FS contributor Stephanie Drolet drove an hour north of Quebec City to check it out. This year, Laval University opened the 1.3 k manmade track at La Forêt Montmorency a couple weeks earlier than usual and expect to keep it open into April 2014. In English and French.
During his recent visit to California for a training camp with his Black Jack Ski Club, former Canadian National Team Head Coach Dave Wood met up with FasterSkier's Nancy Fiddler and shared some intimate thoughts on the sport. "You can’t improve by just going to Europe to race,” Wood says. “You have to figure out a way to cut 45 seconds over 15 kilometers before going.”
Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess knows as well as anybody that falls is the time to up the intensity. "For the first time since the training year started in May, I get to play in the area of threshold - and threshold plus," he explains. "Wednesdays we hit the trails: pole bounding in mixed terrain."