Oslo, Norway – The Norwegian team gave the home crowd a show as the nation won the nordic combined team event at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival Saturday, the biggest sporting event in Norway. The U.S. Ski Team went with its three individual Olympic medalists, adding 18 year old Nick Hendrickson (Park City, UT) as the fourth for the rare World Cup team event. “Being in the fight at the beginning and in the end, fighting...
Drammen, Norway – While in the US, the story of the day was Andy Newell’s 3rd place finish, Emil Joensson (SWE) and Marit Bjoergen (NOR) both skied to impressive victories in the tough Drammen field. A classic sprint in Norway is a recipe for the strongest field on the World Cup circuit. With Norway holding a number of additional Nations Cup start spots, just getting into the heats is tough. Joensson left nothing to chance,...
Where East Meets West: The West took both individual titles with Colorado’s Matt Gelso and Denver’s Antje Maempel, while the East took runner-up titles with Vermont’s Franz Bernstein and Dartmouth’s Rosie Brennan. – Led by Matt Gelso, Americans take three of six podium finishes on first day of NCAA Nordic Skiing Championships – It was an unassumingly beautiful, 30 degree, wintry day at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but for racers and coaches of...
La Feclaz, France – A large contingent of American skiers are in Europe competing in the spring OPA cup races. The OPA cup is a European Continental Cup series along the lines of the US SuperTour. Ten men and six women competed in the 5/10km freestyle mass start event on Sunday. Brian Gregg led the men in 12th place, while Caitlin Compton paced the women in 10th. The major goal of the trip for these...
Lahti, Finland – The Norwegian men and women won the rare World Cup relay events, capping an impressive weekend. The women’s field featured more of the big names, and the race came down to a three-way battle for the victory. The current top four Norwegian women – Mathe Kristoffersen, Therese Johaug, Kristin Stoermer Steira, and Marit Bjoergen, edged out a strong German team at the line. Italy was third, just 1 second out, and Russia...
Pinkham Notch, NH—On a spectacularly clear day on Mt. Washington, 2006 Olympian Justin Freeman of New Hampton, NH won his third consecutive Ski to the Clouds. Kirsten Gill from Lewiston, ME and Bates College was the top woman. Ski to the Clouds presented by Maxiglide offers $1400 in cash prizes and features a 6-kilometer climb up Mt. Washington making it North America’s Toughest 10k. Freeman let eventual second place finisher, 1992 and 1994 Olympic Biathlete,...
The stakes were high and the intensity higher at this weekend’s EISA Regional Championships at Middlebury, VT. The snow storm that hit a good portion of the east coast delayed races by a day, as the trail and slope crews busied themselves dealing with an onslaught of heavy, wet, snow. Saturday’s classic races reflected the tail-end of the snow storm, as warm temperatures combined with wet snow squals provided a Vancouver-esque day at the Rikert...
Whistler, British Columbia – With five k to go before the finish of the men’s 50 k classic Sunday morning, the front of the pack looked remarkably similar to the way it did five k from the start. Dario Cologna (SUI), Petter Northug, (NOR), Alexander Legkov (RUS)—all the heavy hitters were there. It wasn’t until 400 meters to go that things really started heating up, when Germany’s Axel Teichmann threw down a hard attack, stringing...
Whistler, British Columbia – Pouring rain, heavy snow, back to pouring rain, classic Whistler weather, and no one was more happy than Justyna Kowalczyk. She plowed her way through the muck to earn the first Polish gold in Olympic cross-country ski history. Kowalczyk’s Olympics to date had hardly been poor. She won the silver in the sprint, bronze in the pursuit, and skied well in the 15km, and has made no bones about the fact...
Lightning. Bears. Concrete walls. Those are a few things that might be able to stop Norway’s Marit Bjoergen right now. Mere mortals from Italy, Finland, and Germany? Fat chance. Taking the tag from Kristin Stormer Steira with Italy hot on her heels, Bjoergen laid down a blazingly fast final leg, dropping Sabina Valbusa on the very first climb. She skied away, uncontested, to her third gold medal of these Games—Norway’s first in the women’s relay...
Gatineau, February 21, 2010 – Although more than 20 countries were represented at this year’s Gatineau Loppet, the podium’s top rung belonged to Canadians after nearly every run. On this second and last day of competition, several hundred cross-country skiers turned out to take part in the different free style races, that is to say the 10 km, 27 km and 49 km Bell. Today’s snow conditions were fast, and the 32nd edition ended with...
The fastest man on the 63km ski track of 39th Tartu Marathon in Estonia was Anders Aukland (with 2:59:41) from Norway. The second place belonged to Joergen Brink (2:59:42) and third to Oskar Svaerd (2:59:42), both from Sweden. Anders Aukland, the winner of the second consecutive year said that is was a difficult race and the track was very good. “I felt strong during the last kilometers and stayed up front. I had enough power,”...
Whistler, British Columbia – He had to wait, but Petter Northug finally got to show off his dominating sprint finish against his perennial whipping boy Axel Teichmann. Northug and teammate Oystein Pettersen won the first gold by the Norwegian men’s cross-country ski team since 2002 in the team sprint competition at Whistler Olympic Park. The high-pressure system that has brought unusually sunny weather to Whistler held out for one more day. Firm tracks in the...
With their wins in today’s classic sprints, Phil Widmer and Rebecca Dussault both swept the Madison SuperTour weekend. Both the men and women chose to double-pole the soft course around Madison’s Capital Square. In a repeat of yesterday’s dominating performance, Dussault qualified first, won her semi-final looking relaxed, then skied away from the rest of the women in the A final. After her the results sheet was identical to the day before, with Maria Stuber...
Whistler, British Columbia – Magdalena Neuner (GER) claimed her second gold of the Olympics, overcoming two penalties to stage a come-from-behind win over Olga Zaitseva (RUS) and teammate Simone Hauswald. Neuner, with a miss on each the first prone stage and the first standing stage, cleaned during the last shooting round, shooting quickly, and left the range just 7 seconds behind Zaitseva. After three shooting stages, Russia controlled the race, with Olga Medvedtseva joining Zaitseva...
Whistler, British Columbia – Evgeny Ustyugov (RUS) won the first biathlon Olympic men’s gold for Russia in 16 years, skiing away from bronze medalist Paval Hurajt (SVK) in the final lap. Martin Fourcade (FRA) overcame three misses, including two in the first prone stage to take the silver. Emil Svendsen (NOR) and Simon Eder (AUT) set the pace early, leading the pack that still numbered 16 strong after the first shooting stage. Fourcade was not...
The last EISA carnival before Regionals was hosted by Williams College this weekend. There were already several feet of base snow on the race courses at Prospect Mountain in Woodford, VT, but that didn’t stop more snow from falling overnight and into the morning of Friday’s classic races. Despite soft conditions on Friday, the snow stopped and temperatures stayed below freezing, making for hard wax conditions in the classic tracks and a solid base for...
Phil Widmer and Rebecca Dussault take victory at the Madison SuperTour Criterium races. Dussault, the 2010 ITU Winter Triathlon Championship, blew away a small but talented women's field to take an authoritative victory. Widmer over came a tough men's field made up of top Americans and Canadians to take victory in what was for many the first Nordic criterium of their careers.
Team Sprint with Kikkan Randal – 6th Overall
Team Sprint with Kikkan Randal – 6th Overall