Carrying the momentum from the first day of racing into a second distance event, athletes lined up once more at the Whistler Olympic Park for a 10 / 15-kilometer interval start classic. Over 130 men and 90 women participated in the open categories, representing clubs across Canada and the United States. Adding a springtime layer of complexity to remind us that we are officially past the equinox, temperatures in Whistler hovered above freezing while a...
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. An iconic venue, Lahti’s ski jumps rise out of the pine forest from atop the rolling hills, tucked between the many lakes of the region in southern Finland. After...
The 2022 FIS Junior/U23 World Ski Championships trip has been made possible through support from the National Nordic Foundation (NNF), which has identified this invaluable opportunity for developing athletes as one of its “Pillar Projects”. You can support the NNF and the next generations of America’s top skiers by making a donation here. Friday at 2022 FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Lygna, Norway, marked the phase that Steve Fuller, on site to take photographs...
The 2022 FIS Junior/U23 World Ski Championships trip has been made possible through support from the National Nordic Foundation (NNF), which has identified this invaluable opportunity for developing athletes as one of its “Pillar Projects”. You can support the NNF and the next generations of America’s top skiers by making a donation here. Thursday marked the third day of 2022 FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Lygna, Norway, but the first day of competition for...
The weight is heavy. Pressure from expectations that can cripple or tap into even more primal motivation. Gus Schumacher (U.S./AWS), after qualifying first, and bowing out on Saturday’s World Junior’s skate sprint in the semifinals, placed seventh overall. That is stout. But so is the person behind the results who possesses a killer instinct on the race course but by all accounts projects humility in the rest of his life. The impression is that this...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from American Caitlin Patterson.) The 2018 Olympics were pretty successful for Finland, in terms of cross-country skiing: Iivo Niskanen won gold in the 50 k and Krista Pärmäkoski earned silver in the 30 k and bronze in the skiathlon and the 10 k skate. After the Games finished, the FIS Cross Country World Cup moved to Finland, but on the first day of competition – skate...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Lahti, Finland): 10/15 k classic Men’s report Racing at home in Finland, Krista Pärmäkoski picked a good time to collect the second World Cup victory of her career, and again in a 10 k classic. Pärmäkoski’s first win came in the 10 k classic in Planica, Slovenia, earlier this season. In second was Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva, who picked up her first World Cup podium. The current U23 standings leader, Nepryaeva’s time was 20.9...
At age 37, with more than 110 World Cup wins, 18 World Championships titles and six Olympic gold medals, it’s hard to imagine Norway’s Marit Bjørgen as anything but a machine; she races, she wins, she repeats. But even the World Cup veteran, who first raced the circuit in 1999, occasionally considers the simplicity of throwing in the towel. With intermittent snow showers on Saturday in Kuusamo Finland, temperatures hovering around freezing and varying snow conditions over...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Kuusamo, Finland): 10/15 k classic Men’s report On Day 2 of the Ruka Triple World Cup opener on Saturday, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen collected a 17-second victory in the women’s 10-kilometer classic individual start in Kuusamo, Finland. Bjørgen started 30th of nearly 90 women and was contested by one other: Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla in bib 44. Kalla clocked through the 3.1 and 6.2 k checkpoints faster than Bjørgen, but the Norwegian’s...
“Visit Estonia,” it read on the bibs of all athletes in the women’s World Cup 10-kilometer classic individual start race, an advertisement by the tourist board of the Baltic country. Unfortunately after experiencing beautiful weather for Saturday’s sprint, the town of Otepää — which on most days is indeed a paradise for all kinds of winter sports — was not able to present itself looking exactly like a picture out of a travel brochure on...
As the Tour de Ski drags on, the World Cup field is tiring. Nobody – atrial fibrillation in the Ruka, Finland, 10 k. “It is great to be on the podium again, especially after I crashed today,” she told FIS. “I had to fight my way back in the race but in the end I felt very strong.” While Kylloenen had praised her skis, one team wasn’t doing so. The Norwegians failed to reach the...
The second day of SuperTour racing in West Yellowstone came to a close on Sunday with the men's and women's distance classic events. Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation skier, Matt Gelso took his second win in a row, claiming the men's 15-kilometer classic race title, while the Craftsbury Green Racing Project's Liz Guiney garnered her first ever SuperTour win.
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers. *** IBU Cup in Beitostølen: 7.5/10 k sprints [UPDATE] With the second set of men’s and women’s sprints IBU Cup sprint on Friday.) In the women’s...
Norway's Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Didrik Tønseth opened their seasons with a bang at home in Beitostølen on Friday, beating out large fields in the women's and men's 10 and 15 k classic races. Several Canadian juniors and developing skiers raced, too, as well as American and recent MSU grad Cambria McDermott, who's living and training in Norway.
Not many skiers are accustomed to skiing in slush, but those able to find their stride on Tuesday with temperatures in the mid-50s in Rasnov, Romania, tended to fare better on the second day of U23/Junior World Championships. Stratton juniors Katharine Ogden and Julia Kern notched top 20's and Jasper Good (U.S. Nordic Combined) achieved 11th in the first nordic-combined competition.
A few new competitors broke through on the second day of SuperTour racing in Craftsbury, Vt., in both the men's and women's 10 k classic event. In the women's race, Erika Flowers made a debut SuperTour win, while Liz Guiney and Julia Kern tied for second. Kris Freeman double poled to first in the men's race, ahead of two UVM skiers.
After her brother Scott Patterson won the opening race of U.S. nationals on Sunday, the men's 15 k classic, Caitlin Patterson joked that she had to match him. "That was encouraging, but also a little bit of competition," she said. Both rose to the top spot of their respective men's and women's podiums.
Therese Johaug once again dusted the women's field, this time in the 10 k classic individual start at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy. There, two U.S. women finished in the top 20, about two minutes behind her.
The NorAm opened with three races in four days in Canmore, Alberta, with two distance races on short loops -- one of which the men double poled. Kevin Sandau won the first two men's races, and another Alberta World Cup Academy skier, Dahria Beatty won the women's skate mass start and classic sprint on days 2 and 3.
After winning two medals at the 2015 World Championships, Alex Harvey finished 17th in Sunday's 15 k freestyle in Lahti, Finland. Meanwhile, Emily Nishikawa led the Canadian women in the 10 k and earned her best World Cup result of the season.