Northern Michigan University's Kyle Bratrud answers 10 questions before he premieres in his first World Cup and World Championships as part of FasterSkier's series on World Champs rookies.
We can't imagine anything much more exciting than making World Championships for the first time, so we contacted the North Americans living that exact dream this year. Here's our first of the series from Canadian national-team member Jess Cockney in his first World Champs after competing at the Sochi Olympics last year.
Three of nine athletes met Cross Country Canada's primary standards for selection to the 2015 World Championships Team, and CCC named another six skiers to the team on Monday.
This Monday the USST announced 16 cross country athletes will represent the U.S. at the 2015 FIS Nordic World Championships in Falun, Sweden. Headlined by defending World Champions Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins, a mix of veterans and newcomers will take on the world's best.
On Monday, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) announced its much-anticipated cross country selections for the 2015 FIS Nordic World Championships.
Russia's Maxim Vylegzhanin outsprinted the field, and Switzerland's Dario Cologna, to win Sunday's 30 k skiathlon in Rybinsk. Finland's Matti Heikkinen placed third, and Russia took six of the top eight.
Kikkan Randall's been home for just over a week, and in a phone interview on Tuesday, she said she was ready for the break. "It wasn’t an easy decision to leave the racing circuit ... but with Falun being my big goals, I wanted to really try to make a drastic change," she says.
American Caitlin Gregg had big plans to before heading to the World Cup this winter as the SuperTour leader, with qualification for World Championships at the top of the list. Disappointed in her results the last two weekends, she's got one more World Cup weekend then will try to make a statement at U.S. nationals.
This year’s annual International Ski Federation (FIS) Congress included the selection for the 2015 Nordic World Championships. Held in Turkey, the finalists included Sweden, Finland, Poland and Germany. Sweden was smart. They brought along some of their top athletes to be part of the presentation to bring Worlds to Falun. Nothing like hearing it straight from an athlete’s mouth. It definitely worked, because Sweden beat their key rivals to become the hosts for 2015. Key in that presentation was Olympic...