With Alana Thomas, Zoë Roy, Chandra Crawford and team founder Amanda Ammar all bowing out of competitive-nordic racing this year, Team Ninja only existed for a season, but what a season it was. We spoke with Thomas, Ammar and Roy about their experience training and racing independently and what each of them intend to do as they turn the page.
CANMORE, Alberta — Team Ninja is very proud to announce it has a new member: Buff Canada has come on as a huge sponsor for us and provided us with custom TEAM NINJA Buffs! We are very grateful for Peter Collins and Buff Canada’s incredible generosity. The Ninjas will be sporting our new Buffs while training and racing towards our Olympic dreams and you can do the same by getting your very own TEAM NINJA...
It all started as a running joke. Amanda Ammar wasn’t actually a ninja, people just thought she was. In her third season of racing independently, Ammar invited a few friends to join her fun-loving and flexible training method: Alana Thomas, Zoe Roy and Chandra Crawford.
Heidi Widmer, 22, rolled to her first individual gold and second title in as many days of racing at Canadian Nationals, while the 33-year-old IPC World Cup extraordinaire Brian McKeever won his first Canadian championship just days after flying from Sochi, Russia. Caitlin Gregg and Eliska Hajkova of the U.S. took first and second overall in the 5 k freestyle, and Canadians swept the men's 10 k podium.
Canada's domestic series, the NorAms, wrapped up in Grand Prairie, Alberta, this weekend, where Graeme Killick of the Alberta World Cup Academy and Nakkertokk racer Alana Thomas won grueling but exciting three-day minitours. We caught up with podium finishers for their comments on the race.
After the Canmore World Cup, Alana Thomas decided to give up her spot on the Alberta World Cup Academy and resume training independently. Still living in Canmore, Thomas explains how she made the tough decision and what she's gearing up for now.
For the second time this season, the Nishikawa siblings pulled out a NorAm victories on the same day at the World Junior/U23/Senior World Sprint Trials in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Emily won the women's 15 k skiathlon by 9.1 seconds and Graham took the men's 30 k by 3.7 seconds.
QUEBEC CITY – As Alana Thomas stood in the finish pen on the Plains of Abraham and looked back beyond the line, she smiled as Perianne Jones cruised down the final stretch. The Canadian National Team member was going to win by a mile – or maybe a kilometer, figuratively speaking in Canadian terms. While Jones didn’t quite have a full lap on the 11 other teams in the open classic relay at the Canadian...
There’s something to be said about consistency. Canadians Graham Nishikawa and Michael Somppi might say it’s a little annoying. With repeat results, the two can’t be too upset with their performances in recent Alpen and Scandinavian Cup races. Both Senior Development Team skiers, Nishikawa and Somppi finished the same as they did in their previous races. At the Alpen Cup in Switzerland on Sunday, Nishikawa of the Alberta World Cup Academy was fifth in the...
Any high-level racer will tell you experience is key, but sometimes it’s just as important to take in the moment. Ask Mike Sinnott, a member of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team who recently competed in a couple of World Cups. Six days after placing 37th in the Moscow freestyle sprints for his second-best individual World Cup result, Sinnott made his first Scandinavian Cup start this year on Wednesday in Madona, Latvia. There,...
When the phone rang and Alana Thomas answered to hear the voice of Tom Holland, Cross Country Canada’s high-performance director, she had a sense of what was coming. The 23-year-old Nakkertok racer, who lives and trains in Ottawa, had been waiting for a similar call since she started skiing competitively more than seven years ago. With a considerably better-than-average start to her season this year, Thomas knew this might be her best chance to earn...
On a frosty day in Canmore, Alberta, Emily Nishikawa (AWCA) skied to her third NorAm victory of the season, winning the women’s five-kilometer classic by 5.4 seconds over Alana Thomas (Nakkertok Nordic). Alysson Marshall (Larch Hills/CNT) finished third. With temperatures recorded at -15C (5F) organizers decided to move the classic distance races from Saturday to Friday, swapping with the freestyle sprint. Concerns of cancellation due to cold also motivated a contingency plan that involved a...
On a blue sky day in Whistler, BC, Emily Nishikawa (Alberta World Cup Academy) skied away from the rest of the NorAm field for her first win of the season. She completed the 15 k skiathlon at the Whistler Olympic Park in 46:03.0, just 7.0 seconds ahead of runner-up Alysson Marshall (AWCA). Alana Thomas (Nakkertok) took a close third (+7.2). The lead women skied in a pack for the classic portion of the race, and...