FIS Nordic U23 World Championships (Midway, Utah): Classic sprint [UPDATED] All four American women and three Canadians qualified for the women’s classic sprint heats on the first day of U23 World Championships on Tuesday, and in the men’s qualifier, three Americans finished in the top 30 to advance to the quarterfinals at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. Kelsey Phinney led the Americans in sixth in the women’s 1.3-kilometer qualifier, clocking in 2.77 seconds off the fastest women’s...
FIS Nordic Junior World Championships (Midway, Utah): Classic sprint [UPDATED] On the first day of Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, three U.S. women, four U.S. men and two Canadian men finished in the top 30 to qualify for the heats in the women’s and men’s classic sprints. Of those nine North Americans, three reached the semifinals: Julia Kern, Hannah Halvorsen and Bill Harmeyer, all representing the U.S. Germany’s Janosch Brugger beat out four Norwegians...
Citing poor air quality which irritated airways, a Norwegian team doctor says he provided competitors with asthma medication at Junior and U23 World Championships in Romania last season. But American and Canadian competitors and coaches do not remember having such problems, and expressed surprise that such medications were being given to young athletes with no medical history of asthma.
Just 2 percent of IOC members come from a snow sports background, and one of those two - biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen - skipped the vote for who should host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Between this imbalance and the fact that IOC members are no longer allowed to visit bid cities, the financial might and huge consumer market of China won out over other factors in the decision-making process.
42 votes were needed to win hosting privileges for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing received 44 to win out over Almaty, Kazakhstan, and become the first city to host both summer and winter Olympics.
With a week to go until the IOC members vote on whether to award the 2022 Olympic Games to Beijing or Almaty, a leading human rights nonprofit asserts that the IOC has no tools with which to enforce their vague mandate of “human dignity”.
From no snow to human rights and lack of any meaningful long-term legacy, there are big reasons why the IOC should not choose Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
After the 2002 Salt Lake City bidding scandal, IOC members are not allowed to visit candidate cities during Olympic bidding. Instead, they have to rely on promotional materials, presentations, an Evaluation Commission report, and bid committee presentation rooms for information. Here's what that looks like.
With a strong presentation to IOC members, confident answers to nagging questions, and in-person testimony from none other than the Prime Minister, Almaty made up some of the gap to Beijing in the race for 2022 Winter Olympic hosting rights. There's still hope to award medals in the land of Vladimir Smirnov. Voting is in late July.
The IOC Executive Board meets in Lausanne this week, and then all IOC members will have the chance to hear from the organizing committees of the Almaty and Beijing bids for the 2022 Winter Games. Members will vote in July. How are the bids shaking out, and what's going on in the Olympic movement? Read on.
Anchorage's Matt Pauli served as the FIS Technical Delegate for Junior and U23 World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in early February. He reports back that though the local committee was hardworking and accommodating of challenges with snowpack, the venue was brand new - and not, he believes, ideal to host an Olympic Games. Luckily, the Soldatskoe venue where he worked at Asian Winter Games in 2011 is a good alternative.
At the end of Junior World Championships, several U.S. athletes submitted their favorite photos from their experiences in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Russia asserted its dominance once again by winning the men's relay, while Norway earned a narrow victory in the women's relay on the last day of Junior World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The U.S. women were eighth and the men placed 11th, while the Canadian men's and women's teams both finished 10th.
Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt (Rocky Mountain Racers) didn't have a great start, but she held off a charging Russian to finish 12th in the 15 k skiathlon at U23 World Championships. She believes she accomplished something else, too: potentially earning a place on Canada's team to senior World Championships in Falun.
Scott Patterson followed up his 13th place in the 15 k skate with a 15th place in the 30 k skiathlon at Under-23 World Championships - a solid showing, according to coaches, but by his own assessment missing the results goals he had set for himself. U.S. teammate Paddy Caldwell placed 20th, and Joanne Reid led the American women in 25th.
Katharine Ogden, racing in her first-ever Junior World Championships, earned the best distance result for any American at junior worlds since 2002. She placed sixth in Friday's 10 k skiathlon, while Katherine Stewart-Jones led the Canadian women in 14th.
American Ian Torchia led the North American men on Friday, placing 11th in the 20 k skiathlon at Junior World Championships, while Alexis Dumas of Canada finished 18th. Meanwhile, the Russians swept the podium for the second-consecutive race.
With several men on the U.S. team aiming for top-15 results or better on Thursday, two of them did so and three finished in the top 20. "This male U23 group is the future of US Skiing and it is a blessing just to be a part of it," Northern Michigan senior Kyle Bratrud stated.
A junior world champion in ski orienteering, Barbro Kvåle added a U23 World Championships title to her list of accomplishments on Thursday with a victory in the women's 10 k freestyle. Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt of Rocky Mountain Racers tallied 17th, Cendrine Browne (CNEPH) was 23rd, and Joanne Reid was the top American woman in 25th.
17-year-old American Katharine Ogden finished an impressive 11th in her first-ever race in the Junior World Championships, while Katherine Stewart-Jones led the Canadian women and took 25th. In the men's race, Canada's Alexis Dumas placed 30th and was the top North American in a race dominated by the Russian team.