andreas kirkeng – FasterSkier

Continental Cup Feature News Racing US Nationals US Ski Team

He’s 24 years old and just won two U.S. championship races. Here’s why he could retire at the end of the season.

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 5, 2025

ANCHORAGE — The winner of two of three U.S. National Championships races in Alaska this week is just 24 years old, and poised for what could be a long career in cross-country skiing. But instead, Andreas Kirkeng is considering retirement. The explanation is simple: The star University of Denver athlete is not American. He’s Norwegian. And in Norway, aspiring to be a top cross-country skier is like trying to become an astronaut: Many, many try,...

Feature News Racing US Nationals US Ski Team

US Nationals Day 2: Jager stops chasing his friends and breaks through, while multi-sport Smith takes women’s title

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 4, 2025

ANCHORAGE — Luke Jager spent most of his cross-country ski career training and racing with a tight group of talented, up-and-coming American men — the first ever to win a gold medal in the relay at the World Junior Ski Championships. Two of Jager’s teammates on that relay squad, Gus Schumacher and Ben Ogden, have made the leap to the top-level, international World Cup, where both have collected podiums in the past two seasons —...

Feature News US Nationals

One familiar face and one new one notch wins as U.S. Nationals opens in Alaska

Nathaniel HerzJanuary 2, 2025

ANCHORAGE — Kate Oldham wasn’t expecting to win Thursday’s opening race of the U.S. National Championships. It was her first competition of the season, after focusing on training in December, and she’d never placed better seventh at previous national championships. Her coach at Montana State University, Adam St. Pierre, had other ideas about the 22-year-old senior — though he was keeping them to himself. “I have been predicting Kate as a dark horse national champion...

Feature News US Nationals

Warm, Fast, 10 k Classic Opens US Nationals at Soldier Hollow

Ben TheyerlJanuary 2, 2024

Race day at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah offers a microcosm for the role the venue has played in US skiing. The once, and possibly future, Olympic venue is consistent, stark, and starkly consistent in its conditions, its terrain, and in the quality of the events the crew at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center put on. The typical SoHo day starts dark, dry and frigid, before the sun crests the Wasatch Mountains and gives way...

News US Nationals

Swirbul Three-Peats, Jager Triumphant in U.S. Nationals

Ken RothJanuary 6, 2023

HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN: Welcome to FasterSkier’s on-location coverage of the United States National Cross-Country Ski Championships from Houghton, Michigan. This week, Houghton hosts the U.S. National Cross-Country Championships on the Michigan Technological University’s trails system. Today’s event is the 20-kilometer classic mass start. There were several questions to be answered at the beginning of the day: the women’s side has been dominated by Hailey Swirbul. Swirbul has won the two previous races, the 10-kilometer individual start...

News US Nationals

Swirbul Sizzles, Kirkeng Dominates U.S. National Championships 10 k Individual

Ken RothJanuary 2, 2023

HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN: Welcome to FasterSkier’s on-location coverage of the United States National Cross- Country Ski Championships from Houghton, Michigan. This week, Houghton hosts the U.S. National Cross-Country Championships on the Michigan Technological University’s trail system. The U.S. Nationals mean many things to different competitors. For some, it’s their initiation into the world of high-end competitive ski racing; for others it’s their chance to burnish their credentials; and for still others it’s a combination of competition...

Collegiate News Racing

(Press Release) Utah captures its third consecutive NCAA Championship, Ben Ogden and Sophia Laukli win individual Nordic titles

FasterSkierMarch 13, 2022

MIDWAY, Utah – The University of Utah won going away Saturday at the 69th Annual NCAA Skiing Championships, using an impressive performance in the freestyle Nordic events to win its third straight national title. The championships concluded with the men’s 20K and women’s 15K mass start freestyle events at Soldier Hollow, a world class venue constructed for the 2002 Winter Olympics. After three days of competition, Utah led Vermont by 27.5 points. With Utah outscoring...

Collegiate News Racing

(Press Release) 2022 NCAA Skiing Championships – 5/10 k Classic Recap

FasterSkierMarch 11, 2022

PARK CITY, Utah – The 2022 NCAA Skiing Championships got underway on Thursday at Park City Mountain Resort and Soldier Hollow in Midway. Cool temperatures in the mid-20’s and sunny skies welcomed the competitors on the first official day of competition. Utah’s Novie McCabe claimed her first NCAA title by winning the women’s 5K classic at Soldier Hollow. Ben Ogden of Vermont was crowned a national champion for the second time in his career by winning the...

News Racing US Nationals

JC Schoonmaker and Caitlin Patterson Take Skate Sprint National Championships

Gavin KentchJanuary 2, 2022

By Gavin Kentch and Rachel Bachman Perkins The 2022 U.S. Cross Country Championships began in Soldier Hollow, outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, on Sunday with skate sprints. JC Schoonmaker, recently returned from Europe, took his first national championship with relative ease for the men, while Caitlin Patterson, who was the first American in all four races at 2018 U.S. Nationals, returned to her Olympic-year winning ways by taking the victory for the women. Will...