Multiple race warmup and cool downs, managing hydration and caloric intake, moving at her max sprinting speed — more than once. It’s not often that American Liz Stephen feels the lingering effects of a World Cup sprint day. Her most recent memory was three years ago, when she qualified 22nd in Szklarska Poreba, Poland. But this weekend’s three-day competition series in PyeongChang, South Korea, challenged the distance specialist once again. With a smaller World Cup...
FIS Nordic Combined Junior World Championships (Park City and Midway, Utah): Normal hill/5 k [UPDATED] In the individual normal hill/5-kilometer Gundersen on Saturday, the last nordic-combined competition of 2017 Nordic Junior World Championships, American Ben Loomis captured his first top 10 in his third Junior Worlds in ninth place. Eighteen-year-old Loomis jumped to 10th then picked off one place in the 5 k to finish ninth, 1:22.3 minutes behind the winner, Germany’s Vinzenz Geiger. Geiger...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Liz Guiney, Caitlin Patterson and Jessica Yeaton.) Sometimes just being there is half the battle, as the saying goes. No Maiken Caspersen Falla. No Stina Nilsson. On Friday at the site of next year’s Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, three athletes who had never made it to a World Cup podium before prevailed in the women’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint. And right there was...
FIS Nordic Junior World Championships (Midway, Utah): 10/20 k skiathlon A Junior World Championships medal has been on Katharine Ogden’s mind for some time — two years, to be exact. “Every day in training, it’s kind of something that I think about. It’s the little thing that helps me push myself,” Ogden, a 19-year-old member of the Stratton Mountain School and U.S. Ski Team D-team, said in a post-race interview with the U.S. Ski Team on Friday....
2018 is sooner than you think. The World Cup makes its pre-Olympic presence in PyeongChang, South Korea this week and the U.S. and Canadian teams are there.
Quotes, observations and photos from the Frozen Thunder freestyle distance, classic sprint and skate-sprint qualifier last week in Canmore, Alberta. “Frozen Thunder is definitely a huge asset to western North America. There is no doubt that it helps get you into ski shape long before the season starts,” local skier Russell Kennedy states.
Update: Early Thursday, Cross Country Canada (CCC) announced that Jess Cockney has been selected for World Cup Period 1, referencing both his Olympic history and last season's World Cup top-10 result.
Notes, quotes, photos and even a video of several of the North Americans you've been waiting to hear from at the Ski Tour Canada.
At Western Canadian Championships last weekend in Prince George, B.C., Dahria Beatty and Kevin Sandau locked up the overall NorAm lead before the Ski Tour Canada while others duked it out during three days of races Feb. 19-21.
Cendrine Browne used home-course advantage to command the women's classic individual start and freestyle pursuit last weekend at the NorAm at Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec. She won the latter by nearly a minute and a half. Meanwhile, Bob Thompson led an NDC Thunder Bay podium sweep on Saturday, and Andy Shields skied away to the pursuit win on Sunday.
With almost the same number of athletes as last year, the AWCA in Canmore, Alberta, has fewer women this season, but coach Chris Jeffries is pleased with the team's training quality despite some injuries. "The group is very focused this year and more mature," he says.
Annika Hicks led the Canadian team at U23's with a 32nd-place finish in the 15 k skiathlon; Patrick Stewart-Jones was the best of the men, finishing 47th. After a tough week that included illness for some team members, Andy Shields and Colin Abbott were lapped and unable to finish the men's 30k.
Heidi Widmer bounced back from what she considered a sub-par sprint to place 28th in Thursday's 10 k freestyle at U23 World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. AWCA teammate Annika Hicks was 37th, and just two Canadian men raced with two others out sick.