This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. The Olympics are designed to be a simple thing: “The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight,” said Baron de Coubertin (founder of the modern Olympic Games)” The essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.” Those...
Three-time Olympian, gold and silver medalist, long-time chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Athlete committee, Officer of the Order of Canada, company founder and CEO, the list of Beckie Scott’s achievements is both lengthy and remarkable, and those included here only scratches the surface. In the nordic world specifically, Scott made history as the first North American woman to earn a medal at the Olympics in cross-country skiing. She has also been a long-time advocate...
The NorAm weekend at Duntroon, Ontario, continued Saturday with an individual start 10km classic race, the opening half of the first two day pursuit at this level in many years. The two day pursuit race format was replaced in 2002 with the same-day pursuit. This is the event in which Beckie Scott famously won all three medals at the Salt Lake Olympics. In 2003, the skiathlon format was introduced under the name ‘continuous pursuit’ which...
The day is wrapped up in many parts of the globe — the new year has been celebrated, or the anticipation of midnight Jan.1 still tingles for some. In Moscow, Russia at the time this draft was begun, it was 2:30 AM, Tuesday, Jan. 1. For those who follow nordic sport, you know the clock has ticked past the deadline the World Anti Doping Authority (WADA) had set for Russia to meet the conditions set...
This is the second part of FasterSkier’s report on the state of high performance cross-country skiing and athlete development in Canada. You can read part one here. Cross Country Canada (CCC), as the national governing body for cross-country skiing in Canada has the difficult task of steering a rather large ship. The idea in steering the ship is to maintain a path requiring little quick and nimble maneuvering. Survey the landscape, mine the data, set...
Cross Country Canada (CCC) has begun a reboot process as the new Olympic cycle starts. Corporations call this a reset, a rebranding, a new direction, restructuring, and various other names that try to disguise the challenges and issues that come with enacting real change. The reboot process traditionally starts with an acknowledgement that the current level of success, and that of the foreseeable future, doesn’t align with the goals or the potential of the organization....
A full Olympic quad after Sochi, nothing remains irrefutably clean. Off the radar then on again, the Sochi doping scandal has sent recent tremors through the sports world. In a quick summary, after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the host nation was handed sanctions for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics that affected some of its athletes. A total ban from Rio was not enacted despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommending the contrary. Russian athletes...
On April 26, Devon Kershaw posted a photo on social media of Alpina boots hanging on a line. The next day, he spoke on the phone with FasterSkier from his new home in Lillehammer, Norway, after a day of running around outside with his 15-month-old daughter, Asta Isabel. Kershaw was tired, but in a good way. For the first time in 17 years, he was ready for a new challenge, a new focus and much...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, cleared 28 Russian athletes of doping charges. Many people seemed shocked by this development. The athletes had been disqualified from the 2014 Games by an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Commission. This was after more than 18 months of buildup in which the world learnt of systematic manipulation of the anti-doping process by the Russian state security apparatus at those Olympics. I was both shocked, and not shocked. When all...
With the number of athletes testing positive at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics now topping 100 and the second part of the McLaren report into state-sponsored doping in Russia dropping within a month, WADA agreed to a new system of sanctions for countries who do not comply with the World Anti-Doping Code. International Ski Federation President Gian Franco Kasper did not like it.
Gian Franco Kasper believes that WADA seeking punishments for countries which do not comply with the WADA Code -- for instance, stopping them from hosting international competitions -- goes too far into the realm of "politics."
The IOC Executive Board ruled Sunday against a blanket ban on Russian athletes entering the Olympics following the biggest doping scandal in decades. More than the conclusion itself, the guidelines are confusing and unclear -- not to mention unfair to Russian athletes and to clean athletes around the world.
A jam-packed episode of the FS podcast -- the McLaren report, athlete commission responses and some analysis from FS Editor-At-Large Chelsea Little.
When news broke last week that 14 Russian cross-country skiers may have doped at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, stakeholders in the sport reacted around the globe. Some, like Canada's then head coach Justin Wadsworth, essentially predicted that two years ago at the Games. Others, like French skier Robin Duvillard, tried not to get too caught up in it, but he might by default.
On Thursday, Beckie Scott, a Canadian Olympic gold medalist and WADA Athlete Committee chair, spoke at the WADA Executive Board meeting in Montreal and urged the agency to use its influence now. "If there cannot be a guarantee that athletes [at the Olympics] are professionally clean and not involved in doping activity, then they should not be there," she said.
Earlier this week, Cross Country Canada announced that its head coach Justin Wadsworth will be stepping down at the end of this season. Wadsworth spoke with FasterSkier about his decision and recommendations for developing North America's next crop of World Cup skiers while also bringing international cross-country events to his home continent.
Devon Kershaw has a great response to a new WADA proposal to "fix" the problem of awarding Olympic medals to dopers: "The reality is that when someone is cheated out of a medal at a championship like the Olympics, a 'fake real thing' will never be the same... the memories you have about that perfect race that YOU executed should remain."
After feeling like health issues stunted her career two seasons ago, two-time Olympian Perianne Jones decided to give it one more year and go out on a high note. She did so, staying healthy and logging some career-best distance results in her final season with the Canadian national team.
On Nov. 5, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport announced the creation of a new and anonymous Report Doping Hotline, funded by the Canadian government, Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee to the tune of nearly $1 million dollars. While the idea of facilitating anonymous doping claims may seem risky, Canada isn't the first to do so and believes the benefits could be substantial.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) delivered a definitive indictment to the world on Wednesday morning with the release of its reasoned decision regarding seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. In the 1,000-plus page document sent to the International Cycling Union and the World Anti-Doping agency, USADA found Armstrong guilty of using of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career and of playing a central role in enforcing a systematic doping program on the U.S. Postal team....