Marit Bjørgen pretty much wiped the floor with folks last year in distance events: As a stats guy, when I see extreme events I tend not to expect them to repeat themselves. The general principle here is called regression to the mean. Extreme events are just unlikely, so it doesn’t make sense to expect them [...] Related posts:
Erling Jevne wasn’t the best skier during his era, having to compete with folks like Dæhlie and Smirnov among others. And he wasn’t even the best classic skier, most likely. At least, he was still mostly losing to those two guys even in classic races: Jevne fared better post-1997, but Dæhlie always had at least [...] Related posts:
In the sport of cross-country skiing, most people would agree that competing with New Zealand is probably smarter than picking a fight with Norway. Consequently, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) will be wearing black suits for the upcoming season, eschewing the red spandex that has been the norm for the past few years. After any number of years of being drowned out by a sea of Norwegian crimson, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Nordic Director...
Bjoern Daehlie spills the beans about interval training in the 1990s.
A lot of things were better in the old days. But distance workouts in rubber boots? “It felt mostly like running on cutting boards, but we didn’t think twice about it!”