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Blink Ski Festival

How Blinkfestivalen Began and Where It’s Headed

In 2005, Norway’s government-owned broadcasting network, NRK, lost production rights for its national football league. In search of a new program to air in place of summer soccer games, NRK, which still held broadcast rights for biathlon and cross-country skiing, approached the Norwegian Ski Federation and the Norwegian Biathlon Federation with a question: Could they find an organizer willing to create a large summer event encapsulating the winter sports of biathlon and nordic skiing? NRK’s answer came...

Johaug, Krüger First to Top in Lysebotn Opp; Harvey 10th, Torchia 13th

The Blink Ski Festival’s famed Lysebotn Opp hill climb returned on Thursday, and with it, a familiar name landed at the top of the results.  After serving  last year’s Lysebotn Opp in 33:18.3, telling NRK at the time that “it’s been long since I’ve been in this good a shape in July.” Kalla’s 2017/2018 season went on to be one of her best. She racked up 10 individual wins, including a gold medal in the Olympic...

Bolshunov, Gjeitnes Win Blink Classics Distance Races on Opening Day

A predictor for the winter ski season ahead? Could be. Either way, Norway’s Blink Ski Festival, or as it’s called in Norway, Blinkfestivalen, remains the ultimate in rollerski racing and returned for the 12th year in a row on Wednesday. The festival opened with elite men’s and women’s distance rollerski races, known as the currently training with the British national team in Norway. Following the Blink Classics on Wednesday, the Blink Ski Festival will turn to the...

Kalla Cranks Out Win in Blink’s Lysebotn Opp; Stephen 6th

There’s a little more than six months to go until the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. For the recently turned 30-year-old 2014 champion,Stephen finished sixth overall (+3:35.7) on Thursday, after  Norway’s Ragnhild Haga in fourth (+2:43.4) and Pärmäkoski in fifth (+2:47.0). Prior to winning three years ago, Stephen also placed third in the famous rollerski hill climb in 2012 (the Lysebotn Opp was Women |

Summer Success for Sundby, Wins First Race of Blink Festival

Stands crowded with 50,000 cheering spectators. Bibbed athletes clad in shorts and T-shirts clicking by on rollerskis. Competitors representing various countries dousing themselves with bottled water as they cross the finish line. These were among the sights and sounds of the world’s largest summer rollerski-race series, Norway’sjust 10 women.  Slind took the win in a time of 2:20:04.2, while fellow Norwegian Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes claimed second, 2:11.1 minutes back. Belarus’s Yulia Tikhonova completed the women’s...