A quick look at ski-related news from around the web as we wait for the Tour de Ski to start: – As anyone reading this site is likely aware, retired American skier Kikkan Randall went public with a breast-cancer diagnosis in July of this year, mere months after teaming up with Jessie Diggins to win a gold medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics. But what happened after that? The Anchorage Daily News (ADN) recently published a...
(This evening, the CBC reported that voters opposed to Calgary’s bid for the 2026 Winter Games won 56.4% of the vote. According to the CBC, these are unofficial results.) The Olympics are a global spectacle, but all politics is local. And when the two truisms go head-to-head in today’s plebiscite vote in Calgary, Alberta, local threatens to win. At stake is the future of one of three remaining host cities for the 2026 Winter Olympic...
The bidding process for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics is crawling forward, and when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the shortlist last Thursday, Oct. 4, Calgary was in the final three. Much has changed since the last time Calgary, Alberta, hosted the Games in 1988 as well as since Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2010. The IOC is now in favour of joint bids, re-use of existing facilities and lower costs. These improvements have resulted...
In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 16-year-old Jenna Sherrington, of Calgary, who is representing Canada at her first Youth World Championships. In her last race of Youth Worlds, the youth women’s 7.5 k pursuit, Sherrington...
In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (FIS) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 17-year-old Rory Gilliland of Calgary, who is representing Canada at his first Youth World Championships. On Wednesday’s 3 x 7.5 k relay. *** “My full name is Rory Gilliland...
In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 19-year-old Adam Runnalls of Calgary, who is representing Canada at his first World Junior Championships after twice being part of the team for the Youth division. On Tuesday, Runnalls...
In this 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes before they competed at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 16-year-old Élise Sauvé , of Foothills Nordic, who represented Canada at her first Youth Worlds. In two individual races, she finished 78th in the youth women’s 10 k individual and 86th in the 6 k sprint. *** “My full name is Élise Sauvé, but...
In another 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes that competed at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 17-year-old Thomas Hulsman, of the Foothills Nordic Ski Club, who represented Canada at his first Youth Worlds. He finished 57th in the youth men’s 12.5 k individual, 87th in the 7.5 k sprint, and on Monday, 15th with his team in the
In another 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes that will be competing at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 19-year-old Megan Bankes, of the Biathlon Alberta Training Centre (BATC), who will be representing Canada at her fourth Youth/Junior Worlds. On Thursday, finished 2nd, it was a pretty stellar day. If I could meet one World Cup skier, it would be Laura...
In another 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes that will be competing at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 18-year-old Adam Runnalls, of Calgary Biathlon Racers, who will be representing Canada at his second Youth Worlds. *** “My full name is Adam Runnalls, but you can call me Adam. I was born in Calgary, raised in Calgary, and one...
In another 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes that will be competing at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 17-year-old Anna Sellers, of the Canmore Nordic Ski Club, who will be representing Canada at her first Youth Worlds. *** “My full name is Anna Sellers, but you can call me Anna. I was born in Calgary, Alberta,...
In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at next week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2017 USANA Nordic Junior World Championships and U23 Cross Country World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 16-year-old India McIsaac, of Rocky Mountain Racers, who’s representing Canada at her first Junior Worlds. *** “My full name is India Rose McIsaac...
Welcome to “17 Questions for 2017”, where we are catching up with American and Canadian national-team members before the beginning of the winter season. *** Canada’s Emma Lunder had her big break in 2014, when she finished 30th in her first-ever World Cup sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia. Now 25 years old, the Biathlon Canada “B” teamer has a few more World Cup starts under her belt, including a tenth-place relay result in Hochfilzen last season...
A national-team member for the better part of the last nine years, Nathan Smith knows the life of a full-time biathlete isn't always glamorous, but it beats the alternative. “There’s tough training days ... or you’re having bad races and you’re like, ugh, why do I do this?” he said. “But if you have a normal 9-5 job, you’d have a lot more of those days I think.”
(www.gofundme.com/foothillsnordic) that kicks off on August 15. A successful campaign will see Foothills implement innovative, hydrant-based snowmaking along with snow farming and harvesting techniques – maximizing the longevity of natural snow. Committed to the community, the non-profit Foothills Nordic has volunteer groomed ski trails at the City of Calgary’s Confederation Park Golf Course for over 20 years, to the benefit of its over 700 club members and all Calgarians, but Calgary’s chinook-influenced winters make snowmaking...
The average adult makes somewhere around 35,000 decisions per day. Before setting out for a road ride on Sunday, three retired Olympians made a couple of casual ones. First, former Canadian national-team members Robin Clegg (biathlon), Jason Myslicki (nordic combined) and Sean Crooks (cross-country skiing) decided to ride between 80 to 100 kilometers just outside Calgary, Alberta. Second, they picked a quiet township road, which would lead them to a coffee shop in the suburb...
This article is the first in a series that will look at the post-athletic careers of former elite cross-country skiers, coaches, and others involved in the sport. Dave Nighbor is out of the ski racing game, and has moved onto bigger and brandier things. After he finished up his ski career as a full-time Canadian National Team athlete, Nighbor packed up and moved himself to Calgary. There, he uses another talent, graphic design, to shift...