Canadians Lenny Valjas and Jesse Cockney skied well enough to finish in the points in the final race before the holiday break, a 1.3 k freestyle sprint on Sunday in Davos, Switzerland. It was Cockney's best individual World Cup result in more than two years.
Canadians were well behind the leaders in Saturday's World Cup 10/15 k freestyle in Davos, Switzerland. Ivan Babikov and Alex Harvey were the top men, finishing 34th and 38th, while Emily Nishikawa squeaked into the top 50, finishing 49th despite a crash.
Before Saturday, Canada's Alex Harvey had never cracked the top 30 in a distance race in Davos, Switzerland, and Emily Nishikawa was shooting for her first career top-30. Both checked off those markers in the men's and women's classic distance races on the first day of the Davos World Cup.
Alex Harvey skied a strong 15 k pursuit Sunday to improve his standing to tenth in the Lillehammer World Cup mini tour. Teammates Ivan Babikov and Devon Kershaw overcame low rankings to place 28th and 41st, leaving the Canadians confident but wanting more as they prepare for newt weekend's World Cup races in Davos, Switzerland.
It wasn't easy, but two Canadian biathletes overcame bumpy conditions to have strong races in the World Cup men's 10-kilometer and women's 7.5 k sprints, with Nathan Smith in ninth and Rosanna Crawford in 12th.
Alex Harvey came close to making the semifinals in the classic sprint, but like many in the field he struggled with icing klister over the top of one of the course's biggest hills. The rest of his team - Lenny Valjas, Devon Kershaw, and Perianne Jones - didn't make the heats.
At 22, Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt hasn't taken the most conventional road as an up-and-coming Canadian skier, but she's developed training smarts through experience and is now working toward U23 World Championships, Canada's 2016 World Cups and the 2018 Olympics with Rocky Mountain Racers in Canmore.
With Alana Thomas, Zoë Roy, Chandra Crawford and team founder Amanda Ammar all bowing out of competitive-nordic racing this year, Team Ninja only existed for a season, but what a season it was. We spoke with Thomas, Ammar and Roy about their experience training and racing independently and what each of them intend to do as they turn the page.
The Canadian team sprint pair of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey was eliminated from the race without even qualifying for the final round. Head Coach Justin Wadsworth said: "This is the worst feeling I've had since I've been with the team."
Canada's Rosanna Crawford says that some features of the Sochi course have stayed the same since the World Cup visited last year: the big climbs, the shooting range with an easy approach and huge retaining walls which cut the wind. But as Max Cobb explains, some changes have been made to the courses as well based in part on Organizing Committee layout errors.
Following up on the Canadian Olympic team naming last week, FasterSkier caught up with four rookies who recently posted top results to earn their first trips to the Games from Feb. 7-23: Graeme Killick, Emily Nishikawa, Jesse Cockney, and Heidi Widmer.
Jean Philippe Le Guellec of Canada placed fourth in today's 20 k individual, the first non-relay of the World Cup season - despite the fact that he went in unsure about his current level of performance. Teammate Nathan Smith had a career-best 16th-place finish of his own and started checking off the Olympic qualification criteria.
Former Olympic kayaker Julia Rivard decided to use the Kickstarter model and her own tech smarts to make a fundraising website only for athletes. A year later 20 Canadians, including three biathletes, have started campaigns on the site and more than half surpassed their goals. Rosanna Crawford has raised $18,000 with partner Brendan Green: "It feels like a weight has been lifted."
Always wanted to be a part of FS? Now’s the time! FasterSkier.com is looking to fill a variety of positions – full, part time and on an as-needed basis – as soon as possible, and definitely before the snow flies!
2012 World Junior Champion Kurtis Wenzel began mulling retirement in December; despite his first World Cup start and a national title, come April, it still felt like the right decision. The Canadian biathlon team is also losing 2012 Female Biathlete of the Year Melanie Schultz, who struggled to find her ski speed - and motivation - all season.
Rosanna Crawford started her very first World Championships race; Jean Philippe Le Guellec had his first healthy one in several years. He called the team's 15th-place finish "okay, but nothing phenomenal."
After providing Canada's best women's result at the 2010 Olympics, biathlete Megan Heinicke moved to Germany, got married, and had a baby. Illness prevented her from skiing a full World Cup schedule in 2012, but this year she is back and has already notched a top-30 result.
Friday's team sprint was the first World Cup held on North American snow in nearly three years. FasterSkier captured the action in front of the Parliament.
Check out our batch of photos from Friday's team sprint in Quebec, which saw Americans Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins capture the victory.
Rosanna Crawford scored points in a World Cup biathlon race for the first time today, beating her previous best finish by almost 30 spots to place 24th. Meanwhile, Jean Philippe Le Guellec wrote in an e-mail that he was "totally happy with following up last week with a top 10."