The World Cup opener is still 100 days away, but for the U.S. and Canadian national teams, the 2010-2011 cross-country season kicks off today with a 10/15 k classic mass start event. The race is part of the ANC series – the Australian and New Zealand Continental Cup. It is being held at the Snow Farm in New Zealand, and will feature an elite, if small, field. The U.S. Ski Team (USST) will start their...
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...
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Ken Davies is currently the chair of the Alberta World Cup Society. FasterSkier regrets the error. Cross Country Canada (CCC) has turned down an opportunity to host a Tour de Ski-style event in February of 2012, according to a letter released by the organization Tuesday. In interviews, CCC officials said that plans for the “Tour of the Rockies” foundered on the potential costs, which could have...
Canada’s Rose-Marie Côté Wins Bronze Medal at Biathlon Youth and Junior World Championships in Sweden TORSBY, Swe.— Rose-Marie Côté led the Canadian charge to the podium after winning a bronze medal in the youth women’s 10-kilometre individual start competition at the 2010 Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships in Torsby, Sweden on Thursday. Côté battled through snowy conditions in Sweden to enjoy a stellar day on the range where she shot clean to...
The Tour de Ski was successful for the Canadians; despite some bad-luck crashes, equipment malfunction, and injury, when all was said and done Canada took 4 top-25 overall finishes home. Ivan Babikov placed 9th, Devon Kershaw 16th, Sara Renner 17th, and Alex Harvey 22nd. Kershaw outlines the last two stages below. It’s over. 2010 Tour de Ski is history. Jeez. I don’t know how pro cyclists can even fathom racing for a GC position in any stage race, let alone...
George Gray led the Canadians with a 17th place in yesterday’s prologue. Sara Renner took 27th in the prologue and moved up in today’s pursuit for a final finish of 21st place. Renner: Today, I was slow off the start but stronger at the end. It was basically a mass start. I had six girls in my second. I feel like my shape is turning around and hopefully I can qualify tomorrow. I don’t mind the back to...
In 22nd place, Alex Harvey was today’s top American racer in the 30km classic race at Rogla. Taking 35th place in the sprint race yesterday, Harvey was just 1.67 seconds out of qualifying rounds. A native of Quebec, Harvey has been racing on the Canadian National Team since 2007. You have had a really solid weekend of racing – are you feeling like you are coming into your race form? I am really happy with my shape right now. I am...
Sara Renner is still trying to find her true racing form since taking time off to have her baby daughter in the winter of 2007. After a rough week of travel led to blasé results in Kuusamo, Renner was able to stay positive and by placing 25th in the 10km skate she showed a spark of the racing form she is capable of. With your 25th place finish on Saturday it looks as though you are on the right track as...
The Canadian World Cup Team is recharged and ready for Davos: Chandra Crawford and Perianne Jones come off a weekend of solid sprint finishes while the rest of the team had a training week of great sun and snow in the northern Alps of Italy. Currently there are seven members on the team: Men’s team: Devon Kershaw, George Grey, Ivan Babikov, and Alex Harvey. Women’s team: Sara Renner, Chandra Crawford, and Perianne Jones. While Crawford and Jones raced the World Cups in Dusseldorf,...
This weekend’s Alberta Cup in Canmore, Alberta, hosted a distance skate and a classic sprint. The fastest Canadian racers who were not already on the World Cup competed, including the racers who had placed in the top spots at the West Yellowstone Supertours. Dasha Gaiazova and Shayla Swanson, who took first and third at the West Yellowstone sprints, finished first and second at Canmore, with Andrea Dupont placing 3rd. In the men’s sprint, Phil Widmer topped the results. Frédéric...
It was a tough week for the Canadian World Cup Team, but the group is determined to look forward by keeping their long-term plan in mind and refocus on their goals and priorities. Alex Harvey, the top finisher in Saturday’s sprint, said the events of the week made it seem “ like the sky fell on us. . . .It made it really hard for the athletes to focus on the races. . .”. The...
Team Canada: In good health, could be the most successful season yet. When asked if he thought he had the “strongest team ever” coach Dave Wood paused and said that, in 2006, Becky Scott and Sara Renner were two of the strongest athletes he had seen on the Canadian Team. The difference coming into this season, Wood says, is that Canada not only has athletes with medal-winning potential, but a larger number of them. With...
Allan Maki of “The Globe and Mail” checks in with the Canadian Ski Team’s Sara Renner. Ironically, on the very morning Sara Renner is discussing her sport and the evils within, a certified drug tester appears and politely asks for a moment of her time, along with a sample, of course. The Olympic silver medalist obliges without annoyance because she believes in the purity of cross-country skiing and because she no longer frets the changeups...
CANMORE, Alta.—Cross Country Canada solidified the final dimension to its world-leading coaching and technical support team by naming Norway’s Inge Bråten as Senior National Team Coach, the national body announced on Friday. Bråten brings more than three decades of experience in the sport to the Canadian Cross-Country Ski Team. A former high-performance athlete who competed on Norway’s national team, Bråten has helped guide some of the world’s best nordic athletes, including the legendary Bjørn Daehlie....