There was a time when the Canadian National Cross-Country Ski Team was the North American team to watch. As skiers like Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins found their footing, Becky Scott, Chandra Crawford, and Sara Renner were medaling at the Olympics. Alex Harvey and Kershaw won team sprint gold at the 2011 World Championships. And Harvey continued to romp – winning the 2017 World Championship gold in the 50k. Along the way, like many...
With the 2018/2019 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is running a series of articles highlighting some of the players and performances from the season. This honor goes to two outstanding North American skiers of the year. *** Alex Harvey, Canadian World Cup Team Thirty years old and finis. Canada’s Alex Harvey has for years been the preeminent male skier from North America. This is not the time to honor his collective achievements, of which there...
At two minutes into the men’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint in Lillehammer, Norway on Friday, the six skiers in the final were strung in line — each milking a draft into the banked left turn before the final climb. Norway’s Emil Iversen was in the lead — the workhorse pushing the pace for much of the race. Behind him were Italy’s Federico Pellegrino and Canada’s Alex Harvey zooming around the corner and stepping into the climb....
One hundred and fifty kilometers from the city of Whitehorse, if you are adventurous enough to hike through the troves of white spruce and over the two mountain passes to get there, you may come across Knute Johnsgaard’s family trapline. Traverse the 100 square kilometers of land where his family holds the rights to trap, and you may even catch a glimpse of Johnsgaard himself. Johnsgaard, a native of the Yukon Territory’s Mount Lorne community,...
press release. Notably, the World Cup A-team is made up of one man — Alex Harvey — after three athletes from Devon Kershaw, Jess Cockney and Knute Johnsgaard). Graeme Killick, of last season’s World Cup B-team, also retired. Len Valjas was nominated to the B-team, a demotion, he said, that was a result of him ending his season immediately after the PyeongChang Olympics. “The reasoning is that I … didn’t show up to [the World...
After last weekend’s three-day World Cup Finals mini tour drew Men | Women | Men |
LAHTI, Finland — Electric. With every jumbotron shot of Finland’s Krista Parmakoski or a glimpse of her powerful compact-frame as she lapped through the stadium, the hometown Finns were electric. White and blue flags waved. Like anywhere in the world when a brilliant athletic performance unfolds in the home country, the roars for Parmakoski were deafening. From the start, she emitted a big dose of hope for fans in Lahti during Saturday’s 15-kilometer skiathlon at the...
Devon Kershaw was the lone Canadian with the option to compete last Sunday in Gällivare, Sweden, after the race dates were rescheduled. While the field was small, he explained it was a great opportunity "to put a bib on and blow out the cobwebs."
Athletes at all levels of the competition spectrum constantly seek the missing piece of their performance puzzle. For many years now, sport psychology has played an increasing role in solving that puzzle. From the World Cup to the junior ranks, FasterSkier explores how some skiers and coaches make use of sport psychology.
Coaching at the international level beings expectations, personalities to manage, not to mention the nitty gritty of booking plane tickets and travel logistics. When Justin Wadsworth stepped away from Canada's National Team head coach position this past March, it gave an opportunity for three core skiers from his tenure -- Kershaw, Harvey, and Babikov -- to reflect on where they have been.
Canada's Alex Harvey started seventh and finished ninth to maintain his place in the top 10 of the Tour de Ski after three stages, and American Noah Hoffman posted the 17th-fastest time of the day to finish in the top 25 for the second-straight day in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
Head coach of the Canadian World Cup and national team, Justin Wadsworth spoke to FS at length about the team this season and how its athletes have handled summer and fall training. Bottom line: most everyone starting on the World Cup is healthy, and several are in the best shape of their lives.
Alex Harvey stayed at the front of the pack for most of Sunday's 50 k classic mass start, the final race of 2015 World Championships in Falun, but he couldn't quite get into the position he needed before a four-man finishing sprint -- which he was just behind. Also for Canada, Graeme Killick notched a career-best 19th, and Ivan Babikov placed 30th after leading as well.
Canadian star Alex Harvey had been pondering an unorthodox plan to classic ski up the Tour de Ski's final climb, but he pulled out after a lackluster result Saturday.
While two Americans won Friday's Frozen Thunder sprints, Canada had its revenge on Monday, taking four of six podium spots. In the men's 10.8 k skate race, Devon Kershaw bested Kris Freeman by five seconds to take the win. In the Women's 7.2 k race, biathlete Rosanna Crawford edged Liz Stephen for the win.
Alex Harvey's not a fan of The Biebs; he wishes he was because Bieber's Canadian -- but he just can't stand that kid's music. Here are several other random facts about the 25-year-old Québec native on the road to his second Olympics.
Following the death of Shirley Firth, who rocked the Canadian cross-country scene with her sister, Sharon, a provincial coach remembers the significance of the Firth twins and how the two aboriginal women paved the way for generations of skiers.
These nominations include athletes who qualified for nomination based on the published criteria and the CCC High Performance Committee selection process April 12-14, 2013. An announcement of the athletes who accept their nominations will take place later this spring.
Seventeen weeks and 120 days after the World Cup season started in Gällivare, Sweden, it ended in Sunday in Falun. For most of the Canadians who finished outside the top 30, it could not have come soon enough. Head coach Justin Wadsworth and team veteran Devon Kershaw reflect on the season.
The Canadian World Cup Team's journey through the season hasn't been as picture-perfect as last year, or even 2011 when Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey won gold in the team sprint. Aiming for the podium in Val di Fiemme, they have two World Championships medals in mind and reason to believe they can achieve at least that.